#the like 2 minute long sequence of him just doing parkour over buildings is my therapy actually

[psychopatheticpytha]

just watched s1 of daredevil and matthew murdock has 4 moods only:

1. edgy catholic boy

2. really good lawyer

3. parkour

4. gets the shit beat out of himself

[m39]

History of the Creed - Part 1: Assassin’s Creed 2

So… I’ve decided to do a marathon of my favorite game series, Assassin’s Creed (minus [probably] the first one) because Valhalla (which I’ll not buy until one year after its release) and some part of me decided that I should review them.

But wait a minute… I hear one you saying. Don’t you have over 250 Doom WADs to check?

Well, yes. But then again we kind of like to pile on new idea after another to do when there’s an opportunity. There is still the Galaxia WAD in make for one of you who liked my WAD reviews but I believe that the AC reviews will take a lead for now.

Also the reason that I’m not reviewing Assassin’s Creed 1 is because now when I think about it, it doesn’t sound that good as it was.

You are having a PTSD attack over flags, Templars and “side missions”.

Okay, let’s talk about something else. What I’ve decided to do is to play these games in a semi-completionist style, in other words: if there are some side activities in missions, I am not expecting to replay them to get it all 100% because I would go nuts restarting the mission/control point every time I failed this one, specific side activity. But the rest as in: all collectibles, side missions and places to clear? I’ll do my best to do them all… Even Odyssey…

…

I’m fucked.

But enough of that. Let’s talk about the game that is proclaimed to be the best game in this series.

ASSASSIN’S CREED 2 (The original PC release in Europe: March 5, 2010)

PLOT

It is Italy in the early Renaissance times. You are Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young lad from a family of nobles who’s head of the family, Giovanni, is an Assassin. One day you find it out when your father and brothers are imprisoned and the next day they end up executed so you swear revenge on those Templar MoFoes for what they did.

Ah, revenge, the good, old plot device that never gets boring when it’s done right. And by being done right I mean when it has a nicely written characters. And that character is Ezio. I mean, who doesn’t like him? This motherfucker oozes with charm and personality. And Roger Craig Smith only solidifies it. He even gets a good character development. Example: When Ezio kills the guy who betrayed his family, his next goal is to run away to Spain with his mother and sister. After living two years in his uncle Super Mario’s villa, training under his eye and reading about Assassins and Templars, while still wanting to escape Italy, he’s now having a doubts about this plan and not until the harsh talk with his uncle decides that he’ll help destroy the Spaniard’s band of goons and get a revenge on him.

The secondary characters are fine but that’s it. They are perfectly okay with few of them standing out like Leonardo da Vinci (seriously, your best friend is Leonardo. Fucking. Da Vinci.). The villains are also just okay. Some of them have a personality of a Saturday cartoon villain, some of them are more dimensional. Rodrigo Borgia however goes to the former group. I mean, I don’t find him terrible at all, it just I wish he were better. But props to Manuel Tadros for playing him. He did a very good.

Oh yeah there is also some stuff in the modern times. It’s not bad but it basically exists only to move the plot forward and give us a reason why you can see the stuff from the past. But hey, the Desmond Saga is still better than this Initiate bullshit of the modern days plot.

GAMEPLAY

Assassin’s Creed 2 is basically the first game on steroids. You assassinate targets, you sometimes run using your parkour skills and sometimes fight with the enemies. There are some new stuff when you care this to Assassin’s Creed 1 like: Being able to use two hidden blades at once, healing yourself with medicine, shooting enemies with your loud hidden pistol, using smoke bombs, throwing money on the ground (LEAVE ME ALONE YOU BARD HYENAS!) and poisoning people, making them go apeshit (which I used only once in this run, in 13th sequence to be exact). Asides from the regular guards and archers there are three new types of enemies: Brutes, the heavy armored fatsoes, Agiles that can dodge your regular attacks and Seekers, who have a long ranged weapon and can easily find you in a haystack. You can also buy new, better weapon/armor and a bigger sacks for your knifes/medicine/poison. There is also a notoriety meter. When you fill it to 100% the guards will automatically be suspicious when you are in their line of sight. You can decrease it by ripping off posters, paying off heralds and killing the witnesses.

