Dishonored 2 (Video Game)
Developed by Arkane Studios
Published by Bethesda Softworks
Available on PC (reviewed), PS4, and Xbox One
Rated M for Mature
You know, I sometimes feel like I’m in the wrong line of work. Reviews are all about what’s new, being the first opinion out there with the boldest statements before anyone can take the time to form reasonable conclusions. Still, even I can see my Dishonored 2 review is beyond late. At this point, all the opinions are out there. Anyone interested has already bought it and beat it. Right? Well, strangely enough, not for Dishonored 2. Not for PC gamers, anyway.
Yes, unfortunately, Dishonored 2 is just another in the long list of bad PC port casualties. Being the dedicated journalist that I am, I booted up Dishonored 2 on November 11th, eager to delve into Corvo/Emily’s tale of revenge and bloodshed/forced unconsciousness. Even in the opening menu, something was off. The telltale cursor lag of sluggish loading was vexing my selections. About 45 seconds into the actual game, I noticed something was very wrong. Faces would pop in and out of detail at just a few feet away. Well lit objects were completely blown out with bloom. Anything over 5 feet away was blurry and undefined. All of this was before the game even let me pick who I was playing as.
Since the release, I have had at least a dozen different friends message me on Steam to ask if the game was playable yet. This was Batman: Arkham Knight level bad. I seriously couldn’t even play it when it first came out. The draw distance issues were so bad that I literally couldn’t make out what direction an enemy was facing at 50 paces. It’s pretty ridiculous for a game to be this unplayable at launch. In the long run, it all just boils down to some salty grumblings if they fix the issues. Well fans, I’m pleased to say that you can put away your pitchforks and breathe a sigh of relief. As of about three weeks ago, the game is now playable. So from this part of the review on, I’m just going to forgive and forget.
Go ahead, try to figure out which direction the guard under the tree is facing. It’s like one of those illusions that keeps changing the more you look at it, except instead of swapping between a vase and two faces kissing, it swaps between an unconscious guard and a bunch of people shooting at you.
I’m really glad that Arkane Studios worked it out, because it would be a real shame to give this game a bad score for technical difficulties. The first Dishonored is remembered as a great revival for the stealth/action genre, the best since Thief: The Dark Project, and Dishonored 2 improves in almost every way. This is a truly impressive game, replete with replay value, hidden secrets, and a plethora of alternate playstyles.
If you played the original (or any other stealth/action title, really), you should know what to expect. You’ll crouch around outside of sight cones, knock out some guards, shoot some dogs, and cary countless bodies to secluded piles for disposal. What makes Dishonored 2 great is just how many ways you can go about doing so. With most games, there are at most a couple paths for different tactics. If you’re a sniper, there might be one good vantage point for the level. If you’re sneaky, there are maybe few different ways to sneak your way in. The level of freedom you have in Dishonored 2 is almost overwhelming. Every single room has several ways to get to one of several exist, each leading to another new path. Teleport, climb, possess rats, do whatever. And hey, you can always just murder every dude in the room in a flurry bullets and blades. Dishonored 2 truly lets you play your way.
I like to imagine all of these guards waking up hours later, wondering how they wound up in a cuddle pile on the roof. It’s the little things that make non-lethal runs so worth it.
On top of that, Dishonored 2 offers you two different perspectives from which to experience the game. After the opening cutscene, you pick between Emily or Corvo to play for the duration of the campaign. More than just changing up the presentation of the narrative, Emily and Corvo have a different sets of powers. There are similarities in function, but only enough to not completely block off certain paths. Emily’s Shadow Walk can sneak around like Corvo’s possession, and Far Reach allows her to access areas that Corvo gets to with his Blink. Flashier skills like Emily’s Domino or Corvo’s Devouring Swarm give distinction to the combat side of things, allowing each their own flavor of murder.
It’s all mechanically simple, but shines in how it all comes together. There’s nothing inherently complicated about jumping, climbing, stabbing, shooting, and teleporting. Assassinating a foe, teleporting up a ledge, distracting some guards with a bottle, and taking everyone down with a time slowed series of crossbow bolts all comes together quickly and elegantly. Even the tougher enemies like the Clockwork Soldiers, which completely redefine how you have to fight, are easily understood in the context of the world.
