The question posed during Dishonored 2’s development which best summarises the end product’s probably “could we do both?” Its levels are ambitious conceptually, but stifle their potential in practice by having to accommodate two characters’ different sets of powers, plus players who forego powers altogether. Its premise tries to expand Dishonored’s world by taking us to a new locale, but ultimately makes it feel smaller by having it revolve around the same five or six people as before. It stresses player agency, but hamstrings it via more rigidly characterised protagonists coupled with a more intrusive focus on clumsier storytelling. Even the box art evokes the root of most of its issues: pulling itself in two directions.
Playing it back-to-back with its predecessor makes this especially apparent in terms of movement. Dishonored 2 adds uncancellable animations to lots of mundane actions which were instantaneous before – e.g. keyhole peeping, vaulting over or on top of obstacles, sliding – and/or makes them more restrictive, significantly limiting the directions in which you can sprint as well as adding roughly a full second of input delay to crouching and standing back up. Assuming immersion was the goal, because it’s hard to imagine what else could be the rationale behind making it so stoppy-starty, these changes only serve to produce the opposite effect; I’m less drawn into the game by a few minor features arguably feeling slightly more tangible than before and much more taken out of it by wondering why superhuman acrobats Emily and Corvo forgot how to jog anywhere but directly forwards, come to a screeching halt whenever they lightly brush against a railing or are only sporadically able see their own legs. Raphaël Colantonio, who conspicuously didn’t direct this game, once discussed how Arkane intentionally avoids putting ladders in their games because they don’t want players to feel like they’re stuck in “modes,” i.e. states in which their options are arbitrarily restricted. That approximate situation’s happening every few steps in Dishonored 2, however briefly, and cumulatively makes for an experience that controls like a boat compared to the first Dishonored’s butter.
To some extent, Dishonored 2’s addition of several new nonlethal tools assuages the constrictiveness brought about by this, but it also unfortunately makes lethal and nonlethal playstyles much more samey. You can now use melee to knock enemies out through several conditions after they’ve spotted or even engaged combat with you, as well as KO them from above with a nonlethal counterpart to drop assassinations – as a result, what little resource management there was is diminished (since this eats into the niche of sleep darts), the degree to which players have to navigate levels differently depending on their lethality’s reduced (counterproductive to how it adds or subtracts the amount of bloodflies and guards) and a nonlethal player generally doesn’t have to worry about any scenarios which a lethal player also doesn’t. Low Chaos runs are no longer about being the bigger man and abstaining from the temptation of inflicting avoidable harm onto those who’ve dishonoured™ you, because Dishonored 2 covers you with a safety net in the name of convenience and lets you do so without worrying about its potential consequences.
This toothlessness extends to its writing and the whiplash-inducing contrast between how little it respects the player’s intelligence versus how much playing it still ultimately does. You’re frequently beaten over the head with definitive, unprompted, often incredibly lame answers to most of what had even the slightest room for interpretation in the first game, a big part of why I found Dishonored’s world so captivating. The Outsider, now recasted to an ill-fitting voice actor who sounds much less characteristically indifferent and aloof, quashes all mystery surrounding his esoteric origins by explaining to you that he’s just some goober who got murdered by a cult some years ago. Jessamine’s spirit now appears to either protagonist of your choosing to confirm that the Heart is hers, because you aren’t trusted to have sussed that out from it sharing her voice or how heavily it alludes to being familiar with them both. The now-voiced protagonists comment on and spoonfeed you everything, delivering such insights as “Corvo must’ve lived here” seconds after CORVO ATTANO’S ABANDONED HOME flashes up on the screen or moping about who manufactured their door locks for some reason, usually within earshot of guards whose selective deafness sticks out like a sore thumb due to how otherwise impressively perceptive they are (exacerbated by the first game’s Daud DLCs not having this problem). It’s distractingly discordant with the hands-off, let-the-player-fill-in-the-gaps style of game design stemming from its Looking Glass lineage and doesn’t make up for it with any layers that even the first game’s fairly straightforward plot still managed to have – for example, how Daud’s guilt-stricken actions indirectly lead to the rat plague being cured.
It'd be fair to say you don’t play Dishonored for its narrative if 2 didn’t emphasise it so much more than its predecessor that it bottlenecks its own mission structure. Being whisked away into unskippable cutscenes for Delilah to deliver spontaneous monologues retconning her own motivations is one thing, but outright preventing the player from progressing through a level’s objectives until they’re forced into an unavoidable encounter with its target (as first occurs in The Good Doctor) is just poisonous for this genre. This is the sequel to a game which has an achievement for pickpocketing a major antagonist unnoticed and without harming him, just to taunt him about how much better of an assassin you are – to picture what it’d be like if that level were in Dishonored 2, either completely remove or lock about a third of its optional areas behind unbreakable doors whose keys are on the opposite end of the map, make obtaining Corvo’s stolen equipment mandatory, forbid the player from completing any other objective until they do, have Corvo moan about how wet it is after looking at a visibly flooded vista and create an unskippable sequence where Daud scuffles with him before subsequently forgetting he was ever there.
Even more than how palpably confused it is, Dishonored 2’s most deflating in its fundamental lack of imagination. Some eejit with a gamerboxd account has no business suggesting what a game with this much talent and money behind it should’ve been about instead, or whether Arkane even had the creative freedom to choose its premise, but this world and a character like the Outsider beg for an anthological approach. All of these issues could well’ve been more tolerable if they were present in a game more interested in its own setting; say, one about an Overseer missionary to Pandyssia who has to balance his faith in addition to the region’s Chaos level or a disgraced captain of Tyvia’s secret police. Of all the avenues they could've explored, how they landed on essentially rehashing the first game’s DLCs is anyone’s guess.
I’m fortunate that revisiting a game’s never once made me think less of it, but this is also the first time where it’s not helped me find anything further to appreciate. I don’t regret playing Dishonored 2 and continue to recommend it to the curious, but these are mostly because (respectively) it’s disappointing on so many levels that it caused me both to reevaluate what I want out of games in the first place as well as be wary of any sequels commonly referred to as better than the original in every way(!!!), and there are so few similar games that you might as well try it anyhow. As a baseline, the industry would be a better place if more games were like it, but it’s only that – both flavours of Arkane proved several times before, and particularly just the year after, that they’re capable of far more than this.
Playing it back-to-back with its predecessor makes this especially apparent in terms of movement. Dishonored 2 adds uncancellable animations to lots of mundane actions which were instantaneous before – e.g. keyhole peeping, vaulting over or on top of obstacles, sliding – and/or makes them more restrictive, significantly limiting the directions in which you can sprint as well as adding roughly a full second of input delay to crouching and standing back up. Assuming immersion was the goal, because it’s hard to imagine what else could be the rationale behind making it so stoppy-starty, these changes only serve to produce the opposite effect; I’m less drawn into the game by a few minor features arguably feeling slightly more tangible than before and much more taken out of it by wondering why superhuman acrobats Emily and Corvo forgot how to jog anywhere but directly forwards, come to a screeching halt whenever they lightly brush against a railing or are only sporadically able see their own legs. Raphaël Colantonio, who conspicuously didn’t direct this game, once discussed how Arkane intentionally avoids putting ladders in their games because they don’t want players to feel like they’re stuck in “modes,” i.e. states in which their options are arbitrarily restricted. That approximate situation’s happening every few steps in Dishonored 2, however briefly, and cumulatively makes for an experience that controls like a boat compared to the first Dishonored’s butter.
To some extent, Dishonored 2’s addition of several new nonlethal tools assuages the constrictiveness brought about by this, but it also unfortunately makes lethal and nonlethal playstyles much more samey. You can now use melee to knock enemies out through several conditions after they’ve spotted or even engaged combat with you, as well as KO them from above with a nonlethal counterpart to drop assassinations – as a result, what little resource management there was is diminished (since this eats into the niche of sleep darts), the degree to which players have to navigate levels differently depending on their lethality’s reduced (counterproductive to how it adds or subtracts the amount of bloodflies and guards) and a nonlethal player generally doesn’t have to worry about any scenarios which a lethal player also doesn’t. Low Chaos runs are no longer about being the bigger man and abstaining from the temptation of inflicting avoidable harm onto those who’ve dishonoured™ you, because Dishonored 2 covers you with a safety net in the name of convenience and lets you do so without worrying about its potential consequences.
This toothlessness extends to its writing and the whiplash-inducing contrast between how little it respects the player’s intelligence versus how much playing it still ultimately does. You’re frequently beaten over the head with definitive, unprompted, often incredibly lame answers to most of what had even the slightest room for interpretation in the first game, a big part of why I found Dishonored’s world so captivating. The Outsider, now recasted to an ill-fitting voice actor who sounds much less characteristically indifferent and aloof, quashes all mystery surrounding his esoteric origins by explaining to you that he’s just some goober who got murdered by a cult some years ago. Jessamine’s spirit now appears to either protagonist of your choosing to confirm that the Heart is hers, because you aren’t trusted to have sussed that out from it sharing her voice or how heavily it alludes to being familiar with them both. The now-voiced protagonists comment on and spoonfeed you everything, delivering such insights as “Corvo must’ve lived here” seconds after CORVO ATTANO’S ABANDONED HOME flashes up on the screen or moping about who manufactured their door locks for some reason, usually within earshot of guards whose selective deafness sticks out like a sore thumb due to how otherwise impressively perceptive they are (exacerbated by the first game’s Daud DLCs not having this problem). It’s distractingly discordant with the hands-off, let-the-player-fill-in-the-gaps style of game design stemming from its Looking Glass lineage and doesn’t make up for it with any layers that even the first game’s fairly straightforward plot still managed to have – for example, how Daud’s guilt-stricken actions indirectly lead to the rat plague being cured.
