Dishonored 2

The first Dishonored ran on the tried and true Unreal Engine 3 and did so well. Thus the technical issues of Dishonored 2 surprised many. Probably to avoid paying Epic Games (or anyone else) royalties again, Arkane Studios had taken the Bethesda in-house engine id Tech 5 and largely rewritten it into Void Engine for the second game. Unfortunately the end results weren't exactly desirable.

Void-cursed engine

Dishonored 2's performance at release appeared completely random; it either ran well or didn't, regardless of one's setup. Throwing more expensive hardware at the game didn't guarantee a smoother experience. Naturally the game's been patched more than once since then but reports of less than stellar performance still keep appearing.

It made me unusually wary and I decided to try the available demo on Steam before buying the game. The demo didn't seem to have issues for me and the actual game turned out the same way -- to my great relief. The Void Engine is definitely more demanding than UE3 but I got very playable, mostly 60 FPS on the Very High preset. When turning around quickly I occasionally saw textures popping from white like in Wolfenstein: The New Order but that didn't affect framerate.

Loading times are surprisingly short aside from the initial one. My guess is that the game needs to rebuild shaders as sometimes it launches much faster. Mass Effect: Andromeda does that too, though it doesn't need to rebuild them nearly as often, and curiously enough closing the game and restarting it tends to skip the process. I saw a comment explaining the shaders need to be rebuilt because shader cache has only so much space and it can't be increased.

One minor gripe in terms of technical I also have is how the game starts with mouse cursor not locked to the game. I always have to alt-tab into it after launching to not have the first mouse click minimize it. It's silly but not too much trouble.

Dishonored 2's world and textures have more detail but the game still retains the distinct visuals from the first game. I really like Arkane's style: the painting-like scenery and exaggerated character models. The actual paintings too are awesome. Had I to pick favorites, it would be all of Sokolov's which were done by Cedric Peyraverney, I believe.

The only thing not to my liking when it comes to the game's graphics is Emily Kaldwin's face. In trailers and artwork she looks so much better than in-game. I don't know what happened but whoever modeled her didn't do a very good job. At least you don't get to see the face outside the beginning and end. And maybe if you use Emily's Doppelgänger power.

I guess having already played a later Arkane title, Prey, it was a tad disappointing too that your character has no shadow and that your lower body isn't visible outside animations. I had gotten used to those being things.

It happens again

Dishonored 2 takes place 15 years after the first game. Emily rules the Empire of the Isles with her father Corvo Attano still as the Royal Protector. Things are about to change however, as the villain from the first game's story DLCs, the witch Delilah, has returned and takes the throne by force. She claims to be Emily's aunt, late Jessamine Kaldwin's sister and thus the rightful ruler.

You get to pick either Emily or Corvo as your character, and the apparently unkillable Delilah turns the other into stone. You flee from Dunwall to the southern city of Karnaca to find out how this all came to pass and how to take back what's yours.

Dishonored 2 follows a similar mission structure to the first game but lacks a surprise twist. I found it dull to have every mission after the prologue start from the Dreadful Wale boat. You go after a target and then return. I think something like getting captured, thrown at the end of some unknown map, and having to find your way back would've brought some needed variation. You do get memorable moments within missions, though: there is a map with a lot of moving parts, and another with a time-traveling mechanic.

The returning chaos meter doesn't affect the world nearly as much this time. There were few more rats and bloodfly nests on my High Chaos run but stuff like NPC dialogue seemed identical. I wasn't very stealthy on the slaughter run, though, so I may have missed on that stuff. I was expecting more judgment from my allies too and whereas in Dishonored the final mission has some drastic differences, in Dishonored 2 it was the same regardless of chaos level.

Protagonist is an actual character

I knew that I was on High Chaos mainly from Emily's more bloody vengeance dripping lines -- Arkane decided to voice the protagonist(s) for the second game, which was the correct decision as far as I'm concerned. I've seen people mentioning they don't like it, that the characters won't shut up. But I think that's the impression gained from the start of the game. Later on their comments gets scarcer.

Stephen Russell is hardly a new voice in Bethesda-published games but I still feel like that by having him as Corvo, Arkane took a poke at Eidos Montreal who didn't want Garrett's original voice for their mixed-reception Thief (2014). Having Russell voice the protagonist of the now better stealth game franchise feels proper. Russell, evidently being good at what he does, didn't make Corvo sound as cynical and callous as Garrett; the Royal Protector has his own character.

Arkane (and whoever did the casting) isn't without faults, however. Billy Lush was available to reprise his role as the Outsider (and did so for a trailer) but for reasons unknown was replaced by Robin Lord Taylor. Now, I never was the greatest fan of the previous Outsider voice but it was without a doubt better than the new teenager-sounding one.

Emily was voiced by Erica Luttrell who I've heard before as the female witch doctor in Diablo III. She sounds quite a bit different in Dishonored 2 and does an adequate job as the young Empress. Also, while Daud isn't in this game, his ending monologue from The Brigmore Witches can be found as an audiograph.

"I've learned that our choices always matter... to someone... somewhere. And sooner or later... in ways we can't always fathom... the consequences come back to us."

I found it a cool inclusion because I've come to later really appreciate Michael Madsen's work as the assassin leader. He truly nailed the role; his delivery was on point.

Even more dynamic combat

The familiar, fluid gameplay returns in all its glory -- and expanded. Non-lethal playstyle is no longer lacking in options in all-out assault. There are new non-lethal gadgets, previously only-lethal drop assassination and (the new) slide takedown have no-kill options, and you can grab enemies after unbalancing them with a perfect parry.

