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Dishonored 2: Live-action trailer shows off Emily's new powers

The new sequel lets players step into the shoes of the franchise's original hero, Corvo, or a now-grown Emily Kaldwin

Clarisse Loughrey

Monday 24 October 2016 13:40 BST

Fans of steampunk aesthetics and shadowy assassin skills are in for a treat: Bethesda's making a grand return to the world of Dishonored.

Dishonored 2 flashes forward 15 years from the original game; the young girl you once battled through Dunwall to help to her rightful place on the throne - at least, depending on how you played the game - is now a grown woman. Though Dunwall has prospered under Emily Kaldwin's rule, she is suddenly dethroned by Delilah, a deranged witch armed with powerful black magic.

What's most exciting here is that Bethesda lets players explore its world and missions both as the game's original hero, the assassin Corvo, and as Emily herself; traveling from Dunwall's claustrophobic streets to the decaying grandeur of Karnaca's coastal city. As concept art for the game shows, this new area takes inspiration from Europe's romantic strongholds - such as Barcelona - in its unique design.

The live-action trailer for the game explores both the new architecture and the sequel's powerful new supernatural abilities; especially in Emily's fabulously creepy shadow walk, allowing her to travel short distances unseen and undetected by her enemies.

Players who pre-order the game will be able to play a day early before the official worldwide release, in addition to receiving a free digital copy of Dishonored: Definitive Edition, including the original game and all add-on content.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

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1/12Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Bay

Originally meant to be a mood board, Sergey Kolesov pushed the limits here by showing the bay being hit by the sun and rain at the same time, while the mountain blows its dust along the wind corridor.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Palace

Built on the vestige of an old fort, the Palace of the Duke is the result of the clash between classical and noble materials with modern lines.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Windbreaker

Because the wind and dust can be so violent that it damages Karnaca’s buildings, we came up with the idea of giving buildings in the Dust District diamond shaped blocks to break the strength of the wind on its surfaces. We then added some wind panels to the edge of these blocks, which is what you can see in this image.

Bethesda Softworks

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Overlook

The Shindaerey Peak serves as a natural landmark and helps players orient themselves, no matter where they are in the city of Karnaca. Here, the shot is taken at the train stop before the entrance to the house of Kirin Jindosh (a mad inventor), which overlooks the entire city.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Inhabitants

Karnaca is the result of years of urbanization including different waves of settlers from Morley, Tyvia, and Gristol which helps to give it, in addition to the natives, a great lineup of quirky faces.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Map of the City

Thanks to the Serkonan Cartographic Society, some of our maps are topographic! The last wave of settlers was people from Gristol, who came in with money. They started a more structured urbanization with boulevards, a hidden harbor, and even a big canal splitting the island in two, from Quintana Gates to the far North.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Dreadful Wale

The Dreadful Wale is not just a nice shell of a boat, but a real ship with rooms to explore, which the player will visit many times throughout the game. Like the Hound Pits Pub in the first game, the Dreadful Wale serves as your hub between the different missions.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Park

“Imagine Havana or Genoa with spots downtown where you can see giant trees too big to be felled”: this was the brief given to the artist Laurent Gapaillard, who’s one of the most talented pencil artists in the world.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Enclosed Courtyard

Here we can grasp the inspiration from our photo trips to Barcelona and see how our visuals are influenced by how the player will move around the environment.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

Infestation

When you get a feature idea from the game design team, you never know how deep you’ll go in making it feel grounded into the world. The bloodflies ecosystem is a good example of where art mixes with story; showing that animation and gameplay can work well together

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

The Dust District

We really enjoy creating meaningful environments and the Dust District is a great example of this: a giant peak with silver mines at its base, a wind corridor that leads to a district at its end, and industrialization of the district with giant windmills - these were the starting points of the development of this area in Karnaca.

Dishonored 2 concept art with captions by Sébastien Mitton

A Southern Victorian Interior

With this image we wanted to mix a British curiosity cabinet with a rich interior from Cuba or Italy. The goal was to create a contrast between Dunwall (location of the first Dishonored game) and Karnaca (primary location of Dishonored 2) in terms of tone and lighting.

Dishonored 2 launches on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on 11 November.

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