31 Thoughts: Gaming Edition

If you're reading this, there's a decent chance you know who StephHouse is. If you don't, find out because he's an awesome dude who loves almost all the right things and is a certified Haver of Good Opinions.

Anyway, SH dropped this picture on me and gave me some food for thought. It was pitched as a fun podcast idea, which could be awesome, but I'm not sure our hockey listeners would love a gaming-only podcast answering a ridiculous 31 questions.

So I'm stealing the 31 Thoughts title from the Fridge Lord himself and answering them in text format. Don't be mad, Steph. Also I'm cleaning up the spelling because I'm not a savage and don't put useless letters in my words like a "u" in favorite. Get ahold of yourself, list-maker.

1. Favorite Game - Mass Effect 2

If you know me, this is no surprise. I have a Mass Effect tattoo and I always make reference to the series when I can. ME2 was the pinnacle of my favorite franchise outside of Mario. It's a masterpiece of a game with fun and varied combat, great character development, and a killer storyline. Very few things beat the joy of rolling into the Omega 4 Relay knowing what's coming. It's a thrill ride from beginning to end. Disagreement on this one is unacceptable.


2. Worst Game - Resident Evil 6

This probably isn't the worst game I've ever played but it's the one that left me the most confused, the angriest, the most...letdown. I know there's a "disappointing sequel" on this list but I have another game for that one. RE6 continued my complicated relationship with the RE franchise. I didn't really like the original survival horror stuff because it just wasn't up my alley. I respected that they were well-crafted but they just weren't particularly fun for me. Then RE4 rolled around and it was perfection on the Wii. And RE5 came and I went to Tennessee to visit my best friend for its release. I played 5 million times, on both PC and the PS3. It was a BLAST.

So naturally, RE6 dropped and my BFF and I were very excited to rock the online co-op...and it had four storylines? Uh fuck yeah? And then...we started playing it. What. The. Fuck. Happened. Some of the core mechanics felt just fine, like the movement and the overall gunplay FELT good. Except, you know, when you headshot zombies they didn't die? What? The second player in each of the co-op stories was regularly left to do these bizarre side quests by themselves and kind of felt like they were just carrying the first player's water. It was weird more than anything else.

Then the story. God, the story. It was cool in concept to have the stories intersect but they did it in such a fucked up way. You ended up seeing several of the same scenes throughout the game, replaying sections where the various characters meet up, and on and on. It artificially lengthened the game simply so they could say "It takes 40 hours to beat this!" Beyond that, it was a buggy fiasco and its save points were ridiculous. You die and you have to go back over an hour worth of gameplay? What is this, 1992?

Dumb. Frustrating. Very few games made me as miserable to play as RE6. What a fucking mess.

3. On the Wish List - The Entire Switch Library

I haven't gotten around to buying a Nintendo Switch yet but I'm dying to. As a huge Mario fan, Odyssey has been in the wild for far too long without me getting down with it. I will have it as my Christmas present to myself. It must happen. New Fire Emblem and Smash Bros. only enhance the demand for me to get this system. I'm also getting ready to travel with the Avs a lot more so having it on the road would be amazing entertainment when I don't want to be social or explore cities like...Minneapolis. Or Dallas.

4. Worst Franchise - Call of Duty

I hate the CoD franchise so much. It was fun back in the day. Then the Activision model kicked in where they demanded one be released every year and that really killed my interest in the franchise. I want good games, not frequent games. The games just declined in quality in my eyes and every time I see a big-money ad buy to show me another trailer for a CoD I just roll my eyes to hell and back. Hard pass. Fuck those games.


5. Most Disappointing Sequel - Mass Effect: Andromeda

Ugh. As usual, this was an ME game that came out at a great time in my life. My girlfriend and I had just broken up and my heart was shattered into a billion pieces and I was extremely unhappy and everything around me was terrible. Then Mass Effect came out and oh my god I had something to pour ALL of my heart into to try and forget about my shit going on.

