When Ipromised to finish Dishonored 2, I thought it would be a little harder to keep my word. I’ve started the sequel to the breakout Thief successor three times before, and had never made it further than theClockwork Mansion. But over the long Memorial Day weekend, I rescued Sokolov and dispatched Kiran Jindosh for the first time. I’ve finished off the Conservatory since, and am now chewing on the riddle in the Dust District. I’m making quick progress, and the main thing that’s helped unlock the game for me has been accepting that it’s okay to be a killing machine.
Embracing Corvo The Killer In Dishonored 2
I’m a big fan of stealth games.The Last of UsandThe Last of Us Part 2are two of my all-time favorites, and whenHitman 3came out I poured more time into Agent 47’s espionage escapades than I ever had before into any game. It helped that Hitman 3 was really Hitman (2016), Hitman 2, and Hitman 3 in a sleek, but nondescript trench coat, but still I put in easily 200 hours across three games that each realistically take ten hours to beat.
Hitman gripped me because there was always a chance to do a mission a different way. The game handed out XP for each new objective you completed, major or minor; you got points for killing your target without being seen, killing your target without changing out of your starting suit, killing your target with a poisoned seafood dish, killing your target with an exploding golf ball, etc. There’s seemingly no end to the ways you can dispatch rich pricks, and I got endless joy out of my pursuit to uncover them all.
Finding The Fun In Dishonored 2
TheDishonoredseries doesn’t make the potential for systemic fun nearly as obvious (or objective-based) as Hitman. Using Windblast to knock two guards off a balcony at the same time won’t net you anything besides satisfaction at a job well done. And, once you finish the mission, the feedback youdoget kinda makes it seem like you should avoid experimentation. At the end of each mission inDishonored 2, you get a chart that plots your playstyle as low or high chaos, and as violent or non-violent. You also lose checkmarks in the final tally if you get discovered and if you kill anyone who isn’t your target. It all comes together to (unintentionally) discourage you from playing with your powers.
It’s a shame because using those powers in interesting ways is the chief joy of the game, and now that I’m discovering them, I don’t just want to roll credits, I kinda want to play it again. I’ve always started these games with a stealthy playthrough where combat is a last resort and will likely be avoided through save scumming.
But now I’m realizing that a violent run is a good way to get the hang of the game. I’m doing everything haphazardly, sure, but I’m also getting to grips with how everything works. If I play the game again in New Game Plus, I can see myself having a great time using all the powers in more skillful ways to nail that more difficult stealth playthrough. To get there though, violence is the answer. Slicing and dicing all my enemies is a necessary stepping stone on the path to pacifist perfection.
