"In the jagged emptiness of the Void, there's only power and the will to use it.
In Dishonored 2, out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, both of your choices of protagonist—Empress Emily Kaldwin and her father Corvo Attano—have been touched by the Void, given gifts by the demonic Outsider who lives inside of it. Corvo can teleport, stop time, and summon a bloodthirsty swarm of rats to overwhelm his enemies. Emily can move on tendrils of pure Void energy, summon dark spirits to distract her enemies, even become a living shadow. No matter which character you choose to play as, you're tasked with solving the same dilemma: Emily has been dethroned, with a false empress installed through witchcraft and treachery, leaving the responsibility of setting things right squarely on her shoulders. With such dire problems, and such incredible power, Dishonored 2, like the Outsider, mostly approaches you with curiosity. It wants to see what you'll do, and it's content to wait and watch.
The original Dishonored, released in 2012, had a similar set-up and the same earnest interest, but it tripped itself up. In the interest of giving the player a responsive world, it instituted a system called Chaos, whereby the city of Dunwall got worse the more recklessly and violently you behaved. It measured the player's wrongdoing on fairly narrow axes, though, straightforwardly tabulating how many people you'd killed regardless of context and without considering if the alternatives were actually better, creating a system that gave you all kinds of wonderful toys and then punished you for using them.
Dishonored 2 features a similarly responsive world in the form of the tropical Karnaca, a windswept set of slums and mansions set against the sea, home to deep silver mines and equally cavernous suffering. But the responses are deeper and more varied now. Dishonored 2 tracks the player on a more varied set of axes. Not all villains are of the same moral weight. Killing the usurping empress isn't perceived by the game as being nearly as chaotic as massacring civilians. What this adds up to is a sense that the game is getting out of your way. Here are the consequences, it says, and here are all your options. Do what you like. You can play as a silent assassin, a noble warrior, or something else entirely…"
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Amicalement
Armand
journeys to and from the Australian national convention - and tells us what he thinks of panicking tank hordes and flat terrain!