And it was just such a fucking mess. It was like Mass Effect mixed with Animal Crossing because all I did was run fucking errands for 65 hours. Holy shit was it a buggy disaster along the way, too. The story was kind of cool, and it took some cool turns towards the end but it was very clearly developed to be the beginning of something bigger. But because it was so poorly made, with so many poor design choices, the fans predictably melted down and Bioware essentially put the franchise on the shelf. When you take a money-making monster and do such a terrible job with it that the company benches the entire franchise, you've absolutely failed in spectacular fashion. Way to fuck it up, morons.

6. Favorite Console - Nintendo 64

I can't really choose PC here otherwise I'd pick that. But an actual console, it's my N64. Nintendo is the undisputed king of making amazing games and largely responsible for my love of games. From Super Mario 64 (an absolute masterpiece) to Perfect Dark (which had the effect on my friend group that Goldeneye had on so many others to Conker's Bad Fur Day (just go play it if you haven't), the console had mega hits on top of mega hits. It was the system that really sucked me into gaming and I get all kinds of nostalgic when I think about the days spent playing various games at friends houses.


7. Favorite protagonist - Commander Shepard

Obviously. My Shepard was the best Shep because it was the one I related to the most. A mixture of Paragon goodness and Renegade rebel, my Shep was as close as I've ever gotten to imprinting my own personality on the games I'm playing.  My favorite Shep moment was the sniping contest with Garrus in ME3. It was beautiful.


8. Worst Protagonist - Geralt

I just didn't like The Witcher games. Sorry.


9. First Console - NES

True story: I still have mine in one of the unpacked boxes in my house. I have my original slate of games that I grew up on and everything. It was a brutal introduction to gaming because games back then didn't have shit like tutorials or much in the way of save points. You needed to write down passwords to get back to certain levels and I remember my brother and I actually writing our own full guide for Dragon Warrior. Stuff like that just doesn't exist anymore when you have, you know, Google.

10. Guilty Pleasure Game - The NBA 2K series

It's funny that I began my gaming life with a primary focus on sports games (especially Madden) but as I've gotten older, that's become less and less true. One of the most frequent conversations I have with Avs fans is "Do you play NHL? I'd love to play online sometime" but I'm just not a fan of the games. On the flip side, I absolutely love playing video game basketball. Creating my own baller and watching him chuck 3's at increasing success rates over several years until Steph Curry is jelly as hell of my skills? All day, baby.

11. Latest Game Purchase - Battlefield 1

EA is selling BF1 and all of it's DLC for $5 bucks so I bought it tonight and fired it up. The campaign is super cool and for five bucks I feel like I'm straight stealing.

12. Favorite Genre - Platforming

I mentioned my Mario love, right? Platforming just resonates with me in so many ways. I adore the challenge of figuring out the timing and enemy patterns. It can be a total grind but a game like BattleBlock Theater really exemplifies what I love about the genre: speed, creativity, challenge, and the ultimate sense of accomplishment. Very few games bring me the level of satisfaction upon beating that platformers do. 

13. Saddest Scene - Mass Effect 3. You know the one.

The opening scene from The Last of Us absolutely tore me up. I can't imagine it didn't do something similar to all of you who played it. But as has already been demonstrated just 13 questions into this thing, Mass Effect is my jam, homies. And that meant Mass Effect 3, for all its flaws, was still going to bring about some painful moments.

None more so than this:

I remember the first time I saw it, I pushed my chair back away from my desk and just started crying. Video games, man.

14. Favorite Antagonist - Kefka, FF6

This is actually a tough call. There are SO many great villains in games, from GLaDOS to Andrew Ryan and Vaas Montenegro, Albert Wesker, and Sarah Kerrigan. But for me, it's all about Kefka. He was legitimately evil, poisoning a town's water supply and reveled in the screams of the dying. He forced Terra to burn soldiers alive just to make sure his slavery crown was working properly. And that's all before he ascends to a literal god and must be defeated. His theme song was chaotic and terrifying and they wrote him as evil as possible. He was such a great villain, I never felt good defeating him at the end of the game. I was just exhausted from going through the chaos.

