This USELESS heart! :SPOILERS:

[Ralof of Riverwood]

This heart is supposed to tell me every secret about everything I use it powers on. So why didn't it, oh I dont know, tell me that my friends secretly planned to murder me!!??

I dont see when I'd need that feature other than to tell me I'm about to be betrayed.

[DarkRaven]

Because it wasn't a secret? If you listened to their audio logs before/after each mission it was fairly obvious that it was going to happen. Havelock wondered what it would be like to be Lord Regent, Pendelton was getting progressively unstable and Martin was an Overseer, swore enemy of agents of the Outsider (read: you).

[North]

The Heart is an excellent tool, and personally, is my favorite Left Hand item second only to Blink.

First of all, the Heart DID warn you that the Loyalists weren't all they seem. Here are some things the Heart shares, recounted from memory, about a number of the Loyalists:

Piero: Has met the Outsider. Has been driven mad, likely from the Outsider. Invented the Spiritual Remedy, which helps prevent the plague, because he hoped it would help cure his feverish hallucinations and madness. (It didn't.)

Samuel: The only character other than Emily that the heart says cares about your or respects you. This is tell-tale right from the get-go, because EVERY OTHER CHARACTER has something suspicious or off about them. The Heart has only praise to pay for Samuel and Emily, and a number of her lines detail just how much Samuel respects you and believes in you.

Martin: Has met the Outsider. Is the only person to date to laugh in his face. Has been driven mad. Is hiding something. (This was, again, very, very blunt.)

Pendleton: More affected emotionally than he lets on.

In addition to this, if you listen to some of the things Martin rants about in the Low Chaos ending, not to mention some of the stuff that Samuel and Piero says at the Hound, it is pretty obvious that they weren't planning to poison you until some time into Corvo's efforts. Even then, the Heart rather bluntly foreshadows that things are going to go wrong.

I predicted it after the Golden Cat mission with the Pendleton twins, personally.

Besides, even if you DIDN'T catch on to the Heart's secrets, she has plenty of other helpful details to share elsewhere. Yeesh, man.

EDIT: DarkRaven summarized this far better than I did.

[Talyn]

I spent many hours waiting for the hammer to fall because of what the heart had said. I would *never* have taken that drink if it hadn't been a cut scene. (One of those moments when a game makes your character do something that you know is a bad idea.) I found the heart very useful and quite sad. Especially since it is almost certainly the heart of the Empress. I want DLC that lets Corvo kick the Outsider's butt. Impractical, I know, but still...

[Turtler]

Ditto. If you read the in-universe and meta clues, you should know that there is something wrong about the entire scenario. The Heart is glorious at reading peoples' hidden thoughts but often times you have to fill in the blanks it leaves yourself. However, usually you can do that pretty easily if you know what you're looking at.

And that's beyond we get into the bajillions of other useful stuff it does.

[North]

Totally, folks. Thanks for coming to our defense.

There are several missions that I wouldn't have been able to complete at all, or at least as awesomely, as I could with the Heart.

Now, let's decide what the most useless Left Hand ability IS.

I'm debating summoning Rats. Sure, it has purpose, such as fun deaths or quick escapes with Possession, but I think it arguably has least purpose.

Or maybe Adrenaline, though I've yet to really mess with that one. Thoughts?

[HaikenEdge]

The Heart is definitely my favorite item in game. Also, predicted the twist as soon as I met Haverok and Pendleton; Pendleton almost felt like a James Bond villain to me, and Haverok, I wouldn't trust anybody who has a James Bond villain as a minion.

Again, like a lot of Bethsoft games, there's a good chunk of railroading in the story, which is why I generally don't like the story in Bethsoft games.

Originally posted by North:

Now, let's decide what the most useless Left Hand ability IS.

Does it have to be an ability? If not, I'd say the pistol, simply because it's loud.

If I have to pick based on abilities only, I'd go with Feather, but then again, I don't think I've ever really fallen any distance, mostly because I've discovered I can Blink to them. As for active abilities, I'd go with Devouring Swarm, because at least Windblast has utility functions.

[North]

By "Left Hand Ability" i just meant "Thing or skill that is assigned to the left hand."

What the hell is Feather?

I agree. I was going to pick Windblast, but I was like "nah, I can push people into Walls of Light and break doors." So Rats it is.

I actually want to defend the pistol because during combat it can be a life saver. Also, when combined with Bend Time it can be hilarious.

...
Bethsoft? I don't get it. Are you talking about Bethesda?
Bethesda didn't make this game. They published it. That means that Bethesda did only two things: First, they asked Arkane Studios to make a new IP, and second, they gave Arkane a bunch of money to, you know, actually make the game.

Past that, Bethesda and ZeniMax had NOTHING to do with the development of Dishonored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishonored_(video_game)#Development

[HaikenEdge]

Originally posted by North:

By "Left Hand Ability" i just meant "Thing or skill that is assigned to the left hand."

What the hell is Feather?

I agree. I was going to pick Windblast, but I was like "nah, I can push people into Walls of Light and break doors." So Rats it is.

I actually want to defend the pistol because during combat it can be a life saver. Also, when combined with Bend Time it can be hilarious.

...
Bethsoft? I don't get it. Are you talking about Bethesda?
Bethesda didn't make this game. They published it. That means that Bethesda did only two things: First, they asked Arkane Studios to make a new IP, and second, they gave Arkane a bunch of money to, you know, actually make the game.

Past that, Bethesda and ZeniMax had NOTHING to do with the development of Dishonored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishonored_(video_game)#Development

I mistook what you meant by ability, since you mentioned Agility; Feather reduces fall damage, and is a passive ability.

