• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dishonored 2 |OT| The Edge of the World

RedAssedApe

Banned
Is it advisable to play without powers on the first time through, then play through the game again with powers?

i'd suggest powers first. especially if you don't even know if you'll like the game yet. people seem to be having enough trouble stealthing the game as is with powers.
 

jacobs34

Member
I'm having a really hard time getting into this game compared to the first. It feels like they throw a lot more enemies at you right off the back and they are a lot more aggro to you. It's making for a very frustrating experience.
 

Stoze

Member
i blame the game for even mentioning low chaos and affecting the ending :p

I agree about the first part, they either shouldn't have mentioned it at all or gone all in and fully explained it to the player perhaps by giving them a meter at the end of levels or tells even during gameplay (or all of this and have things toggleable). Being able to check how many you've killed at any time is a big improvement, though I believe we don't even know if the 20% kills even equates to low chaos in this game like it did in the last one.
 

Ulong

Member
I'm having a really hard time getting into this game compared to the first. It feels like they throw a lot more enemies at you right off the back and they are a lot more aggro to you. It's making for a very frustrating experience.


It's a level design problem I think largely. The levels are designed and the enemies are placed in such a way that playing a true stealth playthrough feels a lot more frustrating. I think a really good example of this is the early set of Rune/bonecharms that are placed directly in front of several civilians and 2 overseers who never stop staring at them. If you get seen the civilians all panic (running to find even more guards), and the overseers start randomly tossing grenades everywhere, almost guaranteed to accidentally blow up civilians making this part even worse if you are trying do non lethal as well.

I reloaded a bunch of times and eventually got it right but it didn't feel satisfying.
 

drotahorror

Member
Is there a payoff for not getting detected throughout the whole game? Why are people playing this way and getting frustrated about it?

If it's just for an achievement (no ending or anything) why would you want your first playthrough to be so aggravating and annoying?
 

jacobs34

Member
It's a level design problem I think largely. The levels are designed and the enemies are placed in such a way that playing a true stealth playthrough feels a lot more frustrating. I think a really good example of this is the early set of Rune/bonecharms that are placed directly in front of several civilians and 2 overseers who never stop staring at them. If you get seen the civilians all panic (running to find even more guards), and the overseers start randomly tossing grenades everywhere, almost guaranteed to accidentally blow up civilians making this part even worse if you are trying do non lethal as well.

I reloaded a bunch of times and eventually got it right but it didn't feel satisfying.

I agree. The amount of trial and error and lack of tools in the opening levels makes for a very clunky, frustrating experience.
 

Ulong

Member
Is there a payoff for not getting detected throughout the whole game? Why are people playing this way and getting frustrated about it?

If it's just for an achievement (no ending or anything) why would you want your first playthrough to be so aggravating and annoying?

The thing is doing such a playthrough in no way made the first game aggravating or annoying.
 

Stoze

Member
There's a sense of satisfaction for playing the whole game without being detected for some people.

Yeah, but don't underestimate the lure of that sweet, sweet achievement.

I strongly wouldn't recommend doing full ghost or pacifist for a first playthrough because you'll assuredly come up against bugs or weird issues that break your streak and you'll checking the stats screen a lot to make sure you don't fuck up.

Trying to playing perfectly in almost any kind of way in this game is going to be much more challenging by design and require a lot of saving and loading. But hey, you can play it however you want.

The thing is doing such a playthrough in no way made the first game aggravating or annoying.

Naw, people still ran into the problem of getting a kill out of nowhere or not sure if something counted as a detection, except they had to wait until the end of the level to see if they got fucked. You didn't have a quicksave on consoles either. It is much easier to stealth in that game though and I'm guessing it wasn't as buggy on launch.
 
Is it advisable to play without powers on the first time through, then play through the game again with powers?

