Much has been made of Dishonored 2 being Emily’s game. Certainly, her abilities are more manipulative and creative than Corvo’s, which are focussed on stealth and evasion. But there’s plenty to be said for playing as Corvo again, not least the fact that he is voiced by Stephen Russell, AKA Garrett from the Thief series. It’s a superb casting decision on the part of Arkane, and Russell turns in a wonderful performance as the ageing Royal Protector, equal parts cynical about his enemies and burning with warmth for his daughter and his lost lover Jessamine.
The casting of Russell also hints at a greater influence of the Thief series on the sequel, particularly Thief II. This is seen in its twin themes of mechanical progression and occult magic, while its representation of the Clockwork Soldiers, who playback recorded messages to indicate changes in their behaviour, powerfully evoke Karras’ dastardly inventions in The Metal Age.
Most of all, though, it’s in the level design. Dishonored 2 takes the template laid down by Thief II’s Life of the Party mission, where Garrett skips across the rooftops of the city before infiltrating the vast Angelwatch Tower, and applies it to every mission in the game. On top of that, at the end of almost every cityscape is an absolute showstopper in level design. At least two of Dishonored 2’s missions have already shot to the top of my list of the best example of 3D level design ever. One of these I’m not going to mention, because you should see it for yourself. The other is the much-discussed Clockwork Mansion, a gigantic, ever-shifting mechanism where the layout of the level can change dramatically at the pull of a lever. It’s an explorable metaphor for Dishonored itself. Vast, almost stupidly intricate, and constantly changing around you.
For all its merits, though, Dishonored 2 is not flawless. There have been a lot of complaints about PC performance. Personally, I didn’t experience much in the way of problems, aside from some slowdown in the introductory scenes. That said, the game’s menus are ridiculously overwrought, flashy to the point where they actively hinder navigation. On the PS4 version, which I also tested, the menus suffered from terrible slowdown because the game seemed to be struggling to render them.
In addition, there is some wonky voice acting here and there, which is silly considering the remarkable cast Arkane has lined up, which includes Sam Rockwell as inventor Kirin Jindosh, Daredevil’s Vincent d'Onofrio as Duke Abele, and Rosario Dawson as Meagan Forster. Moreover, the story is even more straightforward than the first game, to the point where I never felt particularly threatened by the alleged genius and malevolence of the top conspirators. Given she has several incredibly powerful cards to play against you, Delilah’s role is terribly served by the plot, a waste of an excellent character.
My biggest gripe, however, is that after six massive, exceptionally designed missions, Dishonored 2 fluffs the final act. I’ll tread carefully around spoilers, but basically its somewhere we’ve seen before, and Arkane don’t do enough to make it different from the first time we visited. This also ties in with my complaint about Delilah. The previous missions had led me to expect Arkane to break the mould in the last act, to go all out and use the stranger elements of Dishonored to produce something that would completely subvert my expectations. Instead, the final mission is largely unsurprising and far too easy. This, coupled with the fact that the game led me to believe there would be one more mission than there was, clouded my experience in those last couple of hours.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that the fantastic battle I mentioned at the start of this review occurred during that underwhelming final mission, which goes to show that even at its weakest, Dishonored 2 is a huge amount of fun. The flaws I mention are only so noticeable because of the game’s ludicrously high standards overall, and there was rarely a moment when I was anything other than entirely enthralled. Dishonored 2 embraces the spirit of some of the greatest games ever created - Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock. In its strongest moments, I think it surpasses even those.
The casting of Russell also hints at a greater influence of the Thief series on the sequel, particularly Thief II. This is seen in its twin themes of mechanical progression and occult magic, while its representation of the Clockwork Soldiers, who playback recorded messages to indicate changes in their behaviour, powerfully evoke Karras’ dastardly inventions in The Metal Age.
Most of all, though, it’s in the level design. Dishonored 2 takes the template laid down by Thief II’s Life of the Party mission, where Garrett skips across the rooftops of the city before infiltrating the vast Angelwatch Tower, and applies it to every mission in the game. On top of that, at the end of almost every cityscape is an absolute showstopper in level design. At least two of Dishonored 2’s missions have already shot to the top of my list of the best example of 3D level design ever. One of these I’m not going to mention, because you should see it for yourself. The other is the much-discussed Clockwork Mansion, a gigantic, ever-shifting mechanism where the layout of the level can change dramatically at the pull of a lever. It’s an explorable metaphor for Dishonored itself. Vast, almost stupidly intricate, and constantly changing around you.
For all its merits, though, Dishonored 2 is not flawless. There have been a lot of complaints about PC performance. Personally, I didn’t experience much in the way of problems, aside from some slowdown in the introductory scenes. That said, the game’s menus are ridiculously overwrought, flashy to the point where they actively hinder navigation. On the PS4 version, which I also tested, the menus suffered from terrible slowdown because the game seemed to be struggling to render them.
In addition, there is some wonky voice acting here and there, which is silly considering the remarkable cast Arkane has lined up, which includes Sam Rockwell as inventor Kirin Jindosh, Daredevil’s Vincent d'Onofrio as Duke Abele, and Rosario Dawson as Meagan Forster. Moreover, the story is even more straightforward than the first game, to the point where I never felt particularly threatened by the alleged genius and malevolence of the top conspirators. Given she has several incredibly powerful cards to play against you, Delilah’s role is terribly served by the plot, a waste of an excellent character.
My biggest gripe, however, is that after six massive, exceptionally designed missions, Dishonored 2 fluffs the final act. I’ll tread carefully around spoilers, but basically its somewhere we’ve seen before, and Arkane don’t do enough to make it different from the first time we visited. This also ties in with my complaint about Delilah. The previous missions had led me to expect Arkane to break the mould in the last act, to go all out and use the stranger elements of Dishonored to produce something that would completely subvert my expectations. Instead, the final mission is largely unsurprising and far too easy. This, coupled with the fact that the game led me to believe there would be one more mission than there was, clouded my experience in those last couple of hours.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that the fantastic battle I mentioned at the start of this review occurred during that underwhelming final mission, which goes to show that even at its weakest, Dishonored 2 is a huge amount of fun. The flaws I mention are only so noticeable because of the game’s ludicrously high standards overall, and there was rarely a moment when I was anything other than entirely enthralled. Dishonored 2 embraces the spirit of some of the greatest games ever created - Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock. In its strongest moments, I think it surpasses even those.
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