However, in spite of all of this crap that was added, this game feels easier than the first one. It’s not like it’s somewhat major con for me (I would rather play the game that is too easy than too hard) but I can understand some of you have a big problem with that. Imagine this: in theory, when you are spotted, you must use your abilities to run away from the enemies and use combat only as the last resort. But then I ask: why should you do that?! You are so powerful, you can destroy the entire Venetian army in 10 minutes! You are getting more durable and powerful with each sequence! Agiles can die by one counter attack! You can steal Brute’s/Seeker’s weapon, then one-shot them and then use their weapon to one-shot another fool who’s stupid enough to attack you! The fights are that easily! Sure it’s kind of tougher than I remember but still! Even if you don’t want to fight, smoke bombs helps you tremendously in both running away and fighting. Not to mention the enemies being stupid and that they couldn’t catch you most of the time.

Changing slightly the subject, you can also hire mercenaries/courtesans/thieves to help you distract guards. They are pretty helpful in missions, both the main ones and the side ones but outside of them they are rather useless because... well... I already explained you that.

Remember how in the first game you couldn’t swim? Well, now you can do this and use gondolas. Personally, however, I felt like I was faster on my own than on a venetian mini-boat.

ACTIVITIES

There is many stuff to do in this game. Like much more than you think. You can for instance buy paintings, collect money from chests/codex pages/feathers, find glyphs and solve their riddles, (like in previous game) you can climb on viewpoints to reveal a huge chunk of map, deliver letters, race to beat the best time of members of the guild of thieves, beat up unfaithful husbands, collect 6 seals to get Altair’s armor and fund for renovations of many buildings in Monteriggioni. Most of this stuff gives you more and more money every 20 in-game minutes by increasing the town’s status (which you have to withdraw from your villa).

In other words, the predecessor of your typical, modern, Ubiconic game. Personally I enjoyed doing these stuff but be warned; if you want to go after feathers, check a guide on their locations (same with Monteriggioni’s roman gods’ statues). I know at least one guy who went insane after trying to find the last one in Tuscany.

Liquid Bogan (in the background): F̴e��a̴t̸h̶e̵r̵e̵s̷ ̶a̴r̷e̵ ̵l̴i̸f̵e̶,̴ ̶b̶r̸o̷t̷h̸e̸r̶.̸ ̶W̷e̵ ̶m̵u̵s̴t̴ ̸c̷o̸l̴l̴e̴c̸t̵ ̷a̸l̸l̷ ̸f̸e̸a̶t̷h̴e̶r̴e̵s̵,̶ ̷y̵i̵s̵?̶

He’s definitely fine.

THE GRAPHICS AND SOUND

This is where it turns into mixed-bag. While the sound effect are still very good, the graphics however, didn’t age well. Sure, the landmarks still look awesome and I love some of the details like the fact that some dust from buildings comes off when you climb but the character models… I don’t think they survived the time after the game’s release. The textures look sometimes blurry as shit, facial animation looks from time to time wonky, it looks especially bad in cutscenes. Then again, I don’t think people liked how they looked even in 2009 since I remember watching a review from my native country and the reviewer said that the character models lack polish when you take a closer look.

The soundtrack though… Jesus. Like, what can be said about it after so many people said earlier? There is a reason why people are calling it one of the best soundtracks in video games of all times. I would choose you three of those worth a listening but asides from the first three in the official soundtrack (for obvious reasons) there is too much to choose. So, here’s the whole bloody soundtrack.

STABILITY

Even though I played the PC version (and I heard that the PC version was a mess at the beginning) I didn’t really had many problems. Framerate was constantly smooth and I didn’t notice any drop in it. There were however 2 nasty bugs. The first one crashed the game when you have to choose if you want to play the memory or not; it happened at least 3 times. The second was when trying to assassinate Antonio Maffei and that monk fucker decided to noclip himself into the tower. Like- What the- WHAT THE FU-

Technical Difficulties.

Maybe it was because I paid the nearby herald. I don’t know.