It'd be fair to say you don’t play Dishonored for its narrative if 2 didn’t emphasise it so much more than its predecessor that it bottlenecks its own mission structure. Being whisked away into unskippable cutscenes for Delilah to deliver spontaneous monologues retconning her own motivations is one thing, but outright preventing the player from progressing through a level’s objectives until they’re forced into an unavoidable encounter with its target (as first occurs in The Good Doctor) is just poisonous for this genre. This is the sequel to a game which has an achievement for pickpocketing a major antagonist unnoticed and without harming him, just to taunt him about how much better of an assassin you are – to picture what it’d be like if that level were in Dishonored 2, either completely remove or lock about a third of its optional areas behind unbreakable doors whose keys are on the opposite end of the map, make obtaining Corvo’s stolen equipment mandatory, forbid the player from completing any other objective until they do, have Corvo moan about how wet it is after looking at a visibly flooded vista and create an unskippable sequence where Daud scuffles with him before subsequently forgetting he was ever there.
Even more than how palpably confused it is, Dishonored 2’s most deflating in its fundamental lack of imagination. Some eejit with a gamerboxd account has no business suggesting what a game with this much talent and money behind it should’ve been about instead, or whether Arkane even had the creative freedom to choose its premise, but this world and a character like the Outsider beg for an anthological approach. All of these issues could well’ve been more tolerable if they were present in a game more interested in its own setting; say, one about an Overseer missionary to Pandyssia who has to balance his faith in addition to the region’s Chaos level or a disgraced captain of Tyvia’s secret police. Of all the avenues they could've explored, how they landed on essentially rehashing the first game’s DLCs is anyone’s guess.
I’m fortunate that revisiting a game’s never once made me think less of it, but this is also the first time where it’s not helped me find anything further to appreciate. I don’t regret playing Dishonored 2 and continue to recommend it to the curious, but these are mostly because (respectively) it’s disappointing on so many levels that it caused me both to reevaluate what I want out of games in the first place as well as be wary of any sequels commonly referred to as better than the original in every way(!!!), and there are so few similar games that you might as well try it anyhow. As a baseline, the industry would be a better place if more games were like it, but it’s only that – both flavours of Arkane proved several times before, and particularly just the year after, that they’re capable of far more than this.
I wish Emily knew about historical materialism.
IMO Dishonored is one of a scant few series with such masterfully interwoven area design that organically accommodates a variety of playstyles and tactics--without losing its aura of verisimilitude. This economical little cutie puts premiere games like Deus Ex / Cyberpunk and their shrink-wrapped route segmentation to shame; there's little to no "here's the stealth approach air vent, directly beside the combat approach cover corridor! Time 2 pick ur actually kind of meaningless, overbearingly highlighted choice!" bullshit here. Like Souls, you actually have to pay deep attention to largely un-signaled opportunities in the architecture, enemy behaviors, and level design in ways that successfully make you feel like you're discovering exploitable weaknesses in both the diegetic AND directorial structures of the game world itself. Blink/Far Reach still feel like you're playing debug mode and hacking the game but in a totally intentional way and it RULES! It's exhilarating to have to constantly re-evaluate your approach and compromise whatever binaristic roleplay you initially set out on due to the vibrant, chaotic texture within every area, and when you're on a roll it's absolutely some of the coolest zonefeel and adaptive stealth EVAR!!!
Sadly I am kind of godawful at this series despite being a fan, I and struggled immensely to play in the rough style I find most satisfying (stealth-predatorial, with the occasional quick firefight when discovered), especially at the start. D2 is almost immediately much less forgiving than the first game, and the enormous, punishing opening areas do very little to get you acclimated. I was constantly abusing quicksaves and moving at a snails pace until getting my sea legs 8+ hours in, and by that point I had become a bit too reliant on some cheesy, avoidant strategies. This may only be an issue on console, but I found the reload times to be especially ridiculous for such a high-risk game that encourages you to frequently retry; I spent maybe 1/5th of my playtime in the first 3 zones inside a loading screen and that does not feel acceptable!!! I was able to push through this klutzy phase because I knew of the pleasures 2 come once I got my groove back, but the lengthy downtime very likely could have turned me away for good if I were a first-time player. Happy I stayed onboard because some of the later zones are a delight to navigate, especially with a more developed arsenal of abilities. Maybe this isn't a problem on PC, but it really aggravated me on console.
The lore of this world does very little for me and I don't find the story or the characters at all engaging, but the whalepunk theming does lend itself to some areas with interesting mechanical/structural concepts (the 13 Ghosts/Cube-style morphing inventor mansion and witchy taxidermy conservatory were NEAT!). I'm glad for the attempts at stylization that are here, but wish they had taken things even further. The overarching story of braindead political retribution is basically a huge yawn but the lived-in sensibility of individual spaces remains excellent.
ALSO I picked Emily and was HORRIFIED to discover that she can not turn into a rat, which was the coolest ability in the OG and legit feels odd to be locked to one player character--esp when "dethroned edgy steampunk princess" feels WAY more likely to have high rat affinity than boring pseudomute assassin man!!!! felt legit devastated every time I saw a group of rats I could not possess. The game literally should warn you upon character select that if you pick Emily you will NEVER go ratmode :'( Her Naruto self-multiplication/shadow crawl power is NOT an acceptable substitute!!!! legit -.5 a star for this injustice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sadly I am kind of godawful at this series despite being a fan, I and struggled immensely to play in the rough style I find most satisfying (stealth-predatorial, with the occasional quick firefight when discovered), especially at the start. D2 is almost immediately much less forgiving than the first game, and the enormous, punishing opening areas do very little to get you acclimated. I was constantly abusing quicksaves and moving at a snails pace until getting my sea legs 8+ hours in, and by that point I had become a bit too reliant on some cheesy, avoidant strategies. This may only be an issue on console, but I found the reload times to be especially ridiculous for such a high-risk game that encourages you to frequently retry; I spent maybe 1/5th of my playtime in the first 3 zones inside a loading screen and that does not feel acceptable!!! I was able to push through this klutzy phase because I knew of the pleasures 2 come once I got my groove back, but the lengthy downtime very likely could have turned me away for good if I were a first-time player. Happy I stayed onboard because some of the later zones are a delight to navigate, especially with a more developed arsenal of abilities. Maybe this isn't a problem on PC, but it really aggravated me on console.
The lore of this world does very little for me and I don't find the story or the characters at all engaging, but the whalepunk theming does lend itself to some areas with interesting mechanical/structural concepts (the 13 Ghosts/Cube-style morphing inventor mansion and witchy taxidermy conservatory were NEAT!). I'm glad for the attempts at stylization that are here, but wish they had taken things even further. The overarching story of braindead political retribution is basically a huge yawn but the lived-in sensibility of individual spaces remains excellent.
ALSO I picked Emily and was HORRIFIED to discover that she can not turn into a rat, which was the coolest ability in the OG and legit feels odd to be locked to one player character--esp when "dethroned edgy steampunk princess" feels WAY more likely to have high rat affinity than boring pseudomute assassin man!!!! felt legit devastated every time I saw a group of rats I could not possess. The game literally should warn you upon character select that if you pick Emily you will NEVER go ratmode :'( Her Naruto self-multiplication/shadow crawl power is NOT an acceptable substitute!!!! legit -.5 a star for this injustice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zerei duas vezes seguidas. Uma vez com o Corvo (jogando do jeito stealth) e uma vez com a Emily (fazendo a chacina generalizada). O bom disso é que pude usar quase todas habilidades, que devem ser o triplo ou o quadruplo do primeiro jogo e pude matar os inimigos de formas mais criativas.
Minha parte favorita do jogo foi a mansão do Jindosh, uma mansão em que os cômodos da casa podem se mover, trocando de lugar com outros. Isso abre brechas pra que você possa explorar lugares secretos entre eles. Essa é uma das maiores características desse jogo, há muitas rotas secretas pra se explorar e chegar ao objetivo.
A história é boa como a do primeiro, entretanto acho que os finais poderiam variar mais, pois matei geral na segunda zerada e não pude ver as consequências de ter matado personagens principais. Como o mundo foi afetado pela falta deles? Simplesmente não mostrou. No primeiro game mostrava isso, se não me engano (ou pelo menos aparecia eles vivos no cantinho da cutscene).
O maior problema desse jogo foi a otimização, até da pra jogar tranquilo, mas com o serrilhado do jogo tem como cortar um pinheiro araucária. Da pra consertar isso com anti-aliasing, mas vai ficar uns borrões naquilo que estiver ao fundo. É uma condição que logo depois de uns minutos me acostumei.
Eu ainda gosto mais do primeiro, mas fiquei satisfeito com esse também.
Minha parte favorita do jogo foi a mansão do Jindosh, uma mansão em que os cômodos da casa podem se mover, trocando de lugar com outros. Isso abre brechas pra que você possa explorar lugares secretos entre eles. Essa é uma das maiores características desse jogo, há muitas rotas secretas pra se explorar e chegar ao objetivo.
