Arkane Dishonored 2 - Emily and Corvo's Serkonan Vacation

[Master]

How they could make such an awful and childish story is beyond me. But the gameplay is very very good. It's one of the best infiltration games ever, and makes Thief "magical shadows" (thanks Deman) look silly in comparison, besides putting on a clinic on freedom of approaches to any game out there.

What was silly about it? If you mean when the guards cant see him from a feet away, thats explained in the intro movie that Garrett just like the Keepers has some kind of special ability that can make him invisible. So when the guards cant see him the "magic" is not in the shadows but in Garrett. The shadows maybe just make this ability more effective or something. Theres nothing silly about it... Dishonored OTOH with all this jumping around and messing with the guards looks like a joke. ANyone who plays it and likes it is an asshole.

 

[Latelistener]

How they could make such an awful and childish story is beyond me.

Just like in the two other games they made since Arx Fatalis.
I hope Avellone will lend a hand to them in Prey, but we still don't know what he's working on.

 

[Morgoth]

http://www.pcgamer.com/dishonored-2-review-in-progress/

Update from Evan Lahti, US Editor-in-Chief:

Over the past week we've extensively covered Dishonored 2's technical issues, and on some PCs, regardless of graphics settings, many of us continue to experience the inconsistent framerates, audio stuttering, and mouse jittering we did at launch. These problems have been widely reported by players whose hardware is near the recommended spec. For this reason, we cannot recommend buying Dishonored 2 right now.

However, when Dishonored 2 is running smoothly, it is excellent. In the eyes of everyone on our team that's played it, it's one of the best games of the year. Knowing that a patch is imminent, and having now tested a beta version of that patch ourselves with encouraging results, we're uncomfortable with scoring Dishonored 2 as it currently exists in the knowledge that these technical issues are likely to be resolved shortly.

Yeah, definitely waiting till they've fixed the performance before ploughing ahead with this excellent game.

 

[Jedi Exile]

It's funny but I never had any problems with performance, although I've upgraded my rig about a year ago and even then it wasn't top of the line.

 

[Siel]

When Dishonored 2 was launched, the game experienced PC performance problems on machines with specific configurations. We’re working to address some of these with our updates over time, and some will be addressed by driver updates released by our partners.

Today we’re beginning the process with new NVIDIA PC drivers (375.95) and our first post-release title update (Update 1.1).

PC users on NVIDIA cards should grab this driver [nvidia.custhelp.com] update before playing.
NVIDIA driver 375.95 Link [nvidia.custhelp.com]

For users with AMD cards, the recommended driver is still 16.10.2. Look for more information from AMD on CrossFire support in the near future. As we have new information on drivers for both card types, we will update our forums.

Additionally, a new title update for Dishonored 2 (v 1.1) is now available via Steam as a Beta update – see below for instructions. Update 1.1 includes a small number of fixes including:

• Mouse improvements, including a fix for sensitivity being framerate dependent
  
• Fixes an AMD cloth physics issue, which impacts framerates at various points in the game
  
• Fixes an issue affecting CPU task priority - the game no longer switches CPU task priority

If you run into issues or have questions please let us know in the public Dishonored 2 Steam Beta Forums [beta-community.bethesda.net] on Bethesda.net.

Our work on Dishonored 2 continues. Update 1.2 development is underway and will address a broader range of issues including performance and is estimated to be available in the next week.

How to access the Steam Beta

• Log into Steam.
  
• Right Click on Dishonored 2 in your Library.
  
• Select Properties.
  
• Select Betas.
  
• A drop down menu will appear. Select BetaPatch.
  
• Select OK.
  
• Wait a few minutes for game to update.
  
• When done, Dishonored 2 [BetaPatch] should appear in our Library.

Thanks for your support!

http://steamcommunity.com/games/403640/announcements/detail/650037138898335918

 

[Crooked Bee]

Played a bit more last night. The conservatory level was a bit disappointing after the clockwork mansion, to be honest - just pretty bland overall. Finding a way to incapacitate Breanna was satisfying enough, though, and I liked how some of the witches in the level were placed on higher vantage points / sort of blended into the background. The skull hounds were a nice touch too. I also like a lot of the lore and dialogue - more so than in the first game.

