Dishonored 2 is set 15 years after the events of the first game, which saw Corvo Attano restore Emily Kaldwin to the throne of the Empire of the Isles. Starting in the city of Dunwall, Dishonored 2 opens with Corvo and Emily still in their positions of influence, though the quick reveal of a new antagonist throws events into disarray, requiring travel to the southern region of Karnaca, a coastal city with a distinctly different feel to Dunwall.
The opening of Dishonored 2 is bloody and violent and does a solid job of setting the tone for the world, one that continues through the rest of the game. There’s a good summary of who the major players are, and what their roles were during the first game, meaning that players who haven’t experience the original Dishonored won’t enter Dishonored 2 entirely blind, and those that did complete the first entry have a brief refresher to set them up for this second title. For reasons that I won’t get into here for fear of spoilers, players are required to choose between playing as either Corvo or Emily for the duration of the game, and though any playing style can be used for either character, the game seems to slightly nudge stealthy players towards Emily, while those looking for more of a fight are encouraged Corvo’s way.
Dishonored did a great job of making Dunwall feel like a real place and Dishonored 2 does a similarly good job with the city of Karnaca, which feels like a genuinely threatening community on the edge of collapse. Armed guards and gang members roam the streets, and dilapidated buildings and gaunt civilians mark most of your encounters with the local populace. There’s a sense of desolation throughout every level, and Karnaca wouldn’t feel out of place in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe. Black magic and violence constantly bubble just under the surface of the city and exploring back alleys and deserted apartments will often turn up interesting tidbits, be they fallout from a domestic disagreement or a shrine to the mysterious Outsider.
There’s a fantastic sense of place to Karnaca, and a depth to the experience that is rarely found in videogames. I played through Dishonored 2 twice, once in a stealth playthrough as Emily, and secondly as a louder, brasher experience with Corvo. Both times obviously felt different due to the approach that I took, but it was the number of different scenarios and characters that I ran into each time that really surprised me. Each level area feels like a living world, with NPCs talking to each other, revealing clues and information about your objectives, and books full of lore scattered about help give a sense of history and place. I’m confident that I could play through multiple times and discover something new and interesting each time, all thanks to taking a left turn instead of a right or listening to an NPC conversation for just a few more seconds.
One thing that I did find a little disappointing was that there wasn’t a huge difference in the course of the main narrative whenever I took the decision to kill a major character of not. Of course, it makes sense that the developer wants to keep a cohesive story, and that there can’t be a major repercussion for every possible player decision, but the same narrative beats were hit on both playthroughs, with the only real difference being the summary of the world at the end of the game, and the brief appearances of characters whose lives I had spared at occasional intervals in the game.
Thankfully, playing through the game with different approaches felt different enough to make it rewarding to experience the game twice. I never felt that I was being forced into using a particular approach, with is a credit to both the level design and the powers with which each character is endowed. Areas are designed to be traversed as you see fit, and though my stealth playthrough took significantly longer than my louder attempts as Corvo, both felt equally exhilarating and challenging, and I felt the same sense of achievement finishing the game as one character as I did with the other.
Though Dishonored 2 features only a small sample of levels, with eight chapters in total, each area is meticulously designed, and contains enough depth to give players the opportunity of spending a great deal of time in each place. The narrative takes you to some fascinating locations, and at risk of ruining any surprises, there are a couple of mansion-based missions in particular that took my breath away. While Dishonored 2 may be a little unremarkable narratively, in terms of setting and gameplay it’s a top-notch experience, and feels unlike anything else currently available, excluding the first game.
Dishonored 2 perhaps isn’t as much of a remarkable experience as the first game was back in 2012, but it goes a long way towards refining what made that game so good, and in doing so presents an experience that is both tightly tuned and freeform enough to give players a broad sense of choice. This choice doesn’t lead to as much consequence as the game might have you believe, but as the saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination. Dishonored 2 presents a game world deeper than many others than I’ve experienced, and with this brings a compulsion to explore and discover new things that many games can only wish they had. While Karnaca certainly isn’t a place I’d ever want to visit in real life, Dishonored 2 presents a compelling argument for revisiting the city time and time again, if only to see what secrets it holds in its deepest, darkest corners.
