I don't really agree about the stealth. Even though it lacked the dark shadows of a Thief game, it was still satisfying to sneak. Especially using vertical exploration to find sneaky paths. The stealth gameplay was more satisfying than using the magic for combat.

It would be good if they could make some of the levels darker and more shadowy and the characters a little more believable and less caricature. But I'd welcome a straight sequel anyway.

Personally the problem I find is that there is pretty much no work done on the stealth aspect of the game. Shadows (theoretically) only work at a distance and the "stealth" button just changes the position you hold your blade at, makes you lower your head a bit and means nobody hears your footsteps.

This is very disappointing to me since even back in 2001 to be a called a "stealth" game you had to have things like:
- use of shadows being a major element
- footsteps being a major factor of consideration
- ways to manipulate your environment to provide stealth
- varying levels of awareness of guards (mildly suspicious, suspicious, hunting, aggravating/attacking, etc)

Even say Tenchu, which is pretty light on the stealth elements - still made it clear that the idea of that game was stealth through agility and included nice touches like wasp nests, using stealth kills of guards as the means to level up, etc. Dishonored gives you a tutorial level with no magic power, then changes the concept by giving you magic powers before your first mission and never really explains why the bodyguard to the Empress is supposed to know anything about stealth besides he plays hide and seek with her daughter.

Honestly I'm genuinely perplexed how anyone can compare this Thief without taking the piss, in Thief you had to use shadows constantly, you had to be wary of what kind of floors you were going to walk on and how fast, guards could be baited by letting them get a half-glance at you in the shadows (or making footsteps deliberately), you could put out torches, cover the floor in moss, light fires, set up ropes to climb, etc. That was done back in 1998. It had massive open levels too but they gave a much more stealthy feel due to the rules of stealth being intuitive and level of commitment to the idea of stealth.

To me Dishonored feels like someone who heard about Thief, but never played it, decided to make a BioShock 2 mod with an option to not kill the Splicers, then added "variety" by giving you a bunch of special abilities with the explanation of "Magic Man Done It!" and threw around a lot of head high cover to make places to hide from lines of sight rather than try to work out how to make shadows and sound work. Particularly since half the gear it gives you doesn't relate to stealth in the slightest.

Dishonored 2 - some more info from post-conference interview with Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith

(https://youtu.be/2I2vH2d-IHc?t=2h29m23s) (start set to beginning of this specific segment ±2 hours 29 minutes)

Recap: single-player only, no co-op despite having two payable characters - either Corvo or Emily. Character can be chosen only at the beginning of campaign and cannot be switched mid-game, because story and details tie to specific character. Corvo and Emily have different clothing style (depicting their role in society), weapons and distinct abilities, they don't overlap. Story takes place at Southern portion of Empire, in Karnaca, Corvo's hometown. And Outsider seems to be quite a jerk, it almost seems as if he's marking people in plague-ridden towns for his own amusement (my personal opinion). Planned release spring 2016.