15. Worst Antagonist - Your Friends

Nothing tests the limits of friendship quite like Mario Party. It's a fun game to blast through as clever minigames test a wide array of classic gaming skills and a lot of times it just doesn't even matter. Why? Because you go rolling around that godforsaken game board in Mario Party and a bad roll means you just have your power stars stripped from you and given elsewhere. What the fuck? And while it can be fun to make alliances with another person when in need, at the end of the day that shit is more cutthroat than Survivor ever was. There were actual raw feelings to go along with bloody palms and broken joysticks after some epic Mario Party, er, parties.

16. What Are You Playing Now?

This question sucks. I play lots of games and rotate them frequently. Right now, Battlefield 1 and most of the Blizzard library, especially Diablo 3 and Heroes of the Storm.

17. Favorite Franchise - Mario

I've already written plenty about Mass Effect in this thing. Let's give Mario some love, too. That lil plumber and the wide array of brilliant games attached to his name has brought me endless amounts of joy. Now just make a god damn Mario Hockey and we will be SET. 

18. Best Soundtrack - Mass Effect!

And we're back. The original Mass Effect soundtrack still stops me in my tracks if I hear it. The music in ME3 was pretty brilliant, too. It's strange how ME2 is a masterpiece and of the series, it has the weakest soundtrack. But the original ME has by far the most incredible soundtrack of any game I've played. That said, special shoutout to Bioshock for what I believe is the best use of sound in a game. Amazing atmosphere.

19. Worst Soundtrack - All the games who don't have one

What are you doing not making a game with dope music? Fuck off with that noise. Or lack of noise, I guess. Lame.

20. First Game - Super Mario Bros.

I guess this counts as the first one. DuckTales was also on this list. I played a shitload of that game as a kid. DuckTales and SMB got me hooked onto platformers. Life would never be the same.

21. Hardest Game - Battletoads

If you've ever played, you know what's up. If you haven't, you haven't gone through puberty yet. Trust.

22. Best Developers - Nintendo

This isn't even close. Nobody else puts the time, effort, and care into their products like the big N. Between Mario and Zelda alone, you have two of the most innovative franchises in gaming history that consistently produce the highest quality of games in their genres. And in the case of Mario, switching back and forth between 2D platforming and 3D gaming, two genres. And Breath of the Wild could legitimately be the greatest game ever made. The company is just on a completely different planet. They understand that games are about fun, creativity, and imagination. No other game developer can play the hits like these guys.

Special props to Naughty Dog and Rockstar for also being killer devs. They also produce masterpieces.

23. Favorite Couples - Maria & Dom, Gears of War

The first Gears of War game is pretty awesome. It's a rough and tumble "Us versus the world" story. But for me, the real heart of the game was Dom's search for his lost wife, Maria. The small moments he steals to look at the picture he carries of her resonate throughout the game.

And when he finally finds her in Gears of War 2, it's insanely heartbreaking. It's outrageously painful to watch as he discovers her soulless husk has left her without a clue who he is. It's a testament to their true love that he did right by her, even when it tore him up inside to do so.

So why is this my favorite couple? Few love stories in video games exist, let alone the kind of emotion their story does. It's a tragic tale but once upon a time in that fictional universe, Dom and Maria had the most intense romance of them all. True soulmates.

24. Worst Couple - Mario and Peach

Bro, if she gets captured that many times, she wants to be with that dude. She's hot for that dinosaur dick. Just let her go. We've all grown tired of bailing her out of some silly nonsense only for her to reward you with some peck on the cheek. She's not getting down. Stop forcing it.

25. Most Valuable Games -

What the hell does this even mean?

26. Latest Console - 

Also this. PC for life.

