#mine ALSO started coming out looking like a weird rat XD

[dawnthread]

what the pattern promised me it'd look like:

what the body, as knitted to gauge and exactly to pattern specs, looked like:

... my man is not beating the weird rat allegations, i'm sorry to say. but that's alright! we can fix him! we have the technology!

[zlukaka]

Dishonored 2 - LC - Impressions

My first impression of the game was very mixed (great gameplay and visuals / cringy dialogues and poor writing, good actors’ talents wasted), but further along the good outweighed the bad. So, yes, it was an enjoyable game, all in all not worse than the original - totally worth playing.

So far I did a Low Chaos Corvo. Later I’ll also share the impressions on High Chaos Emily.

Lots of spoilers (and some screenshots) below cut.

Let’s start with the weak points of the game:

Non-mute Corvo. Having a silent protagonist in the first part left Corvo very open for interpretation. The Corvo I heard in D2 was not Corvo to me. As much as I like Stephen Russell as Garrett, his Corvo felt like a week-old piece of bologna that someone microwaved out of sheer desperation. It’s not his fault, though. I think it’s the writing and whoever directed the voice acting. I blame the same party on my next issue.

Jessamine / The Heart. In D1 I would go out of my way to poke everyone and every location with the Heart to hear what it had to say. Its lines were fun, inspiring, eerie. In D2 I would accidentally click the Heart and shudder in disgust at Jessamine’s lines. 90% of the time they were clumsy, unimpressive, banal and spoken in almost the same tone regardless of the graveness of an NPC’s crimes. Speaking of which a ridiculous number of the NPCs turns out to be psychopaths or assholes with no redeeming features. The fact everyone except the main characters only gets one line makes it even worse. I understand why they did it technically, but the end result was awful. I never played High Chaos in D1, I couldn’t bear to kill any of those people because each of them had a bit of good and a bit of bad in them, just like real people. It was an integral part of Dishonored for me, the message that most people will do horrible things during a crisis, but that there’s still hope for them and killing them is bad. But D2 seems to go out of its way telling me “you know what, they’re all assholes, annoying unlikable assholes, kill them all”. A weird message to send when you want people to get a good ending. As a result I can’t wait for the HC playthrough where I’ll slaughter every living person in the Empire. It will feel so good.

Generally, the weakest link in the game for me was the writing. Interestingly, the more important the character, the weaker their lines, with Corvo’s early game lines being some of the worst, while some banter between ordinary citizens was fun, witty and refreshing. Also I get the impression the message the game tried to deliver kept getting lost in the clumsy storytelling. The Outsider and Sokolov would tell us how Delilah has such potential to change the world for the better, and then we return to Dunwall, and it’s a post-apocalyptic mess, and her plan for ‘improving the world’ is filling it with statues of herself. The Outsider would preach that being a witch is so much better than being in a loveless marriage, then we meet the witches, and they’re a bunch of murderous psychos. For a game about how oppressive institutions are bad Dishonored 2 sure keeps flopping on the show-not-tell part. At the end of the day, despite all the in-game finger shaking, I feel fully justified siding with the Overseers. According to Jess, most of the people on Karnaca are some flavor of violent criminal. Might as well let the zealots have their way, the only way from here is up.

Ghost Jessamine is another complaint of mine. Her being more than a piece of meat stuffed with clockwork takes away from the mystique surrounding her state. Her in-person ghostly conversations with Corvo make her feel alive rather than an echo of her former self, taking away from the strong impression the Heart created on its own in the original game.

The Voguing in the Void. Bad writing makes it hard to take characters seriously. Having them teleport and take a different pose every time they utter a sentence only makes things worse. Maybe the intention here was to make me want to kill the Outsider in the new game? If so, good job.

Continuing the Dishonored tradition of introducing a female character and killing her off in the first three minutes of the game. And then telling us post-factum how noble, good and interesting she was. Only this time after one more mention she is completely forgotten, which is even worse than last time. I’m talking about Captain Mayhew. Cool design, ok story, but feels extremely like a token character. Maybe her part in the story was meant to be bigger, but got cut? I don’t know, but she felt completely unnecessary, so did her death. At least Jessamine and her death were integral to the plot of the first game.

