Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 is a first-person stealth action game set across Dunwall and the coastal city of Karnaca. Choose Emily Kaldwin or Corvo Attano as they try to reclaim the throne, then explore mission spaces through supernatural powers, weapons, gadgets and multiple routes. Lethal and nonlethal decisions shape the city and its factions.

Dishonored 2 opens in Dunwall, where an unexpected claimant seizes the throne from Empress Emily Kaldwin. The player continues as Emily or chooses her father, Corvo Attano, the Royal Protector, and the pursuit takes them south to Karnaca, capital of Serkonos. Most missions unfold in this coastal city, whose streets, estates and industrial districts reflect the Empire’s distance from Dunwall. Emily and Corvo are both voiced and have distinct perspectives, and each brings a different set of supernatural abilities to the same broad conflict. The story follows their effort to restore Emily’s rule, while the player encounters figures such as the Outsider, Duke Luca Abele, Captain Meagan Foster and the factions competing for influence in Karnaca.

Each mission is a broad, connected space with routes across streets, buildings and rooftops, rather than a single corridor toward a target. Players can read patrols, peer through keyholes, climb to balconies, slip through side passages or use powers to cross exposed ground. Optional tasks and things discovered off the main route can change the available approach, and the world often gives several ways to reach a mission objective. Karnaca’s vertical architecture makes height useful: ledges and balconies offer paths above street patrols, while open windows and service routes can lead into guarded interiors. The city’s factions also affect movement. In the Dust District, the Howlers and the Overseers hold different areas; the player can target either leader or try to resolve the local conflict without backing either side.

The choice of protagonist changes how supernatural movement and stealth work. Corvo’s returning Blink lets him cross short distances quickly, while Possession can be upgraded to move between hosts or hide inside bodies. Emily’s Far Reach pulls her toward distant surfaces and can be shaped to grab objects or draw enemies closer; Domino links several people so that an effect on one is shared by the others. Shadow Walk lets Emily move as a dark form and incapacitate a target, while Mesmerize distracts groups of humans or hounds. These are not merely different animations for the same skill tree: their distinct effects invite different routes and ways to handle a guarded room. Both characters’ powers can be upgraded with runes found during missions, so searching alcoves and optional spaces can expand the tools available later.

Stealth and combat sit on a continuous set of options. Emily or Corvo can crouch, lean around cover, sneak behind a guard and perform a nonlethal takedown, or meet the patrol with sword, pistol and other equipment. Sleep darts, mines and grenades supply alternatives to direct attacks, while supernatural powers can interrupt, evade or redirect an encounter. A locked door, watchful guard or powered Wall of Light can be approached through a nearby opening, bypassed with an ability, or confronted using a tool or distraction. The same room can therefore support quiet infiltration or an open fight, and the player can change tactics as a plan develops. Whether a target is killed or spared contributes to the wider chaos state, which influences how the city and its people respond as the story continues.

Mission themes change the rules of exploration from one location to another. In the Clockwork Mansion, shifting walls and floors continually rearrange the interior, so the player must watch how rooms move and use the mechanism to create a safe route. A Crack in the Slab gives the protagonist a timepiece that switches between the present and a manor’s past; looking through it reveals threats and passages in the other period, and moving between the two can get around a barrier or change the position from which a room is entered. That mission also temporarily disables supernatural powers, making the timepiece and the architecture central to navigation. These self-contained mechanics encourage observation and experimentation without removing the familiar choices of stealth, combat and alternate routes.

The Outsider’s Heart helps locate runes and bonecharms hidden around each mission. Runes are spent to unlock or improve supernatural abilities, while bonecharms grant smaller passive effects. The player can collect raw whalebone and invest runes in Bonecharm Crafting, then dismantle found charms to recover material and learn their traits. Crafted charms can combine repeated traits for a stronger effect, though a charm may become corrupted and gain a drawback. That system lets exploration feed into a specific build: traits can support sneaking, carrying bodies, recovering resources or fighting, depending on what has been learned and crafted. Money and supplies found along the route also matter, since black market shops offer equipment and ammunition along mission routes.

Between assignments, the Dreadful Wale serves as a place to review notes and prepare for the next objective. Mission routes contain documents, valuables and side activities that reveal local history or provide resources, and the player can revisit decisions through later playthroughs. Completing the campaign unlocks New Game Plus, where a new run with either protagonist can draw on the full suite of Emily’s and Corvo’s abilities. Mission Select and custom difficulty settings also let players return to a particular chapter or tune aspects of the challenge. Combined with the protagonists’ separate powers and the missions’ different local systems, these options make a subsequent run capable of approaching familiar spaces with a substantially different toolkit.