Finished Dishonored 2.
I went for a completely stealthy and pacifist playthrough whilst getting at least 60% of all coins which I accomplished. This however, showed me the many flaws of this game. I start off by saying that Dishonored 2 is not a good stealth game.
There are tons of ways to kill enemies (sword, crossbow, gun, mines, grenades, multiple specials abilities and so on) but only a few ways to incapacitate them. Either by using sleep darts (you can only carry 5 darts and it is a very scarce item to find), stun mines (only way to silently disable clockwork soldiers; can only carry three and they are rare aswell) or doing a non-deadly melee attack (choking or jump from above). Naturally, in 95% of all cases you have to either get behind someone to grab and choke them or get above them to smash their face onto the ground. This would be completely fine if all of that worked 100% but it just doesn't.
1) Whenever a guard is bending over a railing (or something similar), you can't take them out from above. Since the animation would require the guard to fall forwards on the ground it just doesn't work as the railing blocks the animation.
2) Whenever a guard is leaning on a wall, you can't knock them out when you come from the side. You have to stand right in front of them to do that but that will alert him 100%.
3) Whenever a guard is sitting on a chair or somewhere else, you have to search for the exact right spot to grab and choke him. It's insanely precise even when there's plenty of room.
4) There are many instances where it just feels random if the prompt appears or not. For example when following guards descending or ascending steps.
These are the main reasons why I had to reload saves dozens if not hundreds of times. Needless to say, these moments weren't my favourites.
To mention something positive, the level design is absolutely fantastic. There are so many ways to get to your objective and multiple ways to kill and/or incapacitate your target.
Graphics have a certain charm to it. It's still looking nice enough. Sadly, the performance is only 30 FPS despite the One X update. No FPS boost for this one.
I already mentioned that the 30 FPS is really making it hard to pick up coins or other small items. The game is sadly not very precise here.
Overall still a great game but I'd recommend not doing a stealthy and pacifist approach as you're missing out of too much that the game has to offer and it's just not worth it.
8/10
Last edited by Barozi - on 01 March 2022