Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

Dishonored 2 Puts Gameplay Over Story

Dishonored 2 Puts Gameplay Over Story

Having just played through Dishonored for the third time, I am beyond excited for Dishonored 2 . It sounds like an amazing game so far, judging by Game Informer’s reports and podcast review. However, all they’ve released about the game is focused on gameplay. Is that all the game is going to be, gameplay and no story to motivate the player? I hope not, but at the same time, I’m not entirely sure I care for more story over gameplay.

Dishonored has a great balance between story and gameplay. This is a game you can push to its limits and be rewarded for it, most of the time. The story is more than intriguing enough to motivate the player, too. It may be lacklustre with it’s distinct lack of characters you care about, other than Emily, but it makes up for it with an almost court drama level of intrigue. There is truly nothing like a political rebellion to inject all the theatrical details a good game story needs.

The Heart, to me, is a mind-blowing way of inserting details and telling the story of Dishonored without crossing the line into narration. Without the Heart, the game is a great deal less exciting. For example, the Heart almost explicitly tells the player that Corvo is going to be betrayed by Pendleton and Havelock, but it doesn’t tell you how. Though poison is the most predictable method the Loyalists could have used, the fact that Corvo ends up as Daud’s prisoner is the ticket to drama. What better way to tie up loose ends than to go directly to the men hired to kill the Empress?

So Dishonored is a pretty great game, but will its sequel live up to it? Dishonored 2 certainly sounds like it has stepped up the gameplay with very exciting new abilities for both Emily and Corvo. Indeed, the one everyone is talking about the most is Emily’s Domino. This skill allows you to link the fates of multiple characters together, and whatever you do to one character then affects the others in the same way. The more upgraded the power, the more targets you can link together ( Game Informer ). This is a skill that will allow the player to push the game, to be sure. To know that the Arkane Studios has intentionally allowed this is all the more exciting, as it probably means there are nearly infinite ways to use this power.

Dishonored 2 clearly has gameplay down pat, but what about story? It’s only been referenced vaguely by Harvey Smith , the Creative Director of Dishonored 2 , as the game starts with a coup in Dunwall tower, and Emily is on the run. She has to leave behind her home, everything she’s ever known. Emily must go down to the Southern capital of Serkonos, into this strange city where her father was born. There, she must take down the pieces of her enemies’ organization bit by bit until she can come back to Dunwall.

Dishonored 2 Puts Gameplay Over Story

This sounds promising enough, and again, there’s nothing like a rebellion to incite drama. But it’s the same drama as the last game – we’ve already been through a political rebellion, what makes this one so different? There’s always going to be a group that doesn’t agree with the current government and it was cool the first time, but not the second time. There is no way I can think of that Arkane can redeem such a repeat story in the details. Even if the coup turns out to have been conducted by Corvo himself, it will feel like a predictable disappointment. A “new” enemy and a “new” conspiracy will not help matters, it will still be the same plot as Dishonored .

Do I care, though? I mean, Domino sounds like a really wicked power, and the possibilities in gameplay seem endless. I think, in this case, I will put gameplay over story. To be completely honest, Dishonored has always been what Assassin’s Creed aimed for but fell very short of. Thus, I’m used to story falling by the side to make way for gameplay. I am looking forward to exciting new environments and slightly crazy ways of getting through them without being caught. I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely going out for whiskey and cigars with Dishonored 2 .

To top