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User:The Millionth One/Lady Boyle's Last Party

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"Lady Boyle's Last Party" is a video game level in Arkane Studios' Dishonored (2012). The level is one of several assassination missions; in this mission, the player as Corvo Attano is tasked with eliminating one of three Lady Boyles, but does not know which is their true target. The level takes place on the night of the Boyles' annual masquerade ball, and consists largely of the family's mansion and its close surroundings. There are multiple routes and paths into the mansion, and the player may use a variety of tools to complete the mission in a stealthy or combat-heavy way. Unlike other levels, Corvo may blend in and interact with other guests once inside due to the ball. Like with other targets in the game, the player may instead dispose of Lady Boyle through a "nonlethal" alternative—rendering her unconscious and delivering her to an "admirer", Lord Brisby.

Lady Boyle's mission was revealed and previewed before the game's release, and drew attention for its replayability and focus on player agency. Its art design was also praised... After the game's release, it has been praised as one of the game's best levels, partly for its uniqueness among other of the game's missions. Commentary has also fallen on Lady Boyle's nonlethal elimination for its dark nature.

Content and context

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  • Lord Shaw, introduces tallboys

Creation

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  • Hillier, Brenna (20 September 2012). "Dishonored quests signposted due to baffled playtesters". VG247.
  • [1]
  • https://www.dualshockers.com/making-of-dishonored-harvey-smith-raph-colantonio/

Reception

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The level was positively received. In 2015, PC Gamer's Andy Kelly would cite it as one of the best FPS levels for its multiple approaches and environmental design.[2] Later, Kelly would call it "one of the most entertaining, deep, and complex levels in the history of the immersive sim".[1] It was nominated for Best Gaming Moment at the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards,[3] though ultimately lost to a scene in Far Cry 3.[4]

Steven Messner, of PC Gamer, listed Lady Boyle's nonlethal elimination as one of the evillest options given to players in gaming, and described it as "condemning her to a life of sexual slavery" at Lord Brisby's hands.[5] Eurogamer's Tom Brambell described it as a "fate worse than death" and "a tough one to swallow". While admitting that other nonlethal eliminations in the game were similarly harsh, he contrasted it with cases like the Pendletons in that the player knows what is likely to happen to Boyle ahead of time.[6] It was similarly one of two cases where Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Alec Meer questioned his dedication to a nonlethal playthrough, wondering whether it was worse than death. He commented: "I still feel chilled and ill about that decision, about the awful, awful thing I might have done to a selection of bytes and pixels in order that my moral compass not waver."[7] Kristine Jørgensen contrasted it against the Pendletons as a "true ethical dilemma", due to player knowing more about the consequences of the option in advance. Jørgensen describes it as "a conscious and informed choice between death and life in captivity and potential torture", and also offers a potential perspective of looking at it either from a vengeance-orientated lens, or as a conflict between virtue ethics and consequentialism.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Kelly, Andy (17 November 2016). "The making of Dishonored's greatest mission, Lady Boyle's Last Party". PC Gamer.
  2. ^ Kelly, Andy (31 March 2015). "The best FPS levels ever". PC Gamer. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  3. ^ Cook, Dave (29 August 2013). "Golden Joystick 2013 voting begins, see the shortlisted games here". VG247. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Here are your Golden Joystick Award winners 2013". GamesRadar. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  5. ^ Messner, Steven; et al. (28 February 2018). "The most evil choices you can make in PC gaming". PC Gamer. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  6. ^ Brambell, Tom; et al. (15 October 2012). "Dishonored Diary: Playing through in four different ways". Eurogamer. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  7. ^ Meer, Alec; et al. (21 December 2012). "Magnificent And Important Advent Calendar: Day 21". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  8. ^ Jørgensen, Kristine (2015). "Dark Play in Dishonored". In Mortensen, Torill; Linderoth, Jonas; Brown, Ashley (eds.). The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments. Routledge. pp. 210–225. ISBN 978-1-13-882728-8.
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