I Just Can't Do It

I decided that my new gaming venture would take place in one of my favorite stealth/adventure series--Dishonored 2.  For my first playthrough I chose to play as Emily Kaldwin and enjoyed her set of slightly different abilities.  This time around I decided I would play as Corvo Attano so I can check out any of the major story/plot differences.  So far, there haven't really been major differences.  Corvo's abilities feel comfortingly familiar and I've been happily lurking in the shadows and waiting for my chance to strike.

One of the other major decisions that I usually have to consider is how I want to play--do I want to go for the lesser of two evils and try not to kill anyone?  Or do I take the path of least resistance and just slay anyone in my path?  I've always felt that this decision is a little bit skewed by the way that the story seems to reward the non-lethal path.  If you don't run around killing everyone there is lower "chaos," which means that your actions won't negatively impact the future.  Part of me really leans toward a "high chaos" playthrough--it's great fun to sneak around stabbing everything (and there are some great talents that make slaying extra fun--one automatically turns bodies into ash which means no wasted time trying to stash them somewhere out of sight).  I told myself I was gonna do it this time...but I just can't!  I want the "good" ending too much.  (I've only ever been able to make myself choose what I view as the more ruthless path in a game once.  I played the renegade path in Mass Effect and it made me feel bad--I can't do it again.)

I wish I could get the game to look as good as this picture =/

Something else I realized as I re-booted Dishonored 2 is that it seems to have some hefty technical requirements.  My video card is better than the recommended specs, but I've had some serious problems running it on any settings that aren't low.  I've been frustrated by this fact because it is a game that looks absolutely stunning and I love taking in all the little details that have been painstakingly crafted into the game.

Regardless of my technical difficulties, I've been enjoying my most recent playthrough of Dishonored 2.  I'm trying my best to search every nook and cranny in the game, whereas in my first playthrough I definitely skipped over some things.  I've also been trying to get some of the achievements that I missed out on.  One of those achievements involved saving the life of a merchant who is shoved through a wall of light by some malicious city guards.  Three sleep darts later and the merchant was confusedly sprinting away without realizing that I had just saved his skin.  The other achievement I chalked up was a little challenging and required several bone-crunching falls from the top of the Addermire Institute.  Finally managing to maneuver Corvo into position to jump from the highest point on Addermire and stab a guard (who is very, very far below you) was oddly satisfying.  I highly recommend doing it, laughing at yourself when you die from falling a few times, and then feeling victorious when you manage it.

On a completely unrelated note, I decided to bite and invest in the season pass for Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  What finally made me do it?  The newest DLC, Fate of Atlantis, seems to be a fun-filled romp through a bonkers afterlife scenario.  I very much enjoyed the Curse of the Pharaohs DLC from Assassin's Creed:  Origins.  A portion of its story takes place in the various afterlives of dead pharaohs--those zones are very cool!  After I finish my most recent romp through Dishonored 2, I'm looking forward to some more stabby fun with Kassandra.