Booted up
Dishonored 2 last night. I played the original on PS4, but managed to get all three games plus the DLC for the first one in a Steam sale at a good price. Have to say, I think I prefer playing these with mouse and keyboard for aiming and quick reactions, as opposed to the DualShock.
My goodness it looks good. Dunwall looks better than ever (and it was pretty nostalgic to essentially run backwards through an old level from the first game to make my initial escape) and Karnaca is insanely beautiful. Reminds me of Cape Town, maybe Lisbon a little bit... I''m running the game on an Asus Tuf with everything set to low for performance, and it still looks stunning. The art style in Arkane games is also a part of that, slightly stylised, with echoes of a Paul Kidby Discworld painting.
Also, the moment where you choose your character is literally the coolest way I have ever seen that choice presented in a video game - I won't spoil it, but it really put a smile on my face. I chose Emily, since I had time with Corvo in the original.
Since my playthrough of the first game was high chaos as I was getting used to the playstyle and basically brute-forcing the levels, I'm trying a different tack and going low chaos and non-lethal as much as possible in this one. I accidentally dropped a bloke off a balcony, so I've got one kill, but otherwise going well so far! It is a rewarding way to play as I have to carefully consider every room even more so than when stealthily (and not so stealthily) murderising everyone, build towards a stealthy and hyper-aware loadout for Emily with the runes, and use distractions and timing as much as possible. I am extremely bought in, in other words!
On the story and characters:
- Spoiler: show
- I also have a few feelings on the morality of Emily as a deposed leader becoming a killer to take back her power when it seems like life in Dunwall hasn't improved drastically since the events of the first game, even if she is the victim of a coup by villainous conspirators who seem to be a lot worse. Since Arkane put a lot more narrative and even systemic weight on this than most studios and I expect it will eventually have resonance for the story, I will have to wait until I am a way through the game to get a good read on this. Either way, non-lethal feels better, I am just wondering what particular ways Arkane have found to knit this together with the story's morals this time. Don't spoil me!