Dishonored 2 is a 2016 first-person action-adventure game created by Arkane Lyon and released by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It follows the 2012 game Dishonored. After Empress Emily Kaldwin is removed from power by the witch Delilah Copperspoon, players can choose to control Emily or her father, Royal Protector Corvo Attano, as they work to regain the throne. Both characters have special supernatural powers, but players can also choose not to use these abilities. The game allows players to complete missions in many different ways, such as using stealth to avoid fighting or choosing to engage in direct combat.
The idea for Dishonored 2 started during the development of extra content for the first game. This led to the decision to give Corvo Attano a voice, as he was silent in the original. The story moved forward when Emily Kaldwin, who was a child in the first game, became a playable character. The game’s design was inspired by art, buildings, clothing, and technology from the year 1851. It takes place in the fictional city of Karnaca, which is based on the real city of Larnaca in Cyprus, and also draws ideas from other Mediterranean countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain. Voice actors in the game include Rosario Dawson, Sam Rockwell, Robin Lord Taylor, Jamie Hector, Pedro Pascal, and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Dishonored 2 received positive reviews. Players praised improvements from the first game, such as more challenging stealth, abilities that work well for different play styles, creative mission designs, the detailed world, and the game’s artificial intelligence. Some criticism focused on the story being unclear, and the PC version had technical problems when it was first released. The game won Best Action/Adventure Game at the 2016 Game Awards and won a Costume Design award at the 2017 NAVGTR Awards. It is now considered one of the greatest games ever made. A separate sequel, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, was released in 2017.
Gameplay
Dishonored 2 is an action-adventure game with stealth elements played from the player’s point of view. After completing the prologue as Empress Emily Kaldwin, players can choose to play as Emily or Corvo Attano, the main character from the previous game. Side missions provide alternate ways to complete tasks, such as non-lethal methods or different paths to finish the main story. Both characters can use a pistol, crossbow, retractable blade, grenades, and mines—all of which can be improved. Upgrades are bought at secret shops found in levels, and blueprints scattered in the environment unlock new upgrades. Coin is needed to purchase upgrades, which can be collected by finding items in levels or stealing paintings. Players can choose to play stealthily or not and can finish the game without killing anyone. Health elixirs and food restore health, while mana elixirs restore mana.
Enemy detection depends on line-of-sight. Players can use cover or high places to avoid being seen. Darkness helps hide the player at a distance. Enemy alert meters and music cues show if enemies have spotted the player. Making noise, such as breaking bottles, sprinting, or striking a sword against a wall, causes enemies to investigate. This can be used to lure enemies into traps or change their patrol routes. Players can look through keyholes to survey a room before entering and can lean to peek from cover without fully exposing themselves. If the player stares too long from behind a wall, they may be detected, a feature not present in the first game. To avoid detection, players can choke people or slit their throats. Bodies can be carried and hidden. Alarms can be disabled to prevent enemies from being alerted. Walls of Light, electrical barriers powered by wind or whale oil, can be turned off or rewired to kill only enemies. Whale oil canisters explode on impact and can be thrown at enemies.
Dishonored 2 introduces non-lethal combat moves, such as choke-holds, blocks, pushes, kicks, crouch-slides, drops from high places, sleep darts, stun mines, and supernatural abilities. The game uses the chaos system from the first game. Players gain chaos by killing characters, which represents disrupting the world. At the start of a mission, non-player characters are randomly assigned one of three states: sympathetic, guilty, or murderous. Killing a "sympathetic" person gives more chaos than killing others, while killing a "murderous" person gives less chaos. The amount of chaos affects the dialogue of Emily and Corvo, the number of enemies in levels, and the presence of bloodflies, insects that nest in corpses. Loot can be found in bloodfly nests if they are destroyed. Each level has a unique theme, such as a mission with two factions and dust storms for cover or a mission with time distortion in an abandoned mansion. Players can use a device to see three years into the past, where the mansion is still occupied.
As in the first game, players can access supernatural powers, which are optional. A heart item helps find bone charms and runes, which provide passive perks and skill points. If powers are not used, runes are converted into extra coins. The heart item also shows if characters are sympathetic, guilty, or murderous. The upgrading system now uses a skill tree with multiple paths and upgrades, such as lethal or non-lethal options. Each character has unique powers. "Dark Vision" helps identify surroundings and enemy gaze. Another skill tree unlocks passive abilities, like faster running or jumping.