And the emergent stuff can be unexpected. I'm trying to do a nonlethal playthrough so I found a nice hiding place for knocked out guards in the bushes near the conservatory - only to find out that some nearby bloodflies got there and feasted on the bodies - which resulted in my kill count going up.

At the same time, the game often suffers from too many conveniently placed ledges and side entrances, etc. The clockwork mansion had them too, but its design was tricky enough not to make that matter too much (I'm still really impressed by that level). This game is basically a compromise between modern design and Looking Glass design, so while it is good and even great at times - it's still too bad we can't have uncompromisingly good things anymore. Would be interesting to read a good unbiased analysis of all the compromises.

Anyway - looking forward to playing more of the game during the weekend.

 

[Sodafish]

Crooked Bee you have one more excellent level to come which is even better than the clockwork level in terms of ingenuity IMO.

 

[Sodafish]

Btw, I installed the nvidia driver and beta patch and they do make a significant difference to performance.

 

[HoboForEternity]

didn't nvidia latest driver throttle clock speed?

 

[insukk]

There is a hot fix already for this. It was linked in patch announcement.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/6d1WZlmqe4sUmkQEAo2qSe/dishonored-2-play-your-way

Next month, Dishonored 2 will offer even more options to play your way. In a free update, Dishonored 2 will include a New Game + mode and new custom difficulty settings. We’ll have more details on the content of this update (including the exact release date) in the coming weeks.

 

[skacky]

Would be nice to have an option to restart a mission.

 

[Siel]

 

[Siel]

Played a bit more last night. The conservatory level was a bit disappointing after the clockwork mansion, to be honest - just pretty bland overall. Finding a way to incapacitate Breanna was satisfying enough, though, and I liked how some of the witches in the level were placed on higher vantage points / sort of blended into the background. The skull hounds were a nice touch too. I also like a lot of the lore and dialogue - more so than in the first game.

And the emergent stuff can be unexpected. I'm trying to do a nonlethal playthrough so I found a nice hiding place for knocked out guards in the bushes near the conservatory - only to find out that some nearby bloodflies got there and feasted on the bodies - which resulted in my kill count going up.

At the same time, the game often suffers from too many conveniently placed ledges and side entrances, etc. The clockwork mansion had them too, but its design was tricky enough not to make that matter too much (I'm still really impressed by that level). This game is basically a compromise between modern design and Looking Glass design, so while it is good and even great at times - it's still too bad we can't have uncompromisingly good things anymore. Would be interesting to read a good unbiased analysis of all the compromises.

Anyway - looking forward to playing more of the game during the weekend.

If you're interested, the level designer on Clockwork Mansion was Digital Nightfall, some well known Thief FM author. You should check out his work, he's done some really good stuff like The Circle of Stone and Shadow.

 

[LESS T_T]

Gamasutra plays Dishonored 2 with Harvey Smith:



Gameplay is quite awful to watch, but comments from Harvey are very nice.

He also talks about the level "architect" of Clockwork Mansion (he actually learned architecture in school) and its design process.

 

[Crooked Bee]

The hyped up Jindosh Lock turned out to be a simple logical puzzle I solved during a short break at work yesterday. I am disappoint. Fucking focus groups.

 

[Siel]

So the game just dropped to 87 on Metacritic. Considering this and the "low" sales compared to the first one, this might very well be the end of Bethesda's new franchise.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Bethesda's "Quality Assurance" strikes again.

 

[DosBuster]

The hyped up Jindosh Lock turned out to be a simple logical puzzle I solved during a short break at work yesterday. I am disappoint. Fucking focus groups.

I looked into the puzzle and apparently it's a certain type of puzzle often found in law school admission tests, http://www.gamecrate.com/dishonored...le-and-lock-and-skip-most-dust-district/14960

I've never seen anything like it and I also didn't realize the results were randomized so I made the mistake of inferring certain details that took me way off course.

