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[Krappadizzle]

Courtesy of Rexatality:

Some details include:
- 3 to 5 upgrades for each power
- Some new details about the upgrades (Like Corvo's rat swarm can be upgraded to follow Corvo around)
- Expanded chaos system
- More nuanced endgame where the decisions you make (Who you killed/didn't kill, who you supported/didn't support) change the endings (Basically, there are more than 2 ending branches for Dishonored 2)

Source


I'm really liking how this is shaping up.

Endgame:

The endgames are much more nuanced than last time. They're not just a gate at the end, but they're rather branches along the way: who you supported and who you didn't support, and who you killed and who you didn't. It makes a series of permutations of the endgame. Put all those permutations together, and then put different voice-over with commentary on it, and you have very many different states.

How Chaos system is being expanded:

We found that last time, people were deciding who to kill or not based on the Heart. They'd pull out the Heart, they'd point it at a guy, it would whisper some secrets about him, and if [players] thought he sounded like a dick, they killed him. In their minds, bad people contributed less to chaos. That wasn't actually mechanically true, but because they believed it was true, we said, "We need to make that true this time." We added a system where people in the world are either sympathetic, guilty, or murderous.


Killing people contributes to chaos; it destabilizes the world around you. But killing a sympathetic person is worse in terms of weighting than killing a murderous person. That's a concession we made to the more nuanced desire that players had. Also, it solved a problem, because players were like, "Oh, it just comes down to killing fewer than 20 percent of the people." Not anymore. The weighting is different character to character.

At the beginning of a given mission, we take all the characters in the world--the random guards and such--and we procedurally decide whether they're sympathetic, guilty, or murderous, so every time it's different.

Corvo's Devouring Swarm in the first game, the upgrade was: The rats are more vicious, they destroy bodies faster, and they kill people faster. That was it--one power, one upgrade. Now you can do that, but you also have an upgrade that allows you to make two swarms. You can be attacking two different groups of people with rats. You can also upgrade it to have large swarms. You can upgrade it so that your swarms follow you, so when you take off running or Blinking across the ground, there's a trail of rats behind you, Pied Piper-style. That's a light dive into how we break up the upgrades.

edit: Haha, saw the typo in the title, if a mod could change it to (Gamespot) I'd appreciate it.

 

[lucebuce12]

This game is gonna have so much replayability, I love it.

 

[Tame Deity]

Nice, I really want this game to be at least as good as the original. I thought we played as Emily and mot Corvo though?

 

[Krappadizzle]

Nice, I really want this game to be at least as good as the original. I thought we played as Emily and mot Corvo though?

You can play as both.

 

[Rexatality]

Nice, I really want this game to be at least as good as the original. I thought we played as Emily and mot Corvo though?

Both Emily and Corvo are playable characters in Dishonored 2.

Thank you OP for the credit, btw.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Dishonored 2 may knock Inside out of my GOTY. I still go back and play the first one to this day all these years later. The art, music, and gameplay loops and the many different ways you can complete a mission is just so damn good. I finally did a successful Ghost Run and Clean Hands run in the same go a few months ago, way more challenging than I thought. Currently have 97 hours played with Dishonored, I wouldn't be surprised if Dishonored 2 beats that handily if it improves on what it already did. I'm really happy to see the non-lethal side getting more attention, it was definitely stunted comparatively to the lethal side in Dishonored 1.

Thank you OP for the credit, btw.

 

[Rexatality]

Dishonored 2 may knock Inside out of my GOTY. I still go back and play the first one to this day all these years later. The art, music, and gameplay loops and the many different ways you can complete a mission is just so damn good. I finally did a successful Ghost Run and Clean Hands run in the same go a few months ago, way more challenging than I thought. Currently have 97 hours played with Dishonored, I wouldn't be surprised if Dishonored 2 beats that handily if it improves on what it already did. I'm really happy to see the non-lethal side getting more attention, it was definitely stunted comparatively to the lethal side in Dishonored 1.

Agreed. And the DLCs for Dishonored 1 were good, if not, better than the main game in terms of level design and other aspects (Daud was a far more interesting protagonist IMO simply because he was voiced).

