Dishonored 2 | An Uncanny Sequel | 2021 Review

Some people consider Dishonored to take place in the Elder Scrolls setting, ergo, this is the Oblivion video.

It’s such such a beautiful game to play. So much scope for creativity. Immersive design and music. It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy it more.

I mean, I'd argue Deus Ex was the only true immersive sim. It wasn't about having multiple paths or options, it was that it behaved like a simulator that focused on immersion - or, as I prefer to word it, rather than the player being immersed in the game, it's the game that's immersed in the player's behaviour.

Games like Assassin's creed will kind of break and feel clunky if you don't play immersively - they're strict simulators. Deus Ex, on the other hand, will have the enemies react to the player messing around - betray UNATCO at the very beginning? They'll treat you like a traitor and fight you to the death. Abandon your mission? You don't get a mission failed screen, you instead get berated by your superiors for your incompetence.

The maps weren't designed around mechanics, the mechanics were just designed to be free enough that you could use them in many situations. Fences have limits, rooftops can be stood on - meaning you can jump up, or stack boxes to reach them. Other games, however, would include invisible walls, or teleport you back into the map. Deus Ex: Human Revolution would force you to find the 'weak wall' to break through, or the vent to stealth past.

No matter how you reach the objective in Deus Ex, the game accepts that you did it and gives you the reward. Honestly, it was really a marvel - unrestricted gameplay which the game was well designed enough to account for and thus retain immersion. It's very hard to 'break the game', or ruin your immersion, no matter what kind of silly behaviour you partake in.

Do you really need all of this meta knowledge and Bone charm min maxing to do what you want? On my playthrough I decided to kill absolutely everyone and not having x y z charm didn't stop me from that goal. I am fine with not having a number or percentage on the improvement to my ability, It would be out of place anyway since there is no way for corvo to have such meta knowledge to begin with. I don't have any issue with delilah but I get that the ending ought not have been a direct copy of Daud's fight with her in one but Its a nice premise though, Magical enemies instead of just nobles and gangs. Should have left this ending for 2 and the daud fight be slightly different


2 defnetely had better level design, you aren't going to top the clockwork mansion, The clockwork soliders were cool, Much better than the tall boys from the first

Hope you make a video on Prey though its generally the same game style

D2's biggest issue for me was replacing the verticality with horizontally.

They took away large parts when you could climb on rooftops and explore hidden rooms; and replaced them with horribly constrictive interior spaces.

It just annoys me because half the time you're spotted is because these areas have little to no cover, and the areas that do are chock full of enemies. Jindosh's mansion in particular can suck a fat one.

Regardless of any storytelling value I will always enjoy the game more if I am given the choice between sexes rather than being forced into it. I'm no game story writer, nor do I care about the subtlety. Games are escapism, and I will always prefer playing as a woman in games as opposed to a man. Unless it's GTA5, that character creator is a trainwreck.

sometimes your issues with the game could be solved by getting the vibe

i think you're the only one who really approached the story critically. i agree with everything you said lol

In the first game it felt believable enough, even to a great extent I could be taken by the suspension of disbelief in the DLC for Dishonored, (despite starting to suffer the issues of corporate meddling like Dishonored 2) but Dishonored 2's story and setting make nearly no sense, especially when it already long established a period much like the mid-1800s London, where woke paradigms infect every facet of the game and Emily looks like a lesbian. (specifically looking like an abusive one at that) Do I specifically care about Emily being the protagonist? No, her becoming somewhat like she is in a sequel was practically televised in the first game. (though clearly it was never intended to have a sequel) My problem is she doesn't much resemble the original character in low chaos, (not that the original had much character anyway) and neither does the setting resemble the original setting all that well. Even if we're gonna set the game 15 years in the future, there is little reason to justify the game. Its especially egregious when not only do you understand the game's setting but also the inspiration for the setting both were rampantly opposed to the woke insert bullcrap, it makes no sense, even in the modern era you will practically never find women put into high conflict jobs, (unless it specifically pertains to private woman affairs) everyone would rather have nobody involved then to put a woman in that position, almost nobody would hire a woman to rough up people or violently guard a location, even in modern military endeavors its exceptionally rare. Yet half the game world is filled with officer women ranking above their male counterparts guarding everything, this makes no sense and ruins the entire setting for me.