A história é boa como a do primeiro, entretanto acho que os finais poderiam variar mais, pois matei geral na segunda zerada e não pude ver as consequências de ter matado personagens principais. Como o mundo foi afetado pela falta deles? Simplesmente não mostrou. No primeiro game mostrava isso, se não me engano (ou pelo menos aparecia eles vivos no cantinho da cutscene).
O maior problema desse jogo foi a otimização, até da pra jogar tranquilo, mas com o serrilhado do jogo tem como cortar um pinheiro araucária. Da pra consertar isso com anti-aliasing, mas vai ficar uns borrões naquilo que estiver ao fundo. É uma condição que logo depois de uns minutos me acostumei.
Eu ainda gosto mais do primeiro, mas fiquei satisfeito com esse também.
It loses a bit to atmosphere compared to its predecessor, but the mechanic and gameplay additions are very fun to play with
ESTOU 1000% FECHADO COM MEUS PARCEIROS DA ARKANE STUDIOS
Rejogado pela quarta vez. Um dos jogos que eu mais aguardei na ultima geração, meu hype foi gigantesco, e não tinha como ser diferente...Sequencia de um dos grandes jogos do século. Dishonored 1 não só tem uma gameplay maravilhosa, como também um level design formidável que consegue melhorar a cada nova área, combinado com a maravilhosa estética industrial deprimente e suja de Dunwall, e uma historia bem conduzida, um jogo atemporal sem duvidas. E de inicio, eu meio que me decepcionei com Dishonored 2, muito por conta da historia que não é tão boa e marcante como a do primeiro, mas ao passar dos replays que fiz do jogo, essa decepção foi indo embora. Nesse meu 4 replay eu joguei como Corvo pela segunda vez, é incrível como ainda sim, eu fiz coisas diferentes das últimas 3 vezes...e é por isso que eu AMO os jogos da Arkane, uma liberdade imensurável ao jogador e um valor de replay gigantesco. E é isso, único ponto desse jogo que não chega aos pés do primeiro é realmente a sua historia, de resto, tudo se mantem no topo com levels que exploram TUDO que a maravilhosa gameplay pode entregar, seja em Stealth ou indo mais pro combate. E fico feliz da Arkane ter experimentando mecânicas diferentes, deixou muitas fases do jogo incríveis, como "a Crack in The Slab" que na minha humilde opinião continua sendo a melhor fase criada em um videogame nos últimos 10 anos.
I didn’t get around to playing Dishonored 2 for years, finally getting the opportunity to play the game a few years back, I remember walking away a tad disappointed. As time has gone on my disappointment has only gotten more extreme.
As usual, the art style is stellar, it’s cliche to say you can look anywhere and see a painting, but it really is the truth here, and the newer sunnier environments really show off how beautiful the game’s art style can be in the warm glow of a setting sun.
Gameplay is pretty much identical to the last game, though you now have two characters to play as, and both characters have new tools at their disposal as well.
Corvo is the same as the last game, same powers and everything, while Emily has a completely new set of abilities.
Firstly, I didn’t like a lot of Emily’s spells. They felt like gimmicky rehashes of Corvo’s abilities, which would be fine on their own but, to be honest I just find them all incredibly clunky and not much fun to use. This probably just comes down to playstyles but I found myself almost exclusively playing Corvo, who sadly doesn’t get ANY new abilities or additions.
Bone charms are randomized now. This is terrible, you get so many useless ones that do absolutely nothing for you, OR you get tons of useful ones. This is because you can craft new bone charms that are more powerful but to be honest I didn’t really bother with this mechanic, it requires you to break charms down to make new ones and you need to invest resources into it I really didn’t want to bother with. Charms were a good way to scale Corvo as the game went on and were really great rewards when you went out of your way to find them. Half the time in Dishonored 2 I’d track one down and receive “you heal more from food” for the 50th fucking time.
This is borderline nitpicky but the charm in this game is really lacking. Guards are way more boring this time around, not funny or interesting to listen to when they have dialogue, and most of it just frames them as hilariously evil idiots. Guards felt much more human in the last game, it was a real disappointing step down after how great they were. I will say I loved the Overseers at least, they had cool designs and great voice lines.
Map design was much more ambitious, sometimes to the detriment of the gameplay. I think this game was at its worst when you’re traveling the streets. The way guards are positioned and the general layout just makes them kind of a slog to explore. The smaller areas like the inside of Jindosh’s mansion or the hospital island are built much better meanwhile, and are the best parts of the game.
I have to complain about the witches and the Jindosh robots now. Witches are stupid and I hate them, they have annoying dialogue and tons of random mechanics that you really only figure out through trial and error like their bone dogs, or learning exactly where they’re sitting and teleporting. Guards that teleport are always an awful idea. The robots meanwhile seem very intimidating at first, but they can actually be taken down super easily, even if you’re doing a pacifist playthrough. Obviously killing a robot doesn’t count but it only bugs me so much because the game completely lacks enemies you can’t deal with nonlethaly, like the tall boys from the first game.
Speaking of nonlethal, they made it WAY easier. You can drop knock out, knock out enemies facing you if you catch them off guard, and these alone make things way easier. These are quality of life changes so I understand WHY they were done, but I still think they made things too easy. Perhaps drop knock outs shouldn’t work on alert enemies, or maybe they shouldn’t be silent take downs, I’m not sure but it’s ridiculous. Dishonored 1 nonlethal was all about getting behind enemies to choke them out, OR ignoring enemies and sneaking around them, now enemies are hardly a pain to deal with.
Lastly, I do not like where the story went, but this isn’t the fault of Dishonored 2 alone, Daud’s DLCs from the first game started this witch crap, this game was just where it all ended. The main villains in this game sucked and I did not care about any of the assassination targets. None of them had any decent buildup or presence.
Overall, Dishonored 2 is more of the first game with some cleaned up mechanics. I’m a bit of an old head and do not like some of these changes, but that is just me. Some people may have a lot of fun with Emily or may love the story. I dunno, it’s just not for me I guess.
As usual, the art style is stellar, it’s cliche to say you can look anywhere and see a painting, but it really is the truth here, and the newer sunnier environments really show off how beautiful the game’s art style can be in the warm glow of a setting sun.
Gameplay is pretty much identical to the last game, though you now have two characters to play as, and both characters have new tools at their disposal as well.
Corvo is the same as the last game, same powers and everything, while Emily has a completely new set of abilities.
Firstly, I didn’t like a lot of Emily’s spells. They felt like gimmicky rehashes of Corvo’s abilities, which would be fine on their own but, to be honest I just find them all incredibly clunky and not much fun to use. This probably just comes down to playstyles but I found myself almost exclusively playing Corvo, who sadly doesn’t get ANY new abilities or additions.
Bone charms are randomized now. This is terrible, you get so many useless ones that do absolutely nothing for you, OR you get tons of useful ones. This is because you can craft new bone charms that are more powerful but to be honest I didn’t really bother with this mechanic, it requires you to break charms down to make new ones and you need to invest resources into it I really didn’t want to bother with. Charms were a good way to scale Corvo as the game went on and were really great rewards when you went out of your way to find them. Half the time in Dishonored 2 I’d track one down and receive “you heal more from food” for the 50th fucking time.
This is borderline nitpicky but the charm in this game is really lacking. Guards are way more boring this time around, not funny or interesting to listen to when they have dialogue, and most of it just frames them as hilariously evil idiots. Guards felt much more human in the last game, it was a real disappointing step down after how great they were. I will say I loved the Overseers at least, they had cool designs and great voice lines.
Map design was much more ambitious, sometimes to the detriment of the gameplay. I think this game was at its worst when you’re traveling the streets. The way guards are positioned and the general layout just makes them kind of a slog to explore. The smaller areas like the inside of Jindosh’s mansion or the hospital island are built much better meanwhile, and are the best parts of the game.
I have to complain about the witches and the Jindosh robots now. Witches are stupid and I hate them, they have annoying dialogue and tons of random mechanics that you really only figure out through trial and error like their bone dogs, or learning exactly where they’re sitting and teleporting. Guards that teleport are always an awful idea. The robots meanwhile seem very intimidating at first, but they can actually be taken down super easily, even if you’re doing a pacifist playthrough. Obviously killing a robot doesn’t count but it only bugs me so much because the game completely lacks enemies you can’t deal with nonlethaly, like the tall boys from the first game.
Speaking of nonlethal, they made it WAY easier. You can drop knock out, knock out enemies facing you if you catch them off guard, and these alone make things way easier. These are quality of life changes so I understand WHY they were done, but I still think they made things too easy. Perhaps drop knock outs shouldn’t work on alert enemies, or maybe they shouldn’t be silent take downs, I’m not sure but it’s ridiculous. Dishonored 1 nonlethal was all about getting behind enemies to choke them out, OR ignoring enemies and sneaking around them, now enemies are hardly a pain to deal with.
Lastly, I do not like where the story went, but this isn’t the fault of Dishonored 2 alone, Daud’s DLCs from the first game started this witch crap, this game was just where it all ended. The main villains in this game sucked and I did not care about any of the assassination targets. None of them had any decent buildup or presence.
