Four hours in (only just about to start the third chapter) and I'm very much enjoying this so far.
Non-spoilery thoughts:
- I get some framerate wobbles but generally speaking the game is very pretty. (Pretty water! Pretty, er, brutality! (and a bottle of whale oil I somehow didn't spot at the time) Sea views! (and an early mission objective in the top right...)
-- Karnaca is absolutely splendid. So I've done the opening prologue-y bit and the first chunk of time in Karnaca and it's just great. Spent ages searching through it and apparently still didn't find everything in terms of money and collectibles.
- It's hard to say yet whether the bloodflies are just Dishonored's rats but with wings. I mean the role they inhabit in the game is much the same and their behaviours are broadly similar but there are some differences. Not that it would have bothered me too much if they had just been the rats but with wings.
- The Outsider is still a gimp. Voiced by the Penguin from Gotham, so I suppose that makes sense.
- Much like the first game you could absolutely smash through this in a fraction of the time I am.
And more spoilery stuff:
Toggle Spoiler
- Bit grim that Emily's also using the Heart from the first game, what with it being her dead mum's and all that. Does make for some good dialogue from the Heart though.
- Hold the fuck on, was I choosing which protagonist to play the entire game as back at the start? I mean, I'd have still chosen Emily (and without having seen what happens if you choose Corvo, whether it's a straight role-reversal at the start, I think it makes more sense) but does the game tell you that? I'd just assumed you'd switch about as the game progressed.
- Emily's powers are cool. I'm not convinced there are that many toys for the ghost-y / stealthy playthrough, which was my main criticism of the first game even though I loved it, and a number of them are obviously just re-skins or minor tweaks of some of Corvo's. At least in the early stages. There are some changes, like her version of Blink, Far Reach, allows you to grab stuff and pull it towards you.