Dishonored was a neat little game from 2012 about an assassin named Corvo who was sent to jail for assassinating the Empress. Only, he didn’t actually assassinate her and went on the run to find out who would want to smear his good name. Dishonored 2 was announced last month at E3, but Corvo is now joined by Emily Kaldwin, the daughter of the Empress from the previous game.
Speaking with The Guardian about player choice, Dishonored 2’s co-creative director Harvey Smith said he was interested in developing Emily as a central and playable character. In the previous game, she reflected your actions–her art was full of rainbows and sunshine or black crayon monsters depending on your alignment. The sequel jumps ahead by a decade and a half, with Emily having lost her throne and the Empire of Isles going through hell. Now set in the coastal town of Karnaca, 25-year-old Emily and Corvo have to work together to regain her power:
“So it felt like, what happened to that little girl? She was born into privilege, she was marred by this terrible tragedy, and then after that she was raised by Corvo. What would she be like as a 25-year-old adult – as an empress and then an outlaw? It was effortless to find that part.”
This doesn’t mean that she’s a reskin of Corvo. Emily will have her own suite of powers in Dishonored 2, some of which we’ve already seen:
“If you play as Emily it’s all new – she has her own set of powers, her own assassinations and animations, so she feels different, she feels like a finesse character. In the video, we show a power called Far Reach [a teleportation abaility] which can be upgraded in different ways, and it changes your flow through the world and your mobility. Just on a video game level, moving through the world feels different. But if you play Corvo, it’s all this classic stuff, it’s the rat swarms, it’s possession, it’s stopping time – he feels more heavy and brutal, he’s an older guy.”
Dishonored 2 hits the PS4, Xbox One, and PC spring 2016. You gonna play as Emily, or will you return to the familiar boots of Corvo? Let us know in the comments below.
