A terrifically flexible, moody rampage of revenge. You can play it on a wide-ranging spectrum from quietly stealthy non-violence to abhorrent murder machine, and the controls are tight enough - and the approaches varied enough - that it feels generously accommodating for any blend between the two. For my part, I was a quietly stealthy do-gooder who mostly aimed to right wrongs and wreak karmic havoc on my enemies, killing when I had no other choice. That I can even write that sentence is a testament to how carefully calibrated this thing is.

Dunwall is a hall-of-fame location up there with Rapture, an unpleasantly grim Industrial Revolution hellhole that nevertheless feels worth saving (small moments of kindness and mercy abound if you cultivate them, carefully buried under the cynicism). While the broad strokes are definitely the same under any approach, there's enough of an itch of my brain to encourage a revisit down the road. Sure, the story beats will likely shift around if I go murder-mode, but it's possible that the entire damn thing will FEEL different in my hands as I play that way. Truly, the hallmark of a classic.