And what a world the people at Arkane Studios have created. Extending on the nautical/steampunk theme of the original, Dishonored 2 introduces you to the dusty streets of Karnaka. There are plenty of similarities: Bloodflies have replaced the Rat Plague, Clockwork Soldiers are the new Tallboys, and Anton Sokolov is now a greyer and grumpier Anton Sokolov. While Dishonored often felt like a disconnected set of hostile and non-hostile zones to complete missions in, Dishonored 2’s nine chapters feel like a living world. The transition between hostile and neutral territory is seamless. One moment you can be listening to a couple of dockworkers complaining about their day, and the next you can find yourself quickly vaulting up a vent to avoid a patrolling guard. Higher level enemies are placed sparingly and in a way that makes sense. You won’t find witches outside of their corrupted covens, and random Clockwork Soldiers (which the game states only a few dozen exists) won’t be found patrolling random streets. It’s a lot of small things, but they add up to remove the friction between video game and fantasy world.
Although sometimes it is a little more obvious that you’re not in a friendly place.
All of that is just icing on the cake of Dishonored 2’s fantastic level design. Each map is crafted to facilitate equally the game’s myriad of powers and playstyles. Equally impressive, of the nine different missions, no two truly feel the same. The labyrinthine Clockwork Mansion shifts and changes at the pull of a lever, packing dozens of configurations into the already large space. Navigating the halls of Stilton’s manor will require you to jump back and forward through time, a mechanic unique to the level. Even the more mundane levels like the Dust District have a twist that makes them memorable. You can easily spend a few hours on every level sussing out the hidden secrets.
For all that the combat, world, mechanics, and powers come together to create an always interesting and entertaining experience, it just makes the flaws that much more noticeable. I promised earlier that I wouldn’t harp on the visual bugs that prevented me from playing the game at launch, but there were plenty of other nits to pick with the gameplay. I cannot for the life of me figure out what constitutes an enemy that can be taken down from above and one that is impervious to my aerial assaults. It seems that just fucking leaning over a ledge somehow makes you immune to a 200 pound assassin leaping on you from thirty feet up. At one point, it seemed that just sitting down to play dice with a buddy did the trick. And don’t even get me started on couches and chairs. My quickload button is probably wondering what it did wrong from all the times I had to smack it in frustration due to botched chair takedowns. This is a game where the action needs to be fluid to be rewarding, and the inconsistencies were frequent enough to bitter some of my enjoyment.
Oh NO! He’s leaning against a ledge! I couldn’t possibly choke him out now!
I also feel that the characters, especially the lead villain Delilah, are underdeveloped. I get that she was the bastard child of the king, who after some kind of broken pot incident or something kicked her out onto the streets and into a life of Dickensian urchindom. She then got her super powers, died sometime in the past, and came back as an immortal. Now she wants to be queen, even though her only skills seems to be turning people into stone and making everything all crumbly. Why anyone is deciding to back that pony as the monarch is beyond me. Her supporters are similarly one dimensional, with Stilton being the only real grey area in the bunch. We learn a bit more about Corvo/Emily’s history, which while nice does little to inform how we should behave. The only real interesting character is The Outsider, who gets a pass for being all mysterious and sexy.
You can mark me anytime, you sexy devil you.
I should mention as a side note that I did not play The Brigmore Witches DLC for Dishonored, which apparently is integral to the story. I do not feel bad about this. If I have to play some DLC released a year after the original game to understand a fundamental part of the sequel, that’s bullshit.
Oh, and all that time you spend figuring out the complicated non-lethal options? It’s mostly forgotten in the ending. Regardless of who you kill, it only changes maybe a few lines in the final cutscene. In a game like this, you want to feel like your decision of who lives and who dies actually matters. Maybe see Jindosh scribbling on the wall of an insane asylum, find out what happened to the gangs or Overseers after I shipped their leaders to the silver mines. With how much care they put into making each level memorable, forgetting them all at the end was a huge letdown.
All the problems amounted to little more than some minor annoyances in the grand scheme of things. It took me around 25 hours to beat Dishonored 2, of which maybe thirty minutes or so was frustration. This is one of the few games I find truly deserves the full $60 price tag. With how much there is to explore across two different characters and multiple different playstyles, getting your money’s worth is easy. Dishonored 2’s true achievement is just how good it feels to play it. Whether you’re skulking just out of sight, scaling buildings, or just laying waste, the fluidity and ease of transition between them is truly remarkable. It’s a must have for fans of the genre.
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Dishonored 2
Categorized:Horror Gaming Reviews