The story is also complete nonsense, has poor theming as stated, requires idiotic decisions from characters who should know better, and then literally has the characters repeat the same mistake from the first game's DLC trying to act like the first game's DLC simply didn't happen without actually retconning it away.

22k subs into 147k subs. Way to go!

Yeah Dishonored does seem to have a fairly strong socialism mentality where aristocracy & wealthy bad, poor and unfortunate good. I suppose that can explain away the disjointed and unnatural story.

Yeah I think Dishonored's achilles heel has always been the story (and by extension arguably characters, but also they could've just been utilised better).

Having Emily as an assassin and Delilah return felt like a great way to nullify everything you worked for in the previous game and its DLC.

You can stealth your entire way through, and then right before leaving for the last mission you can kill foster and show her dead body to sokolov, and still have low chaos

i like to play corvo when i play high chaos i just see it as a diferent caracter arch, a tired man that has been desensitesed to violence and the horrors of a plague and just wants to get tnhings done no mater who he has to get trough

Honestly I’d love to have a game story set examining Emily and Corvo’s legacy. D2’s story just felt so…. Lazy? Like, everyone except the writers were firing on all cylinders. Give us a political machinations game where you as Corvo have to infiltrate another nation and actually truly serve as a crown killer role. Make us question Emily’s stability when she insists upon personally dirtying her own hands, give Corvo this terrible revelation that Emily has gained an Outsider’s Mark and wonder if she’s become more bloodied because she believes in the mission or if she’s being influenced by the Dark God’s control. Idk I think there’s something there that could be way better examined than ‘There do be witches.’

The series’ side content also kinda sucks. The novels aren’t well written or interesting imho, it’s just disappointing.

One thing I've never understood about this game is that: if the low chaos ending of Dishonored 1 is official canon, then how come the start of Dishonored 2 shows Dunwall still in such a politically tumultuous time? What happened to the "golden age of the empire" the outsider promised me after all that savescumming to get ghost with zero kills in Dishonored 1? How come I get to Dishonored 2 and suddenly there's a new serial killer on the loose and poverty is still such a major problem and Emily's reign is so often/easily criticized?

It would have been such better framing to start Dishonored 2 in said golden age, and having to fight to maintain it. This would've made Emily's character so much easier to root for and become invested in and it would be way more interesting than just a retread of this whole betrayal to redemption story we went through already with Corvo.

Or just... make the high chaos ending canon? As it actually really makes sense to pick the story up from there with the way Dishonored 2 starts.

I think that the protagonist for dishonored 2 should not have been Corvo and Emily, nor Emily's kids. In knife of dunwall the outsider tell Daud that he only gifted his mark to 7 people (at that point we know 3 of them, Corvo, Daud, and Delilah) i think dishonored 2 should have been about another user of the mark, this opens a lot of possibilities, a new place that the story could take place on (karnaka for example) a new story about a new character,maybe a young noble which family got evicted as their mansion got suddenly plagued by blood flies or betrayed by those the family hold clouse, maybe their sister or brother that also has the power of the mark this eay you could also have 2 protagonist making the one you didn't pick, the villain, pretty cliche i know but im not a writer, i truly think Corvo's story was finished in Dishonored 1 and that Emily's life cpuld have been guessed depending on what ending you got and that Arkane should have expanded upon the users of the mark instead of expanding of something that was already over.

The game is about me playing the same masked badass and going around being a maniac akin to spring heeled jack 😡

Dishonored 2 is one of my favorite games. Honestly the favorite since Skyrim times. Only started playing this year

personal nitpick but i don't think the weapons' thing was to make Emily more femanin i think it was to show how maybe since Emily is the empress she would have access to more top tier stuff as it seems that Emily's gun is way more advanced then corvos

Looking back on it I can clearly say what I personally didnt like about it, gameplay aside. Corvo talking. Emily not being the "white empress" i worked for her to be in DH1. It being revealed in the first place that Corvo is indeed her father. Everything they did with the Outsider, from his past to the voids design changes to where he ends up. I didnt want him to be a human with a boring tragic backstory who needs help, i had fun with him just being an eternally bored unknowable alien god who sometimes helps us just because. Delilah being the antagonist again. Jessamine still being the heart. Having to retake the throne again. And like a million tiny other things i rolled my eyes at. It had none of the magic and none of the mystery and allure of the first one.

