Like Clockwork

Supernatural assassin Emily Kaldwin goes up against an evil genius and an army of mechanical soldiers in DISHONORED 2.

- Andy Kelly

My target in The Clockwork Mansion, an early Dishonored 2 mission, is the brilliant, evil Kirin Jindosh, Grand Inventor to the Duke and creator of the terrifying Clockwork Soldiers. These mechanical killing machines are agile, armored, and merciless, and Jindosh is building an army of them. He has to be dealt with, but he knows I’m coming for him. He waits patiently for me in a grand house of his own design—the beautiful but deadly Clockwork Mansion.

I’ve chosen to tackle this mission as Emily Kaldwin, a new playable character in Dishonored 2. She’s been marked by the Outsider and granted supernatural powers, some of which are similar to the ones her father Corvo Attano used in the first game, and others that are wildly different.

She finds the mansion apparently deserted. I’m immediately struck by how richly detailed the environmental design is. I can see glass cases containing bizarre clockwork contraptions, a colossal stone sculpture of a Lovecraftian sea monster, and a variety of paintings of sullen-looking aristocrats and jungle landscapes. The first game was gorgeous enough, but Arkane’s artists have taken their craft to the next level in the sequel.

The calm doesn’t last. I enter a room with a large staircase and suddenly I’m faced with a Clockwork Soldier. They’re tall, intimidating things, but strangely slender and elegant. The enormous, razor-sharp blades it has for arms glint menacingly, but it doesn’t attack. Jindosh’s voice crackles over a speaker, introducing me to his creation, full of pride. It seems he couldn’t resist showing it off before activating it. But as he marvels at his invention, I notice a small control box. I use a rewire tool on it, and at once the robot is on my side. It stomps off down a corridor and I watch it kill two guards, then get destroyed by one of its metal brothers.