Dishonored's deadly masked ball

"It's not really a game if all you're doing is following a trail of breadcrumbs left by the designer," says Harvey Smith, co-creative director of supernatural stealth adventure Dishonored.

"If you made a game that's room, hallway, room, hallway, and at the end of that there's a monster you have to kill for a scripted event to open the door and then you can move on, that's not really what we do."

Dishonored accordingly prizes free-form action and player choice over controlled, cinematic experiences - as we find out at costume party full of Dunwall's wealthy elite.