Dishonored

Dishonored is a 2012 first-person stealth-action game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Set in the plague-ridden, whale-oil-powered industrial city of Dunwall, an aesthetic blend of Victorian London and steampunk, it casts the player as Corvo Attano, the disgraced royal bodyguard of the assassinated Empress, who is framed for her murder and sets out for revenge while protecting her kidnapped daughter. Granted supernatural abilities by a mysterious figure called the Outsider, Corvo can teleport ('Blink'), possess people and animals, stop time and summon devastating powers, which players combine with gadgets, swordplay and the environment to approach each mission as an open-ended sandbox. The game is celebrated for its emergent immersive-sim design, offering myriad routes and the choice between lethal and non-lethal play; a 'Chaos' system tracks how much death the player causes and alters the world and ending accordingly. Critically acclaimed and a strong seller, Dishonored won numerous awards for its art direction, freedom and design, and launched a franchise that grew with story DLC, a sequel (Dishonored 2) and the standalone Death of the Outsider. It is regarded as one of the defining immersive sims of its generation. Its success established Arkane as a leading immersive-sim studio, paving the way for the company's later Prey and Deathloop.