27. Best Voice Acting - Mass Effect

Obviously. They hired a top-notch cast of established actors/actresses and they crushed it.

28. Most Underrated Games - Valkyria Chronicles

Just the numbered iterations. Don't play any of the others. I love the fusion of turn-based combat with modern graphics and combat principles. This series combines those elements with beautiful artwork, an interesting story, and quality voice-acting. It's like playing through a comic book. The games are well-received critically but I rarely interact with people who have played them. Like the X-COM revivals but without the incredibly frustrating 3% chance to get completely screwed that seems to trigger 50% of the time.


29. Most Annoying Character - Baby Mario, Yoshi's Island

Just fucking trust me on this, okay? If you're familiar, you already know what's up. If you're not, stay that way. It was one of the most annoying design choices of any video game ever made. Other strong contenders were the god damn dog from Duck Hunt and Slippy from Star Fox. No, YOU knock it off, you god damn annoying ass frog. Fuck.


30. Worst Console - 

Another dumb question. If you don't like a console, don't fuckin play it. 

31. Most Played Game - Guild Wars

My chosen MMO poison, we all have 'that' game that sucks an enormous portion of our lives. Guild Wars 1 was that for me, as I registered just a little over 6,000 hours played. For reference, there are 8, 544 hours in a standard non-leap year. I've spent just a little over 250 full days of my life playing that video game. It meant a lot to me and I made great friends during those days. Memories!

Avengers: Infinity War reaction (spoilers)

As I sit in the movie theater waiting for the usual end of credits scenes that Marvel likes to put in their movies I sit in shock at what I just watched, unable to really think straight all I can this is wow. Marvel pulled out all the stops in this the latest Avengers Movie. The best possible scenario played out for thanos, not only were the Avengers completely separated they weren't even on speaking terms making picking them apart that much easier.

From Iron man's unwillingness to make a phone call to his unwillingness to go home regroup and gameplan... Obviously if they did this in the first place there would be no need for two movies and I wouldn't be writing this post but I digress.

Thanos got everything he could ask for, the avengers all separated, easy access to the infinity stones(though the soul stone kicked him where it hurts) and no one who could really stop him, like all his wishes came true... Not cool... Really glad Thor got a badass axe and the use of both eyes, if only he could've finished of Thanos but alas.

Oh the questions so many questions... What happens next? How? Why? Are the guardians really gone along with Spiderman, Wanda, vision, black panther, Bucky, Dr. Strange, falcon, and even Loki??? Marvel can't just kill them all like that can they? I mean they just did but will they really stay dead?? How is there supposed to be a Spiderman sequel with no Spiderman?? How does marvel continue screw with us like this??

Obvious answer is just wait for the next installment of infinity war and everything will work itself out. How they'll do it? It's marvel it'll be fucking amazing!

Man do I love super hero movies, marvel did yet another amazing job putting this thing together and deserve all the credit they always get... I can't wait to see what happens in the next one but first we get another fun adventure with everyone favourite non hero Deadpool which I'm super excited for, oh and that gap between marvel and DC is just getting wider.

Dishonored 2 Review

Slight spoilers for the first Dishonored.

Dishonored is a mostly good game with some deep flaws.  For a game that at its core is a stealth assassin game with non-lethal options, even for your main assassination targets, Dishonored's non-lethal play was largely dull as you had few toys to play with.  It was also a game with very deep lore and world building, but characters that didn't seem to change with anything happening around them.  Only assassination targets got more than basic characterization which is a problem because a major twist in Dishonored is having most of your co-conspirators turning against you, killing many loyal to you, and doing so for painfully obvious reasons.  All these rich guys are loyal to the true heir and recruit you because you're the empresses secret father....yeah something doesn't sit right there.

Dishonored 2 attempts to fix these mistakes.  It leads to a game that is better than the original, and probably the best out of the 5 I've played from this old blogpost from forever ago (haven't played two of them yet), but still falls short of being an all time great.  