And with Dishonored 2, we got two playable protagonists with their own perspectives and responses along with their own set of powers and the new setting of Karnaca (inspired by southern European countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece). And the fact they're improving things that were flawed in the first game is pretty exciting

I know it may sound typical hype, but I have a hard time believing that Arkane will fuck this up. They're pretty committed to make Dishonored 2 an amazing sequel

 

[Ashtar]

Courtesy of Rexatality:


Source


I'm really liking how this is shaping up.

edit: Haha, saw the typo in the title, if a mod could change it to (Gamespot) I'd appreciate it.

That logo looks like he's sucking a dick and has another dick for later.... A snack dick
Anyway the different branches of powers seems really cool hopefully non lethal has some fun ones too

 

[wamberz1]

Nanananananana Rat-Man!!!!!!
But I'm really liking that corvo will have some of his abilities from the first game, but at the samte time they aren't just copping out and copy/pasting them. It'll be fun to play with the familiar ones, combined with the new stuff.

 

[Krappadizzle]

That logo looks like he's sucking a dick and has another dick for later.... A snack dick

 

[Crossing Eden]

Man we're literally gonna be gods by the end game.

 

[MR ARCADE FOREVER]

Playing the first one on pc now

 

[120v]

thing i loved about dishonored were the insane killstreaks people came up with. i saw stuff on youtube i thought could never ever be done even after 50+ hrs of playing. i expect this game to really up the crazy

 

[Rexatality]

That logo looks like he's sucking a dick and has another dick for later.... A snack dick
Anyway the different branches of powers seems really cool hopefully non lethal has some fun ones too

Some, if not, most of Emily's powers are viable for non lethal means. Far Reach (One of its upgrades allows pulling enemies towards her to knock them out if you want to) Mesmerize (distract your enemies with a void spirit for several seconds), Domino (linking several guards so that eliminating one guard affects the others.) and doppelganger (summon a clone that can be used to distract the guards)

If nothing else, you got combat choke (allowing you to choke enemies during combat) and you can do non-lethal drop attacks and other non-lethal gadgets like stun mines

 

[Krappadizzle]

I'd love for them to put cheats in. Disable achievements if it's a big deal. Or at least make modding specific values in game via a .ini text edit easier. I recently played through Dishonored with infinite mana and it was so damn fun, but I had to use Cheat Engine to do it, which was slightly annoying.

 

[Mivey]

Man we're literally gonna be gods by the end game.

Corvo kicking the Outsiders butt and taking up his mantle? Would be a fitting retirement

 

[Falchion]

The more nuanced endings is the big one for me, love that.

 

[Mifec]

Corvo kicking the Outsiders butt and taking up his mantle? Would be a fitting retirement

Unless he can

Spoiler

fix the void

that ain't really a good end for him.

 

[SimonM7]

I thought we played as Emily and mot Corvo though?

Yeah, we can still play as both, but unlike when they revealed the game and pitched Emily as the main character, they appear to have backpedaled like mad, and now every preview just talks about Corvo all the time. Kinda bums me out, but as long as they haven't rejigged the actual game, and the main plotline follows her like they seemed excited to do it, I'm good.

 

[Rexatality]

Yeah, we can still play as both, but unlike when they revealed the game and pitched Emily as the main character, they appear to have backpedaled like mad, and now every preview just talks about Corvo all the time. Kinda bums me out, but as long as they haven't rejigged the actual game, and the main plotline follows her like they seemed excited to do it, I'm good.

From the looks of it, the focus is still about Emily. Even the story focuses on restoring Emily to the throne (Whether you play as her or Corvo)

We got a taste of her abilities in E3, so not why give a preview to Corvo, especially to who want to play him?

 

[swarley64]

Never heard of this site "gamepost " before, are they legit

 

[Rexatality]

Since OP only quoted the article in regards to power upgrades, I'm gonna add more quotes that discusses about the endgames and how chaos system is being expanded.

You can add them to the OP if you wish, Krappadizzle

The endgames for Dishonored 2:

The endgames are much more nuanced than last time. They're not just a gate at the end, but they're rather branches along the way: who you supported and who you didn't support, and who you killed and who you didn't. It makes a series of permutations of the endgame. Put all those permutations together, and then put different voice-over with commentary on it, and you have very many different states.

How Chaos system is being expanded:

We found that last time, people were deciding who to kill or not based on the Heart. They'd pull out the Heart, they'd point it at a guy, it would whisper some secrets about him, and if [players] thought he sounded like a dick, they killed him. In their minds, bad people contributed less to chaos. That wasn't actually mechanically true, but because they believed it was true, we said, "We need to make that true this time." We added a system where people in the world are either sympathetic, guilty, or murderous.


