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vic1500's Dishonored 2 (XBONE)
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| [August 30, 2017 05:22:47 PM]
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08/30/2017
Today I am heavily convinced Dishonored 2 is meant to be played in a non-lethal way: Not only is low chaos useful for better interaction with characters over the playthrough, but the tutorial also explained that even the environment is affected if you keep a low kill rate.
One major example are the bloodflies, which will come more frequently the more kills you make in the game. As I stepped in into the first infested apartment in the new city Corvo arrives, I quickly realized these flies are a pain in the rear to take care of, and sometimes they need flammable objects to destroy the nests.
This does not only show how much the game "subtly" pretends to direct you in a good behavior, but it further enforces the moral framework that designers can make in their game, which can be a substantial modification to the entire experience, as mentioned in the "The Videogame Ethical Reader."
Dishonored is a fantastic experience directing a moral dilemma, since when you think you can get away with a few kills without anyone noticing by using the crossbow, the game warns you no matter how well hidden your assassinations, it will have multiple repercussions, even with the ending.
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| [August 29, 2017 11:46:21 PM]
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08/29/17
I beat the first mission of Dishonored 2 plus a dream session with a mysterious person and the recovery of Corvo's powers. I noticed a few features in the game that reinforced my previous concept about morality. One of them is the presence of many alternative ways to traverse a section in order to remain unseen, and the second one is the contribution of non-lethal actions to better stats, achievements, and low chaos, which I believe it should lead to a more favorable outcome.
However, today's EAE 3020 class also made me question something about the violence in the game. This came in the part where Corvo picks up a heart to search for runes and other upgrades through the game, and the previous empress, who was also the lover of Corvo, has a heartfelt conversation with him that, as people say, "got me in the feels" since I played the first Dishonored a long time ago.
It made me realize that videogames have the potential to create noticeable emotional impacts depending on the person, and it made me arrive at the conclusion that proving the claim "violent games make children go violent" is as hard to prove wrong as it is to prove right in my opinion. I can only portray my personal case, where even unconsciously, I see the vast majority of violent actions in games as mere non-real entertainment rather than something which causes me real life frustrations and doubts, yet when a story takes a turn where a character becomes deeply affected, it stays in my memory for days, weeks or more. Trying to determine what causes this difference is extremely hard for me, and I can only attribute that to my own attitude, but since each person is different, who knows what different impacts a videogame might cause?
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| [August 23, 2017 04:55:20 PM]
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The first time I played dishonored 2, I knew I had to do the tutorial if I wanted to get a handle of the controls and the mechanics overall.
Besides the fluidity of the movements and combat, the most interesting aspect I noticed was that this game could be played either Rambo-style, guns blazing, or choose to be the next Snake and play stealthily. Furthermore, something that separates this game from others is that you can choose whether to choke someone, leaving them unconscious, or kill them.
Choking someone has the benefits that it also plays on par with stealth to a certain extent, making fights more avoidable. In fact you can even just choose to slip by and avoid a fight altogether.
These and many options seem to point out that Dishonored 2 is meant to be played stealth-mode rather than Call of Duty style.
I believe this also connects to a certain extent with James and Stuart Rachels' Minimum conception of morality. This was made more noticeable after I got the pistol on the first mission. Part of me wanted to test out killing an enemy from distance. However, the repercussions were that everyone on the screen knew I was there and would come running unto me in seconds, making my playthrough much more difficult. As such, I resorted back to choking people or simply getting by.
In my opinion, this perfectly connects with the words of Rachels about the minimum conception of morality: "To guide's one conduct by reason."
It is well-known that in real life, killing someone has repercussions, but not so much in a videogame simply because its meant to be a type of entertainment at its core, however, when ethics and consequences touch the mechanics of a game, it can also have a more realistic twist (like everyone noticing when you shoot someone) without losing the inmersion.
So far, the reasons behind "good conduct" in Dishonored 2 might not be as strong as the real life cases shown in the book, but they are still backed up pretty well by the mechanics and the unfolding of the next combat sequences.
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vic1500's Dishonored 2 (XBONE)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 23 August, 2017
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