Overall, Dishonored 2 is more of the first game with some cleaned up mechanics. I’m a bit of an old head and do not like some of these changes, but that is just me. Some people may have a lot of fun with Emily or may love the story. I dunno, it’s just not for me I guess.
a massive downgrade from the first game in basically every way except presentation, with some welcome QoL stuff that allows for an easier non-lethal run
There are plenty of things you can say about good and bad parts of Dishonored 2: how the artstyle is cool and well-realized, but the glitches are plenty; how the levels are well-built and feel open-ended, but are oftentimes pretty linear; how the world is interesting and feels unique, but the story is super idealist and the characters are mostly boring and/or feel like caricatures.
But at the end of the day, this is just a game I find hard not to love, particularly because of how immersive it is. Especially in #2, with you having a voiced protagonist (FINALLY), it’s very easy to get sucked into this world and believe the fantasy it presents you of being a supernatural assassin. Unlike Dunwall, this game’s main region, Karnaka, is not ravaged by an uber-deadly plague, making most levels empty and desolate, but is suffering from poverty, gang- and state-violence, and thus is allows you to observe it’s denizens’ lives more closely, getting to know them and their struggles. And the world reacts pretty believably to your actions, both scripted and unscripted, which makes just engaging with the game’s systems a lot of fun.
I also really liked exploring these levels. They are huge with a lot of stuff to find, sub-missions to complete, stories to experience or to read about, safes to rob, etc, and I liked how, once again, alive they felt. I also loved how vertical they were, and how you can pretty much crawl into every other house to both loot them for all their shekels, and to find new ways around. They can feel bloated sometimes, which is not helped by your powers list being way too long, with a couple of powers being really fun and useful, and the other, like, 4 being both too expensive to invest in, and too overpowered to not feel shame using. This is especially the case with Emily, which sucks, because while I didn’t really like her writing or performance, she is leagues better than Korvo both in terms of gameplay and voice-acting. And for both of them, the best way to build your character is just to invest a shit-ton into bonecharms and give yourself the ability to go supersonic if you’re crouching and carrying a body at the same time or some shit.
I am more critical of Dishonored 2 than I ever was before, but what didn’t change with the latest 1-and-a-half playthroughs is that this is still one of the best games I’ve ever played from a level-design and gameplay perspectives, and it’s still one of my all-time favourites. So fun!
P.S.
Tbh one other point Emily gets over Corvo is that I think I might have some sort of female hands fetish, so yeah. Great character
But at the end of the day, this is just a game I find hard not to love, particularly because of how immersive it is. Especially in #2, with you having a voiced protagonist (FINALLY), it’s very easy to get sucked into this world and believe the fantasy it presents you of being a supernatural assassin. Unlike Dunwall, this game’s main region, Karnaka, is not ravaged by an uber-deadly plague, making most levels empty and desolate, but is suffering from poverty, gang- and state-violence, and thus is allows you to observe it’s denizens’ lives more closely, getting to know them and their struggles. And the world reacts pretty believably to your actions, both scripted and unscripted, which makes just engaging with the game’s systems a lot of fun.
I also really liked exploring these levels. They are huge with a lot of stuff to find, sub-missions to complete, stories to experience or to read about, safes to rob, etc, and I liked how, once again, alive they felt. I also loved how vertical they were, and how you can pretty much crawl into every other house to both loot them for all their shekels, and to find new ways around. They can feel bloated sometimes, which is not helped by your powers list being way too long, with a couple of powers being really fun and useful, and the other, like, 4 being both too expensive to invest in, and too overpowered to not feel shame using. This is especially the case with Emily, which sucks, because while I didn’t really like her writing or performance, she is leagues better than Korvo both in terms of gameplay and voice-acting. And for both of them, the best way to build your character is just to invest a shit-ton into bonecharms and give yourself the ability to go supersonic if you’re crouching and carrying a body at the same time or some shit.
I am more critical of Dishonored 2 than I ever was before, but what didn’t change with the latest 1-and-a-half playthroughs is that this is still one of the best games I’ve ever played from a level-design and gameplay perspectives, and it’s still one of my all-time favourites. So fun!
P.S.
Tbh one other point Emily gets over Corvo is that I think I might have some sort of female hands fetish, so yeah. Great character
eu já vi muita review desse jogo falando que ainda sim preferem o jogo antigo a esse, e eu entendo aonde eles querem chegar com isso
a história desse jogo é praticamente a mesma do primeiro jogo, você é uma pessoa nobre, alguém de alta classe que é jogada a lama e tem que arquitetar um plano pra conseguir pegar de volta o posto que te roubaram
MAS, eu ainda sim eu acho que esse jogo é uma MELHORA ABSURDA, de TUDO QUE TINHA DE BOM NO PRIMEIRO
chega a ser fantástico como a arkane studios conseguiu pegar tudo de mais divertido que tinha no 1 e conseguiu elevar de formas absurdas nesse
a movimentação, o combate, a ambiência, o stealth, as escolhas, TUDO é melhorado nesse
até o sistema de High/Low Chaos foi melhorado pra ser mais divertido e o jogo conseguiu me convencer através de comos os personagens me tratavam a tomar uma rota pacífica de não sair matando todos os guardas que eu visse pela frente
você receber um elogio do sokolov ou de outros personagens que por mais que essas coisas tenham acontecido com você, você não pintou as ruas com sangue, é muito legal
eu realmente fico impressionado com a quantidade de história que esses caras conseguiram colocar em um jogo com uma campanha de 10 horas, é claro que muita coisa fica meio rushada, e tu percebe isso quando os personagens te explicam diretamente oque ta acontecendo, mas mesmo assim, eu consegui desenvolver um carinho pelos personagens porque eles são muito bem escritos, o jogo por mais que não tenha a história com a maior quantidade de plot twists e não seja muito mirabolante, ela é MUITO ORIGINAL, e isso não tem como tirar dele
o universo de dishonored tem muita personalidade, e o que brilha mais pra mim (que eu escrevi na review do primeiro jogo) não é só a história principal, mas a histórias em paralelo a essa, é entender por exemplo como o Distrito da poeira ficou daquele jeito, é entender a delilah, e isso eu acho que o jogo faz muito bem
só não tomou 5 estrelas por causa que a história é realmente bem parecida com o do primeiro, e eu acho injusto eu ignorar isso
a história desse jogo é praticamente a mesma do primeiro jogo, você é uma pessoa nobre, alguém de alta classe que é jogada a lama e tem que arquitetar um plano pra conseguir pegar de volta o posto que te roubaram
MAS, eu ainda sim eu acho que esse jogo é uma MELHORA ABSURDA, de TUDO QUE TINHA DE BOM NO PRIMEIRO
chega a ser fantástico como a arkane studios conseguiu pegar tudo de mais divertido que tinha no 1 e conseguiu elevar de formas absurdas nesse
a movimentação, o combate, a ambiência, o stealth, as escolhas, TUDO é melhorado nesse
até o sistema de High/Low Chaos foi melhorado pra ser mais divertido e o jogo conseguiu me convencer através de comos os personagens me tratavam a tomar uma rota pacífica de não sair matando todos os guardas que eu visse pela frente
você receber um elogio do sokolov ou de outros personagens que por mais que essas coisas tenham acontecido com você, você não pintou as ruas com sangue, é muito legal
eu realmente fico impressionado com a quantidade de história que esses caras conseguiram colocar em um jogo com uma campanha de 10 horas, é claro que muita coisa fica meio rushada, e tu percebe isso quando os personagens te explicam diretamente oque ta acontecendo, mas mesmo assim, eu consegui desenvolver um carinho pelos personagens porque eles são muito bem escritos, o jogo por mais que não tenha a história com a maior quantidade de plot twists e não seja muito mirabolante, ela é MUITO ORIGINAL, e isso não tem como tirar dele
o universo de dishonored tem muita personalidade, e o que brilha mais pra mim (que eu escrevi na review do primeiro jogo) não é só a história principal, mas a histórias em paralelo a essa, é entender por exemplo como o Distrito da poeira ficou daquele jeito, é entender a delilah, e isso eu acho que o jogo faz muito bem
só não tomou 5 estrelas por causa que a história é realmente bem parecida com o do primeiro, e eu acho injusto eu ignorar isso
Lacks the tone and atmosphere of the first game, but makes up for it with a thicker coat of polish and occasionally genius level design
Note: I played all the Dishonored games back-to-back, so my thoughts here directly follow my review of the first game.
I wasn’t certain of myself when bringing up the cynicism I felt in Dishonored, since there wasn’t a way to factually nail it down, but that same patronizing tone is so persistent in the sequel’s writing that I feel much more self assured. In the first game, it was a result of the chaos system, with its punishments and blatant signposting to ensure that players didn’t make the wrong choices, but now it’s directly presented through spoken dialog. The Outsider’s voice has changed, not just in the literal actor, but in the tone they strike when speaking to Emily, our new protagonist. They used to speak in a way that was detached yet intrigued, but now all subtlety has been replaced with direct questions like “What choices will you make? Are you clever enough to accomplish your goals without spilling a river of blood?”. Emily soliloquizes cliches like “What will I have to do? What will I have to become to stop Delilah?”, it’s all so direct to the audience that it’s practically a fourth-wall break. A large percentage of the dialog in general is dedicated to yelling at players that their decisions will impact Emily’s relationships, rather than using it to actually flesh those relationships out.