SUMMARY

Despite its graphics getting somewhat dated and the game being kind of buggy, Assassin’s Creed 2 is still a fantastic game and I fully recommend it to you. Check it for yourself (if you haven’t already) and while at it, tell me your opinion about this game.

Thank you all for reading this long-ass review and I’ll see you next time.

Bye!

[beyondmistland]

“May your heart be your guiding key” (Full thoughts on Kingdom Hearts III below!)

Graphics:

Ø  The game is bloody gorgeous, which helps mitigate the long and frequent cutscenes

Ø  The lip-syncing rarely fails

Music:

Ø  The new remixes are awesome and the brand-new tracks don't disappoint either

Ø  What does though is the actual audio mixing:

More often than not I struggled to hear the music over the sound effects during gameplay and the voiceovers during cutscenes

Ranking the Worlds:

Ø  #1: Corona: The world is huge, with varied terrain and a kick-ass final boss

Ø  #2 Olympus: The sheer scale and scope of the world took my breath away, plus we (finally!) get to fight all four titans

Ø  #3 The Caribbean: Assassin's Creed IV meets Kingdom Hearts, what's not to like

Ø  #4 Monstropolis: While not as eye-catching as some of the other worlds the way it intersects with the broader KH lore is really neat and the final cutscene was a delight in that it averts the Disney characters being useless when dealing with the original KH villains, on top of which its straightforward design is a nice change of pace, my only complaint is that there are only four types of Unversed

Ø  #5 San Fransokyo: The story is surprisingly short, which means you don't really get the chance to explore the environment, which sucks because the verticality and day/night cycle are awesome, plus there are a number of memorable boss fights

Ø  #6 Twilight Town: If it had been fully recreated based off the KH2 version the world would be much higher on my list but despite how small it is I love the liveliness, not to mention how peaceful it is in comparison to the other worlds, the same can be said for Hundred Acre Wood

Ø  #7 Keyblade Graveyard + Final World + Scala Ad Caelum: Though jaw-dropping in terms of visuals and audio they're not fully realized worlds, the same can be said for Dark World

Ø  #8 Toy Box: I loved the final boss as well as how the story tied into the larger plot of the game and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy exploring Andy's room while "You have a friend in me" played in the background

Why then is Toy Box so far down on my list, world design

Even with endgame stats (LV40-45) the Gigas are tough to take down and as a result they come off as gimmicky in the worst sense of the word, beyond that the fact that the majority of the world is set in Galaxy Toys made me feel constrained and claustrophobic, which could have been partially alleviated if we'd been allowed to make our way through the parking lot outside, finally, the story kind of got repetitive with the backtracking whenever the characters were about to leave because "someone went missing yet again"

Ø  #9 Arrendelle: Though it has one of the best final bosses in the game along with Corona there is so much wrong with this world that I wonder if it's less Square Enix's fault and more Disney placing an insane amount of red tape on their favorite cash-cow:

1) Elsa does not become a party member even after you beat the world

2) You do not get to explore the city or the ice palace despite the latter being fully rendered on the map

3) Larxene, a lightning-based character, randomly traps you in an ice labyrinth when that would have made a lot more sense both logically and thematically if it had been Elsa

4) Speaking of Larxene, she does practically nothing the whole time you're there unlike Marluxia and Luxord, who are at least semi-active

5) You climb a mountain and get knocked off of it so many times that even Sora gets fed up

6) The bloody minigame where you have to find Olaf's body parts

7) Forcing us to watch the entire "Let it go" sequence and then having "Do you want to build a snowman" play over Anna's voice as she's explaining herself to Sora

8) So much of the story is excised that you have little clue as to what's going on to the point Hans appears for all of five minutes, doesn't say any lines, and isn't even named when it would have been cool, not to mention, just plain better, if he had started off as a guest member of your party

9) As a result of #8 Sora, Donald, and Goofy's presence feels like even more of an afterthought than usual in the sense that them not being there wouldn't have changed anything at all apart from Hans' Heartless then having no one to defeat it which can be seen by the fact that when they leave no one tells them goodbye unlike in every other world

