Dishonored 2: Becoming a Ghost

This article has spoilers for Dishonored 2. Proceed with caution!

Soon after I finished Dishonored, I resisted the urge to get into the next game. Being on Game Pass, I had access to it and thought if I could just do the opening, there would be no harm in it (Yeah, right?). I could take it slow and enjoy the world bit by bit. That all changed when I booted up the game on my Xbox.

Dishonored 2 picks up 15 years after the first game. You can play as the new empress Emily or her father Corvo, the protagonist of the first game. Both the characters have a diverse set of abilities unique to each. In the urge to explore the new powers, I chose to play as Emily. The game opens with a coup on the throne led by Delilah Kaldwin. Delilah claims that she is the long lost sister of the old empress Jessamine Kaldwin and uses the opportunity of the Crown Killer (a murderer responsible for a string of killings against enemies of Emily) to support her coup against Emily. Hearing the name, I was lost at first and yet I recognized that lanky profile from somewhere. After a demonstration of her powers, turning Corvo to stone, I connected her to the Brigmore Witches DLC. How did Daud fail in his mission? What had changed?

Driven from Dunwall, Emily is forced to make way to Karnaca to root out the conspirators of the coup and find out Delilah's weakness. Unlike the previous game, where we had to maintain a low profile in most places, Dishonored 2 features sections of Karnaca, where I could walk about undisguised. It serves a nice change of pace as we don't have to sneak through all the time. Though I did have to keep an eye out for the occasional guard on patrol.

Emily's powers were different from Corvo's and it took some getting used to. Far reach, the power of teleportation (equivalent to Blink), gave a more rigid feedback on the path taken during movement. Then we have Domino, which was one of my favorite. Now instead of taking down each enemy one by one, I could take down a group by stringing them together using Domino. As for Possession, Emily's equivalent is Shadow Walk, which allowed her to sneak past enemies and through vents, a power I did not use much until much later.

I got into the grove of the game when I started the game and was able to finish the opening chapters non-lethally and in total stealth. I was surprised by this and set myself the challenge to continue this for the whole game. This added a level of difficulty to the missions and a satisfaction upon each completion.

Karnaca, a country driven to the brink of the ruin by the Duke, seemed to have something deeper going on behind the scenes. The city was driven to the edge by something that happened not so long ago and as we figure it out, we are able to connect it to the reappearance of Delilah. The city is not affected by the plague like Dunwall was in the first game, providing for much more casual exploration. Although we do find bloodfly infestations in some closed quarters.

Playing through the game as a Ghost proved a surprisingly satisfying challenge. I did reload quite a few times to get it right, but I got into the grove for the later chapters. The game features amazing missions with unique level designs that I had a load of fun with. It all starts with the Clockwork Mansion.

Clockwork Mansion: Showdown with Jindosh

However, soon I met my challenge in the Clockwork Mansion with Kirin Jindosh's machines and contraptions. It took me time as I tried to break down the encounters with stealth making use of Shadow Walk power to make it past guards. In fact, this is the level where I found out how useful Shadow Walk was. It got me closer to my goal, much more easily. In fact so close that I was literally an elevator ride away from Jindosh and I never realized it until the end.

I spent almost 6 hours in the level and I am pretty sure I had not unlocked all it's secrets. Finally, this is the level where my total non-detection record was broken though I did not give up trying to be the Ghost for the next few chapters.

Dust District: Taking down Paolo

In the sixth mission, we go to the Dust District to find the passcode of Stilton Manor. The district is grounds for warfare between the Howlers and Overseers and we are given the option to help either of them by taking down the other faction's leader or find another way. I was sneaking through the area and had even found Paolo's house when I was given the option to take down Paolo non-lethally. Now Paolo had a bonecharm on him that did not allow him to be killed on the first shot. Being aware of this, I thought I would hunt him down after taking him out the first time.

I was overlooking the courtyard outside Paolo's place, where a couple of musicians were singing the Song of Serkanos, when I spotted Paolo and hit him with a sleep dart. He quickly turned into a swarm of rats that disappeared down the nearest drain. The mission updated for me to search for Paolo. When I tried to look for Paolo's new location, the marker pointed right behind me, at Paolo's apartment. Boom, I just snuck him and shot another dart at his face. I was truly amazed and surprised by this encounter.

