Here's what I love about Dishonored 2 about good immersive sims in general. I'm playing the first mission, escaping from Dunwall after my character, Empress Emily Kaldwin, is deposed from the throne. I kill my target, a traitor close to Emily's inner circle, and flee the castle. Later, on the streets, a conspirator announces to his group that their man has been found dead. The second time I play the intro (the first attempt having descended into carnage after I murderstabbed everyone in the name of performance testing), I again kill my target. This time, I don't leave his body on display, but move it into a secret room that only Emily can access. Later, the conspirator announces that his man is missing. They don't know what happened to him.
It's a tiny thing a single voice line but it speaks to what Dishonored is about, around the combat and stealth. It would make sense for the game to treat dead or alive as a binary state. But Dishonored 2 knows that the details are important. They add to your trust in the world, and build the texture of your moment-to-moment story.
And Dishonored 2 keeps track of many, many details. Complete a mission and, in addition to being told how stealthy and non-murdery you were (and how much loot you left unpicked from around each mission's sizeable area,) you're given a rundown of some of your more notable acts. Did you rob a specific safe? Did you save a specific person? Did you help a questionable rogue achieve their goals in return for a bit of help? Each mission has a specific goal usually removing a person, either lethally or not but Dishonored 2 rewards you for turning away from the objective marker. Spend time digging through unrelated houses and you might find money used to buy tools at the Black Market, blueprints used to upgrade equipment at the Black Market, or even a key to the back door of the Black Market, used to rob it. And if you did rob the Black Market? Dishonored 2 will remember that.
How (or even if) all this collected information is used is something I'm still waiting to discover. I'm about six hours into my current, predominantly non-lethal playthrough, and have only done three missions. The second, on the sunny docks of the new city of Karnaca, feels significantly bigger than anything from Dishonored 1 and, unlike the previous game, features no mid-mission map transitions. But the biggest effect on my play time is how dense its locations feel. There are books to read, audio diaries to hear, safes to crack and valuable paintings to steal. This is the most Thief a game has felt since, well, Dishonored. The Heart is back, too, whispering cryptic secrets into your ear and, as a more utilitarian function, pointing the way to runes and bone charms to add active and passive abilities respectively.
Those powers once again come from the Outsider the mysterious inhabitant of The Void, who, once again, is keen to tell you how interesting your moral decisions will be. I get it, guy. We're playing an immersive sim.
You're able to play as Emily or Corvo, based on a choice made at the start of the game. I'll be testing Corvo's move set before the full review although, if you've played the first game, you'll know what to expect. For Emily, the majority of her powers are based around manipulating enemies. Domino lets her link enemies, causing whatever happens to one to happen to the others. Stab one, and they'll all die. Sleep dart one, and they'll simultaneously fall asleep. Doppelganger creates a clone who can lure enemies away by fleeing. There are more direct powers too, like Shadow Walk, which turns Emily into a predatory shadow creature able to kill or incapacitate guards. Powers can be upgraded, too. Emily's version of Blink, Far Reach, functions almost identically, but, when upgraded, can be used to pull objects and enemies towards you.
Overall, it's an enjoyable set and the main area in which the difference from the first Dishonored can be, mechanically speaking, most keenly felt. I've had plenty of fun linking and/or shadow stalking my prey up to now, and appreciate the subtle ways in which they shift Dishonored's stealth play. I look forward to unlocking more options, and seeing how they can be combined and exploited.
Beyond that, Dishonored 2 plays similarly to its predecessor. That's a good thing. Dishonored's traversal was great far better than either recent Deus Ex. It's, once again, a joy to move through these levels. Running, jumping and sliding are feel good, and make an action-based playthrough more viable. Where Mankind Divided plays like a stealth game that lets you engage in combat when things go wrong, Dishonored 2 seems far more responsive to personal preference even when, in my case, that preference is for a stealth game that lets me engage in combat when things go wrong. Direct combat offers more options, too, letting you transition from a swordfight into a chokehold, keeping non-lethal playthroughs intact, even if you're spotted.
Pathing is important too, and here, again, we're in safe hands. The environments are exactly what you want from an immersive sim open layouts, filled with routes. If one doesn't take your fancy maybe it's filled with bloodflies, Karnaca's alternative to plague rats there's something else available. A route across ledges or over rooftops, or, if you've got the tools or the patience, a way through the ominous walls of light that would otherwise fry you as tried to walk through. Oftentimes I'd investigate one promising lead, come out at the next part of the quest, and then, in my thoroughness to explore, head in a different direction that led back to my original spot. Invariably there was then yet another way back.
Dishonored 2 gives a very positive first impression, its performance issues aside. The intro is maybe a little too long, with a mix of cutscenes, scripted sequences where you have no direct control, and small, fairly contained areas to ease you into the game at large. Once that's done, though, its detailed levels set you free. But as in Dishonored, the default UI settings are far too overbearing. At the very least, it's worth turning off objective and rune markers. Having a direct path to your target all but guarantees you'll miss some of the more interesting solutions.
What interests me is whether, further into the game, Dishonored 2 is able to distinguish itself from its predecessor. Many of the core systems are close enough that I'm confident in its quality, and every environment I've seen suggests Arkane hasn't lost its touch, even in these larger spaces. The question becomes whether there'll be anything more memorable than Dishonored's standout mission, Lady Boyle's Last Party. And whether the choices I'm making those important little details have any notable effect as I get further in. Dishonored 2 is already shaping up to be a great stealth and action game. If it's got enough surprises in store, it could be one of the best immersive sims around.