If you can flush the toilets it's an ImSim.

The reason Delilah was able to escape the void is because the island depicted by the painting she was stuck in was near the edge of the void and where the Outsider became a God. If it was not for Daud, Delilah would never have been able to become a part of the Outsider and escape. If the non-lethal option is canon for Delilah in the second game, it would be impossible for her to come back because it would be nigh impossible to find that island again

Yeah, Emily makes more sense as the protagonist, but then the weapons and tools should also be changed I think. Because they made it with both in mind as opposed to just one, they just copied Corvo's kit from D1, which doesn't necessarily make sense for Emily. Sure, Corvo was the one who taught her the skills she knows, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't have different tools. Emily, being the Empress, might have had a sword made for her that carries an anesthetic that puts people down after being struck against flesh. Because as the empress, she can't go around murdering people, whether she literally can or not - she'd want them to, if deserving of death, first undergo a fair, public trial. Similarly, she likely wouldn't use a gun at all, since she is the empress and in her case, all-out conspicuous fights have to be avoided - she can't engage in combat casually, because every +1 person she engages could recognize her as the empress. Thus drawing attention to herself is unwise. The crossbow does make sense, but again, being the empress, she might have wanted to get one of the wrist-mounted variants, which is easily concealed and can be carried even when holding court, to fend off potential assassins.

We do see that her Outsider powers are different - they're her own spin on things, along with some unique abilities. And that makes a lot of sense.

So, yeah, I agree, there shouldn't be forced choice between genders in a game that's heavily based on the player character's exact circumstances. In most games, it makes sense to allow a choice between different genders just for your personal preference, or for customization's sake - but those games don't establish you as having one specific backstory that takes into account everything about your character, from appearance to name to current social standing.

The Half-Life protagonist could have been anyone. Yes, it's Gordon, but it makes no difference at all as to who it really is, it's an empty vessel we the players take control over. Half-life 2 can't allow that same choice, because it focuses heavily on the hinted relationship and tension with Alyx and Eli.

It's a mixed bag when it comes to customization - having it is a plus, because it allows the player to have more free reign over the character they play, but it's also a minus because it disallows engaging the player's character too much with the story.

You say "Imily" instead of Emily. Can't un-notice it.

Definitely didn't like the story as much in Dishonored 2, the change of setting was interesting, and some of the levels had interesting gimmicks, but by the end of it I just didn't care about the plot/setting as much.
Your video was pretty good (and entertaining) in most spots, though the safe code being a reference to some book was kinda a low point and where the video got the most off track I'd say.

Daud trapped her in the painting. The 2 time period mansion covers that, it''s not forgotten...

Somehow Delilah returned...

after their character specific powers i have a a question. is this dishonored 2, stone ocean

bro its crazy how much u sound like boulder punch

Let’s run with the idea of the two protagonists being Emily’s children.

So, we have two twins, boy and girl. Let’s give them some personalities. The girl is very boisterous. She has a very kick down a door to introduce herself personality. Despite this, she is very caring and likable, making friends easily.

She will be the more combat oriented one of the twins. She isn’t as suited for stealth but she can make Allie’s easy and have options open up that way. More the revolutionary of the two.

The brother is more the politician. He’s intelligent and is very sneaky, but doesn’t have that way with others and can be rather uncaring of those outside his immediate circle. He’s more stealth focused, not able to stand up in fights as well but able to get things done in efficiently and find unique solutions that others might not have seen.

They, of course, don’t like each other that much due to their conflicting personalities and a park of this idea is playing that off of the story and working with it.

But let’s keep going. Corvo of course dies and is the new heart (maybe a bit snarky due to already having experience with the outside and his magic) but the outsider in a attempt to make this a bit more interesting for himself, also let’s the sibling we didn’t choose tag along as a sort of ghost for the journey.

Here comes the fun part (in my opinion) the other sibling will be encouraging you to do the options they would pick and you can decide to do that or ignore them in conjunction with the chaos system.

