The developers of Dishonored carried a stigma with me after releasing - a game which many doesn't know - Dark Messiah. The game was released after a great demo, and a pre-release interview with Valve's Gabe Newell praising the game and how the team utilized the Source engine like no other. After the release, the game was utter shit in both technical and mechanical aspects. With the release of the first Dishonored I was highly skeptical, but the game definitely won me over with great gameplay, settings, story, etc, and redeeming the developers for Dark Messiah.
Dishonored 2 follows the first game's foot step a bit too much. The gameplay and settings are still solid, but unfortunately the team didn't change much when it comes to mechanics. For some reason they changed the game's engine, despite the previous engine being technically sound, and with the new engine many players, including myself, faced a huge amount of issues, especially on the PC. I had to stop playing the game for a number of days waiting for a fix after an update that made it crash just as it starts.
From the get-go you can choose to play as Corvo, or Emily, his daughter and empress, each with their own abilities and upgrades. Corvo is the more stealth approach, and more fun in my opinion, style of play. Choosing Emily is the more aggressive approach, with the main new ability being the shadow walk, similar to the ability you have in The Darkness game. Unfortunately all the new abilities feel like gimmicks that are fun to use a couple of time, then you will go back to the main abilities you had in Dishonored 1.
From the get-go you can choose to play as Corvo, or Emily, his daughter and empress, each with their own abilities and upgrades. Corvo is the more stealth approach, and more fun in my opinion, style of play. Choosing Emily is the more aggressive approach, with the main new ability being the shadow walk, similar to the ability you have in The Darkness game. Unfortunately all the new abilities feel like gimmicks that are fun to use a couple of time, then you will go back to the main abilities you had in Dishonored 1.
When it comes to enemy design and AI, it can make or break a game for me, this is even more true in the stealth genre. When it came to enemy design, you still face the same human guards 90% of the time, with their variation of class not that noticeable. Other than that they have the mechanical guards, which are more difficult and work, to a certain level, like the big daddies from Bioshock. And in the late parts of the game you'll face humen enemies with abilitites. And who could forget the shitty time-wasting enemies like the giant wasps or whatever they call 'em. In short, when it came to enemies it felt lacking and pretty dumb for a stealth game.
The narrative part of Dishonored 1 was the usual videgame story, but the aesthetics and pacing is what made it for me. The world was beautifully realized and detailed all throughout the game. And the game had a distinctive graphical style similar to french animation. In Dishonored 2, the narrative builds on the story of it's predecessor, for no reason other than having the same name on the cover and to sell the name. In short the story was rushed, had no impact, and no identity.
Still despite all the issues and the game being mechanically and thematically similar to its predecessor, I had great time playing it, which is a testament to core of the game. What the developers invested in mostly is the level design. The levels are more varied, both thematically and mechanically. You'll navigate your way through puzzles in a clockwork mansion, or through a time-manipulation item where you can switch between present and past.
In closing, Dishonored 2 doesn't build on the first game in any evolutionary way, yet it is more Dishonored; more awesome stealth, great level design, and vibrant distinctive world.
The narrative part of Dishonored 1 was the usual videgame story, but the aesthetics and pacing is what made it for me. The world was beautifully realized and detailed all throughout the game. And the game had a distinctive graphical style similar to french animation. In Dishonored 2, the narrative builds on the story of it's predecessor, for no reason other than having the same name on the cover and to sell the name. In short the story was rushed, had no impact, and no identity.
Still despite all the issues and the game being mechanically and thematically similar to its predecessor, I had great time playing it, which is a testament to core of the game. What the developers invested in mostly is the level design. The levels are more varied, both thematically and mechanically. You'll navigate your way through puzzles in a clockwork mansion, or through a time-manipulation item where you can switch between present and past.
In closing, Dishonored 2 doesn't build on the first game in any evolutionary way, yet it is more Dishonored; more awesome stealth, great level design, and vibrant distinctive world.
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