Dishonored 2: Corvo's Comeuppance

[melmer]

So thumbs, what would you like to see in a sequel?

I'd like to focus on where the story could go (spoilers from the outset if you haven't finished the game yet)

Jump the story forward 10 years, 17 year old Empress Emily is a damaged character, (dead mother, kidnapped, lived in a whore house for 6 months, witnessed trusted allies murdering each other) she's became a hard ruler who cares nothing for her people, the only love and affection she shows is to her father and advisor Covor.

Since Piero Joplin and Sokolov have been working together they've created a new energy source, (good old fashioned oil dug up from beneath the sea perhaps) and the city of Dunwall has became very rich. But the Class divide still remains and is worse then ever.

The game starts with Corvo's only friend Samuel the boat man dying mysteriously trying to deliver a cryptic message meant only for Corvo's ears

Emily delivers the message to her father that there is a plot to murder her and overthrow her reign

So Down to the the meat and potatoes of the game, missions to find out more about this assassination plot. The missions themselves won't be assassination mission just information gathering, but you'll learn throughout each mission that the people you are investigating are deplorable and all in there own way deserve death. For example one mission you'd be tasked with gathering information on a wealthy surgeon who turns out to be Dunwalls very own jack the ripper

The twist in the tale is that Emily is now the big bad, learning that you aren't her real father!! she's become a devotee of the outsider and has used you to take out a bunch of heretics... (this being the actual message Samuel is trying to deliver to you)

Fake information about overthrowing the empress being planted on them by Emily's slave. A son of a whore she befriended whilst being held captive at the cat house. He became besotted with her, and shes used him changing him into her own personal ninja spy. (He'll keep popping up unexplained throughout the game like G-man in half life.)

Then the second twist. She actually wants to steal the outsiders power and become a god. The outsider has been weakened by you murdering his most devote followers who weren't heretics after all. These followers needed to be killed by you of your own choosing for it to work... you being the outsiders golden boy and all

So by choosing to murder all the targets throughout the game you doom the world by creating an new evil bitch demigod

Oh what a tangled web i've wove

[Sno]

My biggest issue with Dishonored is the game constantly telling you not to kill anybody when many of the abilities and tools are explicitly about murdering a ton of dudes.

It didn't feel like it was a game designed around alternate styles of playthroughs, it felt like a game that wanted me to play like it was Thief while giving me a Deus Ex-style sandbox.

So... You know...

I guess i'd like to see the abilities be more broadly applicable, i guess. Or see the game generally be more explicitly about different character paths. Instead of the game just telling you to avoid doing all of these awesome things you can do.

[Orv]

That's been kind of a big problem with the revitalization of stealth RPGs in the last few years. DX:HR also suffered from a multitude of lethal options and a pretty limited supply of non-lethal ones, with higher difficulties making it even harder to find ammo for the non-lethal options.

At this point I just kinda hope Thief 4 isn't terrible.

[melmer]

I guess i'd like to see the abilities be more broadly applicable, i guess. Or see the game generally be more explicitly about different character paths. Instead of the game just telling you to avoid doing all of these awesome things you can do.

I heard there was apparently an additional four fully functional finished powers which they dropped from the game late in development,

I'm guessing they were the abilities some of the 'boss' characters had like paralysis and pulling enemies towards you. And i guess would have all feel on the side of a more aggressive play style

[toblix]

If I was in the weird and improbable position to decided these things, I would say «no, don't make a direct sequel – make a new game with a new name» They could put it in the same world, because it was pretty cool as far as video game worlds go, and they could expand it by making their game take place somewhere else, and weave their rich tapestry that way. They shouldn't have to be constrained by whatever mechanics they invented for Dishonored, but be able to pick and choose from them and build something new and even cooler. OBVIOUSLY it would have to be a sneak-em-up, though.

[melmer]

one power cut from the game was Shadow Walking.

