Dishonored 2 (Xbox One)

Dishonored 2 is the sequel to the first person stealth action game. It released in 2016 and was developed by Arkane Studios.

Emily Kaldwin has now grown up and is now the Empress of the Isles. Corvo returns and is the Royal Protector to his daughter Emily. They held a ceremony of remembrance to Emily's mother and former Empress, Jessamine. It's soon interrupted by Duke Luca Abele and Deliah Copperspoon, who claims to be Jessamine's half sister and true heir to the throne. The Duke's men start attacking, leaving you to then choose your character, Emily or the previous protagonist, Corvo. Whoever you don't choose is turned into stone, leaving you to save them and reclaim your throne, and dispose of all who helped in your removal.

Previously, we could only play as Corvo, now we can play as Emily too. Each character has their own powers and share a couple too, so it's worth playing as each character. I picked Corvo first as I played as him originally, I went through with a no kill, no alerts and no powers low chaos playthrough. I then done the opposite with Emily and got to try out a few new powers. It may not sound fun, a new killing/stealth/powerless run, but I loved it. I discovered everything myself, lots of trial and error trying to find a stealthy way around. As I wasn't killing, I also had to find the non lethal way to take out the targets. They were cool and unique ways to dispose of targets, rather than just sticking them with a blade.

Now killing in this game is really fun too, going on sprees against the guards with swords, guns, explosives, crossbow blots and more is great. For a stealth game, they allow you to for a more action approach too, though you won't last long at all if you're not careful. There were a couple new powers, far reach was an Emily exclusive, that acted very similar to Blink and allowed you to teleport short distances. Mesmerize stops enemies in their tracks as they are put in a daze leaving them vulnerable. Domino was my favourite of the new ones, you can link up enemies together, and whatever happens to one happens to another, if you shoot one in the head, the other dies giving you a two for one. Doppelganger has Emily reveal a clone of herself and Shadow Walk allows Emily to be a smaller target and difficult to spot by the enemies.

I love the art style to this game and there's a slight improvement on the graphics, there wasn't much room for improvement honestly. There's a lot of replayability, two different characters, two play styles, powers or no powers, low or high chaos. There's loads of paths and secret areas, good combat, fantastic stealth and great voice acting. Corvo now has a voice actor who does a fantastic job. The cast is great too, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Rockwell and Pedro Pascal. There were great characters, Deliah is a fearful witch and a worthy main villain, Paolo was a standout too, he couldn't be killed unless he was killed twice in the same day. A special mention to the huge Clockwork soldiers, huge robotic enemies with four blades, very difficult in a fight and intense as fuck. They are terrifying when inactive as you have to stealth around them, being very careful not to wake them into a fight.

Some of the cool new features make the game more fun, if you're going for a no kill run but are spotted, you can now choke out enemies during combat to keep your non lethal playthrough. You can chain your possession power allowing you to switch from a hound, to a rat, to a person, to a fish all in one run. There are black market shops for you to purchase items or even Rob them, there's also plenty of notes and audiographs for more info on the world of Dishonored. The levels are huge with plenty to explore, lots of well designed levels and beautiful scenery, some of the best in video games. Two missions in particular stood out, the Clockwork Mansion, a mansion were the walls and floors can move, and take you to new areas of the mansion. There's another mission that takes place in the past and present at the same time. You're given a device that allows you to switch timeless and also has a mirror that shows what's in the other timeline as you play.

There really isn't much wrong with this game. I guess you could say it's short, especially if you play a non stealth approach, but you should play that way. It's not short playing stealthy and figuring everything out yourself. You could argue there aren't many new powers because Corvo gets none, they're all awarded to Emily which makes sense. The worst thing I could say, is I don't think it's better than the first game. The first was exceptional, one of the best I've played, Dishonored 2 is fantastic that being said. All that's next is to make it a trilogy, not much would stop me from preordering Dishonored 3.

8.8/10