In the game's second mission, Emily or Corvo has reached the shores of Serkonos on Meagan Foster's boat The Dreadful Whale, which serves as your base in Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider much as the Hound Pits pub did in the original game. Your lead is Dr. Alexandria Hypatia, who may have information regarding the Crown Killer. The latter has been assassinating figures threatening or problematic to Emily's rule, and Meagan and Anton Sokolov believe them to be key to understanding and dismantling the coup. In fact it becomes clear from readables that the reason Meagan was in Dunwall was that she and Sokolov were on the way to warn Corvo of the plot - but Sokolov has disappeared, and Meagan was too late.
The level begins with a trip to the void and a talk with the Outsider, where you can accept his mark - or choose to reject the offer and do the game with no powers. Each mission allows for this and there are more than enough tools and weapons to keep things interesting even without supernatural abilities, and in fact it was part of the marketing back in 2016. However just to make sure you know what you're getting into, the game takes you to its menu UI from the exchange with the Outsider to double-check, in case you thought rejecting his offer was more of a role-playing decision than a mechanical one. It is very much worth trying at some point. In this mission alone, when I played without powers the climax to the level was me carefully creeping through a heavily guarded train station instead of my usual Blink across the rooftops. Although the powers are integral to the identity of these games, playing without them can often feel like experiencing a level for the first time all over again and mean that you have to reckon with encounters you generally bypass. Basically, it's a way of getting some more Dishonored.
'Edge of the World' is a sprawling slice of Karnaca, the city that serves as the backdrop for most of this game and its standalone expansion Death of the Outsider. This is where you start realising that Dishonored 2 has simply gigantic maps. The scale of everything around you is impressive, with discrete areas like the docks, Canal Plaza and Addermire Station all having their own ecosystems, NPCs, guards, optional areas and buildings to explore and things to do. There are no loading screens or "Go to Canal Plaza?" prompts however - this is all interconnected, while many other missions are comprised of separate areas that need to load. 'Edge of the World' basically functions as a "small open world" in the vein of Hitman 2016, and you can easily spend hours here finding everything and getting to know the city.
It is unusual for a Dishonored level in that you don't have a target. The mission instead is to hitch a ride to the Addermire Institute, a remote building situated on an island off Karnaca's coastline that was built during the rat plague and where Dr. Hypatia should be. You can actually turn around and see the institute, the setting for the following mission, as soon as Meagan drops you off at the dockside. In later missions these wander-about city sections will actually become a vestibule to the key locations, but here your lack of an assassination target encourages you to instead explore thoroughly.
You depart The Dreadful Whale and begin the level in "neutral territory" on the docks, where you won't be attacked on sight. These areas are a fixture in the game and create a rhythm of moving from a mission's outer areas where you can shop at the black market and meet NPCs to the restricted areas where your targets generally are. Together with the boat base, the sequel retains the structure of embarking on missions from a safe space where you can rest and plan.
When I snuck through here as Emily the intricate web of alleyways, apartments and rooftops was a bidding environment for a non-violent journey through the level. As you leave neutral territory you are presented with opportunities to travel at elevation where you are safer. You are also helped by the fact that you soon meet Mindy Blanchard, a recurring character in the game, who will turn off the power to the train tracks in return for a favour - delivering a corpse, already cold, no questions asked. Mindy is well placed to provide new players a friendly face and a good route through the map, and getting to know her pays off in a later mission as she is affiliated with a key faction, the Howler gang.
Taking a tourist trip through this mission puts the city's personality on display. You'll see street performers, bust-ups over deals welched on, workers doing their jobs, wealthy citizens complaining about things, and overhear crucial information as you pass people on the streets. You also see an Overseer Compound with vengeful street preaching outside, demonstrating how the Empire of the Isles under Emily Kaldwin has employed the same tools of oppression and allowed the fanatical Overseers to persecute the populace at their discretion.
You are quickly introduced to Bloodflies as you leave the docks and go towards the plaza. These are large flying insects native to Serkonos which create nests in corpses. Throughout the game you will discover condemned buildings where the Bloodflies have festooned interiors with their pustulant growths. This creates areas that function much like the boarded-off infected buildings of the original game, hazardous mini-dungeons that often contain some helpful treasure or an alternate route through a level.
If you are up for exploring a gloomy Bloodfly-infested apartment block near the docks you'll get straight to Canal Plaza without having to worry about a Wall of Light, the deadly barriers from the first game. If you aren't completing Mindy's side quest you can then quickly get the level over with if you want, as there is a posh shop on the square where you can get the key to Dr. Hypatia's apartment. From her balcony you can jump-blink to the roof of the station, bypassing all the security and going straight down to the train. Another way is to jump onto a train as it passes before teleporting up to the station's roof, and I thought this would be difficult without having Blink and having it upgraded to freeze time while you aim as the train goes into a tunnel very quickly. I have since gone back and experimented without my powers, and if you drop off the train just in time there is a conveniently placed window from which you can drop into the station.
As Corvo, this was the first place I had access to my NG+ power set, having got all my runes refunded and subsequently purchased Possession, Devouring Swarm, Domino, Bend Time and a bunch of upgrades (plus Shadow Walk and Far Reach after collecting even more runes). The square, Overseer Compound and station interior made for a good battleground with its spoke-like structure and numerous groups of enemies.
Although it sets a different pace to the original game, which had Corvo immediately setting out to eliminate a high-ranking target, this slower immersion into the setting and rhythms of the game has plenty of optional content and side quests for both returning players and people trying a Dishonored game for the first time to see just what Dishonored 2 has to offer. It feels like the game revealing its hand after the contained and linear canyon of the opening mission, showing that the wide-roaming and interconnected levels of Dishonored and its DLCs are back and bigger than ever.
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