Dishonored 2 (2016)

Dishonored 2 - First Impressions

I played first few missions nonlethal ghost first and then after I found myself not enjoying myself at all I tried to do the lethal-do-whatever-the-fuck-i-want which was more enjoyable but I ended up feeling somewhat close to the same somehow once I was done with it.

I feel like I've located the problem I have with Dishonored 2, or several. Going to start with the first one, the game somewhat encourages ghosting/nonlethal with mission end screens showing both achievements for it first and that it gives you a good ending but nonlethal in D2 is incredibly dull. Ghosting is easy thanks to how busted Blink/Far Reach is, and while that may be a problem to Medium difficulty only just looking at the level design and how it works I don't think it's really designed in mind for you to have fun playing the game this way. Secondly, the game pushes a "play-your-own-way" style but locks all of your options to progression runes, which means that your enjoyment that you CAN have is ultimately limited at the start, and I found it wayyyyy too limiting to have that much fun even when I did try to experiment. Your options are abusing guard behavior, far reaching, or use of items which do combine in somewhat interesting ways at the start but not in any I found particularly enjoyable.

For my money, I wish Dishonored 2 threw out the whole D1 schtick and took a note from Crysis Warhead, have everything unlocked at the start and build the game around it. And really I don't care that it goes against the story this way in terms of progression, the story is NOT GOOD in the beginning and there is very little characterization here. I was incredibly disappointed that no matter if you're corvo or emily, you're monotone cardboard. Nor do I find the progression here to be very interesting, you're not making decisions that will impact whether or not you can succeed, you're deciding which experimental option you're choosing to let stay locked off. And considering how the next game Arkane made was Prey which allowed you to have practically all your interesting options from the start of the game and they built the levels around that just fine I don't think Arkane is incapable of doing so with D2.

The saving grace so I've been told is some of the later levels' level design, which is why I'm not dropping the game. I'm certain it improves and there's enough word of mouth. And though I'm harping a ton on the game right now it's definitely competent and offers a large amount of freedom, it's alright. When I did go loud and experiment I certainly enjoyed myself enough to keep going I'm just pushed off by the identity crisis the game has.

I was really hoping they would do away with some of the mechanics from the original game that felt annoying and antiquated. I genuinely dislike the "chaos" system (if you kill a lot of enemies the game gets harder). Because of the finicky nature of first person stealth, sometimes you just get caught when you really, really, felt like you were hidden. And, after a long sequence, it's easy to just go "uuuuugh fuck it" and stab through a bunch of enemies. They also give you more combat options than non-combat options, so it feels like you shouldn't get "punished" for playing high-chaos.

I get that playing stealth is the "right" way, and I can admit that maybe I'm not playing as intended. But the same phenomenon happened in the first game and its accompanying DLC: The beginning of the game you don't have many options. If you get caught, you have to fight your way through it, or try to escape which can be hard. Because of this, the first few missions always end up being high chaos. But then, once you get enough upgrades, stealth becomes not only easier, but more fun. So it makes sense to stealth around more, and is more enjoyable. HOWEVER, because of the reckless nature of my first couple missions, I'm fighting an uphill battle. My overall chaos level is high, even though I'm then completing missions in low chaos.

I hope that made sense. Essentially the sins of your first few missions carry pretty far, and aren't so easy to undo. Perhaps this is game the requires multiple playthroughs to really click in that regard. It's still an alright game with a cool world, though. I don't hate it, I was just hoping to not be punished for playing how I'd like.

Edit: I'm only like 3 missions in btw. so maybe it'll change!