Corvo retains many powers from the first game, though his progress has been reset. "Blink" teleports him to a chosen spot and can be upgraded to freeze time or cause damage on impact. "Devouring Swarm" summons rats to clean up bodies. "Possession" allows control of dead bodies or multiple hosts. "Bend Time" slows time to avoid danger. "Windblast" creates wind to deflect projectiles or push enemies off ledges. Emily has new powers, such as "Far Reach," which pulls objects and enemies toward her. "Mesmerize" distracts enemies. "Domino" connects enemies to share the same outcome. "Shadow Walk" turns her into a shadowy cloud. "Doppelganger" creates a clone to misdirect enemies, which works with "Domino."
Synopsis
The game Dishonored 2 takes place in two main locations: Dunwall and Karnaca. While the story begins and ends in Dunwall, much of the action happens in Karnaca, a coastal city that is the capital of Serkonos. Karnaca is located in the southern part of the Empire of the Isles, and it is known for exporting silver. Unlike Dunwall, which used whale oil for energy, Karnaca uses wind turbines powered by wind currents from a mountain near the city. However, the strong winds also cause frequent dust storms, especially in the mining area of the city, which is called the "Dust District." At the start of the game, two groups, the Howlers and the Overseers, are fighting in the Dust District. The Howlers oppose the new Duke and his government, which led the Grand Serkonan Guard, Karnaca's law enforcement and military, to build protective barriers called Walls of Light.
The main characters players can control are Corvo Attano, a former bodyguard who became an assassin and the main character of the previous game, and Emily Kaldwin, Corvo's daughter and the former Empress of the Empire of the Isles. The main antagonists include Luca Abele, the new Duke of Serkonos, and Delilah Copperspoon, a witch who was the antagonist in the previous game's downloadable content and is also the half-sister of Emily's late mother. Promotional material for the game's special collector's edition refers to Delilah as Delilah Kaldwin.
Other characters in the game include Meagan Foster, the captain of the Dreadful Wale; Paolo, the leader of the Howler Gang; Mindy Blanchard, Paolo's second-in-command; Mortimer Ramsey, a corrupt officer in Dunwall; Liam Byrne, the Vice Overseer of Karnaca who opposes the Howlers; Anton Sokolov, a genius inventor from Dunwall; the Outsider, a figure representing the Void, an alternate dimension that grants supernatural abilities; and Jessamine Kaldwin, Emily's mother, whose spirit is trapped in The Heart.
Fifteen years after Corvo helped Emily take the throne following the assassination of her mother, Dunwall has prospered under her rule. A serial killer known as "the Crown Killer" has been killing Emily's enemies, leading many to suspect Corvo and Emily are responsible. During a ceremony honoring Jessamine Kaldwin's assassination, Duke Luca Abele of Serkonos arrives with Delilah Copperspoon. Delilah claims to be Jessamine's half-sister and the true heir to the throne. The Duke's men attack, killing Emily's guards. The player can choose to continue as Emily or Corvo, and the other character is turned to stone by Delilah. The player escapes to the Dunwall docks, where Meagan Foster, sent by Anton Sokolov, warns them about the Duke's plans. They sail to Karnaca, where Delilah began her rise to power. During the journey, the Outsider visits the player and offers supernatural powers to stop Delilah.
In Karnaca, the player must rescue Anton Sokolov, who was kidnapped by the Crown Killer. Infiltrating Addermire Institute, where the Crown Killer is hiding, the player discovers the Crown Killer is Alexandria Hypatia, the Chief Alchemist of Karnaca. Hypatia accidentally created the Crown Killer persona after testing an experimental serum on herself, and the Duke used this to frame Emily. The player can either kill Hypatia or cure her condition.
Investigating Addermire, the player learns Sokolov was imprisoned by Kirin Jindosh, the Duke's Grand Inventor. The player enters Jindosh's Clockwork Mansion, kills him, or performs an electrical lobotomy on him, then frees Sokolov. Sokolov directs the player to eliminate Breanna Ashworth, the curator of the Royal Conservatory and a witch working for Delilah. In the Royal Conservatory, the player discovers Ashworth brought Delilah back from the Void after her defeat by Daud, the assassin who killed Emily's mother. The player can kill Ashworth or remove her powers.