Shadow Walking was described as being able to turn into a 2D shadow and move along walls but it was cut because they couldn't properly fit it in within the rest of the powers/gameplay.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/636040-dishonored/64544312

[melmer]

They could put it in the same world, because it was pretty cool as far as video game worlds go, and they could expand it by making their game take place somewhere else,

A different city, a different country, different races and religions. Maybe a colonised steam punk india....Guards patrolling on elephants with lighting bolt cannons. monkeys instead of rats.

[Badfinger]

What you specifically mentioned would be basically impossible to make without reconning heavily. All of those futures are pretty well mapped out based on how you completed the game. In fact they wrapped up basically all of the loose ends for the specific characters, which I find pretty darn admirable.

They'd need to go to a new setting or new characters for more Dishonoring.

[melmer]

Yeah the game wrapped up everything really well. (except why you got gifted special powers ) The game finishing with with Emily on the throne, with Covor her advisor. The two scientists working together and chatting about a alternate energy source. everyone else is dead except Samuel. You'd just have to add a little more darkness in to Emily's already pretty fucked up back story

[youmeyou]

I'm behind using the mechanics and the general feel of the world and starting with a fresh story, location, and cast of characters.

I also think a competitive multiplayer mode would be fantastic. (who am I, Bobby Kotick over here??) I loved that Battlefield 3 implemented some of the free running mechanics from Mirror's Edge. But imagine a game that allowed you to slide, blink, double jump and throw traps around. Being able to compete against other players with similar skills would be so much fun. Obviously you'd have to kill or limit the time-slow ability, and you'd have to balance everything else like crazy, but I think it could work. And that's what I'd look forward to, rather than story (which I don't have a lot of hope for, and at best gets in the way of the top-notch gameplay that arkane has designed).

[melmer]

Going straight from this to halo 4, it felt really strange not being able to slide....i tried it often enough. Being able to sprint into a slide should become a staple of all first person games

ps. i wouldn't touch dishonoured multiplayer with a 10ft barge pole x

[Orv]

ps. i would touch dishonoured multiplayer with a 10ft barge pool x

It's funny you should say that because when Assassin's Creed 1 came out I used to muse about a multiplayer mode where two or three people were assassins and the rest were guardsmen, and now look where we are. Even then AC MP doesn't quite reach what I want, which is Thief Deathmatch where being a pontz is punished by immediate ban.

[melmer]

Thats fair enough, the little time i've spent with assassins creed multiplayer was quite enjoyable

Although the idea of crazy super power assassin death match has been done before with games like.... i can't remember any names as they all do so poorly. um.. Nexuiz

, CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars, Gotham City Impostors?

But a defend a target type game could work. Small teams defending and attacking. where the attacking team only has close quarter weapons

[youmeyou]

Ooh, Crysis 2 had an interesting mode that pitted heavily armed normal human guard players against lightly armed crysis suited players. You had to use all of your powers as the suited players in order to not get instantly gunned down by the guards in a really interesting implementation of lopsided competitve gameplay. Something similar could be done with Dishonored. Your idea about defenders and attackers would work well if the attackers had to sneak to their target while the defenders are super strong heavily armed guards that would easily defeat the Corvo-a-likes in a face to face encounter.

[Sno]

Going straight from this to halo 4, it felt really strange not being able to slide....i tried it often enough. Being able to sprint into a slide should become a staple of all first person games

I have had this exact same response to the Halo 4 sprint. Sprinting into a slide just feels so right, and i miss it when games with a sprint don't have it.

I don't think it would even contribute anything meaningful to Halo 4 other than making me feel like a badass.

[Orv]

Ooh, Crysis 2 had an interesting mode that pitted heavily armed normal human guard players against lightly armed crysis suited players. You had to use all of your powers as the suited players in order to not get instantly gunned down by the guards in a really interesting implementation of lopsided competitve gameplay. Something similar could be done with Dishonored. Your idea about defenders and attackers would work well if the attackers had to sneak to their target while the defenders are super strong heavily armed guards that would easily defeat the Corvo-a-likes in a face to face encounter.

I am actually contemplating purchasing Crysis 3 entirely to play the Predator Movie Reenactment mode.

[melmer]

I don't think it would even contribute anything meaningful to Halo 4 other than making me feel like a badass.

.