 

[toro]

So the game just dropped to 87 on Metacritic. Considering this and the "low" sales compared to the first one, this might very well be the end of Bethesda's new franchise.

If it happens then it's a well deserved death.

 

[Crooked Bee]

The hyped up Jindosh Lock turned out to be a simple logical puzzle I solved during a short break at work yesterday. I am disappoint. Fucking focus groups.

I looked into the puzzle and apparently it's a certain type of puzzle often found in law school admission tests, http://www.gamecrate.com/dishonored...le-and-lock-and-skip-most-dust-district/14960

I've never seen anything like it and I also didn't realize the results were randomized so I made the mistake of inferring certain details that took me way off course.

I was familiar with this type of puzzles, so that helped. But it's not very hard anyway, in contrast to what that article claims. Drawing the entire grid like that is definitely overkill. In my case, after analyzing the starting conditions, there were just three logical options to explore (which was, for me, the question of where exactly the lady from Dunwall was seated - but I assume this is different for different players), two of which led to contradiction and the third was the solution.

The problem is really that the game hypes this puzzle up too much - like it is something that couldn't be solved by anyone who tried to break in - which is just silly. It should've been harder in that case.

 

[DeepOcean]

So the game just dropped to 87 on Metacritic. Considering this and the "low" sales compared to the first one, this might very well be the end of Bethesda's new franchise.

If it happens then it's a well deserved death.

I would be a well deserved death if it would be replaced by somthing better, I don't think Arkane doing another F2P Moba/FPS multiplayer thing with microtransactions galore would be exactly incline.

 

[Sodafish]

You don't want to skip the dust district anyway, so unless you just want to crack it for the cheevo or challenge then don't bother.

 

[skacky]

So I just completed mission 4, in a ghost/non-lethal/no powers/very hard difficulty playthrough. The level design in this game is really really good, even more so than in Dishonored. There isn't a single mission so far I didn't enjoy. I loved them all tremendously. Mission 3 was really cool even if the start feels a bit limited in terms of possibilities, though it greatly opens up later. I especially like how the rooftops were accessible, though the highest one (and the treasure it holds) can't be reached without powers it seems. I also did some crazy acrobatics to reach the east wing on the first floor by going to the terrace and landing on the shutters. :D
Mission 4 however, wow that one is great. It took me two full hours before I reached the manor proper, exploring the city and finding as much stuff as possible (and I still missed two paintings and two blueprints).

Spoiler

I completed the mission without Jindosh ever knowing I was there. This prevented me from activating any mechanism until I dealt with the guy, so I had to explore the manor careful and find my way inside the maze-like layout. This is Dishonored 2's The Sword in a sense, though it is still far less confusing. The laboratory had me stumped a bit though, KO'ing Jindosh with a sleeping dart was easy enough but dealing with the two robots was another thing entirely. Turns out you can simply shoot a bolt in their head from the back and they'll become blind and stop moving until they hear a sound, making the room much easier.

On to the next mission.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Beaten Stilton's mission over the weekend. Enjoyed the clever set-up and

Spoiler

changing the present

felt satisfying - although in Dishonored's generally (more or less) morally grey universe, Stilton is really too much of a good guy (unless I missed something incriminating about him, weakness of character aside).

Got all paintings and all blueprints save one in all missions so far - I guess I'm just fairly thorough.

At the moment, Mission 4 (Clockwork Mansion) remains the high point of the game for me. In Stilton's mission, the timepiece is a tad too overpowered, I think, even though I liked the concept. The layout was not as intricate as that of the Clockwork level, even though finding the secret areas did feel satisfying. There was nothing particularly interesting about dealing with Stilton himself (in contrast to the doctor, Jindosh, Paolo or Breanna, who each had some sort of gimmick). I disliked the fact they had to break down the mansion into two smaller areas, no doubt due to engine and console memory limitations (since there are basically two instances of the area running at the same time). And finally, combing through the same area not two but three times started to feel tiresome at the end.

Despite the nitpicking, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the game (it feels like there's a couple of missions left at most), and to a high chaos replay at some point in the future.