When “Dishonored” came out in 2012, it was a huge hit. People were praising its gameplay, art style and storytelling, and for many gamers, the title was pretty much perfect in every aspect. Sure, it had its flaws here and there – most notably in the fact that its gameplay was somewhat one-dimensional despite trying to portray itself as giving the player multiple options – but in the end, the overall package was a fantastic deal for every gamer that loved shooters, stealth games, RPGs, or combinations of those.
Now, three years later, the landscape has changed significantly. “Dishonored” quite clearly inspired various titles that came out after it, and the different nuances of its gameplay were then explored in detail from all possible angles. In the end, if a game like the original “Dishonored” came out today, it would probably be a blip on the radar and wouldn’t be noticed.
Which is why “Dishonored 2” should take some risks if the developers want to enjoy a similar level of success as its predecessor. It’s already been confirmed that the game will give different characters to choose from, and that’s a good step in the right direction – but there’s certainly even more that can be done to ensure that “Dishonored 2” is a truly good title in its genre (or mix of genres).
One of the main complaints players had about the original was that it had some clashing between its storyline/setting and the actual gameplay. On one hand, the character was presented as a stealthy assassin, always lurking in the shadows and stalking his victims silently. On the other, the actual gameplay was often quite brutal and packed full of action scenes, and in some cases direct combat was borderline unavoidable.
And yet, some players wanted to go for a sneakier approach, but it turned out that the game wasn’t really designed for that. Sure, it worked… to some extent. But many players echoed the notion that it felt like they were cutting out half of the game by doing that. It’s clear that the majority of fun comes from the diverse execution options that the main combat offers, and stealth is often just a tool to get between two rooms of enemies without being spotted, allowing the player to set themselves up for the perfect gory ambush.
On that note, the levels could probably use some more diversity in the choices they offer to the player. The original “Dishonored” tried to follow a non-linear approach, but that wasn’t so obvious in some levels, and the game sometimes felt more like a corridor shooter than an open-level stealth game.
It wouldn’t be that hard to implement more non-linearity even with the original level design style, and it was obvious from the first game that the studio has some amazing level designers at their disposal, so they won’t have to put much effort into coming up with new ideas that work even better.
Change and innovation is always good, but what should be preserved from the first game, with all that in mind? The art style of “Dishonored” was something many players and critics adored, and it managed to captivate the hearts of gamers for quite some time with its beautiful scenery, well-designed characters and interesting settings. The new game doesn’t even have to innovate, the studio just has to deliver more of the same and everyone would be perfectly happy. Of course, a slight technical polish wouldn’t hurt anyone either.