Killing people contributes to chaos; it destabilizes the world around you. But killing a sympathetic person is worse in terms of weighting than killing a murderous person. That's a concession we made to the more nuanced desire that players had. Also, it solved a problem, because players were like, "Oh, it just comes down to killing fewer than 20 percent of the people." Not anymore. The weighting is different character to character.

At the beginning of a given mission, we take all the characters in the world--the random guards and such--and we procedurally decide whether they're sympathetic, guilty, or murderous, so every time it's different.

 

[SimonM7]

From the looks of it, the focus is still about Emily. Even the story focuses on restoring Emily to the throne (Whether you play as her or Corvo)

We got a taste of her abilities in E3, so not why give a preview to Corvo, especially to who want to play him?

I wouldn't mind that, but I've read multiple instances of this:

it's worth noting that Stephen Russell has been picked to play the game's de facto lead character Corvo - though you can play as Emily Kaldwin in Dishonored 2 as well.

That particular quote is from Eurogamer. It's like they've been told to talk up Corvo for fear of the kids thinking it's a girly game or something. AC Syndicate had a female character in there, but was vvvvery adamant to play up the male lead to maintain the status marketing quo. I guess we'll see what the material and trailers closer to release look like for this.

Again, not that it matters hugely as long as the game is as they intended from the start, but it bugs me a little that there's this recently developed reluctance to just say Emily is who Dishonored 2 is about.

 

[Terrorblot]

I gotta say I'm really looking forward to this game. It seems like Dishonored was forgotten too quickly, it was much better than Bioshock Infinite IMHO.

 

[Rexatality]

I gotta say I'm really looking forward to this game. It seems like Dishonored was forgotten too quickly, it was much better than Bioshock Infinite IMHO.

It's still looked upon fondly by most people on GAF (The DLCs are well liked as well). But the way I see it, its not a game for everyone, so I understand why there's not a lot of talk about it.

On the other hand, I felt the complaints about how the game punishes the player for playing lethally were highly exaggerated.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Since OP only quoted the article in regards to power upgrades, I'm gonna add more quotes that discusses about the endgames and how chaos system is being expanded.

You can add them to the OP if you wish, Krappadizzle

The endgames for Dishonored 2:


How Chaos system is being expanded:

That snippet is interesting. One area where you really felt Dishonored's borrowed DNA from Thief coming through was in it's attention to detail: NPC conversations, world building and the game's lore, so hopefully the sequel does a good job of building on that.

 

[CaptainofIndustry]

I can't wait for this game.

 

[Late Flag]

I loved the first installment and I'm extremely interested in the sequel. Probably not day one (Darkest Dungeon or XCOM2), but eventually.

 

[Diancecht]

This game is gonna have so much replayability, I love it.

Exactly. I have clocked over 60 hours with the first game, I can't imagine how many hours I am gonna play this one

 

[Nessus]

Sad that they've replaced the original voice actor for the Outsider (Billy Lush). I really liked him in the role, appropriately creepy and awkward.

But if that's the biggest complaint I can think of that's a pretty good sign.

Still a little in awe that we get a new Deus Ex this month, and then Dishonored II in a few months.

 

[Stiler]

Really disappointed that Corvo has no new powers.

Seems they didn't listen at all to the main complaint people had about the moral choices and combat and how the game was basically like "Here's some awesome combat abilities..now don't use most of these fun/exciting ones if you want a good ending ok!"

They basically talk as though people are stupid and don't know how to use them and try to say that there's non lethal ways to use them and therefore it's fine , completely and utterly missing the entire point of peoples complaint about it.

 

[Hippo_PRIME]

So excited to jump back into this world. Dishonored is one of my favorite games ever. The game play and the world both really resonate with something in me. Loving the idea of diverging upgrade paths for powers.

 

[E_Darkness]

Really disappointed that Corvo has no new powers.

I don't mind this as much, seeing instead of new powers he is getting stronger variants on his existing move list.



I'm still holding out for Daud.

Spoiler

Even if he is DLC again...

 

[SomTervo]

The more nuanced endings is the big one for me, love that.

Yeah, the ending of the first one was such a badly paced wet fart

Still love the game

I don't mind this as much, seeing instead of new powers he is getting stronger variants on his existing move list.



I'm still holding out for Daud.

Spoiler

Even if he is DLC again...

It would be cool if they went the way with the third character in the old Tenchu games used to work. You could play the main guy or girl, then after beating the campaign you unlocked the third character who had his own style/set of powers.

