Dishonored 2’s dual protagonists offer differing styles of gameplay

Arkane and Bethesda caught a lot of eyes last month with the cinematic debut trailer for Dishonored 2, the sequel to their 2012 steampunk stealth adventure. Not only is the original protagonist, Corvo Attano, back to help us revisit the industrial world, but the trailer also reintroduced another previous character, the now playable Emily Kaldwin.

While the game still provides the option to play through as Corvo, Emily’s character comes with a whole host of new abilities and a completely different style of combat from her father’s methods. In the first game “she's special because she's watching you. If you play very violently, she changes in the game. So people were interested in Emily," co-director Harvey Smith said of the decision to expand Emily’s story, "You have this privileged girl who, instead of living the life she would have lived, got interrupted by this tragic event. But then she was raised by Corvo the rest of the way. So who would she be as an adult?"

Fifteen years after the assassination of her mother and rescue by her father, Emily has assumed the troubled throne of Dunwall only to be usurped by an intruder to the realm, forcing her retreat into hiding and driving the main plot of the new story. You’ll choose between playing as either Corvo or Emily early on in the game and while their approaches are different, the missions you’ll encounter will be the same. Smith elaborates, “Emily fights with a little more finesse than Corvo does…Whereas Corvo has the very classic Possession, Rat Swarm, Blink [abilities], Emily has Far Reach, Shadow Walk, Mesmerize… these powers that nobody has heard of. You can stick to walls, you can yank somebody toward you and assassinate them in mid-air.”

Supporting the story is the environment itself- the sheer scope of the world-building involved was always one of the first game’s most intriguing elements. The industrial city of Dunwall felt complete in its scale and culture and the struggles it faced felt authentic as Corvo moved through its streets and back alleys influencing its fate through his decisions. That level of attention is back with Dishonored 2, "There's a little saying at Arkane, that we make our worlds bigger than the game," the game’s other director, Raphael Colantonio explained. "Every element, you feel like it's actually referring to something that is not really in the game but makes the game feel stronger, more real.”

Dishonored 2 is set to release on PS4, Xbox One and PC in the first half of 2016.