I wouldn't really know about combat, because I was sold the game as a stealth game, so I never really engaged in a fight unless I was forced into it by the script, which is why I felt the pistol was the least useful, because at least the sword is silent, as is the crossbow.

Bethsoft = Bethesda, because the complete name of the organization is Bethesda Softworks. I tend to blame them regardless of the developer, because, regardless whether they're publishing (Dishonored, Rage) or developing (Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3) a game, those games all tend to suffer from similar story problems, namely railroading at plot points despite the fact a player, in-character, might not react the way they're being railroaded, so I see that more as a symptom of a problem that can be traced back to a single source (all games published by Bethsoft), than a problem of the developers (Dishonored by Arkane, Rage by id, and the TES games in-house.). But really, I think that's besides the point, in a way; it's just, I feel the betrayal is something Corvos should have seen coming, particularly if the player listened to all the audio logs and listened to the Heart.

[North]

Feather is not an ability in Dishonored. Agility is, and reduces fall damage somewhat.

Try playing through the game with some combat. There's no right or wrong way to play.

Bethsoft is eight letters, and Bethesda is...hold on, lemme count...My, look at that, it's eight letters.

Should we start calling Valve Valvesoft? :P

I think it's horribly unfair to blame Bethesda for a plot problem that I don't really see existing, especially because, as I said, Bethesda had nothing to do with the plot of Dishonored, and did not write, not approve, nor in any way modify or touch the plot of Dishonored. Personally, I thought the plot was fine, but that's beside the point.

The point is that it's really silly to blame Bethesda for something that they did not do.

[HaikenEdge]

Originally posted by North:

Feather is not an ability in Dishonored. Agility is, and reduces fall damage somewhat.

Try playing through the game with some combat. There's no right or wrong way to play.

Bethsoft is eight letters, and Bethesda is...hold on, lemme count...My, look at that, it's eight letters.

Should we start calling Valve Valvesoft? :P

I think it's horribly unfair to blame Bethesda for a plot problem that I don't really see existing, especially because, as I said, Bethesda had nothing to do with the plot of Dishonored, and did not write, not approve, nor in any way modify or touch the plot of Dishonored. Personally, I thought the plot was fine, but that's beside the point.

The point is that it's really silly to blame Bethesda for something that they did not do.

Yeah, let's not get into a discussion over the plot; that's an entirely different argument.

I listed Feather because I Googled "Dishonored Abilities", and it came up; I remember reading in one of the powers that it reduced fall damage, so I just listed that, not realizing that it was part of Agility.

Seriously, though, I wish the rats power had more utility purposes; it's a shame it doesn't.

[Legion]

Originally posted by Talyn:

I spent many hours waiting for the hammer to fall because of what the heart had said. I would *never* have taken that drink if it hadn't been a cut scene. (One of those moments when a game makes your character do something that you know is a bad idea.) I found the heart very useful and quite sad. Especially since it is almost certainly the heart of the Empress. I want DLC that lets Corvo kick the Outsider's butt. Impractical, I know, but still...

If you use the heart on Sokolov, the voice of the heart states "Anton Sokolove. He knew me once. He did much to set me on my path." Or something to that extent, so it probably is the heart of Jessamine.

[Talyn]

I'd also just like to point out that while I don't like the "railroading" of plot points, either, trying to tell a specific story without them is insanely difficult. Let's say that someone *didn't* use the heart or listen to any audio logs. If what you're going for is a surprise moment, you've just blown it for all but the least perceptive of players if you offer "Drink/Don't drink" options at that point. I believe there are ways of getting around this - I've just never seen them in a game.

[Teran]

Originally posted by Hexdoctor #YOLO #SWAG #LOVE:

This heart is supposed to tell me every secret about everything I use it powers on. So why didn't it, oh I dont know, tell me that my friends secretly planned to murder me!!??

I dont see when I'd need that feature other than to tell me I'm about to be betrayed.

The heart tells you secrets and in this case secrets are generally about past events. Speculation about future events isn't revealing secrets, it's gossip.

Additionally, it's difficult to say when a person goes from fantasizing about having supreme power to murdering the only person who can get it for you. The heart warns numerous times that betrayal was possible and that most of your allies behave chaotically.

[HaikenEdge]

Originally posted by Talyn:

I'd also just like to point out that while I don't like the "railroading" of plot points, either, trying to tell a specific story without them is insanely difficult. Let's say that someone *didn't* use the heart or listen to any audio logs. If what you're going for is a surprise moment, you've just blown it for all but the least perceptive of players if you offer "Drink/Don't drink" options at that point. I believe there are ways of getting around this - I've just never seen them in a game.

I think there are other ways to do things besides, "Drink/Don't Drink." For example, it could be made possible that the player, after completing a certain number of missions, could choke out say, one or two of the conspirators, only to be rendered unconscious from behind by a blunt object, or Samuel with a blunt object to "prove his loyalty".

At least give the player options. Then again, I tend of overthink and obsess about wanting choices at key points of the game.

[Talyn]

Originally posted by HaikenEdge:

At least give the player options. Then again, I tend of overthink and obsess about wanting choices at key points of the game.

Not at all. I agree that there are other ways to handle this issue. Unfortunately, all of the ones I can think of - including your suggestion - have issues and gameplay considerations of their own. Still, I dream of one day making *exactly* the game that I'd like to play. Heh. Not likely to ever happen, but one can dream. Of course, the question is, would anyone else want to play it? :)