10) The visual design was bland and tiresome after a while

11) The world's gimmick was uninspired to say the least

12) Fighting alongside a giant snowman (AKA Marshmallow) was awesome and in terms of pure gameplay the labyrinth was actually quite fun

Story Pros:

Ø  Master Xehanort's new voice actor is good but after hearing Leonard Nimoy's voice for the past couple of games the change is a bit jarring

Ø  The way previous games are referenced and tied together is a nice way of bringing new players into the fold while also setting up the finale's resolutions

Ø  The game has a better sense of humor than previous installments

Ø  Sora is more like his KH2 self than the bland caricature we saw in 3D and quite a few characters display some degree of genre-savviness

Ø  Master Yen Sid gets out of his chair to lend a hand for once

Ø  Donald Duck is the most powerful mage in Square Enix canon (and I am not making that up)

Gameplay Pros:

Ø  Being able to switch between different save points in the same world is a welcome addition

Ø  The secondary ability of all shotlocks to airstep is ingenious

Ø  You can have more than two party members finally!

Ø  The secret ending isn't too hard to unlock

Ø  You can upgrade your Keyblades, which means older ones aren't automatically relegated to redundancy

Ø  Donald and Goofy are useful again after being nerfed into uselessness in KH2

Ø  Towns and cities are actually populated by fully-voiced NPCs!

Ø  Cutscenes in Theater Mode are unlocked after completing each world rather than after beating the game

Ø  I never tried the Classic Kingdom minigames but the cooking one with Remy was a nice break from the normal gameplay (I suck at the egg-cracking one though)

Ø  The camera doesn't get in the way like it infamously did in KH1

Ø  I like the new main menu design (Feel free to disagree though)

Ø  The Gummi Ship is entirely optional outside of a few mandatory boss battles

Ø  Moogle Tickets are a nice way of giving players a second chance during difficult encounters (I do wish they didn’t activate so quickly though) 

Gameplay Cons:

Ø  The game never once tells you that you can switch between Situation Commands using L2

Ø  The game never once tells you that you keep all your lower-tier magic (Fire, Fira for example) and that your shortcuts don't automatically update to include the higher-tier version of whatever magic you have equipped

Ø  There's no real incentive to switch between Keyblades (That being said, my favorites are Wheel of Fate, Nano Arms, and Happy Gear/Ever After)

Ø  Attractions lose their charm quickly and completely ruin the flow of combat

Ø  Summons aren't too big of a deal since I only ever ended up using them once and even then it was by accident

Ø  Donald still heals you at the wrong time more often than not

Ø  Even on Proud Mode the game is way too easy for the most part (Apparently Critical Mode addresses this but I can't confirm that)

Ø  There is a lack of sidequests and post-game content that contributes to the feeling Square & Disney gave us half a game (For example, there is only one secret boss, said secret boss has a generic design, no ties to the story, and can be defeated at LV40 on your first attempt)

Ø  Hollow Bastion, Mysterious Tower, and Destiny Islands are not playable

Ø  The parkour from 3D has been nerfed too much in terms of distance to actually be useful

Story Cons:

Ø  Nomura fridged Kairi and he worfed almost everyone the first time you arrive at the Keyblade Graveyard!

Ø  The wrapping up of plot points and character arcs from prior entries was a little too nice and neat for me

Ø  The out-of-nowhere introduction of Subject X

Ø  Pete and Maleficent do literally nothing the whole damn game

Ø  The pacing is awful:

Almost all of the game's resolution is held back until after you've beaten the last Disney world

Ø  There are two important cutscenes in the Final World that you can accidentally miss because for some reason they are optional

Ø  We don't get to see what happened to Lingering Will, which also means we don't get any more insight into the third aspect of being (AKA the soul)

Ø  There are no Final Fantasy characters in the game, not even Sephiroth!

Ø  What happened to Demyx?

