Just finished mission 2. Spent 3.5 hours in that particular mission all things considered (did all contracts). My impressions of the game are more positive than they were in the first mission, but it's still clear that this is not a full-fledged Dishonored experience. I don't feel like the plot intertwines with the level very well, in the sense that in Dishonored 2 I felt like every book, note, conversation, objective somehow plays into the overarching story. Here the contracts are completely disconnected side missions with no connection to the main plot, there's no real plot reason given for your two targets in this mission, and I don't feel like I've learned more about the world and lore around me by methodically consuming all the books and notes in the level. Many of them are just recycled notes from Dishonored 2 in fact.
With all that said, it's still Dishonored and it's still fun. I really like Displace as a movement mechanic, it allows for much more precise lightning-fast kills by pre-placing the marker and then waiting for enemies to walk past it. The regenerating Void Energy mechanic is also fantastic. Combat feels clunkier though, mainly because you're missing a bunch of spells from D2 that were actually geared towards combat prowess (e.g., Doppelganger). If I ever get into a fight with Billie I'm basically dead and need to reload.
What's funny is playing this game made me reinstall Dishonored 2, and I'm playing a Corvo Flesh & Steel run in parallel to DotO. I just can't get enough of this universe and gameplay.
Agreed with all of this.
I'm about to hit Mission 5, just finished up Mission 4, and I'm at about 13.5hours total or so, maybe a bit more. I play pretty slowly and really like to discover everything. Mission 4 was the first time in the game where I went straight all out murder, though still with stealth.. Did it for the Contract
I agree about the lore. While some of it is still pretty strong, particularly in Mission #3 with the bank which a lot of it has gentle fun nods back to earlier games, like with Galivani meme, and while some of the lore is still pretty good, a lot of it feels disconnected from the main narrative of the game which is something that a mainline Dishonored game simply does so well. The most apparent impact that you have on the world, now, is basically through the newspaper clippings strewn around the locations, and those feel a little cheap, compared to what we used to get. Also, areas that a previous Dishonored would have done really in depth, aren't as well fleshed out. For instance, in Mission 2 you can visit Shaun Yun's (sp?) house. And Mission 3 of course takes place around a lot of the same area, but now his house is locked up. Previous dishonoreds wouldn't have taken that shortcut... They would have allowed you to go in and the area would have changed in some meaningful way, maybe with a new contract to bring you in there. There's other segments like this, too.
In other ways they've done a great job with the lore. I just finished Mission 4 in the
, and I love all of the throwbacks to Dishonored 2 in that level. When I started the level, I thought, "Eh, this is a little lazy using this location?" But then you quickly realize how much it's changed since the events of Dishonored 3, and while the design/layout is certainly different in spots, it is great seeing it from a new perspective. The level has no many intelligent nods back to Dishonored 2, and also the way the game makes you feel sympathetic to
from Dishonored 2 is well done. I love how the
are trying to figure out these contraptions and also of course if you listen to all of the audiographs you get some great tie-ins to Dishonored 2i n that area. I loved it.
Still, I agree, the reason you're brought somewhere and the reason you have to kill somebody or achieve some objective feels more arbitrary than in past games. Dishonored has always been arbitrary. I've long felt myself saying "Uhhh... Oh... Ok..." when the game suddenly tells me, "I'm going to the Dust District to investigate XYZ because I've read that he holds the secret to ABC." And then you go there, finish the mission, and you get, "I've been to see XYZ and now I'm going to go to DEF because DEF holds the device that will get me to Delilah." Or what have you... and I sit there as a player and just happily nod along to the fairly arbitrary mission that the game gives you.
It's not Dishonored 2, but it's still very good, and it scratches that itch. The level design is not as good as Dishonored 2, like there have been areas where I've felt like they didn't quite play test it enough... Things that were playtested to hell in Dishonored 2 which is why the game is so tight. For instance, getting to the
in Mission #3 felt there's really only one way to get there, and they were heavily forcing you to use the mimic/Arya Stark power to get through that entrance. I did it another way, but it was a lot of weird trial and error, and the distances between objects did not feel as tight as Dishonored 2, which is a game that is very easy to quickly decipher sight lines and lines to traverse an area.
Still, awesome game and one of my favorites again.
