4/5 ★ – vassm's review of Dishonored 2.

"Dishonored 2" was quite the adventure. I played through the game twice, once as Corvo and once as Emily, aiming for both high and low chaos to see how the endings differed. Unfortunately, I found the endings rather underwhelming, but that aside, the game truly shines in its exploration. Discovering small details like safe codes and audio graphs that led to hidden rewards was a highlight for me. Finding random keys and seeing where they lead was very enjoyable and only added to the gameplay experience. My gameplay time nearly doubled while playing as Emily, simply due to the amount of exploring I did. That said, playing as Emily made exploring and taking the non-lethal route more enjoyable and manageable. With Corvo, I barely bothered, but with Emily, each level felt like a playground, offering countless ways to approach the environment. Her abilities are far superior, and I was much more invested in unlocking and upgrading them. It's a shame because I loved Corvo in the first game, but it's clear the devs wanted you to play as Emily, especially since playing as Corvo also had a handful of bugs which they didn't bother to fix. The story was decent-- nothing groundbreaking but engaging enough to keep me invested. The art style remains one of my favorites, though I struggled to notice much of a graphical or design improvement over the first game. Each area and set piece was incredibly memorable and well-designed, except for the Clockwork Mansion, which was frustrating due to an overabundance of config levers which was confusing as all hell. Each area felt small, but also huge. There are so many corners to check out, and a lot can be easily missed if not carefully explored. The "non-human" enemy types in this game were frustrating and made stealth nearly impossible in certain sections, especially if you were trying to play non-lethally. With Corvo, it was easier to deal with them, but overall they were just a headache no matter who you chose to play as. In the end, I'm still processing my thoughts on the game. I'm definitely leaning towards overall enjoyment with some minor issues, but I also have a crazy addiction to stealth games so considering how many hours I put into it I think it's safe to say I liked it a lot. The game's prequel is one of my favorite games of all time, and I think "Dishonored 2" is a great sequel that ends the story perfectly. The game's cast was also stacked for absolutely no reason...just look it up 8.1/10