Arkane studios set the bar high with its successful dark stealth based third person action game “Dishonored”. The game plays out in an alternate world where whales are being slaughtered for whale oil, an exquisite source of energy and swarms of rats on clean-up duty roam the streets of Dunwall. Even though the city has a dark past and grim environment, it’s a city that I want to go back to. Dunwall presented me with lots of exciting challenges and pleasant assassination targets throughout the year 2006 and hopefully it hasn’t changed a bit and if it did change, hopefully, it’s for the better.
This city just recovered from a gruesome tragedy where the beloved empress has been assassinated by unknown forces and where the empress’s royal protector Corvo took the blame unwillingly. Locked up in the dungeon, Corvo is being offered the Outsider’s mark which grants him dark powers that can help him with his quest for revenge. The ending of Dishonored was Corvo’s salvation and eventually took Emily, the empress daughter (and Corvo’s) under his wings and prepared her for the upcoming years as the new Empress of Dunwall. After some years, Emily has grown into this young adult and is known as the former Empress of Dunwall, of course, all good things come to an end as the so-called “half-sister of the previous Empress” arrives in the palace, claiming the throne. This “half-sister” removes the Corvo’s Outsider’s mark with her own magical abilities and “cleans up” the empress’s throne with soldiers loyal to the duke of Serkonos.
From that moment, the player’s able to choose between two playable characters: Corvo or Emily. Emily has a new set of mesmerizing skills while Corvo stays true to the original set of skills of the first Dishonored game. Emily’s skills can be a lot more brutal than Corvo’s skills because of the versatility Emily offers. Emily can use skills to speed up the playthrough with her amazing Domino skill. This skill links up to 3 enemies and if one of those enemies becomes killed, the other 2 share the same fate as the first killed enemy. Shadow Walk is just a fun assassination move that’s just waiting to be used. While Corvo seems the more brutal approach, Emily’s skills bend more toward a high chaos ending than Corvo’s but of course, the ending is mainly influenced by how you play. Then again, Emily’s powers are just too awesome to leave them in the background.
After this important decision, the story follows-up with the main goal: save the other one! If you choose Corvo, Emily becomes petrified and vice versa. The first main mission is to escape Dunwall and already with the first mission, the game presents different gameplay options. You can either go ahead and escape Dunwall as fast as possible or you can stay around in Dunwall and figure out what’s happening. Bethesda always motivates players with “Play how you want it” and this main perspective makes a big return in Dishonored 2. As a player, you can choose different options that influence the story’s progress and ending. There’s a low chaos ending (no assassinations) and a high Chaos ending (assassinations). If you play the game without murdering anyone the ending will be a lot brighter than the “harmful” way.
The non-killing way is extremely challenging because low chaos also means “without alerting the other guards”. So, after the kill, you need to make sure that nobody saw you and that no one will discover the body. Bodies can be hidden from the NPC’s by putting them in a dumpster or just by hiding it in an unpopulated area. If NPC’s discover your left-behind presence, they alert the other guards by activating the alarm.
This none lethal way is very challenging because the lowest sound can alert the whole pack of guards surrounding your environment. The game isn’t over when you’re discovered but you’ll have to fight your way out and this leaves a lot of dead bodies which isn’t a good thing when you’re going for the low chaos ending. I had some levels where it took me a couple of times to figure out the best way to approach a certain situation and that’s okay because that’s the game but I can believe that some players get frustrated when they have to replay a level over and over, just to complete the non-chaos way. Of course, this tightens the replayability of the game and makes you think about your next move.
In the beginning, the game can be frustrating because your powers are very limited. The moment you search for runes and bone charms to upgrade your powers and gain access to other powers, the game becomes a lot more enjoyable to play. In the end, you truly feel like a bad ass because all of these skills and equipment pieces can be combined into an amazing follow- up combo. Experimenting with different abilities heightens the joy and you’ll quickly find out that there’s room for lots of different playstyles.
Dishonored 2 also goes further than just Dunwall City. After your first main mission, you’ll escape with a loyal merchant to the harbor of Karnaca which has a totally different graphical presentation than the dark Dunwall City. Dunwall City is set in a grim environment where the streets are covered with filth, dead bodies and rats scattered all over the place. The city feels “unhappy” and “unpopular” as people rarely walk the streets. The gap between the rich and the poor is very present in Dunwall and brings up a depressing feeling. While the colorful Karnaca looks a lot more different, except for some similarities. Karnaca feels a lot more vivid and warm. People actually walk out on the street and you notice that there’s a lot more going on like angered workmen, fanatics spreading the word of the Outsider, musicians, the black market, fights, … These little things make up for a world that’s a lot more immersive.
There are some similarities but the game represents it differently in Karnaca. For example, the city isn’t plagued with rats but with swarms of blood flies. These blood flies infect homes making them inhabitable but this opens an opportunity to discover a lot more secrets, Runes, Bone Charms, equipment and other valued treasure. The city also offers you a lot more routes to get from A to B, vertically and horizontally. There are different balconies, inhabited houses, climbable walls, … All these different routes can be the key to a successful playthrough and it gives you the opportunity to discover a lot more “lore” that expands the Dishonored universe.
Dishonored motivates you to play the game like how you want it to play. The possibilities look endless once you’ve upgraded your abilities to the max. Of course, to be fully upgraded into the powerful assassin you’ve always wanted to be, you need to play a long time to find every single Bone Charm or Rune. The fact that the gameplay is so versatile makes up for an awesome package of “personalized” action. Your approach to a certain situation can be very different from another player. The game itself hasn’t changed a lot, it only improved and expanded its possibilities with the player’s new skills. Performing an awesome follow- up combo to the fullest, has never felt so good. Clockwork mansion is also one of those perfectly designed game levels. All of these walls, stairs, and ceilings can be modified to your own liking. Make your own path and assassinate the target. Each playthrough can be different if you want it to be.
The game’s engine is, of course, a bit outdated but they still manage to get an awesome graphical presentation. The style itself is so unique that the game feels newer than before. The game has a mix of cartoony bulked and slender characters that makes the game truly enjoyable to watch at the environment, the costumes, the machinery, powers, … However, there were some pop-up textures once and a while but nothing extreme delivered a blow to my gameplay experience. The graphical design is top notch but it only will be enjoyable for people with a good high-end PC. At launch, a lot of players had technical difficulties such as booting up with a black screen, stuttering, … just some poor performance issues. Bethesda already released the first patch and there’s another one coming very soon. People already noticed a smoother gameplay experience. Hopefully, PC gamers will get some better-optimized products in the future because it seems to me that we only get PC ports these days which of course results in some performance issues.
Conclusion:
Dishonored 2 is here and I must say that I really enjoyed playing this game. The different ways to assassinate your target or to get from point A to B is amazing and this is definitely a boost for the replayability of the game. The game also offers 2 perspectives on one story: Corvo’s and Emily’s. They both have different skills to use which makes up for some great follow-up combos. The graphical presentation is top notch, even though they’re using an older engine. They mixed up their features, colors, tweaks, etc. to create a familiar and yet new game that will appeal former and new bearers of the Outsider’s mark!
