This review contains spoilers
Yeah it was wonky on release but I got it on the PS4 so I didn't notice, sorry.
I loved playing as Emily and I loved her powerset. I think Karnaca was a really cool setting and the game itself was gorgeous, a total upgrade over the first game while still feeling accurate to the world and unique to the franchise. A couple of the levels (especially A Crack in the Slab) were really imaginative and just viscerally satisfying to master and figure out. Honestly, it was a pretty good sequel overall.
My main gripe is the story. Dishonored 1 had a pretty bare-bones plot that was just an excuse to get Corvo going. Here, the protagonists are voiced and the story becomes a larger presence in the game, and you can really tell that the writers just can't quite back up their worldbuilding and atmosphere with a good story, at least not with Emily or Corvo at the helm. They're both voiced this time and the actors do a decent enough job, but Emily's story in particular just fell really short for me. You're supposed to believe that low chaos Emily learned how privileged she is and that she needs to do better, but we're just ... told this at the end of the game. Like, we don't see her evolve and realize the errors of her ways, the privilege of her position as Empress, how she's hurt her people by neglecting her duties. She just decides "oh well I'll do better now," but nothing really changes.
It just makes her seem really unlikable and like the main villain is lowkey correct? Which wouldn't be a bad thing, if it was intentional on the writers' part, but I don't think it was. It just came off as really underbaked and trite.
Poor Corvo just gets a rehash of his plot in DH1, characters even point out that it's the same dang conflict. I think the old man was just included to satisfy the gamer bros who can't play as a woman lest their masculinity shatters into a thousand wet pieces.
So this game was fun and I would've liked it more if the story was better, or if they let Emily and Corvo shut up this time, too, so I could at least imagine better writing for them, cuz that worked in DH1.
I loved playing as Emily and I loved her powerset. I think Karnaca was a really cool setting and the game itself was gorgeous, a total upgrade over the first game while still feeling accurate to the world and unique to the franchise. A couple of the levels (especially A Crack in the Slab) were really imaginative and just viscerally satisfying to master and figure out. Honestly, it was a pretty good sequel overall.
My main gripe is the story. Dishonored 1 had a pretty bare-bones plot that was just an excuse to get Corvo going. Here, the protagonists are voiced and the story becomes a larger presence in the game, and you can really tell that the writers just can't quite back up their worldbuilding and atmosphere with a good story, at least not with Emily or Corvo at the helm. They're both voiced this time and the actors do a decent enough job, but Emily's story in particular just fell really short for me. You're supposed to believe that low chaos Emily learned how privileged she is and that she needs to do better, but we're just ... told this at the end of the game. Like, we don't see her evolve and realize the errors of her ways, the privilege of her position as Empress, how she's hurt her people by neglecting her duties. She just decides "oh well I'll do better now," but nothing really changes.
It just makes her seem really unlikable and like the main villain is lowkey correct? Which wouldn't be a bad thing, if it was intentional on the writers' part, but I don't think it was. It just came off as really underbaked and trite.
Poor Corvo just gets a rehash of his plot in DH1, characters even point out that it's the same dang conflict. I think the old man was just included to satisfy the gamer bros who can't play as a woman lest their masculinity shatters into a thousand wet pieces.
So this game was fun and I would've liked it more if the story was better, or if they let Emily and Corvo shut up this time, too, so I could at least imagine better writing for them, cuz that worked in DH1.