After a few jam-packed weeks, Bethesda and Dishonored 2 largely got all of last week to themselves. Call of Duty and Battlefield was nowhere to be seen, and the only major distraction was on the hardware side with the Mini NES. (Which most people couldn’t buy.)
So now that the game has been out for a weekend, how are you finding it?
If you’re playing on PC, chances are you’re going to have a worse impression than those playing on console. Kirk reported on Friday how the game has been suffering from some pretty rough performance issues, with a GTX 1080 and 4.0GHz Intel i7 CPU seemingly unable to get a stable frame rate even with everything at medium.
Arkane and Bethesda recommended on the weekend that users should more or less stick to 1080p unless you have a GTX 1070 or GTX 1080, although given Kirk’s experience that seems a little unwise. Given how well optimised DOOM was at launch earlier this year, it’s a bit of a bummer.
But if you can put that aside, or you’re not playing on console, there’s lots of fun to be had.
Heather’s impressions gave me the indication that it’s really a stealth game for people who don’t like stealth all that much. That’s not to say the stealth elements are weak – they’re much improved, and enemies are sharper on the ball too. But Emily is already pretty damn powerful and so are the basic abilities. “I often didn’t need to use them because the bread and butter powers are just so damn useful,” Heather wrote.
But that’s not a massive detriment. It just means you might have to up the difficulty, or deliberately challenge yourself. Alternatively, it means you often have plenty of ways to get out of trouble if you mess something up. And for a lot of people, particularly those who aren’t fanatics of real hardcore stealth games like the original Thief series, that’s what they want.
We’ll have a review of the game later this week or next; as everyone knows, review copies weren’t given out until very late in the piece. Nonetheless, people seem to be having fun so far. But what’s your experience of Dishonored 2 been like? Tell us in the comments!
Comments
10 responses to “Community Review: Dishonored 2”
So far I’ve only had a chance to play the first mission and start the second but it’s been pretty good so far. I’m kind of disappointed that the formula thus far has shadowed (puns, hah!) the first game really closely.
(Bad thing happens that makes you become hunted, you meet up with sympathisers, get your powers from the Stranger, travel to missions by boat with a talkative ferryperson)It’s not unexpected but I was hoping that they’d mix things up a little more.On the other hand, it all feels so familiar and if you’ve played and enjoyed the first game then you won’t have to learn anything too new and feel right at home. It’s the same things you were doing last time but improved. If you’re new then the improved version is always the better entry point. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what other tricks, traps and surprises are in store.
I have a 1070 and an i5-3570K. V-sync is turned on and I used Nvidia geforce experience which set everything to high or very high, and the textures to ultra.
I am getting 60fps most of the time with dips to around 30-40fps in outside areas, although it usually gets back to 60 after a few seconds. While annoying, it is definitely playable.
The game itself is magnificent, I am playing as Emily during my first playthrough and I love her powers and the overall story. I definitively recommend it to anyone who likes stealth games, although maybe wait for the patch if you are on PC.
I am probably about 3/4 of the way through the game (on PC) and think it is fantastic. I loved the first and this seems a step up in pretty much every way. I wish more developers would put the effort and care into their level design as Arkane do with the Dishonored series. Not only are there numerous ways to overcome each area but each area is litter with so many small details that really help suck you into the world.
Emily’s new powers are really fun to use. Domino alone has created a number of hilariously unexpected moments.
My only gripe so far is with the difficulty level. Just like the original the powers in teh game make you so powerful that the game feels pretty easy at times.
This. The level design is incredible. The clockwork mansion in particular…. oh man, it’s so good. That’s some of the best level design I’ve ever seen in a game. Also love the clockwork soldiers and the fact they speak using pe-recorded sound clips from the inventor awkwardly describing what it’s doing. “This unit has detected… something.” It’s perfect.
On very hard it takes two bullets to kill you, so no complaint on the difficulty. I’m also playing non-lethal, so that’s part of it too.
I’m really close to beating this game and I love it, but I’ll be honest and say that it took a few missions for it to grow on me. Going from battlefeild, to a game that is far more cerebral, takes time. But once you find whatever system best suits your play style, (there are a seemingly endless amount) something as small as taking out a guard in a tight space or spending some time figuring out a puzzle for a rune in intricately designed levels is really gratifying. (More fun than it sounds)
In order to enjoy the game to its fullest, I’d recommend taking your sweet time and to play stealthy. Similar to mgs 5, if you play like an aggressive asshole, in most cases, you’re not going to get an experience that reflects what the developers were hoping for (although the combat is really well done and challenging on harder difficilty settings.
The only downside for me is the fact that even on my first playthrough, I almost feel compelled to skip any narrative cut scene. They aren’t necessarily bad or completely insulting to the players intelligence, but don’t expect to be blown away by the narrative. That being said, the gameplay blows any issues with the cookie cutter narrative out of the water. As for the bugs, I played it on Xbox and most days, I feel blessed that the piece of crap can turn it on, so no, they don’t bother me when they rarely pop up. Overall, if you’re looking for a challenging, creative and gratifying game, you’d be a fool to skip out on this one. I’d give it a 9.1-9.5 out of 10
I’m really slow and really bad at it, but I love it so. I’m playing as Emily, and the Mesmerise power is becoming the real MVP
Started playing on PS4 I don’t plan on touching it again on that platform not sure why but the controls are completely garbage slow unresponsive no matter how much I tweak settings. I’m just going to get this on pc after they fix the performance issues I think
Just finished downloading last night, haven’t had a chance to play it yet. From the sounds of it, it’ll be brilliant. Looking forward to trying it out tonight or tomorrow night.
I’m hoping performance wise I’ll be okay (GTX1070 and a 1440p monitor). All the benchmarks I’ve seen show 1070s and 80s don’t suffer as badly as some other set ups.
I’m on chapter 4 as Emily and I’ve put it down for now. My rig is good enough to run star citizen but can barely handle 15fps. When the patch comes I’ll look again. Of what I’ve played, it’s fun. Do not regret buying, but will caution purchase until performance is fixed. It’s dishonoured with a little bit more added. If you liked the first, you’ll like this. If you didn’t, you won’t.
Finished a playthrough this morning. Fantastic game. One of the levels in particular is absolutely stunning in design and execution.
On a somewhat unrelated note…
I wish that people would stop with comments like that. Same publisher does not mean same developer, and strangely enough I’d expect someone writing for a gaming site to be aware of the fact.
Reminds me of all the hate Mad Max got before it even launched all due to Arkham Knight’s PC launch, simply because Warner Bros was publishing both… People ignored the fact it was completely different developer, and in the end Mad Max easily had one of the best PC versions of a game in years.
It might not be the case with Dishonored 2, but at any rate it’s not close to the shambles that was the Arkham Knight PC launch.