Dishonored 2: 5 Things We Know

11th November 2016 will be the release date for the hotly anticipated sequel to Arkane Studios’ Dishonored, according to a press release by publisher, Bethesda Softworks.

Dishonored, the supernatural action-adventure title which won several game of the year awards when it released in 2012, first had its sequel announced at the E3 convention last year, with Bethesda releasing a small teaser trailer with not a lot else to go with since.

Fans of the first game will be pleased to learn that the open-ended, choice driven gameplay will return, with Bethesda confirming: “The story responds to your choices, leading to intriguing outcomes, as you play through each of the game’s hand-crafted missions.”

Anyway, here’s five things we know about Dishonored 2, according to Game Informer:

New Location
Dishonored 2 is set to move away from the Dunwall, with its drab, Victorian inspired architecture and bleak skies and to a more sunny, Mediterranean environment in Karnaca, the capital city of Serkonos. In the Dishonored universe, the Isle of Serkonos was the birthplace of Corvo and referred to as the isle of the south and formed a part of the Empire of Isles.

Dual Characters
The sequel will see the return of two central characters from the first game, the protagonist Corvo Attano and Princess Emily Kaldwin. Both will be playable characters, allowing you to play through the entirety of the story as either characters. Doing so will allow you to experience the story from each character’s perspective and will further build the replay value that Dishonored excelled with.

New Powers and Upgrade System
Building on the variety of supernatural powers from the first game, each character will have a set of abilities unique to them which expand on the core powers of dishonoured and will allow players to play the game either stealthily or with brute force. Arkane has mentioned that there will be a third playstyle, although they have not gone into detail as to what that is. Arkane have apparently revamped the upgrade system. In the last game, you gained upgrades that strengthened your powers, whereas now, powers are upgraded through various skill trees.

The Story
What we currently know about the story is that it will be set 15 years after the events of Dishonored and Emily Kaldwin has been usurped from the throne by an otherworldly successor and finds herself in Karnaca with Corvo, trying to unravel the conspiracy. Karnaca, much like Dunwall before it, is in the throes of a plague. The rats have been replaced by blood flies and can lay eggs in corpses which, you guessed it, hatch. Much like the rats in the first game, it is expected that the more people you kill through the play through, the more blood flies.

Improved A.I
A common criticism of the first game is that the enemy A.I was a bit lacking and Arkane has taken steps to improve this. Guard search patterns have been revamped as in the first game, they would most commonly go to your last known location and linger there before leaving. They will now seem to follow dynamic search patterns with several A.Is carrying out searches for you. Situational awareness amongst the guards has also improved. For example, if one guard has a gun or another ranged weapon and the other has melee, the one with the ranged weapon will hang back whilst the other moves in front.

The November release date seems a long way off, but with this falling into the holiday release window, it is a sign that Bethesda and Arkane are confident Dishonored 2 will sell well and a testimony to their overall faith in the franchise. The original Dishonored was a sleeper hit, out-performing any other game that launched at the time.

In the press release, Bethesda confirmed that: “The world premiere of Dishonored 2 gameplay will take place during Bethesda’s 2016 E3 Showcase being held in Los Angeles, California on June 12th beginning at 7pm PST, and streamed live around the world via Twitch and YouTube.”

It is expected that the game will release on Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.