So, a mythical deity comes to you and says, "Do you want awesome Victorian Steampunk Ninja Powers?"

your two options are:

A. "Yes, I want awesome Victorian Steampunk Ninja Powers"
B. "No, I don't want awesome Victorian Steampunk Ninja Powers"

There is one correct answer here. Choose carefully.
 

Grisby

Member
Game just kind of ends doesn't it. The story in general felt pretty unsatisfying.

Last level kind of dragged for me too. The game does have a lot more hits than misses though. Overall it was good.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
The only thing really confusing me about Sterling's review is how he finds Emily's powerset boring. The combination of Far Reach + Domino alone...

Shadow Walk is kind of lame, though, to be fair.
 

Zocano

Member
It's a level design problem I think largely. The levels are designed and the enemies are placed in such a way that playing a true stealth playthrough feels a lot more frustrating. I think a really good example of this is the early set of Rune/bonecharms that are placed directly in front of several civilians and 2 overseers who never stop staring at them. If you get seen the civilians all panic (running to find even more guards), and the overseers start randomly tossing grenades everywhere, almost guaranteed to accidentally blow up civilians making this part even worse if you are trying do non lethal as well.

I reloaded a bunch of times and eventually got it right but it didn't feel satisfying.

I agree. The amount of trial and error and lack of tools in the opening levels makes for a very clunky, frustrating experience.

The thing is there are good tools to get those items. Far reach lets you pull objects towards you, you can create a distraction elsewhere, or you can simply just walk right up to it and take it a lot of the time. Guards are dumb (and civvies don't care) and have a very strict cone of vision and sound isn't really that important in this game (unfortunately) so if you're in sneak mode, no one can hear you whatsoever.

No alert is inherently going to be trial-and-error-y, especially on a first playthrough. It comes with the nature of the game.

Shadow Walk is kind of lame, though, to be fair.

I think it's useful but like some of the abilities, highly situational.

The problem with this game and most stealth games, really, is that going high is always *ALWAYS* better than going low. You have better awareness. Enemies don't look up, they look down. Staying at ground level generally has more obstacles in the way. And going up is nearly always built to have very clear "big shortcut" points like silly vents that just lead you conveniently to your goal. It happens a lot in these sorts of games, not just Dishonored. Deus Ex: HR was heavily plagued by this. Styx has *some* issues with it too but I think where Styx succeeds is often those higher paths are not just simple one shot pathways but become complex and sometimes just plain don't exist.
 
Game just kind of ends doesn't it. The story in general felt pretty unsatisfying.

I felt the same. There was a great start, a good build-up, but then the last couple of missions felt.. I don't know, like we were being rushed to a conclusion, and the
final boss fight with I don't even know why I bothered to spoiler this
just kind of just happens. The non-lethal ending just....kind of just... I don 't know, a bit of a wet fart rather than a bang. But then, I guess I got deeply invested in Delilah as a character since the D1 DLC so I was hoping she'd be more of a menace.
 
Question about the end of the game, spoilers, obviously.

I took out Delilah by trapping her in the painting. But when I went to place her on the throne, I also noticed that "Place Delilah on the throne" was listed underneath "Find another way to eliminate Delilah." This seems to indicate there's another nonlethal way to finish her.
I'm just curious if anyone knows what it is?
 

Zocano

Member
Yeah, but don't underestimate the lure of that sweet, sweet achievement.

I strongly wouldn't recommend doing full ghost or pacifist for a first playthrough because you'll assuredly come up against bugs or weird issues that break your streak and you'll checking the stats screen a lot to make sure you don't fuck up.

Trying to playing perfectly in almost any kind of way in this game is going to be much more challenging by design and require a lot of saving and loading. But hey, you can play it however you want.

Yah, EatChildren made a comment earlier on in the thread saying that it sort of diminishes a huge strength of the game. It's like forcing yourself to have perfect runs in Hitman the first time through. The games just aren't built for players to strive for that out the gate. There are so many systems built in that are meant to be used in moments of "oh shit I got caught, time to either get away or kill everyone". That rush is as much a part of the game as everything else. Yes, definitely try to be stealthy, but embrace the chaos and play with it as well. Then dive into pure no kills or no alert later.
 