So let’s say you go low chaos with the brother. One playthrough you play as the brother would, and you sister through observation comes to respect the more patient approach and sees that there’s a time and place to think things through and look for the less obvious option. But you could also have the brother do what the sister would do and have him instead realize that thinking of others and taking a more direct approach has its merits. Or even a combo of the two where they both come to respect each other’s mindset and see the benefit in both.

For high chaos, you can have the other sibling become horrified at your actions, either reinforcing a previous negative opinion regarding their methods or seeing you bastardize what they think is right, further driving a wedge between the two.

The idea being that not only does Chaos effect the wider world but also the relationship with the second protagonist, how their relationship and opinion of the other changes, and potentionally the ending (on a high chaos I would make the other protagonist the final boss as they try to stop you).

As a Dishonored 1 die hard fan, I still don't get the point of the sequel. Sometimes a story just needs to end on a high note.

I liked the choice of Corvo or Emily to play as, I think the issue is just a lack of permutation. When playing Corvo, the boatlady should just have a different line, y'know.

Also, I saw the high/low chaos thing as more of a... mood change. Like, in dishonored 1, playing at high chaos changes the weather in the last level. That's not, like, a simple A-to-B Watsonian in-universe cause-and-effect, that's the player choosing a darker, grimmer ending for a darker, grimmer playstyle. It's like... Impressionistic.

MasterLock sucks
Get a better lock, my dude

Imagine if this game was co-op

I refuse to ever support that studio again since they openly apperently worked on the story with that murderer sharkensi or whatever her name was. Fuck them

Why the fuck would you drop a spoiler within the first five seconds of your video?!

Rather than a choice at the start, I think Corvo should've been a new game plus option, after you've beaten the game, you can play with the familiar abilities of Dishonored 1 and a slightly different story, maybe even weave the Outsider into it and say like, he's giving Corvo the chance to change the timeline, to keep Emily safe, without telling Corvo that Emily actually got through just fine, because the Outsider just wants to see what would happen, like he did when he gave Corvo his mark in the first place.

I’m a woman, it’s not sexist to women to have Emily’s tools be more sleek and elegant, there’s nothing wrong with sleek and elegant

“There not enough women In games” cried the invalid.
“We hear you” reasoned the even more invalid.
proceeds to fill all games with completely insufferable female characters
Thank you all parties involved for making everything worse and calling that progress.

I dont even remember using any powers other than Blink in dishonored 2. Thats literally how irrelevant most of them are. Granted, the same thing could be said abt the first game.

A lot of these complaints feel very nitpicky. The story definitely have some issues with retreading similar ground but it has a difference on scale and tactics. She's trying similar plan different approach. Her first strategy afforded her that. Its very similar to the gameplay. You replay it and try something different. As for gameplay, corvo adds a nice choice for familiarity and more choice which is always welcomed. It also adds to new game plus. There upgrades also have differences so even more choice is added for replayability. Stuff like emile not having blink feels like just a personal taste difference. You can assume that its a common power for the mark but thats an assumption not an assertion. Fish issue with the grate is valid. Blaming the game for having the merchant robbery be a puzzle tho seems like a stretch. It adds to the gameplay and rewards players for observation. Same with safes. It even plays into immersion as emile and corvo would want to prepare and upgrade before a confrontation. Chaos does lack care of detection but who you kill does matter. What the heart tells you does effect chaos. You can argue stealing should matter but you could argue its for a greater ends. Its more of a grey area. As for the time travel mission, the beauty of magic systems is the devs can do what they want with it. Consistency is a choice and here they went without it. The void doesn't have to follow hard and fast rules, its maliable and that allows the dev team to do whatever whenever they do it. Its clear as day that gameplay was top of the pyramid and thats fine. At the end of the day, dishonored 2 has a focus on having a bigger sandbox compared to dishonored 1 which has a more conpact but thorough one. That isnt a fault on dishonored 2. The biggest difference between the two is preference not quality.

Edit: Forgot to mention something

I love Dishonoerd 2 even more than Dishonoerd to be honest

Totally agree- game felt so off but I absolutely loved it regardless, in spite of the clumsy, unnatural atmosphere