Thoughts on Dishonored 2!

It’s a familiar story for me: buy a game after it first dips into sale territory, play for an hour or two, get frustrated by something minor, then set it aside until I come back to it half a year later and plow through the rest of it. Not having any pressing editorial commitments to finish games in a timely manner, I generally kind of don’t: I’m happy to let them sit in my Steam folder until there’s a lull in my play schedule or I feel like I have to justify the money I spent on something. The amount of compel-ation is usually tied to a game’s cost; it’s fairly easy to just not play something that I bought for five bucks if I never get around to it, but if I plunked down 40, I’m usually spurred to tackle it at some point. It’s about here that I realize that every sentence in this paragraph has a colon or semicolon; it’d be silly to stop that trend now.

Anyway, I plopped back into Dishonored 2 recently after getting really frustrated with a mouse-keyboard issue where the mouse cursor would exhibit inertia after I stopped looking around. The viewpoint would just start drifting off in the direction of movement without any input from me, which wound up being really, really irritating. I googled some fixes but eventually just decided to play with a controller, which is normally pretty fine, and indeed works well enough for most of the actions that you perform in the game. It’s in the small details that using a controller gets frustrating, as anyone who has ever tried to loot a bunch of coins from a cash register will tell you. It’s not as loot-intensive a game as it could be, but picking up items can get pretty annoying since the crosshair has to be pretty much exactly on the item that you’re looking at. It felt like there ought to be a “hold the button to pick up anything near where you’re aiming at” functionality, but what do I know.

I hopped back into my low-chaos, no-kill playthrough, and promptly recorded a kill at the end of the second mission for reasons unknown. My fault, no doubt! Did I drop a corpse from too high of a height? Did I startle a Howler into a Wall of Light? No idea! Now that I think of it, I probably should’ve gone back and replayed that level if only to keep the purity of the no-kill run intact, but luckily I’m not much of a perfectionist in these types of games, and I’ve never really cared about achievements, so I kept on playing unperturbed.

Games like Dishonored and Deus Ex are always kind of fascinating from a design perspective since the gameplay and systems designers have to design two almost entirely separate games people who want to play stealth and those who want action, with extra thought going into the extreme people on either side who might want to have an especially puritanical run where they demand to be able to play through each level without being seen or being able to kill every single person they see or etc. I remember when a playtester on Alpha Protocol managed to get through a run without killing anyone and someone mentioned it in an interview; all of a sudden it became A Thing for certain people. I don’t believe it was ever a conscious design decision, but after people started expecting to be able to do it, you’d better believe that they started pestering us about achievements and special rewards for pulling it off.

I don’t really have much of a point here except to say that it’s interesting that there’s a bunch of systems in this game that I’ll never even bother to experience. Maybe I’ll try a high-chaos runthrough at some point, but most likely not; at the moment, I just hit F9 as soon as I get into combat to reload my latest quicksave. (I have to mention here that having Quicksave and Quickload on the menu screen is a pretty neat addition for console people.) I don’t even make much use of many of the skills, with most of my running relying on Dark Vision and Far Reach and maybe some Shadow Walking here and there to avoid people. Most of the weapons and grenades have gone entirely unused by me, as well, although the inclusion of the Clockwork Soldiers (who can be killed without adding to your Chaos level) are a good excuse to get non-lethal players like me to try out some explosives without too much concern for their end-of-level ratings.

I always vaguely wonder with games like this about pressure on the developer to concentrate on one aspect of the game or another; when you support both stealth and action run-throughs, you are effectively spending systems development time on what might as well be two separate games. In the case of something like Dishonored, that’s kind of the whole raison d’etre or whatever of the game, and Bethesda has plenty of familiarity with this kind of thing from Skyrim and Fallout, so I doubt there was any friction there, but all the same: it’s a huge amount of effort to make a game that supports multiple playstyles. On top of doing effectively 2x the amount of systems design, the level designers probably have to iterate a crazy amount to ensure that stealth playthroughs are both possible and challenging, down to the timing of specific patrol routes and etc. Being the lazy asshole that I am, I would be tempted to just pivot the game into an FPS halfway through development and leave it at that, but thank god for publishers willing to spend a little extra money (translation: millions of dollars) to allow for a bit of player choice in their games.

Anyway, I just finished up the Clockwork Mansion last night and, not having had any idea what to expect save for hearing a lot of hushed references to it as “best level in years,” consider me impressed. I get a bit anxious about “completing” levels in games like this and seeing all of the various locations to scout for blueprints and runes and such, so I probably spent a good three hours just wandering around the actual mansion hitting configuration levers and trying to pop into closets as they were in the process of appearing and disappearing to see what secrets they contained. Luckily there were a bunch of stun grenades to use on those Clockwork Soldiers tucked away here and there.