Lijik

Member
I mean if you're already savescumming you can always just play it as it lays and go nuts in an encounter a few times and then reload to do it for "real" after you understand the layout and space. I dont really understand the idea that if you're doing a nokill/ghost run the first time you're just trial and erroring 24/7.
 

Stoze

Member
I mean if you're already savescumming you can always just play it as it lays and go nuts in an encounter a few times and then reload to do it for "real" after you understand the layout and space. I dont really understand the idea that if you're doing a nokill/ghost run the first time you're just trial and erroring 24/7.

Doing that systematically encounter by encounter doesn't make it less time consuming, repetitive, or more enjoyable. Partly because being familiar with the environment is only one of the challenges in a ghost run (which is best done not by going nuts but rather staying stealth and observing) and partly because feeling like you're playing through the game twice or more in one go isn't enjoyable. People already do that on occasion as it's a natural tactic in stealth games, and it assuredly still falls under the same complaint.

Save scummy, trial and error, playing haphazardly through the encounter once and replaying it carefully, however you do it or phrase it, you're potentially facing a lot of repetition if you want to ghost the game.
 

Lijik

Member
I was more responding to the underlying vibe in the posts telling others what to do their first run that everyone ghosting for the first time are just quickreloading as soon as theyre caught and missing the more chaotic moments. That you find it unsatisfying doesnt really factor into that.
 

carlsojo

Member
So did y'all side with the Howlers or the Overseers?

I went with the Howlers because it seemed like the people wanted the Howlers to succeed (the lady wanted to double her protection money contribution) versus the Overseers were basically executing civilians.

Crack in the Slab spoilers
If I had saved Stilton, does that change the final outcome?
 

Stoze

Member
I was more responding to the underlying vibe in the posts telling others what to do their first run that everyone ghosting for the first time are just quickreloading as soon as theyre caught and missing the more chaotic moments. That you find it unsatisfying doesnt really factor into that.

Take out the uses of "enjoyable" in my post and I think my point still stands. I didn't realize that's what you replying about specifically so I get where you're coming from, but I think everyone knows that being able to save anywhere you can just go nuts whenever so you technically don't have to miss crazy moments. That doesn't mean ghost run isn't going to be an exercise in tedium and repetition for new players doing that as their first playthrough because it's designed more so as a bonus challenge rather than a play style.

I agree it's not as hyperbolic as trial and error 24/7, but it tends to be heavy on reverting to saves if you're really going for it. edit: Eat Children's post sums up things better than I can.

So did y'all side with the Howlers or the Overseers?

I went with the Howlers because it seemed like the people wanted the Howlers to succeed (the lady wanted to double her protection money contribution) versus the Overseers were basically executing civilians.

Crack in the Slab spoilers
If I had saved Stilton, does that change the final outcome?

Mission 6 spoilers:
Neither, I dumped the Overseer and Paolo in boxes to get shipped off to work in the mines and knocked out/murdered all their lackeys.

For the second question,
If you're talking solely about the final cutscene of the game, then I can't quite remember if there's a part in there specifically about that. If you're talking about mission 7 outcome, very much so as well as multiple other things.
 

Timeaisis

Member
Mission 8 question.

I want to talk with the Duke in his quarters but theres a clockwork soldier patrolling in there. Anything I can do?
 

YaBish

Member
Mission 8 question.

I want to talk with the Duke in his quarters but theres a clockwork soldier patrolling in there. Anything I can do?
I've found that luring them out with a crossbow bolt or shattered glass, right into a
well-placed, upgraded stun mine
does the trick.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
So it seems to me that salvaging all the basic bone charms and then doing custom ones is the real way to go. Not seeing a major downside unless you don't upgrade to the stuff that reduces corruption, or if you're not exploring to find any Raw Whalebone.
 
