Note: I played all the Dishonored games back-to-back, so my thoughts here directly follow my review of the first game.
I wasn’t certain of myself when bringing up the cynicism I felt in Dishonored, since there wasn’t a way to factually nail it down, but that same patronizing tone is so persistent in the sequel’s writing that I feel much more self assured. In the first game, it was a result of the chaos system, with its punishments and blatant signposting to ensure that players didn’t make the wrong choices, but now it’s directly presented through spoken dialog. The Outsider’s voice has changed, not just in the literal actor, but in the tone they strike when speaking to Emily, our new protagonist. They used to speak in a way that was detached yet intrigued, but now all subtlety has been replaced with direct questions like “What choices will you make? Are you clever enough to accomplish your goals without spilling a river of blood?”. Emily soliloquizes cliches like “What will I have to do? What will I have to become to stop Delilah?”, it’s all so direct to the audience that it’s practically a fourth-wall break. A large percentage of the dialog in general is dedicated to yelling at players that their decisions will impact Emily’s relationships, rather than using it to actually flesh those relationships out.
This builds into the wider problem with Dishonored 2’s story, how Emily, her relationships, and her struggle have no substance. The thrust of the plot is that Delilah, the illegitimate sister of the previous empress, launches a coup against the young heiress Emily. Delilah’s entrance is certainly violent, but that’s the full extent of Emily’s justification to become judge, jury, and executioner for everyone involved. Her entire motivation is to take back what she feels belongs to her, completely missing the irony of how she’s doing the exact same thing Delilah just did. What doesn’t help is how she constantly talks about how horrible of a ruler she was, how she never paid attention to the papers she was signing, never looked into how the provinces were being ruled, and never listened to what people were telling her, so the first time she shows any interest is after losing the associated privileges. Her allies occasionally call her out for being a terrible person, but it’s sparse and toothless. Here’s my least favorite exchange in the entire series as an example:
Emily: There were parties like that in Dunwall. Full of toadies sucking up to me, stabbing each other in the back.
Meagan: Poor Empress. I could see those party lights from across the river in the abandoned butcher shop where I slept… in the flooded district.
Emily: I know you grew up hard, Meagan. I used to wander Dunwall with my face hidden, but when I got tired of it, I could always go back to the Tower. Karnaca’s given me perspective.
Meagan: Good. After you’ve eliminated the Duke, find what he’s holding for Delilah and take it.
There’s so much wrong with these four lines that it blows my mind. Emily jokes about how irresponsible she’s been and responds to Meagan's tragic story with a level of shallow sympathy that borders on flippancy, but the statement that she’s gained perspective is enough to let it all slide. Worst of all, this is the most character development we ever get for Emily: she never questions her own right to rule, her beliefs are never challenged, and even our devil’s advocate, the Outsider, only seems concerned with how many people she kills along the way. Part of the reason why might be because Corvo can also be selected as the protagonist, using the same powers as last time and throwing the narrative structure of the series in the bin. Corvo’s arc was already complete with the first game, he had power, lost it, and seized it back in a way that reflected the nature of mankind; it was everything a story titled “Dishonored” needed to be. Bringing him back to rescue the same person from another similar threat with the same powers would be questionable even if he was the only protagonist, but mixing it in with the canonical choice of Emily brings us back to that same old player-directed cynicism.
As much time as I’ve spent thinking about it, I can’t come up with a reason why Corvo would be a playable character other than a concern that people wouldn’t want to play as a girl with different powers. It makes sense to include his abilities if they were already working in-engine, but was his character really worth hobbling the plot for? The counterargument is that it lets the gameplay have more depth and variety, and this is where I have to do the exact same thing as the last review: concede how even the feeling that the developers thought I was an idiot who didn’t understand choice, or a pitifully fragile gamer who didn’t want to play as a girl, still wasn’t insulting enough to stop me from enjoying an otherwise well-made game. The environments and level design are fantastic, some of its set-pieces have become legendary, from a technical side it’s all great… but I’m still left hoping for a Dishonored game that trusts me enough to actually appreciate it.