The Dishonored team cares about its narrative but only to a point.  In D2, the main plot is pretty similar to the first game.  The empire is overthrown by a coup, only this time the empress isn't killed as she is the optional player character.  A woman named Delilah comes out of nowhere with the Duke of Serkonos claiming she is Empress Emily's long lost Aunt.  She usurps the throne even as Corvo, protagonist of the first game, stabs her in the chest.  She survives with powers, and turns to stone whoever you decide not to play as.  (I decided to play as Emily as I thought the story would be better suited to that character).  You then need to escape the imperial capital city of Dunwall by fleeing to Serkonos where the coup plot was hatched.

I'd say Emily is "Antifa as fuck", but that collar.  Oh and being an Empress. 

Having the main plot being another coup is probably a by product of making (the now adult) Emily a playable character along with Corvo.  There has to be a reason for the empress to go around stealth assassinating people after all.  That said, it is a little odd that this developer treats their narrative so basic while giving the world of Dishonored so much detail.  More about the technology is expanded upon this time, plus a lot more about the geography and even some about the far off Pandyssian Continent.  It was obvious these islands are not on Earth in the previous game so more detail on just where the hell we are is much appreciated.  Also, there is far more about the supernatural elements of the world.  Witches are a common enemy later in the game and have powers similar to yours.  There is more about the void and a lot more about the Outsider too (more on him later).

The fuck is with the collars in this game?

Emily being a playable character and Delilah being the main villain is a good step in the right direction from a common criticism of the first game, in that Dishonored's treatment of women in the first game was trash.  Sorry if I'm going super SJW on you for a second, but it's ridiculously true.

Women in the previous game are just sort of there.  They get very little characterization, including pre-teen Emily who is the rightful heir, and the ones that get some characterization are given just a handful of personality traits tops.  For example, we know two things about Callista, one of your co-conspirators.  She tutors Emily and you can spy on her taking a bath.  Actually, you can barge in, jump into the bath with her still in it and get a unique Game Over screen as the developers knew players would try this.  Kinda weird to put into the game to begin with.  But that is NOTHING compared to Lady Boyle's non-lethal assassination, which has you knocking her out and handing her over to some creeper who has loved her forever.  Dude is going to take her far away and he is going to teach her to love him.  Ah yes.  The moral high ground of not killing her by giving her away to the most obvious rapist ever.*

*There's also a degree of slut shaming here as the only reason she is even an assassination target in the first place is because she banged the wrong dudes.  Trash.

There is nothing like that in Dishonored 2.  There are two women assassination targets other than Delilah and they get a good amount of characterization.  There is also a main secondary character, Meagan Foster, who is with you through the whole game and gets a great deal of pathos.  You gradually learn more about her as the game goes on and you eventually learn why she is so distant with you.  Even the dudes get better characterization as your inner circle is much smaller this time.  The only returning secondary character is Anton Sokolov, and don't worry, his inclusion isn't really a spoiler.  Shouldn't be that surprising as he was the most fleshed out character in the first game other than maybe Daud.  Other old secondary characters are just given brief notes about their whereabouts only found in letters in the game world.  The developers knew the old characters were bunk.

Delilah has a permanent scowl.  

Emily could have used more though. Most of her dialogue is making statements or asking questions the player is likely to do anyway.  Early in the game, she makes observations on every damn thing you interact with, so much so that I was ready to mute her.  I mean, yes Emily, I know what a Globe is. Luckily this only really happens in the first mission and it's more natural through the rest of the game.  Plus, a lot of her dialogue seems to be focused on self reflection on the lethal vs non-lethal paths to progress the game and at least that stuff was well done.

