This has been a game I've been waiting for a long time. As you may know, Dishonored is the game that has been my childhood and the creation of my virtual hero. As time went by, I finally got this game. What I got? Well, I love it. Hello Wandering Traveler and welcome to this thoughtful review!
Because this is one of my long awaited game and part of one of my favorite games, I won't hesitate to put some strong judgement on it. The first thing I want to talk about is the story in this game. It's... Great so far. I love it. It's well written and interesting to say the least. The only thing I don't like is how it started. Spoilers ahead everyone.
As I can tell, most of you might have chosen to play as Emily Kaldwin. Well, what they did to Corvo afterwards was a downer. I didn't like it. You chose Emily and the next second, Corvo is turned to stone by Delilah, the sister of Jessamine Kaldwin. The guards turn on you and your knocked out and you begin the game. Why take away Corvo. I know he's the motivation for the player to complete the game, but I rather it be the antagonist to be the reason. I mean, you can have something else other than Corvo to be the player's motivation to complete the game. Why not put the original characters like Calista, Piero or Samuel be held in specific places in the game for the player to go and save them. And to put on top of that, I would have liked a lot better if Delilah hindered Corvo, taken all his powers and strength. And when you start a mission, there are optional quests for you to do to help Corvo back on his feet after seeing him bedridden, not being able to move or speak without screaming in pain. That would have been cool and would have felt like helping an old friend with his life. Besides that, I love the story in this game.
Emilies Powers are cool, but challenging to use. It requires some skill for you to properly blast through a building full of guards with powers. Mesmerise starts you off with the ability to distract two guards. You can upgrade to have a longer range to draw a guard or distract more people or hounds. I haven't tried on Bloodflies, though (Try it out!). Shadow Walk is very fun and easy to master, but you can still be noticed in this form. You have to go past the guards fast before they notice you, because they tend to follow where you go. The power last for a short while, but it's long enough to kill or take out guards if needed. Domino was already explained in the trailers, but they haven't told you that you start with the ability to link only two people. You can upgrade this ability to domino more and is effective to choke out hard-to-touch guards. Be careful if they're near Walls of Light, though. Dappleganger is great as well. It starts as distraction for guards to leave their posts and be upgraded to teleport in risky places or upgrade it to attack with you. It's effective the most in The Good Doctor mission. Long Reach is a bit buggy. The only buggy thing in the game that I have a problem with. The location of which I want to go sometimes doesn't appear to where I want it. You want to go here, but the power tells you "No!" and goes below it. The only thing I don't like is how you can't upgrade it to have a longer reach. Why can't I? I am in a pickle and I need a longer ranged Long Reach! Besides that, the powers are great and each one has some value to both playthrough choices.
The look of the game has drastically changed, but not too much. I actually like it. It's realistic, but still cartoonish. The guards look amazing and each character has some depth to their NPC models. The teeth just look gorgeous! I know that's weird, but most game devs don't put attention on the lips and teeth! It looks like a movie on 4K! The lighting is great as well since it reflects off of each surface and body really well. You can tell what's sunlight and what's electrical light. And the game has more lore to it than there should be. I know that sounds bad, but I love it!
And I just love the design to the Bloodflies! They look so dangerous and creepy! The sound they make when they're in a swarm is so spine-tingling and when they surround you or feast on a corpse makes your skin crawl! Their design is just so perfect as a bug and their nests are so cool. I don't know much about them, but I believe they are an evolved version of the rat plague from the first game. I mean, it kind of explains the flies coming out of the Weepers mouths.
The strategy to go around them is awesome as well: you can either burn their nests as they fly towards the light, killing themselves or use Shadow Walk or Dappleganger to go around them. You can throw a corpse at them, but it just spawns more or them.
The stats in this game are more diverse than the last one. I mean, in the last one all you had to do was not kill anyone to get a low chaos. This one, there are different ways to get a bad stat to make you bad. There is a mixture of Assault, Nonlethal, Shadow and Lethal to determine your decisions in the game. You choke out too many people and you stats goes to the assault title and near lethal. Don't be seen and take out three people and get a straight Nonlethal stat. It's a good little change in the game and an indication of more ending than the Good or Bad endings.
With all that said, the game has a funny thing that the guards say almost all the time. You are walking to a guard, ready to choke him out before he says, "Man, I gotta pee..." You slowly back away to not risk urine dripping onto your clothes. Besides that, the game has some things I usually hate solved. Lipsync is great. They don't look they're mumbling gibberish. And the conversations they create in-game is actually believable. It's reused dialogue, but they fit well with the conversation that they have. The only thing I don't like so far is the voice actor for The Outsider. He does a good job, it's just that his voice doesn't fit with the character.
Overall, this game deserves a 9.5/10! The game is great, it's fun and has so much personality to it. But that's all my opinion. From what I've seen, the game has gotten poor reception from Steam, but doing well on IGN. What do you guys think? Those of you who own it on PC, please tell me if the game plays well on there. Well, I hope you enjoyed this review and 'til next time...
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