This builds into the wider problem with Dishonored 2’s story, how Emily, her relationships, and her struggle have no substance. The thrust of the plot is that Delilah, the illegitimate sister of the previous empress, launches a coup against the young heiress Emily. Delilah’s entrance is certainly violent, but that’s the full extent of Emily’s justification to become judge, jury, and executioner for everyone involved. Her entire motivation is to take back what she feels belongs to her, completely missing the irony of how she’s doing the exact same thing Delilah just did. What doesn’t help is how she constantly talks about how horrible of a ruler she was, how she never paid attention to the papers she was signing, never looked into how the provinces were being ruled, and never listened to what people were telling her, so the first time she shows any interest is after losing the associated privileges. Her allies occasionally call her out for being a terrible person, but it’s sparse and toothless. Here’s my least favorite exchange in the entire series as an example:
Emily: There were parties like that in Dunwall. Full of toadies sucking up to me, stabbing each other in the back.
Meagan: Poor Empress. I could see those party lights from across the river in the abandoned butcher shop where I slept… in the flooded district.
Emily: I know you grew up hard, Meagan. I used to wander Dunwall with my face hidden, but when I got tired of it, I could always go back to the Tower. Karnaca’s given me perspective.
Meagan: Good. After you’ve eliminated the Duke, find what he’s holding for Delilah and take it.
There’s so much wrong with these four lines that it blows my mind. Emily jokes about how irresponsible she’s been and responds to Meagan's tragic story with a level of shallow sympathy that borders on flippancy, but the statement that she’s gained perspective is enough to let it all slide. Worst of all, this is the most character development we ever get for Emily: she never questions her own right to rule, her beliefs are never challenged, and even our devil’s advocate, the Outsider, only seems concerned with how many people she kills along the way. Part of the reason why might be because Corvo can also be selected as the protagonist, using the same powers as last time and throwing the narrative structure of the series in the bin. Corvo’s arc was already complete with the first game, he had power, lost it, and seized it back in a way that reflected the nature of mankind; it was everything a story titled “Dishonored” needed to be. Bringing him back to rescue the same person from another similar threat with the same powers would be questionable even if he was the only protagonist, but mixing it in with the canonical choice of Emily brings us back to that same old player-directed cynicism.
As much time as I’ve spent thinking about it, I can’t come up with a reason why Corvo would be a playable character other than a concern that people wouldn’t want to play as a girl with different powers. It makes sense to include his abilities if they were already working in-engine, but was his character really worth hobbling the plot for? The counterargument is that it lets the gameplay have more depth and variety, and this is where I have to do the exact same thing as the last review: concede how even the feeling that the developers thought I was an idiot who didn’t understand choice, or a pitifully fragile gamer who didn’t want to play as a girl, still wasn’t insulting enough to stop me from enjoying an otherwise well-made game. The environments and level design are fantastic, some of its set-pieces have become legendary, from a technical side it’s all great… but I’m still left hoping for a Dishonored game that trusts me enough to actually appreciate it.
I wasn’t certain of myself when bringing up the cynicism I felt in Dishonored, since there wasn’t a way to factually nail it down, but that same patronizing tone is so persistent in the sequel’s writing that I feel much more self assured. In the first game, it was a result of the chaos system, with its punishments and blatant signposting to ensure that players didn’t make the wrong choices, but now it’s directly presented through spoken dialog. The Outsider’s voice has changed, not just in the literal actor, but in the tone they strike when speaking to Emily, our new protagonist. They used to speak in a way that was detached yet intrigued, but now all subtlety has been replaced with direct questions like “What choices will you make? Are you clever enough to accomplish your goals without spilling a river of blood?”. Emily soliloquizes cliches like “What will I have to do? What will I have to become to stop Delilah?”, it’s all so direct to the audience that it’s practically a fourth-wall break. A large percentage of the dialog in general is dedicated to yelling at players that their decisions will impact Emily’s relationships, rather than using it to actually flesh those relationships out.
This builds into the wider problem with Dishonored 2’s story, how Emily, her relationships, and her struggle have no substance. The thrust of the plot is that Delilah, the illegitimate sister of the previous empress, launches a coup against the young heiress Emily. Delilah’s entrance is certainly violent, but that’s the full extent of Emily’s justification to become judge, jury, and executioner for everyone involved. Her entire motivation is to take back what she feels belongs to her, completely missing the irony of how she’s doing the exact same thing Delilah just did. What doesn’t help is how she constantly talks about how horrible of a ruler she was, how she never paid attention to the papers she was signing, never looked into how the provinces were being ruled, and never listened to what people were telling her, so the first time she shows any interest is after losing the associated privileges. Her allies occasionally call her out for being a terrible person, but it’s sparse and toothless. Here’s my least favorite exchange in the entire series as an example:
Emily: There were parties like that in Dunwall. Full of toadies sucking up to me, stabbing each other in the back.
Meagan: Poor Empress. I could see those party lights from across the river in the abandoned butcher shop where I slept… in the flooded district.
Emily: I know you grew up hard, Meagan. I used to wander Dunwall with my face hidden, but when I got tired of it, I could always go back to the Tower. Karnaca’s given me perspective.
Meagan: Good. After you’ve eliminated the Duke, find what he’s holding for Delilah and take it.
There’s so much wrong with these four lines that it blows my mind. Emily jokes about how irresponsible she’s been and responds to Meagan's tragic story with a level of shallow sympathy that borders on flippancy, but the statement that she’s gained perspective is enough to let it all slide. Worst of all, this is the most character development we ever get for Emily: she never questions her own right to rule, her beliefs are never challenged, and even our devil’s advocate, the Outsider, only seems concerned with how many people she kills along the way. Part of the reason why might be because Corvo can also be selected as the protagonist, using the same powers as last time and throwing the narrative structure of the series in the bin. Corvo’s arc was already complete with the first game, he had power, lost it, and seized it back in a way that reflected the nature of mankind; it was everything a story titled “Dishonored” needed to be. Bringing him back to rescue the same person from another similar threat with the same powers would be questionable even if he was the only protagonist, but mixing it in with the canonical choice of Emily brings us back to that same old player-directed cynicism.
As much time as I’ve spent thinking about it, I can’t come up with a reason why Corvo would be a playable character other than a concern that people wouldn’t want to play as a girl with different powers. It makes sense to include his abilities if they were already working in-engine, but was his character really worth hobbling the plot for? The counterargument is that it lets the gameplay have more depth and variety, and this is where I have to do the exact same thing as the last review: concede how even the feeling that the developers thought I was an idiot who didn’t understand choice, or a pitifully fragile gamer who didn’t want to play as a girl, still wasn’t insulting enough to stop me from enjoying an otherwise well-made game. The environments and level design are fantastic, some of its set-pieces have become legendary, from a technical side it’s all great… but I’m still left hoping for a Dishonored game that trusts me enough to actually appreciate it.
i think that your enjoyment of this game and series as a whole has a lot to do with how much you enjoy restriction. if you like save-scumming to get a perfect run, if you like being given a wealth of interesting tools and limiting yourself to just a handful, if part of what you like about stealth games is not having to constantly engage in digital murder, the Dishonored series is going to be exactly your shit. if you’re the type of person who says “why can’t i just go around killing everybody and still get the good ending,” you’re just never going to click with it. i definitely used to be the latter. but over the last few years, i’ve lost a bit of my taste for video game violence, especially involving guns, and Dishonored is a nice reprieve from constantly having to snuff out lives just to make progress in a game. it makes you feel the weight of its violence by giving you the option to not engage in it. a thing that always gets brought up when talking about this game is that a lot of the tools you have are designed for killing and that the morality system makes you feel like you can’t use all these interesting gadgets you have. a valid criticism in some ways, but i think it ignores the fact that even tho they might not all be items in your inventory, the game gives you just as many options and interesting puzzles when playing non-lethally as it does if you’re killing people. and frankly, from a story perspective, a monarch (or their vassal) going around and wantonly murdering citizens to try to regain a throne is not something you should be rewarded for with a happy ending. i think those criticisms fully miss out on what the game is trying to accomplish. which is a shame, bc i think it accomplishes it extremely well. it just requires you to come to the table with a certain understanding of what you’re in for.
tl;dr i don’t think a lot of people who play games are used to them having the same kind of social contract that we have in real life, and when they’re asked by a game to exercise self-control they bristle against it.
tl;dr i don’t think a lot of people who play games are used to them having the same kind of social contract that we have in real life, and when they’re asked by a game to exercise self-control they bristle against it.
Disclaimer: I've only done one play through of this game so far as Emily. I will do another play through as Corvo and made a part two to this review to see if my opinion changes.
I'm not sure where to begin with Dishonored 2. While I did very much have a ton of fun playing this game, there were quite a number of aspects that I was disappointed with and that's mainly with the story. It wasn't necessarily bad or anything, but it wasn't all that good either.
Now, let's talk about the good story aspects. Firstly, this sort of ties in with the gameplay as well, but choosing to play as either Lord Protector Corvo Attano or his daughter the Empress Emily Kaldwin. This was a great choice narratively. Lots and lots of dialogue and story beats change depending on if you're playing as either Corvo or Emily. There's a lot of detail in that aspect.
