Awesome / Dishonored 2

Media

• In the E3 2015 announcement trailer we have our new player-character, Emily Kaldwin casually cutting her way through Kirin Jindosh's security, which is an elaborate mix of clockwork alien geometries like something from a Jacob's Ladder optical illusion.
  • Extra pathos for taking up her father's pocket-myriad blade as well.
  • Emily using an arc mine on the second of Jindosh's clockwork Mecha-Mooks, complete with Badass Back as its gutted components fly over her shoulder.
  • The reveal of the Shadow Walk power, which counters her target's desperate last-second gambit of trying to crush the deposed Empress of the Isles among his Bizarrchitecture. All of a sudden Emily is a terrifying shadow that has interchangeable corporeality and relishes her target's terror as she finishes him with a threatening Finger Poke of Doom before it cuts to the title.
• Arkane developed their own in-house graphical prowess to take the Dishonoured series to the Next-gen with the aptly named Void Engine. Expect ludicrous amounts of Scenery Porn.
• 2016's E3 gameplay trailer, especially due to Awesome Music and the concluding Wham Shot of the Outsider seizing a falling Emily by the wrist as she tumbles through the Void.

The Game

• The fact that you can outright reject the Outsider's power and say that you want nothing to do with him. Becomes even better if you finish the game in Flesh & Steel; you basically prove that you didn't need his help.
• The amount of non-lethal options you have available allows you to play in a much more aggressive manner while still being a Technical Pacifist. Whereas the first game limited you to choke-outs and sleep darts as non-lethal solutions, you now have sliding attacks, aerial knock-outs, parrying sword strikes into choke holds, shooting enemies in the legs and knocking them out while they lie on the ground, even certain powers have non-lethal options now. A skilled player can basically play the game as Batman, and it's totally awesome.
• Making your way to the Coven's microphone in the last mission and making a speech to the survivors about how you're back and going to bring down Delilah. Sure, it attracts some attention from nearby witches, but it's worth it. Especially since you can see them coming and have a few seconds to hide after leaving them a "present".
• As always, there's a good bit of Pay Evil unto Evil in the Low Chaos methods of disposing of the villains. There's also a good bit of actual justice to the non-lethal disposals as well.
  • Eliminating the Crown Killer results in you curing Doctor Hypatia of her split personality and restoring her to her original compassionate self. The Moment of Awesome isn't the act itself but the fact Emily and Corvo choose to forgive the person who justified Delilah's coup. Also, it becomes a Heartwarming Moment as her last victim is the one who made the formula and still wants you to cure her.
  • Eliminating Jindosh is horrifying as you lobomotize him with electricity, but given he's done such horrible things as facilitate Delilah's coup and had plans to turn Sokolov into a braindead slave, he's really got it coming.
  • Getting rid of Breanna Ashworth non-lethally has you not only strip her of her magic permanently but all the magic of her followers too. While their tales of No Woman's Land may be sympathetic, the fact is they murdered a large number of innocents around the Conservatory. Now they have nothing to protect them from the justice of their crimes. In Breanna's case, Delilah also tells her that she never wants to see her again.
  • Getting rid of Duke Abele involves replacing him with his bodyguard and locking him away in an asylum for the rest of his life—unless he admits he's not the Duke, in which case he's condemned to a life of destitution and poverty. In all likelihood, he will be in the asylum for the rest of his life and they weren't nice in the 19th century.
  • Reversing time to save Stilton is an unusual way of getting rid of an enemy but it makes sure that not only have you spared a life but you've made a powerful ally who helps the Dust District become not so terrible for its residents.
  • Delilah's eternal punishment may seem like a reward being trapped in a Lotus-Eater Machine for the rest of her life. However, it has the benefit of being nothing more than an ornament on the wall of the future Kaldwins for the rest of eternity.
• If you think the non-lethal method of getting rid of Delilah is too easy on her, killing her is especially good as you've essentially eliminated a demigod.
  • Eliminating Delilah without having to go through her clones first also counts. You basically just read the situation, realize that it's all one big trap, and then hunt down the real Delilah in the most logical spot (the highest point in the area, requiring you to climb up a cliff face) and then unceremoniously cutting her throat to end her threat forever.
• Managing to solve the Jindosh Puzzle; takes a while even with notes, but the feeling of successfully opening it by yourself feels sooo good. On a no-power run, it also allows you to skip an entire level that would otherwise require much more effort, and proves that Emily or Corvo really don't need powers to complete their task.
  • Perhaps the most satisfying thing about solving the puzzle is the knowledge that you've proven the Insufferable Genius Jindosh is, who thought everyone but him would be too dumb to even brute force the lock, let alone solve the puzzle, wrong.