Ø  Master Eraqus has absolutely nothing to do with Terra’s restoration

Changes I’d make:

Ø  Require us to go through the Disney worlds a second time like in KH2

Ø  Have Aqua and Ven be saved halfway through the game instead of at the end, they could then spend the second half of the game resting or join you on one of the Disney worlds to refresh themselves

Ø  Have Lea and Kairi join you on one of the Disney worlds to get practical experience

Ø  Make the Keyblade Graveyard sequence be a series of one/two/three-on one battles so that members of Organization XIII can use their full arsenal of attacks from previous games

Ø  Let us play the second battle between Lingering Will and Terra-Xehanort

Ø  Speaking of Terra-Xehanort, we should have fought him alongside the Guardian Heartless

Ø  Have us explore Scala Ad Caelum while hunting down the individual replicas before then making us fight all of them in a boss battle

DLC

Ø  The presence of it says a lot about the game and not in a good way

Final Score

Ø  7/10-8/10

[bearpillowmonster]

Spider-Man PS4 Review

 I just finished the game so here's my official review. I've been taking some notes throughout playing it so don't think I didn't have time to think it over or anything. This will be a long post so bear with me. (NON SPOILERS)

I started by wondering if I should get this game, E3 looked hype from the trailers but it never stood up front the crowd, losts of speculation from me. A few months ago I watched a video where these guys got to play it early just to share game mechanics (I think it was GameSpot or something) I know what they meant in a lot of things they were talking about now. Now here's the kicker, there's DLC. I hate DLC, never get it despite a lot of it looking cool, however I saw Black Cat as one of the DLC. I have a soft spot when it comes to Black Cat, I just have to check it out when she's involved...leading me to not only buy the game but the deluxe edition as well.

Let me start from the intro of the game. It is actually very visual oriented and easter egg filled. It explains the story of Spider-Man, where we are, and the timeline in less of a minute without saying a word. A spider drops down from the window (Pete getting powers) There's a pic of Uncle Ben and May and Peter then one of Mary Jane and Harry (they've met, been friends, graduated) Next picture has only Peter and May (Ben's death). There's a notebook with concepts for a web shooter (throwback to the 2002 movie sketches) A magazine with Norman Osborn that's labeled "Secrets" with some green nerf darts (Green Goblin is the secret (hence green darts) so not yet introduced) There's a wall of newspaper clippings with some of the villains on them (The big ones that have already been fought in this timeline) Next is a series of post-it notes but the most visible says "RENT DUE". (Peter owns his own place and is struggling) Now that's what I call an intro (it gets more epic right after but i wont spoil)

One complaint I see is the graphics. "They aren't as good as we saw at E3" or something along those lines. BOI this game has great graphics for starters and second How noticeable is the texture on a wall or a puddle compared to the actual character models? This game has a perfect excuse for toning down some ever so slightly. It runs better. It's an open world game and there's maybe one small loading screen and then this bad boy of a town is all yours, If these cutscenes were prerendered (a select few are but for the most part) then it would seem weird going from that to a loading screen. THERE ARE NO LOADING SCREENS AFTER CUTSCENES! It's straight into the action. Seamless. Having the graphics of both cutscene and gameplay match each other just enhances the experience for me so good on them! Also you can look in most windows and actually see stuff in there like computers or if the light is on or chairs/tables etc. That's next level! There are tips on the few loading screens you have (such as if you start a side mission, which I'll get to here in a minute) and they go by so fast you can just barely read the tip, it's that quick for me.

Next complaint I don't see much at all anymore but saw when this game was announced was the voice cast. Yuri Lowenthal wasn't the first pick for a lot of Spidey fans but he does an excellent job in this game like I mean they all do but you can really tell that the cast went all out for this game, it's great. Yuri even shares a name with one of the characters so yay. Also he voices older Ben from Ben 10. Even though it would be cool to have different voice actors for different suits such as Tom Holland for the Homecoming suit, Yuri does a nice job. Jameson is in this and he hosts a podcast that plays sometimes while you're swinging, that's a good modern take on him but nobody will ever beat JK Simmons just saying.

