50 Best Games of 2016: #11 – Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2
Dishonored 2

Our 50 best games of the year countdown isn’t in any order, we’re just going through fifty of the finest the year has given us. Find out more here.

In the month since I originally reviewed Dishonored 2, I’ve had some time to ruminate. A common piece of advice people give is to walk away from something, to not actively analyze it, in order to allow your mind to arrive naturally at a solution to a problem, a revelation or change in attitude. This is what I have done for Dishonored 2; after the weekend I spent on a low-Chaos Emily playthrough for review and some Corvo for good measure, I walked away.

Since then, I have played other games, read books, watched movies, written my own work and had a whole bunch of time at my job to be alone with my thoughts. Dishonored 2 kept creeping into my ponderings, conversations with friends and co-workers and, with the game’s recent New Game Plus update, back into my PS4’s disc tray.

Dishonored’s biggest weakness has always been its story; the world the game immerses the player in is fantastic and engaging, but the characters, writing and voice acting revolving around the main plot are the weakest links. That said, as I look back on my time with Dishonored 2 and think about my new playthrough, I realize just how much damn fun the important part, the “game” part, really is.

Were I forced to compare the game to another, I would instead say that Dishonored 2 is what you get when you mash the stealth and bizarre multi-genre setting and environment of Thief, the environmental in-game storytelling of Bioshock and the action and assassination missions of Assassin’s Creed. It is an odd game to be sure, and if uniqueness alone were the mark of a great game then Dishonored 2 would already be a winner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2JvtKTSWxU

Instead, Dishonored 2 provides intricately, lovingly crafted open levels full of their own stories, the ones left there for you to find and the ones you make. Utilizing a blend of creative gadgets, cool weapons, stealth mechanics and wonderfully creative supernatural abilities, these levels become playgrounds of destruction – or perhaps they don’t? Perhaps instead of linking three men together and pulling them all in front a speeding train with a single tug of your magical whip, you choose to use that link to instead knock them out with one sleep dart. Or avoid icky violence all together through deft application of your climbing skills and a handy open window.

Dishonored 2 is that perfect type of game you can always pick up and come away with something to talk about. Tell your friends about how you no-kill, no-detection’d an entire level, while they regale you with the grisly details of how they massacred every last living thing in that same space. Many games profess to allow the player to approach situations in any way they see fit, but Dishonored 2 is the one that sticks out to me as truly delivering on that promise. You can try to be a speedy ghost, learning the levels inside and out and trying to balance speed with stealth to get through quick and quiet. You can keep your hands clean and still end up with everyone dead by starting a fight, then abusing your time and possession powers to put enemies in front of their own bullets or their friend’s sword. You can giggle like an idiot as you reload the same checkpoint repeatedly to mess with a particular guard or street urchin you hate for some reason – your quick load key will probably break before you get bored, provided you make creative use of the myriad of tools at your disposal.

This freedom creates high potential for glorious shenanigans, and is reason enough to recommend the game. Then you have the aforementioned New Game Plus mode, which carries over all Runes and Bonecharm effects (NOT the charms themselves, you have to build the new ones) applied before you completed the game the first time, allowing you to truly empower your chosen character. The game in its current state is nothing short of sheer joy.

Truly, there is no better time than now to give one of 2016’s most unique and replayable titles your attention.

Available on: PS4 | Xbox One | PC

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