So it seems to me that salvaging all the basic bone charms and then doing custom ones is the real way to go. Not seeing a major downside unless you don't upgrade to the stuff that reduces corruption, or if you're not exploring to find any Raw Whalebone.
can't you prevent corruption by just saving the game right before crafting a charm?
 

Nessus

Member
Shadow Walk is kind of lame, though, to be fair.

I think it depends on your playstyle.

I find myself enjoying Shadow Walk quite a bit as part of the power fantasy. Crawling around like a barely visible wraith, incapacitating terrified guards or tearing witches in half.

I'm actually less interested in stuff like Domino or Doppleganger. But I'm not going for a pure stealth or low chaos ending, nor am I killing everything that moves; just the ones that deserve it.

Far Reach does seem more glitchy than Blink did in the first game and DLC, in terms of finding the right anchor point to teleport to.
 

WITHE1982

Member
So....this happened last night when I used domino on the 3rd mission and I was crying from laughter

Jesus I'm dying here.

Reminds me of:

picture-blackknight_montypythongrail.jpg

Tis but a scratch.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
Jesus, mission 4 was a total clusterfuck. FUCK the clockwork soldiers en FUCK Kirin Jindosh.

The concept was very cool at first, but the
getting to Sokolov, the laboratory and capturing Jindosh
without getting spotted was impossible. I can't in a million years fathom how anyone could ghost this in a non-power playthrough.

Mansion was beautiful though, and the concept of the moving rooms absolutely genius. Also loved the Jindosh-voiced notes the Clockwork Soldiers make, and Jindosh's snarky comments through the intercom while I was sneaking around, reminded me of Arkham Asylum.

i just ghosted on very hard with no powers. remember, certain things don't count towards failure. you can kill the clockwork soldiers, the same way you can kill dogs, flies and rats.... i even threw grenades at a few of them. as long as they don't see you, you get away with it. it was a bit of a nightmare to traverse. but generally i didn't find it any harder than the previous missions. loved the level design though. must have taken ages to design and build.

Take out the uses of "enjoyable" in my post and I think my point still stands. I didn't realize that's what you replying about specifically so I get where you're coming from, but I think everyone knows that being able to save anywhere you can just go nuts whenever so you technically don't have to miss crazy moments. That doesn't mean ghost run isn't going to be an exercise in tedium and repetition for new players doing that as their first playthrough because it's designed more so as a bonus challenge rather than a play style.

i think a non-lethal, no power ghost run is most definitely a playstyle. and most definitely a valid one to start out with if someone would want to. i don't think they would have designed the game to allow it if it wasn't.

my personal thoughts are that it's probably the most satisfying, more rewarding way to play the game. the sense of accomplishment is absolutely huge. but it does require patience and some good logical thinking to get around the world/taking out enemies. powered runs i find become too easy as you progress. making later levels trivial and thus quite boring (i almost never finished the first game because of this). no-power, ghost runs start hard and remain hard throughout. you pick up certain understandings and exploitation of the AI as you go. but generally getting a group of guards to separate to take out individually is just as hard on mission 8 as it was on mission 1. and i like that. i like that the level of challenge and consistency of the experience is maintained start to end.

mainly though, i think a no powers ghost run is a good way to start just because once it's done you can let loose in consequent playthrough's with powers. it's like being unleashed. but starting on no-powers/ghost will make you infinitely better at stealth. it won't teach you bad habits and it's more rewarding. compare that to a power run first and you're going from having all these abilities to having NON and you'll have picked up bad techniques because you had powers to fall back on.

i look at like i do guitar hero. i always recommend people start on hard, with all 5 notes. because playing lower makes you worse when you finally do step up to the challenge of hard.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Stupid question time: Are the blueprints black market shopkeepers sell specific to that mission or is the selection universal?
 

thenexus6

Member
Just finished the game as Emily. Low chaos killing people, most mostly stealth / avoiding them. I took the low chaos route for every target. Took me around 17 hours on normal.

