The Best Action-Adventure Game of 2016

The best adventures this year had to offer.
uncharted 4, dishonored 2, the last guardian, action adventure

Second Runner Up: Dishonored 2

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Dishonored 2 Mesmerize

Dishonored 2 is a masterclass in replayability, a quality rarely made the star of modern games. While narrative depth and multiplayer excitement are rightful goals elsewhere, Dishonored 2 prides itself on being an impressive sandbox of dichotomies.

The branch begins at character select, where players choose between Emily Kaldwin, young empress, and Corvo Attano, royal protector and star of the original title. Both feature their own sets of mystical abilities, branching unlockables that, by the end of the game, will reflect the playstyle you most often don. Aggressive players can summon equally bloodthirsty rat swarms or power kick enemies off tall cliffs. Subtle wanderers can invest in mesmerizing techniques and fast-acting sleep darts.

The beauty of Dishonored 2 is the extreme lengths to which you can follow these choices. Few games could with a straight face ask you to reach the ending without being spotted by an enemy once, or without killing a single foe, but these achievements are always within reach of a determined and calculated Dishonored 2 player. The primary target of each level lies at the end of a dozen or more pathways. You could crawl around the mountain side to reach an open ventilation shaft, possess a fish and swim through a small sewer grate, blink upwards to the roof and drop in through a skylight, or murder your way right through the front door and down the entry hall. You can be a ghost, a duelist, a silent assassin — but more important than being offered choices is finding them so inviting that you return to make more.

Replay value in most games lies in unlocking one of multiple endings, but not so here. Dishonored 2 builds Karnaca through discoverable NPC conversations and writings scattered across desks and floors — both gratifying means of piecing together the political turmoil of the world — but brief and overt expositions at the end of each chapter, and even at the game’s close, aren’t anything to look forward to. You’ll return to equip new powers, hop through new windows, kill new targets and show others mercy. Find three new ways past a locked gate, or maybe seven. Master complex, time-bending kill tricks, or complete the journey without any powers at all.

Dishonored 2 may not be a narrative marvel, but it’s the pure satisfaction of genius level design, a precise construction that makes ingenuity accessible at each corner, no matter how many times you visit it. 


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Author
Sharon Coone
Twinfinite's former Editor in Chief from 2014 to 2017. B.S. in Biology, B.A. in Philosophy, and always within 20 feet of a bagel. Kind of like a reverse restraining order, but with carbs. Sharon's love for video games knows no bounds, and could be found writing about anything and everything at all hours of the day.