The sheer anticipation of seeing the next cool gadget, spectacular spell, or awe-inspiring environment can be a driving force on its own, and the most recent demo I played Dishonored 2 conjured that feeling up for me. If I were to sum up my latest turn with it in one sentence, it would be, “What will I see next?” The striking art style, Emily’s crazy powers, and the spectacular transforming walls of the Clockwork Mansion all left me wondering what treats the rest of Dishonored 2 might have in store.
The mission I played, The Clockwork Mansion, takes place roughly half way through the game, tasking Emily or Corvo with two possible objectives: find and rescue your old friend Anton Sokolov and deal with his captor, Kirin Jindosh, whose clockwork mansion has more hidden rooms than Wayne Manor. The original Dishonored was full of beautiful architecture, but the shifting walls in Jindosh’s estate take things to a new level. With a single pull of the many levers I found throughout the area, stair cases transformed, floors broke away, and walls did flip-flops, transforming the landscape around me. It felt like the kind of spectacle many games would save for a finale. If this is an environment halfway through the game, I can’t even imagine what might follow or top it.
Both Corvo and Emily wield supernatural powers, but right now Emily’s are just too interesting to resist. Obviously she can blink about in a similar, if less potent manner to her father, but she really sets herself apart with Shadow Walk and Domino. Shadow Walk turns Emily into a virtually invisible wraith-like being, allowing her to rapidly and stealthily advance on unsuspecting guards to either knock them out or execute them instantly.
It felt like the kind of spectacle many games would save for a finale.
Domino allows her to create an invisible link between multiple human targets. When she kills or incapacitates any one of them, the others will be felled as well. Shadow Walk seems like a must-pick for anyone wanting to strictly adhere to a stealthy approach, as it allows you to escape undetected in situations where you’d otherwise be caught red-handed. Silently marking multiple targets with Domino, then stealthily slinking up to, and incapacitating the nearest one to take the whole lot of them down is immensely fun. Again, if these are the kinds of powers and upgrades you have access to at the midway point, I can’t even imagine what might be farther along the skill tree.
That’s not to say that playing Corvo is at all boring. This is still Dishonored, so even with Corvo’s familiar power set, there’s plenty of fun to be had and decisions to be made. For instance, you might opt to find Sokolov first, escorting him to safety before you stalk Jindosh. Even if you choose to go straight for Jindosh, there’s always more than one way of besting him and his retinue of clockwork soldiers. Head-on is certainly one way to do it, but in typical Dishonored fashion, there are other less direct, perhaps more disturbing ways to skin the proverbial cat as well. That’s a little treat I wouldn’t want to spoil though.
I felt like I was only just getting back into the swing of things by the time my demo was over, so I didn’t get to explore this undeniably cool locale or the many gadgets at my disposal to quite the extent I would have liked, but now that I’ve gotten a sense of how imaginative Dishonored 2 can be, I’m definitely ready to see the rest.
Vincent Ingenito is IGN's foremost fighting game nerd. Follow him on Twitter and help him sort out his Street Fighter 5 character crisis.
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