Since Delilah is too powerful to defeat directly, Sokolov suggests investigating the home of mining magnate Aramis Stilton. Inside Stilton's mansion, the player learns he became insane after witnessing Delilah's resurrection. With the Outsider's help, the player travels back in time and observes Delilah being pulled from the Void by the Crown Killer, Jindosh, Ashworth, and the Duke. Afterward, Delilah siphons part of her soul into a statue, making her immortal.
The player invades the Duke's palace to eliminate him and retrieve Delilah's soul. After killing the Duke or working with his body double to depose him, the player finds the statue and extracts Delilah's soul. The player returns to Dunwall for a final confrontation with Delilah. After reuniting Delilah with her soul, the player can choose to kill her or trick her into trapping herself in her own painting.
The game has multiple endings based on the player's actions. If the player causes high chaos by committing many murders, the ending depends on whether they free Emily or Corvo from petrification. If Emily is not left in stone, she becomes a vengeful empress and purges Delilah's supporters. If Corvo leaves Emily petrified, he takes the throne and becomes a tyrant. Karnaca may fall into anarchy, and Sokolov, horrified by the outcome, is exiled.
If the player achieves low chaos by avoiding unnecessary violence, Emily is freed and becomes a fair ruler, reuniting the Empire. A council or Corvo may take charge in Karnaca, restoring order. Sokolov, proud of his work's positive impact, returns to his home country.
In either ending, if Meagan survives, she is revealed to be Billie Lurk and leaves to search for Daud, leading to the game Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.
Development
Dishonored 2 was created by Arkane Studios and released by Bethesda Softworks. Harvey Smith, who helped direct the first game, became the director for Dishonored 2. The first Dishonored was made by Arkane teams in Lyon, France, and Austin, United States. However, the sequel was mostly developed in Lyon because the Austin team was working on 2017's Prey. Both studios worked together on the game and tested each other's progress. The game uses Arkane's "Void" engine, not the Unreal Engine 3 used in the first game. The Void engine is based on id Tech 5, but most of the original engine was rewritten. Arkane removed unnecessary parts, like the mini open world, and improved the graphics. The new engine was designed to enhance in-game lighting and post-processing effects, and it allows the game to show subsurface scattering.
Dishonored was not planned as a series, but ideas for a sequel began during the development of its downloadable content. Harvey Smith said making Emily playable was "intuitive" because she was a child in the first game. Players' reactions to Emily in the first game influenced the decision to continue her story and give her more depth in Dishonored 2. Although the timeline moved forward, Arkane avoided making changes that might harm the series' gaslamp fantasy/steampunk style. The choice to include Corvo as an alternate player character was made later.
In Dishonored 2, both Emily Kaldwin and Corvo Attano are voiced. The developers had previously tested a voiced character, Daud, in downloadable content. Voiced characters helped players connect emotionally with the story. Since Corvo was silent in the first game, Arkane wanted to avoid contradicting players' assumptions about his character while giving him a stronger personality. Originally, players could use all powers regardless of their chosen character, but the team decided to limit them so the powers would reflect each character's background and experiences.
Arkane addressed some criticisms of the first game. While difficulty was not a major issue, many players found it too easy, so the harder difficulty settings were revised. The chaos system, which was a simple binary meter in the first game, was made more complex in the sequel. This change was partly due to how players used the Heart to decide which characters to kill or spare. The upgrade system was also improved, with players leveling up through a skill tree for the first time. Bone charms became craftable items with 400,000 possible combinations. Designers faced challenges in balancing supernatural abilities with gameplay styles that did not rely on them.
After Arkane's Austin studio left to work on Prey, the Lyon team had to rebuild the AI team and start from scratch. In the game, guards respond to a master AI that assigns roles and helps them work together.
Developers wanted Dishonored 2 to include more diverse characters. Arkane gave more important roles to non-white characters to reflect the Empire's "melting pot" and create a realistic world. Characters who are not heterosexual were included naturally, without being highlighted. Emily's sexuality was not specified, allowing players to interpret it themselves. The first game faced criticism for limited roles for women, so Arkane worked to create a more balanced world in downloadable content and Dishonored 2, including women as guards.
