mrsmr2 on 6/1/2019 at 12:19
That's a shame. It seems they've designed the game to be traversable without blink this time (good), but not to get to everything (not so good).
Aja on 8/2/2019 at 22:02
I'm up to Dust District now, and I have thoughts on the game I would like to share with everyone.
First of all, this game is beautiful. As far as wandering around game worlds goes, DH2 is among the best. I love the way the light lands on dust particles and the little gaps in parquet floors. There's artistic intent not only in textures and fine details but seemingly in every vista you encounter, every corridor, every open window. And yet the game never forces you to look at any of it. So well done there, Arkane.
Gameplaywise it's like Dishonored, which is both good and bad. Coming from a recent Thief run, I feel a lot less aware of my surroundings in DH2, which has lead to much trial and error. Even if I sit and survey a scene for a few minutes, once I decide to act, I almost inevitably get spotted by some guard that was out of sight (they mostly have the same voice anyway, and there's no sound propagation to speak of, so I never know where they are), and I either have to reload or resort to violence, which is annoying because I was trying for nonlethal and ghostly. I've given up on the latter, though. There's just not enough feedback, even when I'm very patient, to make it through undetected on my first playthrough. It also takes absolutely forever to play that way, which makes the prospect of replaying the game to try other playstyles less appealing. The levels are generally very well designed although some of the more gimmicky elements like Jindosh's mansion tend to make stealth frustrating rather than fun.
But it's the writing for me that really hurts Dishonored 2. I stopped playing as Emily because I couldn't stand her overwrought and unnecessary comments, and Corvo's aren't a whole lot better. The tone of this game is just so off-putting: melodramatic cliche after cliche, conversations that don't flow logically (at one point Megan says, "Are you ready to leave?" and Corvo replies: "Yes. The city sure has changed since I've been gone.") guards announcing that they really have to pee every 20 seconds, and the Heart -- ugh, the Heart -- which I've stopped using altogether because the things it says are so embarrassingly bad. "Somewhere a servant boy is being beaten blind... HE WAS LATE WITH THE TEA." "She put her cat in the oven just to teach her son a lesson!" Okay, so I made that second one up, but not really. Nearly everyone in this game is comically evil and unlikable. And the Outsider, just like in the first game, is only there to remind you of how clever Arkane is by laying out the two choices you can make in any given scenario while wagging his giant finger at you. My wife, who is not a gamer, sometimes watches me play, and DH2 is making me too self-conscious to enjoy it. The writing in books and notes is alright, but because the game hasn't given me much incentive to care about its world and characters, I'm tending to skim or ignore a lot of the notes I find, which I don't normally do.
So overall the good outweighs the bad, but I can't see this as a game that I'll come back to over the years because it's not particularly immersive for me. It has its moments for sure, but just as surely it undermines them.
Severian_Silk on 9/2/2019 at 19:54
Quote Posted by "Aja"
But it's the writing for me that really hurts Dishonored 2. I stopped playing as Emily because I couldn't stand her overwrought and unnecessary comments, and Corvo's aren't a whole lot better. The tone of this game is just so off-putting: melodramatic cliche after cliche, conversations that don't flow logically (at one point Megan says, "Are you ready to leave?" and Corvo replies: "Yes. The city sure has changed since I've been gone.") guards announcing that they really have to pee every 20 seconds, and the Heart -- ugh, the Heart -- which I've stopped using altogether because the things it says are so embarrassingly bad. "Somewhere a servant boy is being beaten blind... HE WAS LATE WITH THE TEA." "She put her cat in the oven just to teach her son a lesson!" Okay, so I made that second one up, but not really. Nearly everyone in this game is comically evil and unlikable. And the Outsider, just like in the first game, is only there to remind you of how clever Arkane is by laying out the two choices you can make in any given scenario while wagging his giant finger at you. My wife, who is not a gamer, sometimes watches me play, and DH2 is making me too self-conscious to enjoy it. The writing in books and notes is alright, but because the game hasn't given me much incentive to care about its world and characters, I'm tending to skim or ignore a lot of the notes I find, which I don't normally do.
Yeah, most of it is horrible. Apparently Harvey Smith hired the main writer after looking at their twitter. Private Pyle's dialogues about orgies and whatnot were especially cringey IMO. I think you can see Terri Brosius and the guy who wrote the first game in the credits, too. Wonder which parts they wrote.
It's really too bad. For me, Dis 2 would have been a perfect game if it weren't for the writing.
Starker on 9/2/2019 at 20:57
I thought Harvey Smith was the main writer? And they apparently have both Austin Grossman and Terri Brosius? What on earth are they doing?
They really should have kept whoever it was who did Knife of Dunwall. For me, it's still the high point of the series. Daud is a much better and a much more interesting main character at the very least.
Severian_Silk on 10/2/2019 at 20:53
Quote Posted by "Starker"
I thought Harvey Smith was the main writer? And they apparently have both Austin Grossman and Terri Brosius? What on earth are they doing?
They really should have kept whoever it was who did Knife of Dunwall. For me, it's still the high point of the series. Daud is a much better and a much more interesting main character at the very least.
Yup, I was wrong! The twitter writer was hired for the Megan DLC.
And I agree that the Daud DLC was the high point. Some of the main characters of Dishonored 2 originate from it and were infinitely more interesting than their portrayal in the sequel. It's really too bad. Still, at least the readables were a pleasure to read IMO.
N'Al on 11/2/2019 at 07:45
That's disappointing to hear about Dishonored 2's story. I only just recently completed Dishonored 1 and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of its story. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, exactly (and the 'twist' was evident from about a mile off), but at least it didn't make me want to stab my ears with sharp objects - unlike, say, Dark Messiah's. Shame to hear Arkane seem to have regressed back to that level of juvenile drivel.
Thirith on 11/2/2019 at 09:51
I'd actually describe Dishonored 2 the same way as you describe the first game, N'Al. I definitely don't think the writing is bad, and for me it succeeds in building up an economically and socially callous world that brutalises its inhabitants. It's not the kind of writing that does a great job of bringing characters to life, but as an additional means of colouring in the world I think it's absolutely adequate.
Sulphur on 11/2/2019 at 10:44
I concur with that assessment. It's certainly not at the same level of Thief, but the writing is functional enough to give you a decent amount of geopolitical context to the world and situation you're in. The Heart is mostly redundant - I stopped caring after a while since it's, as noted, fairly one-note.
I could take or leave the entire plot, but the world's take on the stark dichotomies of old-fashioned imperial colonialism mixed in with the fantastical is still an intriguing blend of hard-edged malice for me. It's that flavour that impels me to continue along with touring the fantastic environments.
Jason Moyer on 11/2/2019 at 11:33
Can't say I've had a problem with the writing in any Arkane game.
N'Al on 11/2/2019 at 12:33
If you didn't, I can only assume you must've had cotton wool in your ears whilst playing Dark Messiah.
As for Dishonored 2, I guess I will see myself soon enough, so thanks for your counterpoints, Thirith and Sulphur.