 

[disappeared]

Have they for sure said we can main Emily through the whole story?

 

[Son Of Sparda]

Their E3 presentation was awesome. Really looking forward to this game.

They mentioned something about getting the definitive edition of the first game if/when you pre-order it digitally or something like that. Was that a timed deal or do you still get the first game if you pre-order? And how is the definitive version on PS4? 1080p/60fps? Is it worth replaying if I already own the original game on PS3?

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Really disappointed that Corvo has no new powers.

Seems they didn't listen at all to the main complaint people had about the moral choices and combat and how the game was basically like "Here's some awesome combat abilities..now don't use most of these fun/exciting ones if you want a good ending ok!"

They basically talk as though people are stupid and don't know how to use them and try to say that there's non lethal ways to use them and therefore it's fine , completely and utterly missing the entire point of peoples complaint about it.

First off going by that article they totally did address this by adding more nuance to how killing different people will affect the chaos level. Second, the chaos system made quite a bit of sense in that if you were mercilessly slaughtering hundreds of people to get your revenge then ya things might get kinda dark once you take power. God forbid your actions have consequences. Third, the ending of the first game on high chaos was actually way more awesome than the low chaos version. So not much of a "punishment" as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Rexatality]

Have they for sure said we can main Emily through the whole story?

Once you choose Emily (Or Corvo), the choice is permanent. So yes, you can main through the whole story as Emily

Their E3 presentation was awesome. Really looking forward to this game.

They mentioned something about getting the definitive edition of the first game if/when you pre-order it digitally or something like that. Was that a timed deal or do you still get the first game if you pre-order? And how is the definitive version on PS4? 1080p/60fps? Is it worth replaying if I already own the original game on PS3?

IIRC, if you pre order Dishonored 2 digitally, you get definitive edition of the first game for free.

Unfortunately, the definitive edition is 30 FPS. In case you have a PC thats capable enough to play Dishonored, your better off not getting the definitive edition on PS4.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Agreed. And the DLCs for Dishonored 1 were good, if not, better than the main game in terms of level design and other aspects (Daud was a far more interesting protagonist IMO simply because he was voiced).

And with Dishonored 2, we got two playable protagonists with their own perspectives and responses along with their own set of powers and the new setting of Karnaca (inspired by southern European countries like Spain, Italy, and Greece). And the fact they're improving things that were flawed in the first game is pretty exciting

I know it may sound typical hype, but I have a hard time believing that Arkane will fuck this up. They're pretty committed to make Dishonored 2 an amazing sequel

And they got four years to do it. Super hyped for this and Deus Ex for similar reasons.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Have they for sure said we can main Emily through the whole story?

I'm pretty sure it's two separate campaigns.

Never heard of this site "gamepost " before, are they legit

How dare you!

 

[Rexatality]

I'm pretty sure it's two separate campaigns.

Actually, both have the same missions and assassination targets. The real difference comes in their power set and perspectives and responses on events.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Have they for sure said we can main Emily through the whole story?

You choose via character select screen at the intro.

The main villains of this game are absolutely stupid, WHY would you mess with an empress and a rumored supernaturally powerful assassin bodyguard?

 

[Stiler]

First off going by that article they totally did address this by adding more nuance to how killing different people will affect the chaos level. Second, the chaos system made quite a bit of sense in that if you were mercilessly slaughtering hundreds of people to get your revenge then ya things might get kinda dark once you take power. God forbid your actions have consequences. Third, the ending of the first game on high chaos was actually way more awesome than the low chaos version. So not much of a "punishment" as far as I'm concerned.

What people have a problem with isn't that your choices have consequences, it's that they tied the gameplay/combat to affect the story rather then either having actual choices that play a major role (like an rpg for instance) or having a balanced system that allows you to play either way enjoyably.

The first game playing full stealth was not nearly as fun as using your powers and being an all around bad ass in combat, the tools you were given were skewed toward the "evil" side.

It's like Jedi/Sith, imagine if your example, Jedi couldn't use force push, force pull, lightsaber throws, mind trick and instead they were given a lightsaber and told "Now don't ever use this, he's a baton, just whack them over the head with it."

Instead of them thinking of fun/cool "good" powers and FUN combat mechanics that can be used in a good way they just had a very linear stealth system and loaded most of the fun things on the other end, and it felt punishing to use those if you wanted the "good" ending.