Sébastien Mitton, the art director for the first game, returned for Dishonored 2. Viktor Antonov, who helped design the first game's "painterly" look, had a smaller role due to his work with Bethesda. Arkane used paintings and sculptures for art design, with Lucie Minne creating clay busts. The game begins and ends in Dunwall, the setting of the first game, and takes place mainly in Karnaca, "the jewel of the south." The change in setting was to show another part of the Empire. Harvey Smith said the team wanted to "start at home" and then explore a new place. Mitton aimed for a visual journey to a new city while keeping the same themes of oppression, disease, magic, and decay.
Creating Karnaca's history took about a year. The team focused on ideas from within the game rather than the real world. Arkane considered anthropology and politics when designing the city's past, including settlers, foreign influences, and cultural changes. The city's architecture reflects these influences, with different styles representing waves of settlers. Industrial designers and architects helped build Karnaca.
Karnaca is inspired by the Cypriot city of Larnaca and southern European countries like Greece, Italy, and Spain. It is warmer and sunnier than Dunwall. Reference photos from places like Cuba, Lyon, and Malibu, California, helped design the city. Buildings in Karnaca often have flat roofs and ornate windows. The team studied 1920s photography to create a historical setting, using websites like Shorpy.com and the work of Agustín Casasola. Unlike the first game, which was based on the real world of 1837, Dishonored 2 draws from the architectural and technological styles of 1851. Arkane considered how wind would affect the city's development, including wind turbines for energy. Level designers and architects worked together throughout the game's creation. Art Nouveau style was used in Karnaca's design.
The developers wanted Karnaca to feel real, making the city seem like a natural environment.
Release
The game was officially announced during Bethesda's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 press conference by Dishonored co-directors Raphaël Colantonio and Harvey Smith. However, details were shared earlier that night during a rehearsal. Artwork from Dishonored, including clay models by Lucie Minne, was displayed at Art Ludique in an exhibit about French video games. Dishonored 2 was shown again at E3 2016. An image created by Sergei Kolesov was included in the "Into the Pixel" collection. The game was sent to manufacturers on November 1 and became available for purchase on November 11. The PC version used anti-piracy software called Denuvo, which was later cracked by a hacker group named SteamPunks in June 2017.
Players who preordered Dishonored 2 could play the full game one day earlier than others. Bethesda offered a special collector's edition of the game for preorders. This edition included a 13.5-inch replica of Corvo Attano's mask, a zinc alloy replica of Emily Kaldwin's ring, a propaganda poster of Delilah Kaldwin, and a metal case for the game disc and manual. Digital bonuses, such as the Digital Imperial Assassin's Pack, were also included. Console preorders of the collector's edition came with a copy of Dishonored: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the first game for newer consoles with all downloadable content.
In May 2016, Bethesda announced a comic series and three novels related to Dishonored. The comic, published by Titan Comics and written by Gordon Rennie with art by Andrea Olimpieri and Marcelo Maiolo, had four issues, with the first released in August. The three novels, published by Titan Books, included The Corroded Man by Adam Christopher, which came out in September, followed by two more books in 2017. A Dark Horse Comics artbook titled The Art of Dishonored 2 was released on the same day as the game. An art contest was held online from June 28 to July 17, with five winners featured in the book. A graphic novel called The Peeress and the Price, written by Michael Moreci and drawn by Andrea Olimpieri, was released on February 20, 2018.
Later updates to Dishonored 2 included a New Game Plus mode, released on December 19, 2016, allowing players to use both protagonists' abilities in one playthrough. Customizable difficulty settings and a mission-select option were added on January 23, 2017, for all platforms. A standalone expansion, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, was released on September 15, 2017. It follows characters Billie Lurk and Daud as they attempt to kill the Outsider.
