Dishonored 2

the problem with dishonored is that there exist other games—games that are not dishonored—and when i play those games, i can't help but feel disappointed in them for their failure to be dishonored. you see why this is a problem: surely i can't just play dishonored. that would jeopardize my whole identity as a gamer. a gamer plays, you know, games. in the plural. a gamer can't just play one game, or even just a single franchise. there are rules. lines in the sand. one has one's reputation to think of, after all.
so i resign myself to playing other games, just to keep up appearances. i keep my nose clean, my teeth gritted, and my investments, shall we say, diversified. i bide my time. and when i'm sure i've racked up enough hours playing skyrim and FNV and XCOM, when i'm sure my record won't raise any red flags with the Gaming Police, i finally let myself slink back to the game that ruined all other games for me.
dishonored 2, in particular, requires caution on my part. games don't make me cry. this one does. the last game that made me feel anything in the ballpark of dishonored 2 was half-life. yes, half-life, from all those years ago. it put me in a kind of fugue state for a few weeks after i finished my first playthrough. young thing that i was, i hadn't seen the end coming. and when it came, all i could think was, "my god, what have i done?" but that was then, and i had dignity enough to keep dry-eyed. that dignity is long gone. here i am, reduced to a blubbering idiot by a stray journal entry i happened to read in dishonored 2? what the hell happened to the person i used to be, the person who actually kind of enjoyed the wanton sadism of GTA?
you want to know what's really pathetic, though? i don't mod the dishonored games. i mod everything else. i have to. i don't even know who plays vanilla skyrim anymore, but you just can't do it, right? modifying the quests and textures, that's one thing, sure. but just all the simple QOL mods you need, like glowing ore veins, aren't really optional. they're necessary. i don't mod dishonored. i can't mod dishonored. nothing needs fixing. there is nothing i would change. not a single thing.
thus ends the tale of how dishonored dishonored me.

I never play a single player campaign game twice....until Dishonored 2. Completing it in low and high chaos is like playing two dif games. Such a blast. RIP Arkane, this game is a masterpiece.