Exactly this, sprinting in to a slide makes you feel like a badass. Sprinting into an inertia defying lunge makes you feel like you've just laid an egg

[Twig]

If I was in the weird and improbable position to decided these things, I would say «no, don't make a direct sequel – make a new game with a new name» They could put it in the same world, because it was pretty cool as far as video game worlds go, and they could expand it by making their game take place somewhere else, and weave their rich tapestry that way. They shouldn't have to be constrained by whatever mechanics they invented for Dishonored, but be able to pick and choose from them and build something new and even cooler. OBVIOUSLY it would have to be a sneak-em-up, though.

This is what I would want.

The good/bad endings ARE kind of severely different. It'd be super dumb to base the next game off of one or the other. It wouldn't be the first game to pick one ending and declare it canon, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Not to mention that some of what you propose, Mington, would not match the ending future-timefreeze-scenes. I mean, hell, I killed Samuel in my second, super-fast, super-violent playthrough, and the ending took that into account! (In a most hilarious fashion, of course. Corvo standing over his grave, like, "poor guy".) EDIT: On a second readthrough, you're clearly being at least partially intentionally ridiculous. Phew.

Although, honestly, I just kind of want the Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions equivalent of Dishonored. I'm willing to bet I enjoyed the story more than most people, but it's still kind of... not good? The world was excellent, but the story was really cliche and lame. Just give me a bunch of challenges - some completely realistic within the context of the game, and some utterly outrageous, like the godzilla-sized guard in VR Missions - and I'll be pretty pleased. The most bestest pleased! U:

[melmer]

Wait. WAT. There was more then one ending....

Oops, I serously thought there was only one boring ass ending. Damn. YouTube here I come

How can you kill Samuel then? Shot him when he drops you off at the last level?

[toblix]

The Ending of Dishonored: Revelations

[melmer]

how did I miss that? I thought there were just supposed to be more zombies n shit

Ah man that ending is a hundred times better

[Twig]

Wait. WAT. There was more then one ending....

Oops, I serously thought there was only one boring ass ending. Damn. YouTube here I come

How can you kill Samuel then? Shot him when he drops you off at the last level?

Yeah if you go low chaos, you get a good ending. If you go high chaos, you get a bad ending. There are also smaller things that affect the ending, too, like whether or not you rescue Piero/Sokolov from the onslaught, and... whether or not you kill Samuel, I guess!

If you reach the last level with high chaos, it's also significantly different. In high chaos, the three guys who betrayed you will be fighting over Emily. In low chaos, Havelock will have simply poisoned the other two. But more importantly, Samuel is pissed at you for being a ruthless killer, and shoots a gun to alarm the guards. I killed him before he could get the shot off!

OH! Yeah, and I guess you can just kill Emily. O: I saved her even in the bad ending. So that's another thing! That's the BAD bad ending.

[melmer]

Dang

[melmer]

That's funny how on the podcast they were talking about how multiple paths add value. Thinking about all the thing you're missing. And here's me playing through the game blissfully unaware of any splintering in the story.

I remember there being multiple choice scenarios but I always just assumed the story was following the same path you'd just get slightly different dialogue without any actual consequence... Perhaps this feeling is a byproduct of the terrible story

[youmeyou]

Although, honestly, I just kind of want the Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions equivalent of Dishonored. I'm willing to bet I enjoyed the story more than most people, but it's still kind of... not good? The world was excellent, but the story was really cliche and lame. Just give me a bunch of challenges - some completely realistic within the context of the game, and some utterly outrageous, like the godzilla-sized guard in VR Missions - and I'll be pretty pleased. The most bestest pleased! U:

They're kind of going in that direction with the Dunwall City Trials DLC: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-25-first-dishonored-dlc-has-a-wave-based-arena-battle

It includes 10 challenge maps each with 10 distinct trials designed to test your combat, stealth and mobility skills. These trials include an arena battle against waves of enemy AI, drop assassinations and a race against the clock. There are new achievements and trophies and a global online leaderboard.

I'm kind of into the ideas of a trials/VR mission add on for the reasons you've stated.