I wasn’t certain of myself when bringing up the cynicism I felt in Dishonored, since there wasn’t a way to factually nail it down, but that same patronizing tone is so persistent in the sequel’s writing that I feel much more self assured. In the first game, it was a result of the chaos system, with its punishments and blatant signposting to ensure that players didn’t make the wrong choices, but now it’s directly presented through spoken dialog. The Outsider’s voice has changed, not just in the literal actor, but in the tone they strike when speaking to Emily, our new protagonist. They used to speak in a way that was detached yet intrigued, but now all subtlety has been replaced with direct questions like “What choices will you make? Are you clever enough to accomplish your goals without spilling a river of blood?”. Emily soliloquizes cliches like “What will I have to do? What will I have to become to stop Delilah?”, it’s all so direct to the audience that it’s practically a fourth-wall break. A large percentage of the dialog in general is dedicated to yelling at players that their decisions will impact Emily’s relationships, rather than using it to actually flesh those relationships out.
This builds into the wider problem with Dishonored 2’s story, how Emily, her relationships, and her struggle have no substance. The thrust of the plot is that Delilah, the illegitimate sister of the previous empress, launches a coup against the young heiress Emily. Delilah’s entrance is certainly violent, but that’s the full extent of Emily’s justification to become judge, jury, and executioner for everyone involved. Her entire motivation is to take back what she feels belongs to her, completely missing the irony of how she’s doing the exact same thing Delilah just did. What doesn’t help is how she constantly talks about how horrible of a ruler she was, how she never paid attention to the papers she was signing, never looked into how the provinces were being ruled, and never listened to what people were telling her, so the first time she shows any interest is after losing the associated privileges. Her allies occasionally call her out for being a terrible person, but it’s sparse and toothless. Here’s my least favorite exchange in the entire series as an example:
Emily: There were parties like that in Dunwall. Full of toadies sucking up to me, stabbing each other in the back.
Meagan: Poor Empress. I could see those party lights from across the river in the abandoned butcher shop where I slept… in the flooded district.
Emily: I know you grew up hard, Meagan. I used to wander Dunwall with my face hidden, but when I got tired of it, I could always go back to the Tower. Karnaca’s given me perspective.
Meagan: Good. After you’ve eliminated the Duke, find what he’s holding for Delilah and take it.
There’s so much wrong with these four lines that it blows my mind. Emily jokes about how irresponsible she’s been and responds to Meagan's tragic story with a level of shallow sympathy that borders on flippancy, but the statement that she’s gained perspective is enough to let it all slide. Worst of all, this is the most character development we ever get for Emily: she never questions her own right to rule, her beliefs are never challenged, and even our devil’s advocate, the Outsider, only seems concerned with how many people she kills along the way. Part of the reason why might be because Corvo can also be selected as the protagonist, using the same powers as last time and throwing the narrative structure of the series in the bin. Corvo’s arc was already complete with the first game, he had power, lost it, and seized it back in a way that reflected the nature of mankind; it was everything a story titled “Dishonored” needed to be. Bringing him back to rescue the same person from another similar threat with the same powers would be questionable even if he was the only protagonist, but mixing it in with the canonical choice of Emily brings us back to that same old player-directed cynicism.
As much time as I’ve spent thinking about it, I can’t come up with a reason why Corvo would be a playable character other than a concern that people wouldn’t want to play as a girl with different powers. It makes sense to include his abilities if they were already working in-engine, but was his character really worth hobbling the plot for? The counterargument is that it lets the gameplay have more depth and variety, and this is where I have to do the exact same thing as the last review: concede how even the feeling that the developers thought I was an idiot who didn’t understand choice, or a pitifully fragile gamer who didn’t want to play as a girl, still wasn’t insulting enough to stop me from enjoying an otherwise well-made game. The environments and level design are fantastic, some of its set-pieces have become legendary, from a technical side it’s all great… but I’m still left hoping for a Dishonored game that trusts me enough to actually appreciate it.
Reviewed on Aug 22, 2021