Dishonored 2

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

Dishonored 2: The game where you can either stealthily sneak past your enemies like a shadowy ghost or stab them in the face while wearing the world's most fashionable stealth suit. As Emily or Corvo, you get supernatural powers that make you feel like the lovechild of a ninja and a wizard. Want to teleport behind someone and choke them out? No problem. Want to possess a rat and run through a tiny crack in the wall? Totally doable. It’s like the game says, "Hey, why not combine the art of stealth with the chaotic energy of an exasperated parent trying to keep their kids from destroying the living room?" 10/10, would possess a rat again.

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

Even better than the 1st game, It's super fun, and beautiful! Phenomenal game!

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.

This is the pinnacle, gold standard, and best game all-time of the stealth-action genre. If you love these types of games, Dishonored and Dishonored 2 are must-plays. 10/10.
Dishonored was a masterpiece, and D2 takes the gameplay, level design, enemies, abilities, ambience, and worldbuilding to even greater heights. It falls a bit short of the original in narrative and story, but that's to be expected of sequels when the original isn't created to set up a sequel narratively.
Giving the player the choice of Emily or Corvo as their player character creates a playstyle split. Emily's abilities are more suited to stealth/low chaos; Corvo's for combat/high chaos. Not that you have to abide by these, of course. You can even reject outsider powers in their entirety, leading to a completely different gameplay experience. Which... wow. The fact that each level is designed in such a way to make this possible is an incredible accomplishment in its own right. It's also very fitting for a Corvo playthrough, considering he is stripped of his outsider powers in what is effectively the opening scene of the game.
Your powers and abilities are all fantastic, perfectly fitting into a stealth action genre. New abilities like Emily's Domino are especially useful and satisfying to use. Also being able to craft bonecharms is a godsend, further incentivizing exploration and discovery of the myriad nooks and crannies of each map. Speaking of which...
Dishonored 2 is a masterclass in level design. This is open-world mapping done right. Each individual mission is a large, self-contained map that contains tons of ways to navigate it. You can walk right down the street from point A to point B (through mobs of enemies), or use everything from sewers to rooftops to vents to waterways to hidden access ports to possessing animals and everything in between to reach the end of a mission. There are even missions where you can choose to help one faction over another, giving you once again a multiplicity of meaningful choices to make throughout your playthrough. Each level gives you the baseline stealth and combat systems, but has a unique twist on top for you to enjoy.
And so enjoy it! Because truly, the amount of well-executed exploration is unparalleled. The maps are large yet you never feel lost because of all the P.O.I.s: building interiors, secret rooms, unique streets, and so on. Yet you also never feel like things are too small and straightforward. Because you have a dozen different ways to complete the same objective, you never have your hand held. This is correct game design: giving the player agency without having them just "follow the next quest marker". This all coalesces into an amazing player experience with an organic, satisfying feeling of discovery that also promotes multiple playthroughs. Because you can truly complete the same levels in dozens of different ways.
To that end, there are also multiple endings to each mission. The player is usually given the choice to kill the primary target, but can explore the level to discover a way to eliminate them non-lethally. As a result, a player can complete the game by killing every breathing entity in the entire world, charging headlong into every enemy they encounter OR complete the game without ever killing a soul or even ever being detected. A ghost. And somehow, both of these are completely satisfying. My one knock on this game is that you will occasionally have kills attributed to you which you did not commit. The situations vary, but I have gone through missions without being detected once by anyone on the map yet seeing 2 kills given to me at the mission ending status report. This is ridiculous. I'm willing to overlook most bugs, but that particular one really kills your desire to play (especially if you were specifically playing a mission trying not to kill anyone).
Before moving on, I absolutely have to mention THAT level: A Crack in the Slab. The timepiece mission. Unreal. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it even now. This mission, this level, remains to this day the singular best mission gameplay-wise in any game I have ever seen or played. The mechanic here of playing through the same map in the past and present at the same time by jumping between the two while being able to see both on your screen at the same time... Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Honorable mention to Jindosh's mansion as well, which is also a marvel of game design, but A Crack in the Slab takes it for me.
Lastly, Dishonored 2 is perfectly self-contained as a world of politics, classism, cloak and dagger, dark magic, gang violence, steel (and steal... ha), steam, and fish oil. The dark, rainy steampunk world is masterfully immersive, and all the sounds of clanging pipes, chittering rats, and the choral effect of the word "eyes" as you trigger dark vision draw you in. It's the perfect setting for a game of this genre and nothing feels out of place. It's perfectly executed, never goes beyond its own bounds, and hones in on what this genre should be. It's beautiful.
The worldbuilding also does not disappoint. There are tons of new characters, factions, secret notes, and stories fleshed out throughout the world. You also have plenty of new interesting, nuanced, and eccentric characters to talk to (or brutally murder!). While the main narrative is simpler and a bit weaker than the first game (which is a narrative masterpiece), Dishonored 2 still carries an excellent plot with a fun cast of characters.
All that said, Dishonored 2 is the crown jewel of the stealth-action genre. Every other game is comparing themselves to this. 10/10. If you haven't played it, you need to. This is an all-timer and is highly, highly recommend. Thank you, Arkane Studios, for this game.