Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 is the followup to the first Dishonored released in 2012. The story takes in an alternate steam-punk era fictional island called the Empire of the Isles 15 years after the first game, in which Corvo's daughter Emily ruled Dunwall for the absent time. On your mother's death anniversary, you are visited by your mother's supposed long lost sister,Delilah, who then takes the throne from you. After that, the story changes depending on if you play as Corvo or Emily, but both follow that Delilah turns the other into stone, then tries to lock you up for the murders happening around town, but you escape and go out to get your vengeance and clean up your name once more.

Dishonored 2 had a lot of positives to the games. One of the best aspects of the game to me were the environments. Each level was large and open-ended, and even filled with quests. Not only that, but the parts inside each level and each level themselves were different from one another. One of the coolest areas I have ever been in from any video game was this one in the clockwork mansion, where a single little flip of the switch would change around the entire house like it was one big clockwork machine(because it is). The combat, which primarily consists of swords, a gun, hand crossbow, and some sort of explosive device, was simple yet effective. The different explosive and crossbow bolt types allowed for different ways of play, whether knocking out everyone, or just straight up murdering everyone. The weapons fed into all types of play, while not being some massive inventory at the same time. What also made for an even more varied way of playing were the powers. With the addition of a new character, the devs decided to keep Corvo with his old powers, while giving Emily a new set. Playing with the old powers was somewhat nostalgic, while playing with the new powers was fun. The parkour was somewhat fluid, but unless you're playing without powers(another new addition to this game) then not used that much as for both characters have their most popular ability being some sort of way to travel faster, farther. Finally, the big thing this game strives on is variability, and this game added some new ways to get in and out of each mission. Their are so many ways to go through each mission in Dishonored 2. You can kill, knock out, not even touch anyone, turn into an animal and do that, not even use powers and try from there. With the varied ways of doing things and enough dialogue and ability differences between the two, this game has great replayability.

Here are some other positives I have found in the game. The tutorial is separate from the main game, which I think that getting straight into the game is good. At the end of every mission, three pages of stats come out, which range from kill count and a chart on your approach to the level, to how many coins you collected vs. how many are in the game. This was something that also helped with replayability, as for looking at the different stats made me want to go back and change them. One item in the game that was sadly only used once was this timepiece in which the mansion you were in would go back and forth between 3 years using this timepiece, as well as having this monocle pop out of the device that would display the alternate time within that timepiece. Even though it was only used once, I still thought it was a really cool item. The safe codes throughout the game are random, which even though is something incredibly small, it still helped when I tried to look up a safe code but couldn't because the game would rather you look for it than just give it to you. One last thing to add to replayability was the endings. I won't say the ending, but their are a lot of different variants to the ending that is worth checking out.

Those were the good, now here are the bad. Corvo in the first game was a silent protagonist, but Dishonored 2 gave him a voice, a very dull, monotone voice. I think that Corvo as a silent assassin was better than him talking like he is in a library looking for a book on the history of seesaws. Also, the voices for the witches are kinda weird. When I first heard Delilah speak, I thought that her voice was glitchy because it was that weird, but I soon found out it was on purpose. The voice for the witches should have been different. When I said you get straight into the game, I mean story wise too, because the story in the beginning makes little sense and changes at the speed of Corvo blinking. The cutscene, from beginning to character selection, is 6 minutes. But in that 6 minutes: some lady walks into your throne room saying she is some aunt you never knew, tells you that she now rules Dunwall, then somehow, everyone just turns on you even though you brought Dunwall into a golden age. I don't have knowledge on the government system of Dunwall, but I don't think that's how overthrowing works.

The verdict: Dishonored 2 did something that other sequels to good games are not doing; Dishonored 2 stuck with the same formula as Dishonored 1. Dishonored 2's differences are in story, locations, and some new additions, but the game is still very much like the first game. But for new comers to the Dishonored series, or for those wanting to play the sequel because you played the first, Dishonored 2 is a fantastic game and is one of the best games released this year.