Arkane also introduced the kick from Dark Messiah of Might and Magic in some form. Or maybe it's just the non-lethal option takedown when you use it on a still conscious enemy that has been knocked down. I could swear that I did kick enemies off ledges in chaotic mass fights, though.

There's one completely new type of enemy: mechanical clockwork soldier. They seem fairly intimidating opponents at first but in reality there are many easy ways to destroy them -- you just need to figure them out. However, if you decide to use the hard way, take on them on equal footing, they're pretty interesting opponents.

You dodge and parry their attacks, hack away their protective plates, to finally be able to hit them in their weakspots. It makes me think Arcane could make another Dark Messiah -like first person action RPG. I suppose Dishonored kind of is that already but its human enemies are generally one-hit kills with takedowns and the fights don't normally get to build that much tension.

Corvo's old powers return from the first game with few alterations. Emily shares his passives but has her own unique set of active powers. I didn't like her traversal power, Far Reach. Its targeting mode is a throw arc which makes getting to high places tricky. I've heard you can benefit from your momentum when using the power but I've yet to master its use. Luckily Emily's other powers make her more than a match for Corvo.

In Dishonored 2 you are able to craft bonecharms yourself although you can only use traits you've learned from sacrificing the bonecharms you've found. It's a shame Arkane balanced the system so hard. You can add the same trait up to 4 times in total (even to a same charm) but a single application of any learnable trait has so little effect that even multiplied by 4 the effects aren't gamebreaking. This balancing decision made all normal bonecharms found to have barely any gameplay effect. Somewhat rarer black and corrupted (additional negative effect) bonecharms are still gamechangers but you can't get their traits for crafting.

In a post-release update, a new game plus mode was added to the game. When starting a NG+, all runes spent on powers are refunded, both characters' powers are available, learned bonecharm traits carry over, and already found blueprints are ready at black markets (finding them again gives extra gold). In addition, you can keep on stacking playthroughs, eventually having all powers, blueprints, and bonecharm traits available from the beginning. I think NG+ was meant to exist from release, at least for blueprints as normally the movement quieting blueprints are only found in the 9th, final mission. That to me feels way too late.

Narrative shaped by actions

Player choice is as huge as it is usually in Arkane's games. They didn't take into account everything -- for instance, I feel the Outsider shouldn't use the present tense in his monologue at Paolo's shrine if you have killed the gang leader. Otherwise though . . . the game counts for a lot of things the player can do.

In Dishonored 2, you can completely refuse the Outsider's mark. It makes your playthrough a tad harder (no powers) but playing as Flesh and Steel/Clean Hands Emily you can with clear conscience claim moral high ground when accusing Meagan (your new boatman) of being a monster. And when talking to the missable, dying overseer in the final mission he won't detect the Outsider's taint on you. I found that particular playthrough satisfying.

There's a highly unorthodox game design decision Arkane made in one of the missions: you can skip a whole map by solving on your own a puzzle whose randomized answer you'd get by playing the level normally. It took me about 45 minutes (two wordings were confusing me) to solve it for fun on my first playthrough. I later read that the puzzle lock crafted by the supposed genius inventor Jindosh isn't really difficult to get past at all.

Like me, many may incorrectly assume order matters for the lock but in factuality even the riddle only asks for pairs. Since one of them is given by the hints straight up, there is ever only 24 different possible solutions. That makes brute-forcing the lock the quickest way to get past it, although speedrunners have later actually figured out an even faster solution -- the pairs can be deducted from the order they appear in the hint.

You of course lose all bonecharms, runes, etc. if you skip the level but it sure is interesting to have such an option.

Another incredibly cool detail is how Jessamine's secret room inside the Dunwall Tower leads to the added safe room, allowing you skip the activation and use of the elevator when going after Delilah. It's cool because I don't think this game ever mentions the secret room's existence. You can theoretically find the hidden door switch with (the now oddly unpractical) Darkvision but if you've played the first game, you will know where it is. There are not many game franchises that have such a bonus from having played an earlier title.

Control your own experience

In a post-release update Arkane also added customizable difficulty settings, similar to what Thief has. Among many other things, you can change how much enemies look up and how visible you are while leaning. Civilian NPCs annoyed me almost to the point of frustration when I was going for the Shadow achievement. They are as perceptive as anyone else when you enter a place you shouldn't be in. After staring at you for a while, they start running about and alert guards. You have to treat them as actual enemies thanks to that. At least there is this time an in-realtime updating stat screen to show if you've screwed up your achievement run. It made unlocking Shadow considerably easier.

One could argue that as a stealth game, Dishonored 2 has one glaring flaw: lighting level doesn't affect your visibility. The game claims it does from a distance but I wonder if that is really true. That was the case in the first game too. Instead of trying to hide in shadows, you need to approach enemies outside of their field of vision, mainly from above. Not realizing that will make ghosting much harder.

An interesting point about games like Dishonored 2 (that have multiple approaches to any given problem) is why would one try anything different after finding something that works since it works every time. The game feels boring because you only do one thing. Then you get another person who shares the opinion yet has a completely different if monotonous playstyle. The game hands you the tools but it's up to you to utilize them.

The kind of person that is most rewarded by freedom of this extent is the kind of creative person that can think outside the box. Someone that sticks a stun mine onto a throwable glass bottle to get a remotely attachable stun mine with a built-in sound lure.