Emily

• Playing a low-chaos run as Emily is pretty amazing because it is a giant Shut Up, Hannibal! to Delilah and her motives. Like Delilah as a child, Empress Emily has had everything ripped from her and been thrown out into the gutter. She could easily follow her aunt's example and leave a trail of chaos, blood and broken lives to retake the throne, and yet she does no such thing. Even at her lowest, Emily acts with the patience, mercy, and honor of a true ruler.
  • Low-Chaos Emily calling up Delilah on her statue after depowering Breanna at the end of the Conservatory mission, telling her what's happened and that she's coming back to Dunwall to set things right. It's one of the few occasions you get to see Delilah really lose her cool. Following this, Emily says that not only will she set things back the way they were, she will make it better. Delilah's reaction is almost childish, like Emily has broken her favorite toy.
• A High Chaos Emily is a bloodthirsty and brutal rampage across the city but it highlights they've all severely underestimated the empress. They tried to frame her for assassinating her political enemies, only to make her truly so... with them now as overtly her political enemies.
• You can find a book in the Clockwork Mansion mission that details the exact point when the Empire started taking Emily seriously. When she was fourteen, she and Alexi Mayhew were stopped in their carriage by the Regenters, an extremist group that has made a martyr out of Hiram Burrows, who try to assassinate them. With neither Corvo nor the city watch around, Alexi grabbed a grenade that they threw and lobbed it back, while Emily grabbed some loose rail and beat off their attackers until the city watch came. After the fact, Emily spared them from execution, an event that made people start to see her as a legitimate ruler. This is also a Moment of Awesome for Alexi Mayhew, as it is this event that led Emily to eventually appoint her as captain of the guard.

Corvo

• Corvo gets one in his backstory as he becomes Spymaster of the Empire and gets Hiram Burrows' old job. While he fails to stop Delilah's coup, he manages to keep a fairly stable empire for the next fifteen years despite a massive plague as well as significant political upheavals. Because Burrows dishonored the post with his treason, there really was only one man whose honor and loyalty to the new Empress could redeem the position.
• The fact Corvo Attano is still capable of kicking the ass of all of his enemies despite being in his fifties and being confined to a desk job for most of the past fifteen years.
• During Delilah's coup, we see Corvo's Time Stop power in action from an outsider's point of view, (Emily's). When confronted by three traitorous city guards, Corvo slits one's throat, decapitates the second, before shoving his sword through the last one's spine. All within the span of a millisecond — and at the ripe-old age of fifty four. Badass.
  • This moment also appears in the trailer video. Slow it down as much as possible, and you see that all three of Corvo's kills are actually animated at least partially. they just happen so quickly you don't see any of it normally.
• While grossly out of character for Corvo Attano, it's possible for a High Chaos version of him to become Emperor of Dunwall and its territories by leaving Emily trapped in stone. Even the Outsider didn't see this coming as future generations remember him as Corvo the Black.
• If the Duke of Serkonos is eliminated by lethal means, Emily decides to make her father into Duke of his former homeland. It's certainly a welcome retirement present, even if it means parting from his now-adult daughter. If the Duke of Serkonos is eliminated by nonlethal means, Corvo remains Royal Protector until his death.

Delilah

• Delilah escaping the Void, something even The Outsider was surprised at. Any other soul would have just drifted away, suffering from And I Must Scream, but not her. She clawed her way out through sheer willpower. This action alone made her not only the antagonist of Emily and/or Corvo, but of The Outsider himself.
• Delilah's entire backstory is one long testament to her being The Determinator. Despite being kicked out on the streets and forced to be a washerwoman at a brothel, she eventually rose to become one of the most foremost scientific (as well as artistic) minds of her era, and that's before she became a witch. Even after being killed/banished by Daud, she was resurrected by followers still loyal to her and rebuilt her organization stronger than before. So much so, she was able to bring about The Coup and get the Empire she always felt she deserved.
• Her ability to One-Hit Kill Corvo and remove his Outsider's mark is a testament to how powerful she is.