There's even more detail and different dialogue if you choose to reject the gifts and powers that the Outsider gives you at the beginning of the game and the continues to affect the story. Again, this ties in with gameplay and story. While I haven't played the no powers mode yet, I certainly plan to.
The changes and differences between Corvo and Emily's story are great and interesting. I also love how they finally gave Corvo a voice actor and he did a great job. Although I didn't play as Corvo, I did hear a fair amount of him and it was great. Side note, his voice actor also does a great job voicing Nick Valentine in Fallout 4.
It was also great seeing a few returning characters, I won't say who, but it's always nice seeing some returning faces. Also, playing as Emily was great. I loved seeing her develop as a person and how she turned from an innocent young girl from the first game to a badass assassin in this game. She's a great protagonist.
Now is where we get into the downsides about the story. I'm going to be vague since this is spoiler free, but I'll still talk about my issues. The story setup, while decent, felt far too abrupt. The villain is also really good, but in order to understand her character and story you have to play Dishonored 1's DLC called The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. That's not too bad since those DLC are amazing, but it's kind of weird.
I never really felt invested or interested on the main targets in the levels with the exception of two. The story just seems to be filled with exposition from Emily at the beginning of every level and it's not all that engaging.
Now, I'm going to make this part short, but I had quite a number of technical problems when playing this game on PC. While my gaming laptop isn't all that good because it runs a GTX 960m as it was a hand-me-down, it can normally do a good job at running most games. Even modern ones. However, Dishonored 2 absolutely suffered on my PC. This game has terrible optimization and I heard it was really buggy and even more poorly optimized when it released on steam in 2016. It crashed quite a surprising amount of times that it made me wonder if I was actually playing Fallout: New Vegas. I had to play this on medium graphics and my framerate ran between 30-60 FPS. For my next play though, I'm gonna borrow my brother's more powerful PC.
So yeah, story is less than impressive, but how's the rest of the game? Well, it's amazing. The level design is absolutely top notch and is on par with the first Dishonored. There is not a single level in this game I could call bad. Every level has a unique set up, target, enemy placements and are expertly hand crafted to make the most replayable and immersive levels. I want to replay this game.
I want to replay the levels. It has even more replay ability than the first game and that's saying something. I can see myself doing another play through as Emily in the newly added NG+ in high and low chaos. And for my next play through I plan on doing a play through as Corvo in either high or low chaos. There's also the newly added no powers mode where you can reject the Outsider's powers. You can play the game as Corvo or Emily in this mode too in high or low chaos. You can do so many play throughs it's honestly insane.
The gameplay has also seen a major step up from the previous installment. The sword play is a lot more deep and satisfying to pull off with parrying, new clean kill animations, faster swinging and easier handling, and even a focus charge attack that's really fun to use. There's also the plenty of gadgets to use. A gun, crossbow that shoots bolts, sleep darts, incendiary rounds, flashbangs, etc., bombs, stick bombs, stun mines, and a whole lot more. The powers are also extremely fun too. Emily and Corvo have completely different powers. Corvo's I believe are mostly the same from the first game, but Emily has her own move set. It really makes you feel spider-like and very stealthy. They also added an addition to playing non-lethally a lot more fun and accessible. In the first game you could only be non-lethal by being in stealth and chocking enemies unconscious or using sleep darts. However, in Dishonored 2 you can go full on assault mode in an enemies face. You can parry enemies to knock them off balance and then do a non-lethal knock out. You can also do arial drops to knock out enemies instead of them being limited to drop assassinations.
Overall, the gameplay is amazing and is some of the best gameplay I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are also very well hand crafted and amazing which is what I'd expect from Arkane studios. Though it's unfortunate I was very underwhelmed by the story, especially the ending, I can't wait to replay this game as Corvo Attano and give my part 2 for this review. This is most definitely a game I'll be replaying a lot.
8/10
I'm not sure where to begin with Dishonored 2. While I did very much have a ton of fun playing this game, there were quite a number of aspects that I was disappointed with and that's mainly with the story. It wasn't necessarily bad or anything, but it wasn't all that good either.
Now, let's talk about the good story aspects. Firstly, this sort of ties in with the gameplay as well, but choosing to play as either Lord Protector Corvo Attano or his daughter the Empress Emily Kaldwin. This was a great choice narratively. Lots and lots of dialogue and story beats change depending on if you're playing as either Corvo or Emily. There's a lot of detail in that aspect.
There's even more detail and different dialogue if you choose to reject the gifts and powers that the Outsider gives you at the beginning of the game and the continues to affect the story. Again, this ties in with gameplay and story. While I haven't played the no powers mode yet, I certainly plan to.
The changes and differences between Corvo and Emily's story are great and interesting. I also love how they finally gave Corvo a voice actor and he did a great job. Although I didn't play as Corvo, I did hear a fair amount of him and it was great. Side note, his voice actor also does a great job voicing Nick Valentine in Fallout 4.
It was also great seeing a few returning characters, I won't say who, but it's always nice seeing some returning faces. Also, playing as Emily was great. I loved seeing her develop as a person and how she turned from an innocent young girl from the first game to a badass assassin in this game. She's a great protagonist.
Now is where we get into the downsides about the story. I'm going to be vague since this is spoiler free, but I'll still talk about my issues. The story setup, while decent, felt far too abrupt. The villain is also really good, but in order to understand her character and story you have to play Dishonored 1's DLC called The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. That's not too bad since those DLC are amazing, but it's kind of weird.
I never really felt invested or interested on the main targets in the levels with the exception of two. The story just seems to be filled with exposition from Emily at the beginning of every level and it's not all that engaging.
Now, I'm going to make this part short, but I had quite a number of technical problems when playing this game on PC. While my gaming laptop isn't all that good because it runs a GTX 960m as it was a hand-me-down, it can normally do a good job at running most games. Even modern ones. However, Dishonored 2 absolutely suffered on my PC. This game has terrible optimization and I heard it was really buggy and even more poorly optimized when it released on steam in 2016. It crashed quite a surprising amount of times that it made me wonder if I was actually playing Fallout: New Vegas. I had to play this on medium graphics and my framerate ran between 30-60 FPS. For my next play though, I'm gonna borrow my brother's more powerful PC.
So yeah, story is less than impressive, but how's the rest of the game? Well, it's amazing. The level design is absolutely top notch and is on par with the first Dishonored. There is not a single level in this game I could call bad. Every level has a unique set up, target, enemy placements and are expertly hand crafted to make the most replayable and immersive levels. I want to replay this game.
I want to replay the levels. It has even more replay ability than the first game and that's saying something. I can see myself doing another play through as Emily in the newly added NG+ in high and low chaos. And for my next play through I plan on doing a play through as Corvo in either high or low chaos. There's also the newly added no powers mode where you can reject the Outsider's powers. You can play the game as Corvo or Emily in this mode too in high or low chaos. You can do so many play throughs it's honestly insane.
The gameplay has also seen a major step up from the previous installment. The sword play is a lot more deep and satisfying to pull off with parrying, new clean kill animations, faster swinging and easier handling, and even a focus charge attack that's really fun to use. There's also the plenty of gadgets to use. A gun, crossbow that shoots bolts, sleep darts, incendiary rounds, flashbangs, etc., bombs, stick bombs, stun mines, and a whole lot more. The powers are also extremely fun too. Emily and Corvo have completely different powers. Corvo's I believe are mostly the same from the first game, but Emily has her own move set. It really makes you feel spider-like and very stealthy. They also added an addition to playing non-lethally a lot more fun and accessible. In the first game you could only be non-lethal by being in stealth and chocking enemies unconscious or using sleep darts. However, in Dishonored 2 you can go full on assault mode in an enemies face. You can parry enemies to knock them off balance and then do a non-lethal knock out. You can also do arial drops to knock out enemies instead of them being limited to drop assassinations.
Overall, the gameplay is amazing and is some of the best gameplay I've ever seen in a video game. The levels are also very well hand crafted and amazing which is what I'd expect from Arkane studios. Though it's unfortunate I was very underwhelmed by the story, especially the ending, I can't wait to replay this game as Corvo Attano and give my part 2 for this review. This is most definitely a game I'll be replaying a lot.
8/10
Dishonored 2 era um jogo em que eu já havia depositado grandes expectativas antes mesmo de começar, e talvez isso tenha sido um problema.
Sem dúvida alguma, o ponto mais significativo e maior acerto do jogo é a sua gameplay, com um balanço perfeito entre caos e matança e um stealth muito bem trabalhado. Cabe a você decidir como e o que fazer.
Essa liberdade torna a experiência muito mais imersiva, já que cada ação que fazemos interfere em algo ao nosso redor, cada pessoa que matamos ou não, cada pessoa que salvamos ou deixamos de salvar, tudo tem um peso.
No entanto, nem tudo são flores. Eu não me conectei com a história no geral, e até mesmo personagens importantes para a narrativa não me cativaram. Eu gostei mais da construção do mundo em si e a estética dos diferentes lugares do reino do que propriamente a narrativa, e após terminar a campanha da Emilly, sequer fiquei com vontade de rejogar e ver a perspectiva do Corvo.
Isso não quer dizer que seja um jogo ruim, muito longe disso, mas que pra mim se resumiu a testar mais e mais habilidades diferentes enquanto eu seguia com minha campanha high caos.
