"Bad ending"

[JimmyT]

Why do people keep saying the high chaos ending is the "bad ending?" The only bad ending is if you let Emily die. Both the low chaos ending and the high chaos saving Emily ending is basically the same thing except in the former the Outsider tickles Corvo's balls a little bit more.
Even throughout the game the high chaos route isn't much worse. It's mostly just Emily saying edgy ♥♥♥♥. Samuel betraying you? Good, I think his voice is annoying so I don't mind shooting him. Callista dies? Oh no, not my favorite character Callista whats her name, she can't die, oh no!! The high chaos version of the final level is so much better than the low chaos variant that it'd make up for it even if you did care about that other stuff.

[Blazing]

I presume it's basically:

Lots of innocents die.
Plague gets out of hand.
Emily becomes a tyrant.

[Valden21]

It's the bad ending from Corvo's POV. There's a strong indication that he wants Lady Emily to become the kind of ruler her mother was. That means that Corvo has to solve the problems while still keeping the targets alive, because that's what Empress Jessamine would have wanted and because Lady Emily's learning from his example.

[crispy crispin]

I've heard people say ♥♥♥♥ like: "OMG you didn't get ghost and cleanhands on your FIRST PLAYTHROUGH?" but it don't matter. In my opinion, never try to get the best ending on your first going (I.E going full ghost run and saving constantly after every knocked out guard). Do that after you've done either a high chaos run or semi-low chaos run. It is just not fun. If you want to see the good ending and get the achievements then do a straight shot to the ending. Don't pay any mind to side-objectives, and getting powers. The only powers and gear you should get are upgraded blink, agility, and maybe bend time for the Granny Rags fight (however, you don't need level two). Get it over with and enjoy the game however you want, I say.

People just always pressure others into getting the hardest ending to get (even though it really isn't hard if you do it in a single sitting) with the mentality that you overcame the biggest obstacle and are a good player.

[JimmyT]

Originally posted by Idontknow:

I've heard people say ♥♥♥♥ like: "OMG you didn't get ghost and cleanhands on your FIRST PLAYTHROUGH?" but it don't matter. In my opinion, never try to get the best ending on your first going (I.E going full ghost run and saving constantly after every knocked out guard). Do that after you've done either a high chaos run or semi-low chaos run. It is just not fun. If you want to see the good ending and get the achievements then do a straight shot to the ending. Don't pay any mind to side-objectives, and getting powers. The only powers and gear you should get are upgraded blink, agility, and maybe bend time for the Granny Rags fight (however, you don't need level two). Get it over with and enjoy the game however you want, I say.

People just always pressure others into getting the hardest ending to get (even though it really isn't hard if you do it in a single sitting) with the mentality that you overcame the biggest obstacle and are a good player.

I did that on my first playthrough years ago, but back then I save-scummed every stealth game I played. Honestly Dishonored is such an easy game, even on the hardest difficulty, that iron-manning levels is the only way to go for me. I wish there was a way to disable auto-saves entirely.

[Talon]

Originally posted by Valden21:

It's the bad ending from Corvo's POV. There's a strong indication that he wants Lady Emily to become the kind of ruler her mother was. That means that Corvo has to solve the problems while still keeping the targets alive, because that's what Empress Jessamine would have wanted and because Lady Emily's learning from his example.

Funny thing is that in canon, Corvo did kill some of his targets. Want to say that the Twins and Lady Boyle were killed. The rest were spared, or were granted a fate worse than death. He also helped Slackjaw and Grandma Rags at least once to get the situation in the sewer where Grandma Rags has Slackjaw captured, which he resolved by killing Grandma Rags.

[giasting]

at the end of the game it depends on your gameplay

[temps]

It does feel like you're missing out on some gameplay by doing stealth & non-lethal playstyles, but when you try it you realize stealthy playstyles are fun in their own ways.

Many I've talked to actually prefer the stealthy & non-lethal playstyle.

And the variance in gameplay with each of these playstyles contributes to the overall replayability of the game as well.

Dishonored 1 is a true masterpiece.

[Thornok]

i've found the easy way in :)

[alex.n.gregory]

High Chaos is ridiculously fun -- you can finally cut loose with all the cool toys, and the finale is far more satisfying on the violent route than on low-vis/low-chaos. And that's coming from someone who actually did do a pacifist/ghost run their first time out.

[darinbob]

Originally posted by Blazing:

Lots of innocents die.
Plague gets out of hand.
Emily becomes a tyrant.

You say this like it's a bad thing :-)

But it's kind of an "easy" run in a way. Sure there are more enemies, but if you don't care about sneaking around or being spotted then who cares. The hard runs, with clean hands and not being spotted and grabbing all the portraits, etc, is a low chaos run.