Video Game Reviews

Dishonored 2 Review

Dishonored 2 takes everything from Dishonored 1 and dials it up to 11.

The sequel improves greatly on the gameplay aspect, and while the story does lack in a lot of the features that the first one had, which I will be discussing, and I am going to say this now I prefer this game over the first in terms of gameplay, story wise the first ones better. 

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Premise:

Dishonored 2 is a game made by Arkane Studio and published by Bethesda Studios as a direct continuation of the first game fifteen years after the ending of the first game. Dishonored takes place in two cities Dunwall and Serkonos, another nation within the Empire. Serkonos has a completely different vibe then the first game, where the first had very dull and steampunish vibes this one feels more colorful, and with more advancements within the world of Dishonored, that are also shown within Dunwall when we have to escape.

In this game, you have a choice between two main characters: Corvo Attano from Dishonored 1 or Emily Kaldwin who I'm pretty sure is the canonical protagonist for Dishonored 2. I chose to go with Emily for a new take and also because it felt right for her to be the main character, with the game also confirming that Corvo is Emily's father to absolutely nobodies surprise.

The game starts with the fifteenth anniversary of Jessamine's death with Emily seeming to be hesitant to attend given how much she doesn't want to rule over the Empire. Eventually the Duke of Serkonos arrives with mysterious automatized soldiers called Clockwork Soldiers who are a pain in the ass to take down unless you have a fully upgraded stun mine. This event all changes when the Duke announces the arrival of a 'Rightful Empress' revealing herself to be Delilah Copperspoon, the main antagonist of Dishonored 1's DLCs, which confirms that Daud had sealed away Delilah in the first game and that the Duke had brought her back from the Void somehow which we later learn how. 

Now, you choose between who to play as Emily or Corvo, and whoever you don't chose gets turned into stone, and you have to escape Dunwall. After you escape, you come into contact with the Outsider, and then the real game begins.

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Gameplay:

Most of the original gameplay from Dishonored 2 is brought over from the first game, with a lot of improvements to most of the gameplay.

Let's start off with stealth. The stealth has improved a lot, with the enemy AI having been really improved and the cones of vision extended even when I was playing on the same difficulty as I did in the first game and I really appreciated that, it made the game harder and more fun for me to play. And of course there is the void powers. Corvo keeps all of the same moves, and I checked by the way, I did a new playthrough with Corvo just to check his powers which do gain a couple other upgrades with them, making him very similar to Daud in the process from the first game in terms of power. While Emily gains her own abilities, Far Reach is her own version of Blink from the first game, Dark Vision is the same as Corvo's Dark Vision from the first game, Domino connects up to 2-4 people in a singular chain and if you knock out or kill one of those people, the rest all fall down making it very fun to use. Doppelganger summons a copy of Emily to distract or help you against other enemies. Mesmerize summons a void thrall to distract and keep your enemies focused on a simple distraction. Shadow Walk is my favorite ability allowing you to turn Emily into a shadow beast and sneak around the area.

And of course the bone charms return, both in there regular and cursed forms with a new Black Bonecharm added that is essentially a strengthened form of the normal bone charms that are often better to use and have. Either adding more health or mana, strengthening your void powers or doing something else like that.

Besides the normal supernatural powers, you have your regular equipment from the first game, with some added additional bolts that can blind your opponents, or burn them, along with other types of mines to make the game a bit more fun in this game.

And there is the low and high chaos for the game that is very similar to the first game. 

In low chaos, there are fewer bloodflies, this games version of the Rat Plague that are more annoying but still easier to deal with then the rats. There are more people out and it leads to a brighter outcome.

In high chaos, there are more bloodflies infesting homes and causing chaos, with a lot of paranoia spreading around and a darker ending where you have the option to leave Corvo or Emily trapped in stone and rule over the Empire alone. 

Now onto the story.

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Story:

The story of Dishonored 2 is a weaker version of Dishonored 1's story.

In Dishonored 1 there is a planned coup against Jessamine that goes very well and in Dishonored 2 there is a planned coup against Emily and Corvo that goes very well.

In Dishonored 1, you have a list of targets to hunt down that you can either kill or give non lethal fates, in Dishonored 2 you have a list of targets to go after and can either kill or give non lethal fates. The only difference here is that Dishonored 2 has more good non lethal fates morally for some of the characters while Dishonored 1 had fates that screwed over your targets, and in Dishonored 2 most of them are saved from the states that they are in, with the ones being saved having been under mind control or lost there minds due to Delilah's magic.

In my opinion Dishonored 2 has a weaker story using both the anagoanist from the first games DLC, which is fine but I feel like they could have been more creative given the fact that this game did come out a year before Prey which while it doesn't have any meaningful antagonists (The Typhon) it was still fun, and I feel like given how fairly well written the first game's story was, I was kind of expecting the same for Dishonored 2, but thats fine.

The characters you work with are Meagan Foster who is secretly Billie Lurk from the first game and Anton Solkolov from the first game who is an old man now but still cares about Dunwall, and Emily and does his best to help us out. 

Emily and Corvo take down each of Delilah's members one by one and ultimately are ready to return to Dunwall where my favorite mission in the game takes place.

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The Final Mission and why it's my favorite:

The Final Mission of Dishonored 2: Death to the Empress has to be my most favorite mission while games like Mageseeker and Armored Core 6 had very fun missions to do, Dishonored 2 gave me the best mission possible and I love the game for doing that. 

The Final Mission takes place in Dunwall, and Dunwall Tower where the first game began and where the Lord Regent was taken down at, and its the best place to finish the game off. Being able to come back to where the game all began with witches and hounds patrolling the ground, the bodies of soldiers and overseers everywhere, it was such a good way to end off the game using everything that both games had shown off, and making a darker version of Dunwall Tower was such a nice touch.

The final battle against Delilah was also a bit confusing but still fun nonetheless. 

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Ending Thoughts:

The Dishonored Games are some of my favorite games out there, and ending it off with this game was pretty good. I know about Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, which I assume is the last game for the franchise since a Dishonored 3 or Dishonored 4 hasn't been released yet but I plan on checking it out.

I would rank Dishonored 2, a 9/10, it was a very fun game and I enjoyed playing as Emily Kaldwin and I would to write a fanfic on the Dishonored franchise, I think it would be pretty fun.