Dishonored is known for tying its narrative to your playstyle with a chaos mechanic.  Kill a bunch of people, high chaos, don't kill many (or any), low chaos.  In the first game, low chaos was the only way to get the good ending, although I don't know how not killing people would cure the rat plague.  In Dishonored 2, chaos only really effects the ruthlessness of the ending. Spoilers:  Kill a lot of people and you return to the throne to rule with an iron fist.  Don't kill people and you rule as a benevolent leader who suddenly seems open to listen to other leaders...? However, other than the ending, plus a handful of dialogue and Sokolov's painting, your playstyle doesn't really effect anything else.  This isn't so much of a criticism as wishing more games would rip off MSGV here.

Non-lethal play is better in this game but still not quite as fun as lethal play.*  Sleep darts are still here but you also get a dart that makes enemies forget they saw you, stun mines as a non-lethal wire mine, and a non-lethal takedown while in combat !!!!!!!......that kind of sucks.  You can only do it while parrying.  If you are being shot at, just stick to the tried and true "run and hide" or you are fucked (you can upgrade your parry to block bullets but it is possible to deflect a bullet back, getting a kill and screwing a non-lethal playstyle).  You also get some new powers that help with stealth and non-lethal takedowns but they are still outweighed by the many more lethal powers and weapons.  Overall, it's more balanced than the first game, but not equal yet.

The clockwork soldiers have eyes on the back of their heads.  Had to get creative to stay stealthy.

*Perhaps stupidly, I did my lethal runthrough second.  Since I knew my way around now, I was better able to stay in stealth mode as I was spotted far less.  I uh, I felt like a serial killer.  However, it was nice to stand and fight the few times I did get spotted and could actually take down multiple enemies.  It is damn near impossible to do a non-lethal takedown in combat with more than one enemy on you.  The 2 seconds it takes to choke a guard out is long enough for the other guard to attack you and there is no counter except throwing the guard you're choking into the other guard....usually right into the other guards firing gun, leading to a death.  Fucking bullshit.

Unlike other games that offer non-lethal play, I do kind of like Dishonored's morality system in a narrative sense.  The vast majority of enemies are just city guards, doing their jobs for a paycheck.  They don't care who sits on the throne.....buuuuuuut, if they spot you and kill you, they talk mad shit.  Like, yeah, I probably shouldn't be killing these people who are my subjects, but they aren't exactly loyal either.  Hmmmmm....

This is my favorite part of Dishonored 2 (along with the great stealth action gameplay and fantastic level design rivaling the last Deus Ex).  How do you treat those who work in the system but may not really have a stake in it?  Do you fight back against the coup by executing literally everyone even remotely involved in it?  How do you secure a better future?  With brute force and an iron fist, or with leniency and forgiveness?

Too bad it's still more fun to be evil.

It's my favorite part while also being sloppy in execution.  The non-lethal options are better this time with assassination targets, a couple are quite sympathetic and can be saved, though most non-lethal options are arguably just as bad as killing them.  One you brainwash into a incoherent, jabbering, idiot.  One you have imprisoned for a completely false charge.  Delilah Spoiler:  You trap her in a magical dimension where she thinks she has won...and that one might not be so bad actually, even if it isn't real.  She literally no longer exists in reality cause magic.

I also don't understand what the coup and assassinations had to do with The Outsider (I told you I'd come back to him).  For those that don't know, he is a....dude in the void who gives you your powers.  Later on, you learn Delilah also has these powers.  In the first game, The Outsider is kind of a trickster God who doesn't seem to care that much about what Corvo is doing, instead, giving him powers mostly out of entertainment and getting more people to worship him.  He definitely likes it better when you go the lethal route in the first game, but is mostly indifferent as long as people find out he exists.  In Dishonored 2, he has a stake.  He says Delilah has "a part of him" and he is definitely rooting for you this time. You also kiiiiiiind of get to learn about his origin buuuuuut....hey what's the name of the first DLC?

Hold on.  Googling. 

....Motherfucker!