My name is Emily Kaldwin. You killed my mother. Prepare to die.
Dropped 200 feet, stabbed a dude in the neck, survived the fall, slowed time and then blew up other dudes with tanks filled with Whale oil and then summoned a swarm of rats to eat them.
My favorite kind of game.
Honestly, if you don't want to play a teleporting rat-wizard neck stabber, I don't know what to tell you.
Personally I just started my genocide run after finishing my last play through and it’s been a blast so far.
You don't need to kill anyone… but seriously, just kill everyone.
So basically, the whole plot of the game is based on a grudge over who broke an expensive vase or something.
I am a pretty boring player. In most open world games that allow me to do things stealthly, that's all I do, even if there aren't many fun ways to do it. Far Cry 3/4? Once I get my hands on a nice sniper rifle, I won't use anything else (yes, I do like Sniper Elite, how did you know?). Skyrim? Sneaking everywhere, letting my companions rush in my place. New Vegas? Max stealth and speech are obligatory, no matter how many times I play it. Maybe I'm a bit of a coward, maybe I'm so bad at games that I just avoid fights at all costs, maybe I was a thief in a a past life, whatever the reason may be, being sneaky is my favorite playstyle... and oooh boy, does Dishonored 2 deliver in this regard. But what makes it special to me is that it makes me want to play differently, try different paths, choices, play-styles.
To me this game was peak Arkane and had arguably the greatest level design in gaming history. The Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab alone are worthy contenders for “greatest level of all time. Is Dishonored 2 perfect? No. Its story was rather light but that’s not what Dishonored 2 is about. The story is just an excuse to go through phenomenally crafted levels. The gameplay is amazing and super smooth and the game gives you so many choices in how you want to tackle missions. I personally think that Dishonored 2 is one of the greatest stealth game ever made. Sure, you don’t HAVE to play it stealth but the fact that it gives you the choice not to is the hallmark of a truly great stealth game.
I think it was groundbreaking in terms of both art and design too. I ain't never seen such a pretty looking UI and if you consider it came out in 2016 (that was, like, 7 years ago now!), it's mind boggling. The best way l've found of describing how the game looks is "like an oil painting on clay". Absolutely loved the art style especially the 3D UI and the varying styles and thickness of fonts for each UI button but still having a coherent and balanced design; I still use it as an example in my rants, to say nothing of the level design. Also, the art-direction is out of this world in this one, few games really convey the feeling of a real place like the Dishonored games do, and Dishonored 2 improved a lot on that part from the first game to a point that after playing D2 levels, D1 levels feel kinda empty to me, which I know, it couldn't be more further from the truth, but it's a testimony to what I think D2 achieved.
The story is simple but rich in lore, characterisation, intrigue, and player choice. If you actually slow down and explore the world then your understanding of its inhabitants and your assassination targets gets much deeper. Dishonoured's story snuck up on me, it doesn't spell everything out right away, but I never once felt lost, and I certainly found the series as a whole to be completely unforgettable. The thing about Dishonored, which to me has always been true, is that the lore is more interesting than the moment to moment story. Not that what you're doing isn't important, but unless you immerse yourself in the lore, the overall story lacks impact.
They did a great job at fleshing out the world and telling their own mini stories. There was clearly a lot of thought put into the world building and lore. Each level also had its own atmosphere with a story behind it that you can learn by digging through notes or eavesdropping on conversations. This works both in a narrative sense as well as gameplay, since you often learn hints that help out in the level. I think this was mostly by design since Arkane didn’t want to bog the player down with endless exposition and just wanted them to play the game ASAP since, as many other reviews have pointed out, this is where the game shines brightest.
Still, the cities they build feel like actual cities with districts that have a purpose and are placed there for a reason, the people that live in these places feel like proper people with their own lives, the visual storytelling they do in some of these locations is absolutely amazing. I mean, exploring these buildings and finding all the bodies, the shattered furniture, the bloodstains on the walls, it tells a story of its own and tells you this place has history even before you read the notes that explain what happened to all these people, putting all that you've seen in context and making it even sadder.
This is why I absolutely love Arkane games. The main story might not be something to write home about, but the worlds they build and all the short stories that tell the lives of the people within it make the games unforgettable. I'll always remember Dunwall, Karnaca and Talos 1 even if I forget all the reasons I personally am there.
It is a great sequel because it improved on everything the first game tried its best to do. The variety of playthroughs was just staggering. You had two entirely unique powersets between Emily and Corvo each allowing for a very different brand of stealth/lethal gameplay depending on who you're playing as. On top of that the inclusion of a No Powers mode rounds that out entirely. It's such a beautiful, dense and well built universe, paired up with the great gameplay implemented in the games.
To wrap things up, I love this game. The game has such an immaculate vibe to it combined with stellar gameplay. The level of detail and freedom in gameplay was astounding. The world building and environmental storytelling is top notch as well. It is genuinely interesting to learn about this world, and explore everything. It's such a masterpiece that it literally ruined Hitman and other similar games for me forever and now I can't enjoy any other stealth game because my mind instantly compares them to the Dishonored series. Arkane truly makes some next level sh*t. If you’re even remotely interested, I’d say give it a try. You won’t regret it.
10/10

Game #27 of My Backlog Clearing Journey
Status: Completed
Lacks the tone and atmosphere of the first game, but makes up for it with a thicker coat of polish and occasionally genius level design.

Corvo was not only Dishonored once, but twoth.
Corvo needs to be less susceptible to Dishonoring.

more of the same great gameplay and actually more non-lethal options which I think is great

Dishonored 2, despite being my least favourite entry in the series was still one of the best games developed in it's time.
As such the closure of Arkane Au., the soul of every one of the Dishonored games and of course Prey and Deathloop, is one of the biggest deaths of creativity in recent gaming years and should show that Microsoft is a money hungry company, that does not have the players or developers interest at heart.
Do not be fooled, just like every other mega corporation, they will kill any and every franchise if it does not meet their spreadsheet.
Godspeed Arkane, DH3 would have shaked the world and it sucks that you were not even allowed to pitch it; it sucks that you were forced to name Prey this way; it sucks that all the talent behind the games is not allowed to continue under a single umbrella with the franchises they helped create.
Please if you have love for the games created by Arkane go look up on Linkedin who created the favourite parts of your franchises and see what they are up to now. As an example Weird West is spearheaded by former DH developers, give them a chance, I'm sure you'll like the game.
And don't give Microsoft another fucking cent.