Drummed Outta Dunwall

Dishonored 2 is set years after the first game. Emily Kaldwin's ruled for some time when she's overthrown by a consortium of influential people, led by a woman called Delilah. Delilah has strange powers like Corvo did. More critically, Delilah claims to the illegitimate daughter of Emily's grandfather, who was cast out alongside her washerwoman mother after Emily's mother pinned the blame for a broken dish on Delilah.

I suppose it's meant to challenge the image Emily has of her mother, who was assassinated to kick off the first game. No doubt, Emily had nearly deified her mother's memory since then, but the game overestimates how much we as the player do that, or how much we care. Jessamine was herself a child when she wrecked Delilah's life. I didn't listen to the Heart very often, so if Jessamine went in-depth on her motivations for telling that lie, that it was something other than a child making a panicked decision in a moment of fear, I missed it.

Nor did I particularly care. The story takes Emily to a land far south of Dunwall, where Delilah built her power. It serves to show Emily the rot that's been allowed under her rule, that's she remained ignorant or unconcerned with because ruling is so often boring. But it also strongly suggests neither Delilah or her cronies have the best interests of their new subjects in mind. Duke Abel works them like slaves in silver mines while he resides in a delightful coastal villa. The doctor at the medical hospital, in addition to having developed some Jekyll/Hyde serum, experiments on the patients. Jindosh uses people as prey for his mechanical men.

That's what I was concerned about, ousting them. Whatever Emily's mother may have done decades ago didn't matter to me at all. Delilah could go cry about it in Hell.

That said, I did try to apply non-lethal approaches for the first two (the doctor and Jindosh,) on the grounds they might be useful. The doctor was working on something to control the bloodfly epidemic, and I'm sure Jindosh could have managed something. After I botched both attempts, I decided to just kill the lot of 'em.

You get the choice of playing as Corvo again, or Emily (who's been trained by Corvo for years.) I chose Emily because, what the hell, I played as Corvo in the first game. Having not played as Corvo in this game, I don't know if Delilah tries to sway/taunt him with her tale of injustice. My feeling is, Corvo would give less of a shit than I did. But, having been falsely accused himself, maybe not.

The game also gave the option of rejecting the Outsider's offer of power and assistance. I did not decline the offer, because I struggled mightily just getting out of the castle to a friendly ship that would carry Emily to safety. I'm not sure how I would have gotten through some of the later levels without powers. The Jindosh estate in particular, was a complete clusterfuck even with powers.

At least, if you're trying to remain undetected and limit the fatalities, which I was. A few missions went pretty well - attacking the coven of witches in the museum was fairly quiet - and others would go well until a certain point. Then I'd make noise in the wrong place and either end up running (which attracted a lot of attention) or fighting my way out (which attracted a lot of attention.)

I know, I could just load from my last save. I did that a few times when things had been going particularly well or felt I'd boxed myself in (Jindosh's manor.) But the load times were lengthy enough (not a patch on Metro: Exodus in that regard, but still) I didn't want to go to that well too often.

The gameplay's much the same as the first game. First-person perspective, lots of different ways to get from Point A to Point B. Kill people with swords or guns or explosives. Choke them out, or put them to sleep, or just go around them. If you accept the Outsider's gifts, then you've got options with all the different powers. Though, I didn't unlock several of those, because they seemed more complicated than I wanted to bother with.

I expected a little more from the Outsider at the end of the game about the effect my choices had. Like how killing the doctor meant that entire district became overrun with bloodflies, those who could escape doing so, the rest dying. Maybe it would have focused on those sorts of things if I'd left them alive. The game says taking the nonlethal option results in a less cynical ending, but I never took the nonlethal option for Delilah's crew, and it didn't seem all that cynical.

I did avoid allying with either the Overseers or the Howlers when I needed into Artemis' manor. The Howlers are a gang of thugs (some also empowered by the Outsider), and the Overseers are religious zealots. I didn't have to kill anyone for either group, which suited me fine. I'm not proud of how long it took me to figure out the riddle of the Jindosh lock on the manor door, but it's not like it was timed. The important thing is, I got it.