After 12 years, I finally understood why I liked Dishonored so much. It's basically steampunk Half-Life 2. Let's see:
1. Ominous figure choosing us for a special mission (gman vs. the outsider)
2. A LOT of urban platforming
3. The crisis times; a tyrant is chosen as a temporary ruler
4. Alien-looking structures all over the old city
5. Zombies
Name more!

6. Groups of fast and small enemies that can deal significant damage (rats vs headcrabs)

7. Fish attack you when you try to go out of bounds (happened in HL2 Lost Coast)

8. Iconic melee weapon. Corvo's blade is of course shy of Gordon's crowbar as fas as iconic goes, but HL2 is more popular. Replicas of said sword can be found online, some of them more intricate than others, with folding mechanism and stuff

Giving it a huge opportunity then.

Dishonored was so damn good. The level design and tools it gives you to navigate and fuck shit up are some of the best I’ve had, I can still go back and have a hella time with it. There are always new ways to do things, and the world building is great.

Dishonored 2 had much improved combat and tools, but I think they dropped the ball with the enemies themselves. In dishonored 1 I still had a good reason to spare a lot of the objectives, while in 2 they are much more cartoony villain. Level design is fantastic in both.

9. Highly damaging tall enemies oversee the city (tallboys vs striders)

10. Two mad scientists pay significant role in saving the world. One of them thinks he’s superior to the other one. (Magnusson and Kleiner vs Sokolov and Piero)
11. The “superior” scientist invents a device that deals significant damage to enemies, changing the game (Magnusson with Magnusson device vs Sokolov with Wall of light)

man, lore, combat, good graphics (it still holds very well by modern standards) a good level up melee/magic system.

And Corvo was a legit character with good writing imho. Game is iconic. Surprising that Redfall was such a massive failure, that is what happens when you force a great development studio to do something they do not want.