Reception
Emily Kaldwin became a player character in the game at E3 2015 before it was released, which caught people's attention. GamesRadar said this was one of the event's biggest surprises, pointing out that female protagonists are rare in games. Both GameSpot and The Guardian talked about how many female player characters were shown at the 2015 E3 expo. Game Informer listed her as one of ten "most promising" new characters revealed at the event. The game's appearance at E3 2016 received praise. IGN gave it the title "Best Xbox One Game," and it was nominated for "Game of the Show," "Best PlayStation 4 Game," "Best Action Game," "Best Trailer," and "Best PC Game," finishing as the runner-up for the last category.
Dishonored 2 was nominated for "Best of Show," "Best Console Game," "Best PC Game," and "Best Action/Adventure Game" at the Game Critics Awards. Game Informer named the game "Best Multiplatform Game." PC Gamer awarded it "Best of Show." Eurogamer included the game in a list of the five best games at E3, noting the time-manipulating level and saying, "It's hard to imagine there'll be any game as intricate released this year, nor one quite so imaginative."
Dishonored 2 received mostly positive reviews on Metacritic. The levels "Clockwork Mansion" and "A Crack in the Slab" were especially praised. The game won over one hundred "Best of 2016" awards. When it was released, some PC players reported problems like lower frame rates, display resolution issues, and system crashes. Three patches for the PC version were released to fix these issues.
Chris Carter of Destructoid said the stealth gameplay was "glorious" and praised the heart item as a way to access more content. He found the puzzles and traversal challenges demanding and the task of becoming a better assassin rewarding. His only complaints were about the Xbox One's frame rate performance, "stilted voice acting and script issues," even though the story was compelling. Nick Plessas of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that Dishonored 2 "recreates many of the positive experiences from the previous instalment, but requires much greater effort on the part of the player this time around to achieve it." He said the game's emotional impact came from the player character's choices and their effects on the story, though he felt the smaller moments of the game were more moving than the ending.
Matt Bertz of Game Informer said the balance between low-chaos and high-chaos play styles improved from the original game and that each approach created thought-provoking scenarios. He praised the characters' abilities as "equally useful" but criticized the main story as "rushed and underdeveloped," while praising the environmental storytelling. James Kozanitis of Game Revolution said he enjoyed playing as Emily Kaldwin the most, noting that returning elements from Dishonored gave her a fresh perspective. He favored the stealth approach, which he said worked better with side quests, which he considered the main reason to play Dishonored 2. Scott Butterworth of GameSpot was satisfied with the use of weapons and said the AI's behavior patterns made stealth gameplay "fun" to experiment with. He criticized the lack of increasing challenges and said the new enemies were "underutilized," as was the plot for the same reason. He called one time-manipulating quest a "masterpiece" and another in the Clockwork Mansion "mind-bending."
Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar praised the game's sense of place, supernatural abilities, and execution but criticized the character development and limited some mechanics that were otherwise "brilliant." He later said the Clockwork Mansion mission showed Arkane Studios' "rich, intricate level design." Lucy O'Brien of IGN said the decision to split powers and story details between the two player characters was "smart" and praised the characters' abilities as "excellently" adaptable to both play styles. She commended the level design for offering unique gameplay mechanics and admired the game world's "gorgeous, painterly aesthetic." Phil Savage of PC Gamer said the game "offers tens of hours of extraordinary first-person stealth and action," similar to its predecessor. PC Gamer later named the Clockwork Mansion one of the best levels of 2016. Arthur Gies of Polygon noted the combat system as "improved and refined," the setting as "Dishonored 2's greatest inherited strength," and the AI units for their "excellent peripheral vision." He criticized the inability to replay missions and the absence of a New Game Plus option as "possible deal-breakers." Alice Bell of VideoGamer.com wrote that "Dishonored 2 takes everything you loved about Dishonored and improves upon it without becoming bloated. It's a beautifully designed, layered game, stuffed with hidden gems and secret stories. Also, you can stab people in mid air."
Dishonored 2 was the fourth best-selling game in its first week of release, but sales dropped 38% compared to the original game when only physical copies were counted. That same week, the game had the most pre-orders on Steam and was ranked sixth in overall sales. It was the seventh best-selling retail video game in the UK in its second week of release, according to Chart-Track, a 52% decrease from the first week—similar to its predecessor. After a price reduction, Dishonored 2 re-entered the UK charts in the fourth week of May 2017, ranked in 8th place with a 1,267% rise in sales.