The Spiderman juggernaut that was Spiderman 2 (preferably the GC version for me) was a big game to stack against, nothing has beat it until this game in my opinion. Spiderman 2 I could get lost in just doing side missions, I would literally spend my time saving people hanging from roofs, getting mugged and car chases and still be satisfied with that game, it was that good! (also I wasn't too good at knowing what to do in games as a kid so eh) The swinging, the jumping, all felt natural and fun. This game can perhaps even beat that even with nostalgia, the web swinging is the best we've seen, it applies parkour and acrobatics and gravity and momentum to define what I say is the word to describe this game "F-L-O-W". Everything has a flow and it feels good for it to flow. It does a good job of trying to keep what everyone liked with SP2...even a few character chase sequences, which I've always hated and still do but it's still nostalgic and would probably be missed if it wasn't in there. Wallrunning is a lot simpler and easier, web shooting is a lot more fun and gives you control, lots of different variety, lots of different unlockables. Also you can actually unlock that super jump like in SP2 and I love it! You don't get stuck nearly as often, if you're swinging, you don't lose momentum if you run into stairs or a building, he goes straight into wall run mode or just swings around it, feels so good. There's actually a throwback to the Spiderman 2 train sequence where he mentions "That worked last time" when trying to use his webs to stop a train.

I made sure to give a fair amount of effort to do as much as I can in this game. I did all the landmark missions, backpacks, black cat stakeouts, collected most of the suits, unlocked every skill, tried different play styles with webbing and such. (I can actually recognize how someone's play style is different than mine when I watch because I've played it so much) You don't like the white spider suit? Well you can unlock others and play as those instead, you barely have to use the white spider suit but doesn't go without saying each suit interchangeable quirks but not making any more powerful than another. Use the environment to your advantage, there's some stealth involved here but you don't have to use it, it's actually pretty fun. You can throw trash cans and concrete mix and shock people with stuff. You can crawl in vents.

Side missions and side stuff. Are they fun? I'd be lying if I said every single one was great but there are a lot of really good ones, some even bring in certain characters that I shuttered when I saw. Backpacks were awesome because it's always a mystery where they'll be as well as what's in them, plus it unlocks a certain suit. Black Cat missions, obviously I love, get a suit out of that too. Landmarks are kinda fun, I didn't think I'd like it much but I just did it and was like "Wow that's actually a really cool shot" it makes me feel like a photographer (Have yet to try Photo mode though). But here's something cool. If you go to a side mission, it will take you out of your current situation so you don't waste time or get distracted by certain elements and puts you in a separate but same version New York and if you're in a phone call with someone and you go to do a side quest during it, Peter will say something like "Sorry about that, continue" and it will either pick up where you left off in the call or rewind a little bit so you remember. Here's something I didn't think I would see though. Minigames. Yeah...so apparently you can scan an element for it's components and you have to match the lines and then there's one for the neural interface which has you making a path from one side to another, and it's not the best but whatever, it does what it does.

The story is on par. If it were separated into a movie, it might actually work, it's of that quality. The characters are great as well, each being unique to this story without breaking their comic origin too much. Spidey actually got me to laugh quite a few times with his quips. I want to go in depth with the characters because I really like how some of them are handled but I don't want to spoil who all is in this game. The AI is pretty good, I like that it tells you if an enemy can see you and can highlight where all the enemies are by pressing R3. I even had the final boss dodging some of my attacks, I had nothing but respect for that though, no salt.

Now this game is among the greats but that goes without saying there are some aspects that could be improved upon. People complained about Quick Time Events when this was revealed and I didn't blame them but now I do because I see a few scenes that look like "Aww I wanna play that" because it was probably a scene meant for QTE but they took it out because of fan backlash (QTE is still in there but not a lot fyi). At the end Peter is faced with some decisions and that's what Spider-Man is about, we even see it at the end of the first Spider-Man movie and done masterfully. This one is done really well but I almost wish we could've played that, and made the decision for ourselves just to see what the outcome would be then go and play it again to do the other route. The problem with that is this isn't a "Mary Jane will remember that Telltale/Detroit" kind of game so putting that in right at the end would feel a bit cheap. Just like the Marvel movies, there's a post credits scene so stay tuned for that. Overall a really good game, highly recommend it and await the the DLC/sequel?. I'm over 80% done with the game after finishing the story so I might as well just 100% it and complete all side missions and stuff.

