Hard agree. I love all the stuff these guys have put out, especially all things Dishonored but including the Might and Magic deal where you could kick guys off ledges (never got old!) so based on that I’m interested in Deathloop, but I’m not super excited just yet.
Ahem. KICK IT!
No matter which “class” you choose, it will behoove you to play a Kicklord.
There’s an early mission where you have to defend the gangplank to a ship while enemies run up singly and try to board. By the time you’ve kicked the fifteenth guy into the water, his limbs flailing wildly as if you’d kicked the bones clean out of him, you have to wonder if Dark Messiah was supposed to play this way.
The way I remember that mission was that you snuck onto a ship with big cannon pointing at the dock and murdered the gunners from behind. Then when you were attacked from the dock as Tom describes, you were just supposed to blast them with the cannon you’d taken over, rather than run all the way to the gangplank and take them on in single combat. So no, it wasn’t supposed to play that way. Unless I’m misremembering - it was 2006 :)
Cool game. One where the demo sold me.
Just grabbed the Arkane Collection thanks to $25 Amazon gift card from my sister. All 3 Dishonoreds, plus Prey and I still had some change. Not bad.
I’ve only played Dishonored (and Prey) but I’m replaying it again. Just got the double cross and I took that as an opportunity to step out and play as Daud in the DLC. Then I’ll jump back into the main game.
Do we have a thread for Death of the Outsider? I couldn’t find any.
Anyway, just finished Dishonored 2 (why the hell did I put it off for so long?!) and instead of replaying it with the other character I decided to try out DotO and man is this game delivering in spades. No more chaos morality, free and full mana regen, interesting abilities right off the bat, and fast pace of acquiring upgrades? Sign me up. Not that I had an issue with any of those mechanics in the first two games, but mana for example was super easy to manage, and this game simply waves that away as unnecessary. Same goes for chaos morality, finally I can actually use my sword and stop ignoring 90% of the tools at my disposal. The second level also feels like a mini open world, it’s fantastically structured and I cannot wait to see more. It actually feels a bit like Thief (2014) in that regard, minus the engine limitations so the transitions aren’t as frequent.
I do not think the chaos mechanic did anything in DO2. I did about 1.5 play-throughs. The first time I was stealthy with minimal killing. The second run I was full on murder mode, going out of my way to kill everyone. I think I made it the the clock work mansion in my 2nd run before I was bored and quit. I had not noticed anything different at all about being high chaos vs low chaos. I do not even think the outsider commented on it in the 2nd one either.
I cannot confirm either way, but I remember in the first game you’d get more aggressive enemy spawns (more high tier units etc) if I’m not mistaken?
Either way, if a stealth game has a pacifist achievement I am 100% going for it. And I’m glad that Death of the Outsider does not.
I didn’t like the voice actor change for the Outsider. The original guy’s delivery was way better / sinister.
Also why did the same antagonist from the first games expansion show up again in the sequel? I thought I had dealt with her already.
Other than those two immediate whiplashes, the game is good.
Gotta read the book. :P
https://www.amazon.com/Dishonored-Return-Dishonoured-Adam-Christopher/dp/1783293055/
Currently on final mission in Death of the Outsider, and I have to say the whole game is such a wonderful and compact experience. Currently clocking in at around 13h, which is less than Dishonored 2, but still in line with similarly paced games like System Shock 2 or Deus Ex (the first one). I especially liked that the levels were huge, once again Arkane proved that they have amazing level designers - maybe one of these days I will figure out how I consistently manage to miss 25% or more of all coins in the level, despite my best efforts to stick my nose everywhere and knock out every guard. And as always, the engine handles like a sports car, animations are incredibly fluid and the game is a joy to play.
They were really well done games, however, by the end of it I was getting bored of the world. I was starting to feel a like I had seen it all before when it ended. Id rather see another IP with a new world and new mechanics than another Dishonored game.
Well, Deathloop is a new IP, but the mechanics are pretty similar… Still worth checking out
I am familiar with that game, and any game where the basic mechanic is, repeat shit over and over until you get it right is not my idea of fun.
I understand what you’re saying and I agree - that’s why I’m seriously considering the idea of going through either Dishonored 2 (or DotO) or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on the Iron Man mode and just embrace the way the situations unfold and hope I make it through. Obviously a lot of things can go wrong, especially related to Blink, or shuffling items around, but the games are still predictable enough that you can minimize this.
Of course, as always, the core of the issue is that stealth is binary, you’re either a world class ninja or the entire level knows you’re there - granted, newer games are somewhat better about this by having isolated pockets, or not having linked enemies, so you can recover from your mistakes, but yeah, it is what it is.
But that really isn’t what you do in Deathloop. :)
So, as promised, I started an ironman run in DH2 - made it further than I anticipated, got zapped by an arc pylon in Jindosh’s mansion, but I was also at ~50% hp at that point (a mistake I will surely not repeat) so I’m not sure if I’d have been oneshot otherwise. That said, for comfort purposes I started an NG+ so I could have the QoL upgrades faster than I would have otherwise - faster and quiet sprinting for example, as well as agility upgrades are super nice to have. Unlike my purist stealth runs that I play on hardest possible setting I also dropped down most parameters to core (Normal) values, and I have to say it makes the experience that much more pleasant when you can peek out around corners and not get spotted instantly, or cross a street without a guard 50 meters away going into full alert mode.
In any case, the experience up to that point was sublime. I am now thoroughly convinced that this is the best way to play these games. I finally got to experience most of the arsenal at the player’s disposal, and it is absolutely wonderful to see different combat and enemy AI mechanics in action.
Hey all, only now playing this, crazily enough. Can someone enlighten me as to how you actually catch something that you pull toward yourself with the Far Reach upgraded power? Things like runes and bonecharms automatically end up in inventory, but how do you catch a bottle, say, so you can use it elsewhere? The tutorial text is mum about it and I can’t see it in the controls.
To pull something you hold the left trigger down, then let it go when it shows an aura around it, that’s clear. It’s the catching that I don’t get how to do.
I played this over the last week finally, wrapped it up last night. I still think I liked Prey best of all the Arkane immersive sims so far, but I did really enjoy Dishonored 2. My preferred method of going without killing or being spotted took me back to the old Thief games, with their restrictive requirements for beating levels at the highest difficulty. I forgot that Death of the Outsider even existed, may have to try that one next.
My highpoint was Dishonored + Knife of Dunwall/Witches expansions.
Dishonored 2 + Death of the Outsider are good but felt…less good. Maybe I am Jaded.
I guess the magic was gone, or the outsiders voice actor change really rubbed me the wrong way…
I agree, D1 felt better, though perhaps thats just nostalgia talking, as it was new and fresh at the time before I became more used to its mechanics in D2?
Generally I’d love a D3 with slightly LESS magical stuff - ie more of a thief vibe. Which reminds me I never actually played that Thief reboot from a few years ago. The response it received was pretty negative, but perhaps its still worth playing after all? Anyone here give it a go?