Reprise your role as a supernatural assassin in Dishonored 2.
Praised by PC Gamer as “brilliant”, IGN as “amazing” and “a super sequel, declared a “masterpiece” by Eurogamer, and hailed “a must-play revenge tale among the best in its class” by Game Informer, Dishonored 2 is the follow up to Ark...
Reprise your role as a supernatural assassin in Dishonored 2.
Praised by PC Gamer as “brilliant”, IGN as “amazing” and “a super sequel, declared a “masterpiece” by Eurogamer, and hailed “a must-play revenge tale among the best in its class” by Game Informer, Dishonored 2 is the follow up to Arkane Studio's first-person action blockbuster and winner of more than 100 'Game of the Year' awards, Dishonored.
Play your way in a world where mysticism and industry collide. Will you choose to play as Empress Emily Kaldwin or the royal protector, Corvo Attano? Will you make your way through the game unseen, make full use of its brutal combat system, or use a blend of both? How will you combine your character's unique set of powers, weapons and gadgets to eliminate your enemies? The story responds to your choices, leading to intriguing outcomes, as you play through each of the game's hand-crafted missions.
Story:
Dishonored 2 is set 15 years after the Lord Regent has been vanquished and the dreaded Rat Plague has passed into history. An otherworldly usurper has seized Empress Emily Kaldwin’s throne, leaving the fate of the Isles hanging in the balance. As Emily or Corvo, travel beyond the legendary streets of Dunwall to Karnaca, the once-dazzling coastal city that holds the keys to restoring Emily to power. Armed with the Mark of the Outsider and powerful new abilities, track down your enemies and take back what’s rightfully yours.
Key Features:
The Assassins
As fully voiced characters, Emily Kaldwin and Corvo Attano now bring their own perspectives and emotional responses to the world and story. Use each character’s set of powers, gadgets and uniquely-tuned weapons in creative ways as you explore the world – whether you fight your way through the city streets or sneak across the rooftops - and which enemies you decide to eliminate or spare.
Supernatural Powers
Advanced bonecharm crafting and all-new upgrade trees allow you to customize your powers in vastly different ways. Become a living shadow to silently stalk your targets, link enemies so they share a common fate, or mesmerize your foes and dominate their minds. Choose from nearly infinite combinations of violence, nonlethal combat, powers and weapons to accomplish your objectives.
Imaginative World
From the grimy, rat-infested streets of Dunwall to the lush, exotic coasts of a decaying Karnaca, immerse yourself in stylized locales created by Arkane’s premiere art and narrative teams. The world is a character in its own right, rich with story, architecture and eclectic characters. It is also punctuated by signature mission locations, such as the Dust District, ravaged by dust storms and warring factions, and a madman’s mansion made of shifting walls, deadly traps and clockwork soldiers.
The Void Engine
Dishonored 2 is beautifully brought to life with the new Void Engine, a leap forward in rendering technology, built from id Tech and highly-customized by Arkane Studios. Designed to support world-class art direction and take full advantage of the powerful hardware this generation has to offer, the Void Engine allows for significant advances to all game systems, including responsive stealth and combat Artificial Intelligence, lighting and graphical rendering, impressively dense urban environments, and story presentation.
Dishonored 2 came with a great idea: Two characters to choose with different set of powers and thus a total of six different endings (three for each one of them). Also a NG+ with custom difficulty, making it a remarkable game to beat more than once as I did. But what's the problem then? It is that when it comes about the story, not only repeats the idea of the first game's plot about redemption, but re-uses a certain character before seen, making the conflict a bit lame. Also, the character you don't choose to play with is quite wasted potencial in terms of plot.
Don't get me wrong, the story is good the first time but when you beat it more than once for the gameplay the flaws come out.
Before Dishonored, Arkane Studios had been quietly making solid immersive sims like Arx Fatalis, their very decent Ultima Underworld homage, for around ten years. If Dishonored 1 was their first game which felt fully featured and distinctive, then Dishonored 2 is their masterpiece, a culmination of a decade of experience toiling away at one of the most difficult genres for any developer to realize well. (Arkane Austin's Prey, hopefully soon also available on GOG, is their very good version of a modern day System Shock.) The average level in this game is intricate and layered, with many secrets and nooks waiting to be discovered by a patient and methodical player; the exceptional levels here - one involving a mansion with moving walls made of clockwork, another allowing the player to see and shift back and forth in time - are among the best I've played in any game. Dishonored is a series that prizes player choice, flexibility, and power above all else, playing a bit more like a superpowered Deus Ex than the challenging stealth of Thief to which it is often (misleadingly, I think) compared, but this time through there is an explicit option to reject powers which the game is balanced around just as much as a "normal" playthrough with Emily's or Corvo's powers. I've now run through it three times with each of those playstyles and there's still more to see and do I haven't done - odd as it seems for a title with a stealth focus, for example, the game has a very robust combat system for people who like to play a little louder.
As for weaknesses, the narrative here is an oddly unengaging rehash of the DLC for the first game - playing them back to back makes that unfortunately apparent. And while Karnaca is beautifully designed with a rich Mediterranean feel to the art direction, it lacks the weird quasi-Victorian charm of the whale-based society of the first game. (In-game, whale power is being phased out.) But what it does well it does without parallel.
The gameplay is largely more of what Dishonored 1 had to offer. On my 6 year old mid-end desktop I’m having no issues whatsoever.
This is one of those games that stands out among the *many* games I’ve played over ~25 years with its level design: two of them are nothing short of breathtaking in both concept and execution and you’ll never forget them. No spoilers, but you’ll know when you’re there – let’s call them the two »mansion levels«.
The first Dishonored was a masterpiece blend of immersive sim & stealth gameplay, with its charmingly distinct "whalepunk" world and a literary-scale plot of revenge for an entire empire. Dishonored 2 picks up a few years after that story, where Emily Kaldwin is grown and on the throne of the Empire of the Isles, with the previous game's protagonist Corvo Attano being her protector & closest ally. You get to choose which character play as and each one of them has their own distinct playstyle. Corvo's abilities tend to take on a more direct approach to things whereas Emily's abilities are more about manipulating the environment and the people in it.
In terms of gameplay, EVERYTHING was improved here. The controls are top-notch and never make you feel like your character isn't going where you want them to. The various forms of powers, combat and maneuverability are all smooth & fine-tuned. The way you, as the player, can interact with the environment is also amped up with greater opportunities than before. The thing I love most about this franchise is how you're always given the choice on whether you want to be stealthy, go in guns blazing or do a balance of the two. You never really feel forced to do one or the other. This makes for a really immersive... well, immersive sim, and it ensures that it remains a fun experience.
Another awesome element of the franchise is its game world. Its late Victorian aesthetic, the technology powered by whale oil, even the Empire of the Isles itself: it's all superbly interesting and Dishonored 2 is no exception. While the first game had a better sense of atmosphere, this game's environments are absolutely gorgeous. This is aided by the fact that the game has some of the most beautiful, stylized graphics even by today's standards.
My only real complaint is regarding the level design, where a few missions feel somewhat unfair. Other than that, Dishonored 2 is absolutely a worthy heir to the throne that the first game left behind!