What I’d be really curious to see would be the playtesting notes on the Clockwork Mansion. I’ve read playtesting notes from people who were confused about very basic RPG mechanics in an RPG game before, and you better believe that there are people who will manage to get halfway through a game without realizing that they can do things like allocate skill points or level up. Obviously a certain amount of playtest results have to be discarded if someone’s just super-dumb, but in the case of something like Clockwork Mansion I’m curious how a publisher and developer balanced feedback on such a complicated level. I was pretty baffled by how to proceed a few times (and the thought of having to write a text-based walkthrough for this game gives me some unpleasant flashbacks), so you just know there’s video out there of some poor playtester who never got out of the foyer of that place.

I think a lot about difficulty balancing in games, just because it’s something I know that I’d never be able to do well. Everyone knows in their bones the difference between too-easy, too-hard, and just right, but having to find that balance for four or five different difficulty levels involves more spreadsheets and bossfight review meetings than I’d care to imagine at this point in my day. From Software’s innovation in saying “ah, just make it stupid hard! People will figure it out or they won’t!” endeared them to a certain masochistic segment of the gaming populace, but when your game has the marketing budget of something like Dishonored 2, you better believe that a lot of concern went into making each difficulty level appropriate for the people who might select it. What’s interesting about the Clockwork Mansion is that even on the easiest difficulty level it’s still probably a bit much to get through for people who like their games real damn easy and only play them for the story, which I imagine is a larger segment of the population than most of us would expect. I wonder if Arkane faced any blowback for that after the game came out.

Anyway, that’s about it for me! I like Dishonored 2 and I plan to keep playing it! Hope you are liking the games you are playing everyone!

nice read, really enjoyed the game as well

“hold the button to pick up anything near where you’re aiming at” functionality, but what do I know.

Prey has this. It excitedly tells you about this function about half the time you look at a pile of small objects on a table.

I just finished the Clockwork Mansion yesterday, and found myself slightly disappointed. I think it might have to do with how much hype I heard about it back when the game came out, so my expectations were just overblown. It also might have to do with how I play Dishonored. I am super obsessive about finding all of the collectables and being non-lethal with low detection. I'm real fast on the quick-load. I get why people loved it though.

I loved how Alpha Protocol allowed me to play without killing anyone. Same with Dishonoured and Deus Ex Human Revolution. Hey Matt do you have any interest in the stand alone expansion thing for Dishonored 2 coming out in September?

you better believe that there are people who will manage to get halfway through a game without realizing that they can do things like allocate skill points or level up

Yeah, I got to Hong Kong in the original Deus Ex without leveling up any skills or anything. When I realized what I had done, I stopped. It wasn't until Kotor 1 that I learned how to play an RPG.

I found the Clockwork Mansion disappointing back when I played the game at release. Being a stealth player, the clockwork soldiers and layout of the level was far more punishing than if I had just gone high chaos. Plus, in terms of level design I just felt levels like the Conservatory were way more enjoyable and fun to explore. I felt like I was always seeing new stuff in those levels, whereas in the Clockwork Mansion it was the same gimmick that didn't seem to have much gameplay relevance--in most rooms, changing the layout may have changed some furniture but didn't do much to change the structure or feel of the room.

I also didn't really enjoy A Crack in Time, the other "out-there" level in the game, fwiw.

I did the exact same thing, but I had been catching on despite a first time experience. However, I was so tight assed and inexperienced, it was had to allocate except for need. And I am just that same was now with Arkane's Prey, grieving over the neuromods and upgrade kits.

I wish I had not quit Dishonored 2. I got through the clock work mansion fine, kind of a macro-puzzle. Glad Rorie is getting something out of it, the game is good.

I think I lasted five minutes before I accidentally killed someone, then just ended up murdering... well, pretty much everyone. That is also a very fun way to play that game. Something about Dishonored 2 never really clicked for me, though. I think it has to do with the peripheral storytelling. There's too much happening offscreen that's hinted at through books only. It has the feel of a world already gone by, not a world being lived in, and it always feels like there could be just a bit more NPC interaction to balance that out.

I'm saying this less and less these days, but I also think it's a world that could stand to be more open-world, not less. Everything started to feel a bit same-ish to me, particularly the city levels, and I never got much of a sense of the world beyond the idea that it's dirty and crumbling. A higher degree of varied aesthetics could help this too, particularly when you have mystical aspects like the Stranger to play with. For such a neat idea for a world, it's kind of just... dull.

And in the end... I don't know. The mechanics are great, the gameplay is there, but I never really felt driven forward except to gain more levels and abilities. Wish it was different, but oh well.

I loved Dishonored 2. I thought it has some pretty awesome level designs. The Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab were really fun and interesting levels to play through. I did a low chaos, no kill run with Emily the first time through and really need to go back and do a more aggressive playthrough

Oh yeah, I'll definitely play that. I do really dig these games.

I think after playing Bloodborne that the notion of an off-screen narrative in a game like this seems relatively benign. That and the Souls game almost entirely relies on really obscure stuff for their narrative, to the point where reading books in Dishonored feels almost amazingly explicit.