Time Travel!!

Just excited by the recent encounter with Paolo, I made my way to Stilton Manor. There seemed to be no one around. Finally, I found Aramis Stilton who was made a prisoner in his home. He seemed to raving mad. That is when the Outsider provided me with a device to see through time and travel to the past to learn of the events 3 years ago that led to Stilton's madness. Yes, you heard me right, the game had time travel.

Seeing through time allowed you to see the past and the present at the same time and vice versa depending on the timeline you were in. This allowed me to traverse through the manor as stealthily as possible and make my way behind locked doors. Used as a puzzle solving mechanic as well as a key plot device to understand the story, time travel serves as an amazing twist that more than makes up for your locked up abilities (your powers stop working in the mansion).

We find that Grim Alex (Dr. Hypatia), Breanna Ashworth, Duke Luca Abele, Kirin Jindosh, and Stilton perform a ritual to return Delilah Copperspoon from the Void, himself. So, Daud did succeed in banishing Delilah, but she somehow find her way back from the Void.

What I learnt later, to my detriment, is that I could have changed the past and saved Aramis Stilton from going mad and from Megan Foster losing her hand.

The Duke & the fake

After finding out the truth about the events of three years ago, taking down the Duke of Karnaca and finding the statue that housed Delilah's spirit was next. I learnt that the Duke had a fake in his place at times to keep himself safe and we had to find out, who is the real one. This mission is very reminiscent of the Lady Boyle mission in the last game.

As I gathered clues making my way across the Duke's manor, I stumbled my way to the roof of the throne room. One of the Duke was there while the other was in his bedroom. So, after overhearing a few conversations, I was able to identify the real Duke and I made quick work of him (a sleep dart did the trick). At this point I did not know what to do with him, so I hid his body on the roof.

I made my way to the fake Duke and proposed for him to take the place of the real Duke. He agreed asking me to get the real Duke to him. In the end, he passed the real Duke as the fake and had him thrown in the dungeons.

Back to Dunwall

With most of her conspirators done away, all that was left was to confront Delilah and take her down. We return back to Dunwall to find it in ruin. Delilah had let the place to go hell and was up to something nefarious. The streets were populated by Howlers and the Brigmore witches. It is around this time I gave up on my Ghost stealth (though it had already been a few chapters since that achievement was out of my reach). Making my way across the rooftops of Dunwall was a breeze and I witnessed firsthand the destruction wrought by Delilah and her coven.

Making haste to reach Delilah and stop her, I made my way into Dunwall Tower. This was the third time I was in this place (the earlier two times in the first game) and even though the layout was the same, I found that the new residents had settled in. I discovered Delilah's plans in there to use her paintings and her magic to enslave the world. I figured out the non-lethal option to take her down is to screw up her spell.

What followed was one of the most interesting boss fights I had ever seen. You see Delilah created decoys to fight for her, which made it harder for us to take her down. This was the case in the Brigmore Witches DLC at the end of the first game, where Daud had to take out the decoys before he could banish Delilah. Bringing forward that power in my encounter with her in this game, it seems canonically correct to the story in the way she fought. After multiple attempts to take her on head on, I found that we can sneak around the arena in the Void and take down the decoys one by one. Finally, a shock mine placed in front of me, while I marshalled my position under the stairs, did the job to stun her. Despite having the best level of powers, this fight with Delilah proved be a test of stealth and wits. It worked so well to close off the main story of the game.

Conclusion

Dishonored 2 takes the place as my new favorite game, with the entire series holding a special place in my heart. The series is right up there with Bioshock and Dead Space with one major difference: I wanted to replay the story again with a different playstyle. I have played many RPGs over the years with my choices impacting the ending I get, but never have I felt the need to replay it like I felt with this game.

One thing I realized after watching the ending of the game is that it felt too summarized. I know the choices we make matter and affect the outcome, but it would have been good to explore a post-credit Dishonored world and understand the impact our choices made.

The story and gameplay is on par with the game featuring some of the best sandbox level designs each with it's own uniqueness. I couldn't wait to get started with the Death of the Outsider after this game. The more Dishonored, the better!