It basically boiled down to Want good ending? Play stealth. Don't want to play the game like a stealth game? Well you only get the evil path cause there's no good non-lethal combat.

They could have had all kinds of non-lethal melee combat moves with his blink ability/time, but they didn't and basically that's where people had the problem with the game. You could not get into comat/have fun with Corvo's powers without being penalized and getting chaos for doing so. The good path was regulated to being a stealth player who didn't engage in melee combat.

 

[Krappadizzle]

They could have had all kinds of non-lethal melee combat moves with his blink ability/time, but they didn't and basically that's where people had the problem with the game. You could not get into comat/have fun with Corvo's powers without being penalized and getting chaos for doing so. The good path was regulated to being a stealth player who didn't engage in melee combat.

I begrudgingly agree with this. I enjoyed the challenge of a no kill/stealth playthrough with the mechanics of the game. Peaking/climbing/jumping/blinking around guards and figuring out their movements was probably more fun to me than most people I'd bet. I played the game 3 times without the Dark Sight power as I thought it was too overpowered, but other than blink and stop time, there just isn't many powers to work with in regards to a no kill/stealth playthrough. I'm glad they are addressing this though in D2.

I will say that I much prefer the game give you an ending based on your in-game actions as opposed to a "choice" segment. Makes you have to consider what you are doing while playing as opposed to just choosing a "choice" in a predesignated time when it's convenient for the ending you want.

 

[Rexatality]

What people have a problem with isn't that your choices have consequences, it's that they tied the gameplay/combat to affect the story rather then either having actual choices that play a major role (like an rpg for instance) or having a balanced system that allows you to play either way enjoyably.

The first game playing full stealth was not nearly as fun as using your powers and being an all around bad ass in combat, the tools you were given were skewed toward the "evil" side.

It's like Jedi/Sith, imagine if your example, Jedi couldn't use force push, force pull, lightsaber throws, mind trick and instead they were given a lightsaber and told "Now don't ever use this, he's a baton, just whack them over the head with it."

Instead of them thinking of fun/cool "good" powers and FUN combat mechanics that can be used in a good way they just had a very linear stealth system and loaded most of the fun things on the other end, and it felt punishing to use those if you wanted the "good" ending.

It basically boiled down to Want good ending? Play stealth. Don't want to play the game like a stealth game? Well you only get the evil path cause there's no good non-lethal combat.

They could have had all kinds of non-lethal melee combat moves with his blink ability/time, but they didn't and basically that's where people had the problem with the game. You could not get into comat/have fun with Corvo's powers without being penalized and getting chaos for doing so. The good path was regulated to being a stealth player who didn't engage in melee combat.

I disagree. Dishonored is first and foremost a first person stealth/action "play at your own pace with multiple approaches to complete the objective" game. Making decisions that changes the game through conversations wouldn't work out well.

As Krappadizzle already said it, it works better when you make gameplay decision s through playing lethal or non-lethal. You don't like how it works, that's fine. But you shouldn't expect Arkane to overhaul the design fundamentals when they aren't hugely flawed in the first place.

 

[NeoRaider]

I really want Thief sequel.

 

[Rexatality]

I really want Thief sequel.

Unless they hire Stephen Russell back for Garett and overhaul some of the stupid design decisions they made for nuThief, I'm not interested.

Eidos had a chance to make nuThief as good as the original games, but they blew it.

Though I don't understand why you're longing for a nuThief sequel in a thread about Dishonored 2

 

[Gurish]

I hate the chaos system, the most fun way to play Dishonored 1 was with brutal stealth, but the game made you feel bad for it.

 

[Rexatality]

I hate the chaos system, the most fun way to play Dishonored 1 was with brutal stealth, but the game made you feel bad for it.

Define 'feel bad'. All it changes is more guards, weepers and rats.

And as already explained, they're make it more nuanced in the sequel

Non-lethal players are getting more options to play with, so I don't think they're missing any of the fun

 

[Crossing Eden]

Define 'feel bad'. All it changes is more guards, weepers and rats.

And as already explained, they're make it more nuanced in the sequel

Non-lethal players are getting more options to play with, so I don't think they're missing any of the fun

Because the game doesn't reward you for killing what is essentially people doing their jobs.and shows you the consequences of killing a huge chunk of the guards and civilians in your city. Which is a really good take on stealth gameplay. Thankfully, they're adding more non lethal options in this game, like non lethal air takedowns.