I really need to go back and finish this. Great write up Matt!

I might grab the expansion since it's standalone, at least if it gets some positive reviews. No desire to go back to the main game after Emily playthrough because of it's lackluster story and voice acting. It was fun gameplay-wise, but it doesn't seem so drastically different to play as Corvo that I'd want to play the same levels again.

It's a shame Emily is stuck with Far Reach outside of NG+, because maaaaan Blink feels so much better. I started Emily at first, but then the second I used reach for the first time I immediately switched to Corvo. Fantastic level design, pretty great game, really poor story. Which is a shame because I thought Dishonored 1 had such a great hook right at the start and had a lot more interesting characters. Also, it just straight up had more characters. The PC version was very rough at first, too. They fixed a lot of it, but it still doesn't run great, and seems to have memory leak issues.

Also, non-lethal slide takedown is the best new thing from this sequel. You are basically Batman if you are using a mouse and keyboard. I didn't have to worry about burning a ton of mana to get out of combat situations non-lethally like in the first game. That and you can abuse the hell out of bone charms to get basically infinite sleep darts.

Explain! I haven't bothered to spec into bone charm crafting yet.

Bone charm crafting allows you to stack 4 effects of whatever charm you sacrificed (you can create as many as you want, as long as you have resources). Thing is, stacking the same effect 4 times quadruples the effect. So if you use this on the bone charm that gives you a chance to recover sleep darts after using them, it has a 90%+ chance to proc. Meaning you have almost infinite darts. You can do this with other bone charm effects like slide speed and slide faster than you can sprint. Effects get pretty crazy when you stack them 4 times in one charm.

@doctordonkey: hmm ok I'll try it out! Having infinite sleep darts seems kind of broken, but we'll see! The game's getting pretty tough as it is (I'm playing on hard mode).

I just finished Dishonored 2 myself after getting it during the Steam summer sale. I really liked this game! Part of what helped a lot is that I decided early on I wasn't going worry about kills or stealth, though I would try to keep to low chaos, and that greatly relieved the pressure. I just explored the levels (which I thought were all great; the Clockwork Mansion wasn't even my favorite, though it was impressive) and mainly tried to see everything.

I think I only killed one or maybe two Grand Guards (always by accident), never killed a civilian, and went to murder town on most of the other enemy types when they showed up. I was especially bloodthirsty against the traitors in the opening level and the coven whenever they showed up. That was enough to stay low chaos for the ending.

Its also fun just how broken the game is once you start really upgrading your abilities, at least as Emily. Domino especially, which lets you chain up to 4 enemies together so that whatever happens to one happens to all of them, lets you get through things so easily. What makes it even better is that your doppleganger from that skill counts as an 'enemy' for Domino. So you can chain it with three enemies, choke it out while in the shadows, and have the three enemies all collapse as well; with no one having any clue what just happened. Or use one sleep dart to get them all.

I still have to finish it! I'm pretty close to the end.

I always try the stealth approach in these kind of games if they give it to me, but once I get noticed I'll try to escape with force. If I die I'll try the stealth approach again.

That feeling of 'how the fuck did I get away with this!' is awesome, but whenever it goes down to the violent option things just get silly in Dishonored 2. It's sometimes like the AI is not programmed to deal with these kind of approaches. Especially when you lure opponent after opponent into the same trap (and even when they see their friends go down, they'll still go in to the room 1 by 1).

But man, the designs of the characters and the environments is just amazing in this game.

One of my fav games in years. I bot GW Wildlands on your recommendation too! Loving it.

I enjoyed the Clockwork Mansion a lot, but my favorite level in Dishonored 2 was after that, which I found mechanically even more interesting. You'll know when you get to it Rorie, and I'd be super interested how that one strikes you

The wandering around collecting stuff/making sure I visit every corner of a map is something I do that makes me relish the games that don't have collectibles or secret areas.

I ended up doing a low chaos/no kills/no powers run when I played through the game, and I absolutely loved it. I did have to check quite often in the menu to make sure I had no kills. More than once I had to go back to a previous save/checkpoint because I had accidentally gotten a kill.

Yeah the time level was really great

I love Dishonored 2. I did a low chaos mostly no-kill playthrough as Emily first. I also wasn't too worried about doing a perfect no kill run. I tried to be merciful but didn't want to have to reload when I screwed things up.

Because by the time I played it the New Game+ mode was out, after I finished I immediately restarted as Corvo except with access to Emily's skill tree too. You can get through the game very quickly this way if you both already know where you are going and want to murder everyone. It's a ton of fun. Corvo's rat swarm is especially brutal and efficient.

Also that game has some small speaking parts for some pretty well known actors! Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Rockwell and Pedro Pascal are all in it.

As someone already pointed out about the stacking of runes being very powerful, as someone who also loves ghost-playstyle, I heartily recommend stacking the movement runes. There was faster movement when carrying a body and faster crouching movement, latter which also conjures up fun image of Corvo crab-walking superfast around a level.