Dishonored is a convoluted work, and key in reclaiming the word "convoluted" for the purposes of praise. Simplicity has a place in the finest games, but sometimes you just want to get wrapped up in things. A scarf metaphor might have gone here, had it not come from the paranoia induced by Dishonored's deadly contempt for unshielded necks.

There's dignity and integrity to Dishonored's vision, projected from creators who have pursued their ideals with conviction. "This is what we think video games are about," says Arkane Studios. They're about being a rogue catalyst with power(s) and agency, wedged inside a tightly wound coil of combat mechanisms, traversal techniques and environments that communicate an alternate world, history and life without using words. They're about finding paths and learning how to exploit your abilities. They're about blocking a painter's view of his subject, just to be a dick. They're about emptying a safe before you sell the combination to an ignorant buyer. And yes, they're about stabbing necks and piling the attached bodies beneath the mansion's stairwell. Maids hate their lives while a vengeful assassin is on the loose.