Of all the games Bethesda was rumored to be showing at E3 this year, Dishonored 2 was the one I was most excited about. The sequel to 2012’s stealth action adventure game was high on everyone’s wish list, including mine. Well, Bethesda seems to have knocked this one out of the park.
The game takes place 15 years after the original game. The player can play as either Corvo Attano, the hero of the last game; or Emily Kaldwin, the Empress who happens to be the young girl Corvo saved in the last game. In Dishonored 2, Empress Emily has lost her throne to an otherworldly presence, and she and Corvo must travel through the streets of Dunwall and Karnaca, a nearby coastal city, to find a way to defeat the pretender to the throne. You can switch between both Corvo and Emily during gameplay, and the story’s perspective is slightly colored by whose eyes you play the game through.
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Along the way, both will exercise new supernatural abilities. During the gameplay demo at E3, Emily showed of her Mesmerize ability, using it to hypnotize two guards and a dog in order to get past them. She also used the Far Reach ability in the demo, an ability which allows her to grab enemies and objects from large distances. Most impressive of the abilities shown at E3 was Domino. With it, she links the minds of several enemies. If one is stunned or killed, they all suffer the same fate.
Graphically, the game looks great. Most of the town gameplay is centered on the Karnaca district of Dust, and the city is aptly named. Dust storms riddle the cityscape and frequently obscure Emily’s vision as well as the vision of any enemies. The effect of the dust in the air gives Dust its own flavor; I can imagine other cities having similar signature touches. The city itself is vast and alive, and architectural details abound in every square inch of every structure. Everything was fluid and impressive in the gameplay demo.
Overall, Dishonored 2’s presentation sings to me. Of course, this is gameplay footage from E3, and the usual worries about “vertical slices” and potential future downgrades in quality remain, but Bethesda has earned its place as a quality publisher. This feels like the real deal, and I’m loving it!