Sem dúvida alguma, o ponto mais significativo e maior acerto do jogo é a sua gameplay, com um balanço perfeito entre caos e matança e um stealth muito bem trabalhado. Cabe a você decidir como e o que fazer.
Essa liberdade torna a experiência muito mais imersiva, já que cada ação que fazemos interfere em algo ao nosso redor, cada pessoa que matamos ou não, cada pessoa que salvamos ou deixamos de salvar, tudo tem um peso.
No entanto, nem tudo são flores. Eu não me conectei com a história no geral, e até mesmo personagens importantes para a narrativa não me cativaram. Eu gostei mais da construção do mundo em si e a estética dos diferentes lugares do reino do que propriamente a narrativa, e após terminar a campanha da Emilly, sequer fiquei com vontade de rejogar e ver a perspectiva do Corvo.
Isso não quer dizer que seja um jogo ruim, muito longe disso, mas que pra mim se resumiu a testar mais e mais habilidades diferentes enquanto eu seguia com minha campanha high caos.
I accidentally skipped mission 6 by being intelligent.
It's probably worth noting that I shelved this game for 2 years and 2 months, rather than completing it in two nearly unbroken sittings like its predecessor.
It's probably worth noting that I shelved this game for 2 years and 2 months, rather than completing it in two nearly unbroken sittings like its predecessor.
Depois de mais de 70 horas, terminei Dishonored 2 sem matar um único inimigo ou ser detectado, foi o melhor jogo que eu joguei esse ano por muito, e é sem dúvidas o melhor Immersive Sim da oitava geração, perdendo talvez para Prey, que também é da Arkane.
O mais impressionante e quase inacreditável é que mesmo depois de tantas horas eu só vi metade das opções, eu poderia jogar o jogo denovo com outro personagem, com habilidades únicas que o personagem que eu joguei na primeira vez não teria, além disso posso mudar minha abordagem matando todo mundo que encontrasse, inimigo ou não, e isso mudaria a história e o mundo de várias formas, me dando um final novo e criando novas interações com os personagens, além de situações diferentes nas fases.
As opções, o fator replay, as formas de eliminar os alvos, é tudo muito bem feito, o único defeito do jogo é a sua otimização e alguns bugs de som, mas fora isso, o jogo é uma obra prima.
O mais impressionante e quase inacreditável é que mesmo depois de tantas horas eu só vi metade das opções, eu poderia jogar o jogo denovo com outro personagem, com habilidades únicas que o personagem que eu joguei na primeira vez não teria, além disso posso mudar minha abordagem matando todo mundo que encontrasse, inimigo ou não, e isso mudaria a história e o mundo de várias formas, me dando um final novo e criando novas interações com os personagens, além de situações diferentes nas fases.
As opções, o fator replay, as formas de eliminar os alvos, é tudo muito bem feito, o único defeito do jogo é a sua otimização e alguns bugs de som, mas fora isso, o jogo é uma obra prima.
I don't even care too much about the stealth gameplay but the level design (as always with Arkane games) was absolutely incredible. What a treat.
The Clockwork Mansion is one of my favorite levels in a game in a long time.
The Clockwork Mansion is one of my favorite levels in a game in a long time.
"Explorar" é o meu verbo favorito nos games, e Dishonored 2 atingiu a perfeição nesse quesito.
A qualidade em que a Arkane está em level design é algo que a indústria não conseguiu acompanhar ainda. O que esse jogo faz com cada fase é o que me faz ficar encantado por Immersive Sims.
Dishonored 2 consegue um desenvolvimento de personagem e uma história mais interessante que o primeiro. Evolui também em relação à narrativa ambiental, agora a história é melhor contada pela direção de arte e cenários. Dishonored 2 me fez ler documento por documento com atenção, pois a trama política é muito boa!
Os poderes também são mais aproveitáveis, ainda me senti um pouco limitado, mas é uma evolução notável.
Masterpiece, um dos jogos da minha vida definitivamente!
A qualidade em que a Arkane está em level design é algo que a indústria não conseguiu acompanhar ainda. O que esse jogo faz com cada fase é o que me faz ficar encantado por Immersive Sims.
Dishonored 2 consegue um desenvolvimento de personagem e uma história mais interessante que o primeiro. Evolui também em relação à narrativa ambiental, agora a história é melhor contada pela direção de arte e cenários. Dishonored 2 me fez ler documento por documento com atenção, pois a trama política é muito boa!
Os poderes também são mais aproveitáveis, ainda me senti um pouco limitado, mas é uma evolução notável.
Masterpiece, um dos jogos da minha vida definitivamente!
I love this game, everything gels well together in my eyes. The gameplay is fluid and you feel awesome when you get creative. The level design is flawless, I’m looking at you clockwork mansion! The amount of love and attention that went into every detail is beautiful. Arkane knows how to build atmosphere more than anyone else.
Fantastic level design and fun mechanics make Dishonored 2 a truly great experience.
I bought the first Dishonored game on a whim and was blown away by how great it was so pre-ordered the second game the instant I could. Sadly it took me like eight months to find the time (I even read the Dishonored - The Corroded Man novel that bridges between the games in the mean time) to play the second game and though I was late to the party, Dishonored 2 is a fantastic game that was well worth the wait for me.
The story follows one of two characters of your choice, either Emily Kaldwin Empress of the Isles or her father, Royal Protector and Spymaster, not to mention previous protagonist from the first Dishonored game, Corvo Attano.
I chose to play as Emily for my first playthrough though I gather the only differences are powers and dialogue but the overall missions are the same regardless of who you play as. The game is a first person adventure game of sorts leaving it up to you if you want to complete your objective either stealthily or run in sword swinging, gun firing. Each character has various powers to upgrade at their disposal ranging from Blink which allows you to teleport, Shadow walk which allows you to move stealthily to powers such as Domino which link enemies together so what effects one effects them all etc. Combat is pretty fun using these abilities as you also get a sword, gun, crossbow and various grenades and ammo to experiment with as well allowing you to set traps, ambushes, picking enemies off or just start a massive brawl if things go wrong. On the other side though several of the abilities allow you to knock guards out or sneak past them like a ghost and it is actually possible to beat the game without killing a single enemy including your main targets thanks to Dishonored 2's fantastic level design.
Each level gives you several main objectives to complete but exploring them will often find you side objectives or even give you different methods for taking out the ringleaders, while not killing them some of them are outright crueler and can be easily missed if you don't explore finding notes, keys, alternative paths, listen to guards conversation etc. The levels are also surprisingly expansive and I don't mean just in area but they are really vertical in design with Emily and Corvo's teleport powers in mind, if you can see a ledge somewhere more than likely you can get to it somehow with hidden ammo, items to upgrade your powers or extra bits of lore snuck away to expand on the Dishonored 2 world, some of which gets later references, it has some fantastic subtle touches.
The presentation on each level is also top notch. The game has a slightly steampunk style to it with Regency/Victorian era buildings and influences and I love the art design and color to it all. The graphics from a technical perspective are great, I really liked it visually and post patch it runs pretty smoothly, I only noticed some frame drops on the intro to one level during an in game scene and had it crash on me once. The voice acting matches the rest of the game in quality with some surprisingly good casting such as Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil, Men in Black) and Rosario Dawson (erm...also Daredevil and Men in Black II ha ha). Lastly the music is excellent and quite often subtle in gameplay moments working perfectly to the games strengths. It's a nice mix of dark undertones with some Victorian style fiddle playing.
As for value for money, well I paid full price at launch and certainly got value from it with 35 hours for my stealth Emily playthrough. You can finish a lot faster than that but I was being very methodical in exploring everywhere so at the least it's probably 12-15 hours depending on your playstyle.
To conclude, Dishonored 2 is exactly my type of game. It's got great art music and voice acting, with superb level design with tons to explore, collect and read about the world. If you liked the first game then you will like this as it feels better and expanded on all fronts.
+ Combat and stealth abilities are good fun.
+ Level design is superb.
+ Excellent voice acting music and art design.
+ Good value for money with many secrets to find and two different characters.
I bought the first Dishonored game on a whim and was blown away by how great it was so pre-ordered the second game the instant I could. Sadly it took me like eight months to find the time (I even read the Dishonored - The Corroded Man novel that bridges between the games in the mean time) to play the second game and though I was late to the party, Dishonored 2 is a fantastic game that was well worth the wait for me.
The story follows one of two characters of your choice, either Emily Kaldwin Empress of the Isles or her father, Royal Protector and Spymaster, not to mention previous protagonist from the first Dishonored game, Corvo Attano.
I chose to play as Emily for my first playthrough though I gather the only differences are powers and dialogue but the overall missions are the same regardless of who you play as. The game is a first person adventure game of sorts leaving it up to you if you want to complete your objective either stealthily or run in sword swinging, gun firing. Each character has various powers to upgrade at their disposal ranging from Blink which allows you to teleport, Shadow walk which allows you to move stealthily to powers such as Domino which link enemies together so what effects one effects them all etc. Combat is pretty fun using these abilities as you also get a sword, gun, crossbow and various grenades and ammo to experiment with as well allowing you to set traps, ambushes, picking enemies off or just start a massive brawl if things go wrong. On the other side though several of the abilities allow you to knock guards out or sneak past them like a ghost and it is actually possible to beat the game without killing a single enemy including your main targets thanks to Dishonored 2's fantastic level design.