The atmosphere of the game wasn’t as strong as in the original. I blame the Heart for it. The Heart and the weak storytelling (not the weak story, the story was actually alright).

The bloodflies were less of a threat than the rats in the first game. Most of the time you could sprint to their nest and wack it to pieces without even getting hurt. They should be harder to get rid of to live up to their intimidating reputation.

Oh, and this:

(whoever decided to use this number of fonts needs to go back to design school)

Now, you might think after all those complaints that I hate the game. I thought I might, but I didn’t. After I got used to the bad, the good eventually shone through and dominated my impression. Here we go:

Music. The music is just as good. Such a pity Daniel Licht is no longer with us. May he rest in peace.

Gameplay. No complaints here. The levels seem bigger and more fun than in the original game, sneaking is a little tougher. No more killing people by throwing them on beds. Being able to use the Heart on unconscious people, the unconscious indicator is a great addition in its own right.

Meagan Foster and Sokolov. Ok, the writing on these two was actually pretty cute and solid. I wonder if different people worked on these two compared to Corvo and Emily, or if it was the same writer, but having a bad/good day, etc. For once, I love how Meagan was written.

Kirin Jindosh. I didn’t get too much of him because he never knew I was there, but from what little I saw of him - best baddie in the game. 11/10, would reduce to below average intelligence again.

Good Guy Overseers. Yes, they will drown the occasional kiddo because witchcraft, but come on, their preaching is pretty reasonable. Notice how the Abbey actually comes last. Sounds better than many real world religions to me.

The Overseers were the turning point in the game’s writing for me. I realized the NPCs actually say fun stuff, it’s just the main cast that’s being boring.

The visuals. Often with a new game in a series I fear the HD-photorealism takeover, but Dishonored 2 stayed loyal to its artistic direction while making things more high-res. It’s beautiful.

The second half of the game. I thought the Clockwork mansion would be the best part of the game, but then I was very surprised to discover things actually truly picked up in the Dust District, or more precisely in the mansion. The time-shifting was a great addition to the gameplay! Moreover...

The plot was decent. The storytelling was kinda mediocre, but the story they were trying to tell was actually quite fun. Breaking Jindosh, saving Stilton and replacing Abele were some of the highlights of the game. There was a number of rather fun twists, like Delilah and Luca actually being truly in love?? Who saw that coming? I didn’t. I thought she was just using him, like she was using Breanna, but then in the end she calls him ‘my love’ right after expressing nothing but cold disappointment that Breanna is no longer a useful tool. That makes Delilah a little less of a calculating cold monster and a bit more human. For once, I actually sort of like her after hating her guts since forever. So that’s pretty good.

Giving Billie her arm and eye back. Holy shit, that felt amazing.

Keeping with the good tradition of not-in-your-face gay characters. The occasional Overseer who dates millers behind said millers’ wives’ backs. The emphasis on how close the old Duke and Stilton were. Good stuff.

The Oracular Order and its role within the Abbey were expanded upon. 

Killing Paolo in slow-mo and gobbling up all the white rats.

The non-lethal takedowns were all satisfying.

The very freaky nest keepers and their delusions.

The Ultra Low Chaos Happy Ending:

(look, Mom, both hands!)

My conclusion from all of this is that when I play High Chaos I will try not to use the Heart almost at all not to spoil the fun with Jess’ banalities. And I will let Jindosh know I’m there so he can comment his heart out about my escapades around his home. 

I am so pumped for the Death of the Outsider now, because if Dishonored finally manages to address its theme properly, that would be nice. Also, finally playing as Billie is amazing, and killing the Outsider sounds like fun to me (please, remember I enjoyed low chaos Jindosh take down). I won’t be watching any more trailers, gameplay videos and such, I prefer to go into a game with minimal knowledge. Thankfully the game will be out soon enough. I will doodle some silliness meanwhile. Also, D2 left me wondering about what would happen to Heathen-Go-Lucky folks under Delilah. Pretty sure someone would end up turned to stone. XD