E3 2012: Dishonored trailer features around 30 killings using almost as many methods. Also, bonus haunting ambience!

So there's every chance that this story is strewn with typos. I apologise ion advance, but if it is, then it's only because I'm currently vibrating so hard with excitement that accurate keyboard work is becoming a bit of an issue. Also, I'm too excited to care about making corrections, so I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with any errors you might find until the adrenalin wears off and my eyes stop twitching enough to allow me to read what I've written. The reason for all of this? Having had Dishonored flagged as my pre-emptive 2012 GOTY since its announcement, I've now seen its E3 trailer.

And it's even better than I expected.

Don't go thinking that Dishonored is just going to be a whole load of mindless killing, having seen that. You see it's actually going to be an unfathomably large amount of very intelligent, elaborate, creatively free-form, utterly mindful killing. Dishonored, you see, is coming from men responsible for Deus Ex, System Shock, Thief and Half-Life 2. And it is exactly what you would expect a game from such men to be. If you don't know what that means, allow me to explain. Because explaining why Dishonored is just so bloody important is my primary journalistic quest these days.

Want to stop time and sneak past a guard? Feel free. Want to stop time and kill him? Go for it. Want to charge in, stop time when he fires at you, turn his bullets around and send them hurtling straight back at him? Just do it.

Fancy possessing a rat and sending it into a room to do some stealthy recon? Fine. Want to send a whole wave of rats in to eat the opposition to death? Yep, you can do that too. Have a hankering for strapping a grenade to a rat, possessing that rat, and then sending it into a room to do some stealthy recon followed by a less stealthy exploding, and then return to your own body, burst in, stop time, turn bullets around, shoot the surviving armed guards with their own weapons, before teleporting to a straggler and stabbing him in the throat? Theoretically not even worth batting an eyelid over.

Deus Ex-meets-Assassin's Creed-meets-Hitman-meets-BioShock-meets-Half-Life 2. That's what you're looking at here. And just how beautifully atmospheric and well-cut is that trailer, too? Between this and the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 promo, it seems that the games industry's video editors are really upping their game for E3 2012.

You'll understand now, if I go back to vibrating and do not stop until at least mid-afternoon.

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.