I've played the game around seven years ago for the first time on my laptop and enjoyed my time a lot. Back when I got my first PS4 around a year later (2017ish), I got the game on there too but ended up not playing the game at all because I couldn't get used to the controller gameplay.
A couple of days ago, I started the game up again for lack of other games to play right now and have, as many probably, started a low-chaos ghost run. For the uninitiated, "ghost" means that you go through the entire game without being detected once. To achieve this, you're either cracked at the game and know what you're doing, or you resort to save scumming, which I also did.
However, I seem to have fucked up in the last mission (saving Emily, getting rid of the two Pendleton twins) and have been detected somewhere without noticing it and loading a previous save. When I ended the mission and was shown the statistics, I contemplated starting the mission over because I didn't ghost through to mission but opted not to.
While I do feel kinda bummed about "messing up" the achievement, I feel like this'll prove to be beneficial for my overall experience with the game since I won't have to keep reloading the same passages for 15 times just to get some arbitrary achievement that doesn't even bear any meaning.
I'll still go for a low-chaos run (not killing anyone), but I won't be bothered to keep reloading saves now: If I'm detected, I run away and hide and take the game on naturally.
How have your experiences with the game been? Which playstyle do you prefer? What games did you ruin for yourself in hindsight because of save scumming?
I absolutely love playing stealth in games that let me take that option. My preferred route in the Dishonored series is low chaos/ghost because of how challenging it can be, but I always reload saves to get though them because I like to experiment to see what works (and what doesn't), and also because I honestly just suck at getting things to go the way I want them to sometimes.
However, even though low chaos is apparently canon, I would like to point out that a stealth high chaos run where you murder every last guard/thug/weeper from the shadows can be sublime. Shadow Kill helps immensely here because when they dissolve into ash there are no bodies to hide (though half of the fun for me is finding out-of-the-way hiding places for everyone I've choked out and/or murdered).
And while it doesn't have nearly as much replayability because it ditches the chaos system entirely, Death Of The Outsider is loads of fun simply because you can literally do whatever you want, without having to worry so much about the consequences.
I'm also of those weird people who really likes the second game, too... maybe even more than the original, though they're both basically equal to me. Really don't understand the hate that one gets from some fans.
Stealth + high chaos does sound fun, you're right. I might just try that after this run.
Yo what? I haven't played Death of the Outsider yet, but I just assumed that the chaos system would be present again. So there's just basically no consequences for your actions and the story just always ends the same way or are there other decisions to be made?
You get the same types of choices that you get in the first two games, but it's really streamlined. And you can absolutely murder/spare people as you see fit because it doesn't really affect the outcome. There is an achievement for clearing a single level without killing anyone, but not one for the whole game.
I didn't even realize there wasn't a chaos system until I finished the first level. I still played my usual way on that first playthrough, though (ghost/clean hands). On the second run I murdered everyone. Third run was the Original Game+ (where you get to use some of Corvo's and Emily's powers instead of your own)... that one was actually the hardest because Billie's powers are honestly better, at least in this one.
The only thing I've never really done in these games is go with the combat-- I'm purely stealth. I know the combat is amazing and completely open-ended, but I honestly suck at it.