'Dishonored 2' News: Arkane Studios levels up assassin abilities

Since its release in 2012, Arkane Studio's "Dishonored" has offered gamers with adventure-rich gameplay experience with a variety of play styles, surprise endings and multiple paths. So it is not surprising that the developer levels up "Dishonored 2" by expanding and intensifying the content.

As reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, the iterative upgrade to the original assassin video game offers a bigger map, two protagonists and slew of additional assassin abilities which can be employed when players explore the dense open levels of two steampunk cities. Instead of focusing the entire game on Corvo Attano alone, creative director Harvey Smith decided to make Corvo's daughter and empress of the Isles, Emily Kaldwin a playable main character as well.

The game has hugely upgraded from its predecessor with the addition of supernatural assassin tools. As for the ending, more variations have been added to provide players with a wide array of options and become an active part of storytelling as the game unfolds.

It is quite surprising to see Corvo's daughter taking on a similar role like him in the game. Recently, Smith explained the reasons for adding Emily as the other playable character when Arkane Studios could have easily opted to focus more on Corvo.

"We knew we wanted to make Emily no matter what, and then we were like, 'God, we really feel nostalgic about Corvo. Let's do both of them.' At first, we were thinking, 'Let's just throw all the powers into one big pool." Then it became more and more interesting to us to say, 'No, the powers reflect their lives or their time in the world'," said Smith in his interview with Game Spot.

For the uninitiated, Corvo will still retain the abilities he had in the original game. The second iteration will see him having more upgrades such as the enhancements to his devouring swarm ability. Emily, on the other hand, will possess powers and skills unique to the character such as the mesmerize ability. However, both playable characters share all of the passive abilities such as blinking farther.

But just like the first one, "Dishonored 2" will stay faithful to the "signature elements" of game which include "multiple ways to find and eliminate a target; the ability to tackle any obstacle using non-lethal stealth, deadly combat, or any combination of the two," game publisher Bethesda said as per official blog post.

The game is expected to be released on Nov. 11.