Each level gives you several main objectives to complete but exploring them will often find you side objectives or even give you different methods for taking out the ringleaders, while not killing them some of them are outright crueler and can be easily missed if you don't explore finding notes, keys, alternative paths, listen to guards conversation etc. The levels are also surprisingly expansive and I don't mean just in area but they are really vertical in design with Emily and Corvo's teleport powers in mind, if you can see a ledge somewhere more than likely you can get to it somehow with hidden ammo, items to upgrade your powers or extra bits of lore snuck away to expand on the Dishonored 2 world, some of which gets later references, it has some fantastic subtle touches.
The presentation on each level is also top notch. The game has a slightly steampunk style to it with Regency/Victorian era buildings and influences and I love the art design and color to it all. The graphics from a technical perspective are great, I really liked it visually and post patch it runs pretty smoothly, I only noticed some frame drops on the intro to one level during an in game scene and had it crash on me once. The voice acting matches the rest of the game in quality with some surprisingly good casting such as Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil, Men in Black) and Rosario Dawson (erm...also Daredevil and Men in Black II ha ha). Lastly the music is excellent and quite often subtle in gameplay moments working perfectly to the games strengths. It's a nice mix of dark undertones with some Victorian style fiddle playing.
As for value for money, well I paid full price at launch and certainly got value from it with 35 hours for my stealth Emily playthrough. You can finish a lot faster than that but I was being very methodical in exploring everywhere so at the least it's probably 12-15 hours depending on your playstyle.
To conclude, Dishonored 2 is exactly my type of game. It's got great art music and voice acting, with superb level design with tons to explore, collect and read about the world. If you liked the first game then you will like this as it feels better and expanded on all fronts.
+ Combat and stealth abilities are good fun.
+ Level design is superb.
+ Excellent voice acting music and art design.
+ Good value for money with many secrets to find and two different characters.
Arcane at their best. Tons of player agency both in how you play and what you do; a quintessential immersive sim. Highly recommend, just make sure to play the first game because that's a treat too.
Dishonored 2, ao mesmo tempo que sendo uma ótima continuação, infelizmente fica à sombra do seu antecessor, tendo seu brilho ofuscado principalmente por uma história mais rasa e bugzinhos chatos.
No começo do jogo, temos a opção de escolher entre dois personagens para jogar: Corvo Attano (protagonista do primeiro jogo) e Emily Kaldwin. Cada um possui poderes únicos, além de comentários próprios frente aos diversos elementos e desafios encontrados (visto suas diferentes experiências e conhecimentos), o que é uma escolha bem interessante e que estimula a jogar o jogo duas vezes para aprender mais sobre a lore e os personagens.
A mecânica do jogo é, essencialmente, igual a do primeiro (o que é ótimo), com, claro, a adição de diversas melhorias, upgrades, poderes, etc. Enquanto algumas dessas melhorias foram muito bem-vindas - como a neutralização aérea e o contra-ataque em lutas para desmaiar o adversário - outras acabaram afetando negativamente certas zonas de conforto do primeiro jogo, como é o caso do novo sistema de detecção, que funciona de uma forma bem mais agressiva, permitindo que inimigos o percebam de mais longe, te vejam enquanto estiver espiando (ação que era segura no primeiro jogo) ou até mesmo através de qualquer fresta existente no cenário que dê visão para o seu personagem - o que dificulta muito algumas emboscadas.
A história do Dishonored 2, para mim, ficou atrás da do primeiro (senti uma certa falta na simpatia e profundidade de vários personagens e elementos, algo que havia sido muito bem trabalhado no primeiro) mas ainda sendo boa e bem elaborada. A parte artística, no entanto, ganha do primeiro jogo. Os mapas e seus cenários são fantasticamente belos e bem construídos. Você realmente pode perder um bom tempo contemplando a ambientação de Karnaca, seja o clima tempestuoso em Addermire, a floresta em torno da Clockwork Mansion (e até mesmo a própria Clockwork Mansion), os gigantescos moinhos e aparatos de mineração em Dust District, etc.
Com isso tudo, Dishonored 2, mesmo ficando atrás de seu antecessor, ainda é uma experiência incrível e que com toda a certeza vale a pena ser jogado. Só recomendo tomar um pouco mais de cuidado e dar Quick Saves constantemente para contornar os diversos bugzinhos que podem - e vão - acontecer durante a sua empreitada.
No começo do jogo, temos a opção de escolher entre dois personagens para jogar: Corvo Attano (protagonista do primeiro jogo) e Emily Kaldwin. Cada um possui poderes únicos, além de comentários próprios frente aos diversos elementos e desafios encontrados (visto suas diferentes experiências e conhecimentos), o que é uma escolha bem interessante e que estimula a jogar o jogo duas vezes para aprender mais sobre a lore e os personagens.
A mecânica do jogo é, essencialmente, igual a do primeiro (o que é ótimo), com, claro, a adição de diversas melhorias, upgrades, poderes, etc. Enquanto algumas dessas melhorias foram muito bem-vindas - como a neutralização aérea e o contra-ataque em lutas para desmaiar o adversário - outras acabaram afetando negativamente certas zonas de conforto do primeiro jogo, como é o caso do novo sistema de detecção, que funciona de uma forma bem mais agressiva, permitindo que inimigos o percebam de mais longe, te vejam enquanto estiver espiando (ação que era segura no primeiro jogo) ou até mesmo através de qualquer fresta existente no cenário que dê visão para o seu personagem - o que dificulta muito algumas emboscadas.
A história do Dishonored 2, para mim, ficou atrás da do primeiro (senti uma certa falta na simpatia e profundidade de vários personagens e elementos, algo que havia sido muito bem trabalhado no primeiro) mas ainda sendo boa e bem elaborada. A parte artística, no entanto, ganha do primeiro jogo. Os mapas e seus cenários são fantasticamente belos e bem construídos. Você realmente pode perder um bom tempo contemplando a ambientação de Karnaca, seja o clima tempestuoso em Addermire, a floresta em torno da Clockwork Mansion (e até mesmo a própria Clockwork Mansion), os gigantescos moinhos e aparatos de mineração em Dust District, etc.
Com isso tudo, Dishonored 2, mesmo ficando atrás de seu antecessor, ainda é uma experiência incrível e que com toda a certeza vale a pena ser jogado. Só recomendo tomar um pouco mais de cuidado e dar Quick Saves constantemente para contornar os diversos bugzinhos que podem - e vão - acontecer durante a sua empreitada.
I didn't make it very far with this one. It was just overwhelmingly large and I was not having fun with going through it.
Fantástico, melhora todos os aspectos do jogo anterior. Tem uns probleminhas com o framepacing aqui e ali no PC, mas nada demais. As vezes eu vejo um pessoal falando que a história não é tão boa quanto a do primeiro jogo, mas pra ser sincero, nenhum dos dois têm narrativas espetaculares, o que é realmente interessante em Dishonore é a construção de mundo e a lore, e esses dois aspectos são tão bons em Dishonored 2 quanto no seu antecessor.
O gameplay tá bem expandido, mais variado, e as fases ainda mais abertas e com mais possibilidades disponíveis. Se você é fã do primeiro como eu, com certeza Dishonored 2 é uma sequência digna.
O gameplay tá bem expandido, mais variado, e as fases ainda mais abertas e com mais possibilidades disponíveis. Se você é fã do primeiro como eu, com certeza Dishonored 2 é uma sequência digna.
the gameplay kicks ass and i love playable emily, so maybe my nostalgia for the first game is really why this one fell a bit short for me. i love the original's dlcs and the story of this game felt a bit like a rehash of those but with a less emotionally grounded plot. it's not a bad game at all, it just doesn't quite hit for me unfortunately. i love the world of dishonored so very much, so i don't even mind so much that i enjoyed it less, but i do hope that this is the last game in the series, existing dlcs aside.
From a gameplay point of view "Dishonored 2" takes everything from the first one and completely improves on it. It's smoother, faster and the A.I is much better. However, despite it being objectively a better game than its predecessor, I just didn't enjoy it as much.
I didn't think the story was anywhere near as compelling and I actually think this one went a little too 'open world' for my tastes. I felt almost obligated to diverge away from the mission all the time, but maybe that's a me complaint.
Still a lot of fun though, I just preferred the original overall.
I didn't think the story was anywhere near as compelling and I actually think this one went a little too 'open world' for my tastes. I felt almost obligated to diverge away from the mission all the time, but maybe that's a me complaint.
Still a lot of fun though, I just preferred the original overall.
+ Each map has phenomenal world design and unique gimmicks
+ The world is bigger overall compared to D1
+ New system for bonecharms and runes
+ 20 different endings
+ Features 2 playable characters with unique powers(I fw Emily's kit more than Corvo's tbh)
+ Corvo sexy ass voice
+ Outstandingly rich art style
+ One of the best aesthetics I've ever seen in a video game
+ Improved gameplay that is much more rewarding for any play style
+ NG+
Etc etc etc
Easily top 2 Arkane games loved every second of it, I love Dishonored 1 but this game just improves any aspect that was already great in the original
10/10
you don't just make one of the greatest stealth games and then make the sequel's flagship character be an utter antithesis of game design to corvo's perfectly neutral design and follow it up with a mediocre story
unless your studio name is arkane
unless your studio name is arkane