‘Dishonored 2’ Impressions: Assassinations in Style
Let me say up front, I come into this franchise having not played the first game. (stealth kill me, I know!)
What immediately drew me to this game was a female protagonist. Play a female assassin in a Bioshockesque aesthetic while performing gorgeous murder death kills? YES PLZ. After watching the first gameplay trailer, I knew I had to give it a spin.
What you notice first is the game is very slick, down to the options menu and the GUI. It has a hand drawn/painting vibe going that works really well. No detail was left out. The sound effects also had me particularly interested. Every power, every broken glass matters in this game. There are stealthy moves and non-stealthy moves. Sound plays a big part in how you navigate your world and how many guards may appear to eviscerate you with great speed.
Speaking of which, that was my first surprise of the game. At first, I thought I would have a choice between a more run-and-gun playstyle or a stealth approach. What I found was, you really need to be stealthy. There is no guns blazing approach here that works. You will just die. Guards will call guards will call civilians will ring the bell will shine the spotlight will throw grenades will call more guards. You will die. And you have to hide the bodies, dead or unconscious. If a body is discovered and you anywhere in the vicinity, you’re gonna have a bad time.
So the choice really then becomes: Are you going to kill everyone or are you going to make the game 10 times more difficult and play non-lethally.
Killing in this game is gorgeous. Such beautiful violence. You cut throats. You slash wrists. You jump from one story up and bash the skull of the unsuspecting. It’s just magnificent. It’s also very easy to do, in the sense you will do it by accident. If you’re holding a guard trying to choke him out and another guard discovers you? Chances are he’ll shoot the guard you’re holding by accident and you’ll end up killing him too. The body count builds rapidly if you’re not careful.
Knocking guards and civilians out is laborious. It’s time consuming. It requires planning. It’s also very rewarding when you clear a room and don’t shed any blood. Even more so when you manage to down a boss without killing them. (unless they deserve it)So why bother with all this? The game reflects your approach. The game world is a mirror to how you choose approach your goals. If you are never seen and move room to room like a wraith, leaving a trail of guards that wake to never have seen their attacker…you will become a ghost that the NPCs fear but respect.
If you move through the game as a vortex of blood and bullets, it’s as you would expect. NPCs are more hostile. More guard patrols. More cynicism. Characters can’t be convinced to take the high road when you yourself have taken to murdering everyone who has crossed paths with you.
I suppose it goes without saying since the game is Bethesda and given the current generation of games but – Visually it’s gorgeous. Style wise and technology alike. There is definitely a Bioshock-ish feel to it, down to the wielding powers in one hand and weapons in another. The upgrade system is rewarding enough and the game will have you hunting way off the beaten path to try and get more upgrades so you have more options at your disposal. Kill guards, distract guards, mesmerize guards, link all the guards in the room mentally and then kill one and they all drop. Many, many different approaches are available to you. I can already envision multiple playthroughs that I want to try.
I can’t say if you’re a fan of the first you should buy this. I can say that if you’re looking for a stealthy FPS with a fully realized world, highly customizable gameplay and very slick visuals – you will not be disappointed.
Apparently I dodged a bullet and the game runs very well on my PC at almost all max settings. Others with better machines are not so lucky. Bethesda is expected to patch the game in the coming days for framerate issues others are expecting.