[ancharan]

dishonored 2, in retrospect

... was really not a well-made game.

there are a lot of things to quibble about with the way D2 was made. from the graphics, to the aesthetic that tries to live up to the 1st one but somehow falls just short of the mark, to the storyline, to the incredibly rushed voice acting... 

but honestly, the thing that gets me the most is the complete removal of any sense of subtlety. 

that’s not to say the first game was hugely subtle by itself - the golden cat, for example, or the spymaster in the intro. but there were small things that weren’t explicitly stated, but were hinted at and guessed at enough to guide you to a truth without forcing your nose into it. 

i am, of course, talking about Emily Kaldwin. 

in the first game - unless my memory’s completely failing me - they never explicitly state that she is Corvo’s daughter. that means a lot. Corvo is a commoner, a Serkonan, who’s only given his position by the empress’s side because of his skill at fighting. this guy had to claw his way into dunwall, and even then he’s still regarded as “other,” as an “outsider” (GET IT?? ? ? ? more on this in a second). even despite his clear intimacy with the empress (”when you are near, my heart is at peace,” anyone?) none of the characters outright go “so yeah yall were fuckin right”

because that would’ve violated the norms of the aristocracy. 

dunwall is an incredibly rigid place! they have a strict religious order to keep people in line, they have an entrenched social class system, and clear lines dividing the power between men and women (thinking back specifically at the man in the abbey protesting that his daughter wanted to read). we don’t see much of dunwall’s military in the first game (or the second, for that matter), but we can probably assume it’s just as stifling as the rest of the culture.

at no point in the game does anyone say “oh it’s time to go rescue your daughter, corvo!” they say “Lady Emily.” The young lady. Your highness. They delicately step around the issue because even though presumably all of dunwall knows that corvo was hittin’ jess’s back walls, they didnt talk about it for the same reason that they didn’t talk about how hiram burrows looks like a goddamn bellend. corvo wasn’t considered too highly by the court even before his stint in coldridge - it would be unthinkable to impugn the empress’s honor by insinuating that she had an extramarital affair with a foreigner. as if a woman - particularly a noble woman, in a society this constrained by the patriarchy and religious extremism - would be allowed that degree of sexual liberation. even the empress. 

but it happened. so people just kind of pretended it didnt. 

now corvo, being this outsider, this framed suspect who has had all agency and power stripped from him by “greater beings,” is greeted by The outsider, who in him almost certainly sees some kind of kinship. a lack of power becomes a surplus, with corvo being gifted with abilities other men can only dream of. the outsider facilitates this because he sees a parallel story to his own, and because he retains an optimism that, given the opportunity to right wrongs set against them, humans will choose a noble path and won’t abuse the power they have over others. corvo may or may not prove him right in this, depending on your story. 

discussing the outsider and corvo’s relationship would be a whole other post in and of itself and this is already getting really long so i’m just gonna say: it’s complicated. 

let’s move on to the meat of this: why D2 sucks. 

i’ve pretty much covered the “daughter” thing, but I want to repeat how ridiculous it is that corvo calls her that, that emily calls him “father” (that one really gets me, honestly. she calls him corvo in the first game???), and that other characters refer to them as such. every time there’s an internal monologue (which this game has waaaay too much of already) and a familial name pops up i want to slam my head on my desk. i don’t, because it’s just a game, but goddamn it’s really inconsistent and just bad writing. 

all the dialogue in D2 sounds rushed. i don’t know why. every single line sounds like they only rented out the studio for like 30 minutes and had to cram everybody in before the owner got back from lunch or something. if there was a way to slow the entire game down by a quarter, it would massively improve the experience. 

the writing in this game around how emily acts and lives as an empress is kind of awful as well. ive already discussed how repressed and constrained this society is, and in addition to the fact that her mother, the previous empress, was murdered, how in the hell does it make sense to write in that she “spends nights on rooftops”?? she does parkour?? how???? how does she find the time? how the fuck does the court allow it? why is corvo teaching her self-defense in a back alley? what the fuck??? i understand the point of the back-alley training sequence because it’s some bullshit tutorial but for the love of god she’s the fucking empress. she could build an entire goddamn stadium for corvo to train her in, why do they need to do it in secret? 

im tired an i lost my train of thought but d2 sux. except the void that shits tight af