On a game design point, I want to mention two excellent missions.  One has you either siding with some gangsters or some religious nutjobs who are fighting one another (NOT the religion of the Outsider but one that is similar to Christianity only with more Sun worship.  People who worship the Outsider are considered heretics).  You can side with one or the other, OR you can side with neither and kill both leaders, OR take a non-lethal approach to get rid of them, OR you can ignore them entirely if you figure out a riddle to open a door to your destination in that mission.  Who you side with effects the ending along with what you do on the mission to assassinate the Duke.  Who rules Karnaca (the Capital of Serkonos) at the end of the game depends on these actions.  There are like 9 outcomes here and it's great.

The other excellent mission, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, has a great time travel mechanic.  The mansion you go to in present day is falling apart, has many dead ends, the guy you need to talk to is bonkers, and there are corridors with bloodflies*.  The answers you need are in the past when the mansion was in a better state but filled with guards.  The Outsider actually intervenes here and gives you a time travel machine with a lense that lets you look at one timeline, while being in the other, and it's really, really cool.  You can be in the dilapidated mansion, walk around with the lense up, and see guard movements in real time.  It's so fucking cool.  It's also cheap because if a guard spots you you can instantly warp to the present timeline like nothing happened.  Not sure why the guards are not freaked out by somebody vanishing in thin air all the time but hey, cool nonetheless.

It's so cheap.

*Bloodflies is this games version of the rat plague from the first game. Unlike the first game, they barely relate to the main narrative this time.  They are almost treated like an environmental puzzle side-route in a lot of missions.

I should also mention, certain decisions in the time travel mission will change small things about the present, especially with Meagan Foster.  I have....MANY questions about the narrative here but I will let it slide for such a cool mission.

Dishonored 2 is close to my favorite game I played last year.  It's really good, but not great, and it's hard to explain why.  D2 is basically just Dishonored again, a game I liked, only with improved characterization, improved non-lethal play, and improved level design with fun gimmicks.  But its story is a little worse than Dishonored despite having a near identical plot.  Dishonored doesn't even have that good of a story but it least it had a cool plot twist when your co-conspirators turn on you.  D2 doesn't have that.  Not really.  You could make the argument that some of the revelations about Delilah are this games "plot twist" but one occurs too early (and I'm not sure if it is true)*, and the other is obvious.  I don't really care how she got her powers and the fact that she got her powers practically the same way Corvo and Emily did is...yawn.  Also, some of that seemed to be held off for DLC and I'm not pleased about that.  Not.  Pleased.

*I've played this game twice and still don't know if Delilah is lying about being Emily's Step-Aunt.  (I wouldn't even consider it a lie if Emily didn't openly question it several times). This is a problem with "immersive sims" in general like Bioshock, Prey, and even Deus Ex.  They often hide story critical information on some letter or audio log you have to find somewhere.  Now don't get me wrong, I like this mechanic in these games.  I even like seeing important information on these items but there is a line.  Something crucial like the villain's motive should probably not need to be found.  Weirdly, Deus Ex Mankind Divided made the same mistake with its main villain. 

The story is the only thing holding Dishonored back from being great.  It's closest relatable game is Deus Ex which has a much better story.  The story of Deus Ex is much larger than Adam Jensen. Dishonored has a more personal story despite great world building, and there is nothing wrong with that in general, it's just that THIS personal story is about an Empress reclaiming her throne.  Not exactly the most relatable thing.  Also, pretty hard sell in this political climate.  Game of Thrones at least has a worldwide threat to overshadow the many wars for the Iron Throne.  Dishonored 2 has a bloodfly infestation that doesn't relate to anything except for being proof that the Duke of Serkonos is a bad leader...I guess?  How?  The bloodflies are only local to Serkonos anyway.  The throne is in Dunwall.

Story aside, Dishonored 2 is really solid.  I'd like to see a potential Dishonored 3 fix the flaws of D2 the same way D2 did of the original.  Maybe then we can finally get a Dishonored game that can really use the great world it's built and not be about the very, very tired trope of "the rightful heir reclaiming their throne."

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