I thought it was fantastic, I think I still prefer the first but this is definitely in my top five of the year.

Going to start it up again straight away as my boy Corvo.

I did miss the game not having as many "side quests" as the first game.. even though it didn't have many. But those Granny Rags and gang missions were nice little extras.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
I think it depends on your playstyle.

I find myself enjoying Shadow Walk quite a bit as part of the power fantasy. Crawling around like a barely visible wraith, incapacitating terrified guards or tearing witches in half.

I'm actually less interested in stuff like Domino or Doppleganger. But I'm not going for a pure stealth or low chaos ending, nor am I killing everything that moves; just the ones that deserve it.

Far Reach does seem more glitchy than Blink did in the first game and DLC, in terms of finding the right anchor point to teleport to.

Yeah Far Reach is much harder to get precisely due to the momentum, but I found that's too its advantage most of the time; you can fling yourself much further horizontally to get drop assassinations if you get it right.

Shadow Walk... I dunno, it felt like on Hard at least the guards still saw me most of the time; maybe it's better in active combat? I didn't get into too much of that on my Emily playthrough, usually if I got spotted I tried to escape or used the howling bolts. Didn't get Doppelganger till near the end and kind of regret waiting that long.
 

EndcatOmega

Unconfirmed Member
Either I suck or I suck but no powers, no kill, not spotted run on Hard is...hard. Guards are hyper sensitive.

Early on it kind of sucks if you're trying to be 'completionist' and grab the bonecharms, but there's usually a high or low route you can use to just bypass patrols entirely- doesn't work inside buildings but you usually only have to wait for two guards to turn their backs on you instead of like, 7.

Speaking of Flesh and Steel, in Mission 3 is there anyway to get the black bonecharm
on the roof?
Found a route for everything else but don't know if that one is powers only.
 

TTG

Member
Played some more of this last night, got to mission 3 and I think I'm going to restart. I just don't have it in me to grind and reload to keep this stealthy and low chaos. The first game was tedious and this is no different.

I thought magic powers would mitigate it, but nope, there's no way to orient yourself to the enemies and environment in real time(lol at that shitty super vision power that monochromes everything to make it even more confusing and sort of maybe give you an idea of where some enemies are once every 5 seconds when it pulses) the only way to do it is to spend enough time fucking up and reloading to learn the whole thing. There's also no way to effectively recover from a mistake. With the ability to slow time when detected and to "grab" out of corners that will be investigated, there are some situations that I can get out of, but most of these scenarios are too open with too many enemies around to improvise my way out of on the spot.

To add insult to injury, the controller is constantly buzzing, reminding me that I should also spend hours going over every corner and nook of these maps looking for different types of power ups and currency. Because, you know, this whole thing is just way too much fun so let's slow it down a little.

I'm gonna have to start lopping heads of and disregard the game chastising me for it every chance it gets because this is as frustrating and tedious as stealth games get otherwise.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
I'm gonna have to start lopping heads of and disregard the game chastising me for it every chance it gets because this is as frustrating and tedious as stealth game get otherwise.

Does it do that?

Either I suck or I suck but no powers, no kill, not spotted run on Hard is...hard. Guards are hyper sensitive.

That's what I'm doing. It is hard, but isn't that to be expected...?
 

JerkShep

Member
Mesmerize or Doppleganger for stealthy non lethal low chaos run for Emily? I'm leaning more on Mesmerize first. Currently on Mission 5.

I think the non-lethal options are actually much improved from the first Dishonored but I abandoned the idea of ghosting through everything, as a first run I had to relay too much on save scumming and the game feels a bit buggy sometimes.

I'm playing on PS4, the game crashed 2 times and there are weird graphic glitches in some situations, hope they manage to fix it in the next patches.
 
Top Bottom