The biggest loss to Dishonored 2 is fidelity. The world is less made up of painterly swatches than it is a dispiriting reality. While character designs maintain both elegant and ungainly shapes, the overlaid texture is unfortunately real. Up too goes the violence quotient for anyone interested in taking the darker path.

Nothing else strays far from Bethesda’s first game, although there’s robots now. Everything in late 2016 is pushing robots. Too much narrative is locked to found books or papers, enough to fill multiple novels. Story structure still feels redundant, but thankfully, the silent protagonist is no more. It’s another rebellion and another infestation of pests (bugs, not rats this time), forcibly requiring a plodding place through an unflattering world.

2/5