With its genetic roots in Thief, Bioshock, and prior Bethesda titles, Dishonored 2 was a game with a lot to prove…and prove itself it certainly did. For all that was achieved by those preceding games, skeptics could be forgiven for expecting Dishonored 2’s development team to run out of novel ideas.
To the delight of long-time fans and newcomers alike, Dishonored 2 didn’t simply ride the coattails of the series’ first entry, nor did it fail to set itself apart. A Crack in the Slab is one of the games’ final missions and it’s widely considered to be its crowning achievement. Read on to learn more about how Arkane Studios made this time-bending showpiece tick, and how you can master it.
8 Trinkets Aplenty
Although A Crack in the Slab can be a slog if you’re aiming for a perfect ghostly run, time traveling makes this stage relatively easy to finish without fighting. It’s a good idea to clean out Aramis Stilton’s manor of any runes, charms, etc. since you can do so while avoiding combat by warping back to the present-day estate (just beware of the wildlife).
In the courtyard, there is a raw whalebone atop the archway through which you enter. Magic is inaccessible here and the tall jumps up to the whalebone serve to emphasize the importance of upgrading enhancements, such as agility, in order to 100% this stage.
7 Powered Down, Not Powerless
The player is stripped of supernatural abilities upon entering the estate grounds – a side effect of Delilah’s void-bending ritual carried out three years prior. Without magic, more importance is placed upon natural talents. Enhanced jumps are crucial, for the reasons mentioned above, as well as sprinting speed.
Though the player can warp between 1849 and 1852, doing so doesn’t freeze time in either era. When scurrying from the piano room to the upper balcony of the dining hall, sprinting up the adjoining hall and staircase in the present keeps the player ahead of the guard patrolling in the past. As the dining hall doors only open in the past, sprinting is essential to avoid detection while searching for the attic bonecharm and master key located there.
6 Blink To The Past
A Bioshock 2 scene served as both the inspiration and proof-of-concept for A Crack in the Slab. Arkane Studios’ Christophe Carrier revealed in an interview with Gamespot that his team was proud of a sequence where Delta jumps from a balcony in pre-collapse Rapture and plummets through time into the present-day dystopia.
The lead-up to Dishonored 2’s climax was the perfect chance to revisit the idea and allow the player to control the time travel this time.
5 See No Evil
Stilton’s manor is one fit for a mining magnate of his stature, though no one would know that based on its present condition. While creeping through the mansion in the bygone era, the player can not only see the palatial abode in its full glory but also overhear conversations among the Grand Guard. Such chatter makes it clear that all those involved are wary of Luca and Breanna’s scheming, including Stilton, who considers feigning illness to avoid partaking in the ritual.
Incapacitating or killing Stilton before the player witnesses the ritual that causes his breakdown alters history up until the present day. Doing nothing maintains the present that the player has already experienced. Killing Stilton means the manor is put up for sale and remains unoccupied in the present. Incapacitating Stilton preserves his sanity – a fair fate considering he didn’t want to help Delilah anyway – and prevents the dilapidation of his home. The second option eliminates the bloodfly nests in the present but Stilton’s staff will occupy the manor instead, making it difficult to evade detection by time traveling.
4 Stage Sandwich
Christophe Carrier also told Gamespot that the logistics behind the time travel in both Bioshock 2 and Dishonored 2 were simpler than most players assumed. In each case, you control the camera and movement as per usual while traversing the level. What makes these levels unique is that both feature duplicate maps stacked on one another.
You move along the X and Y axes on one map and the “time traveling” occurs by quickly jostling the player and camera up or down along the Z-axis to the other map. The maps share the same basic topography but set decorations are swapped to reflect the changing of eras. This jostling happens during a scripted event in Bioshock 2, but A Crack in the Slab allows you to jump from one map to the next at will.
3 Do The Time Warp
The developers knew beforehand that they’d only be building a single time traveling level, since giving the player such powers permanently would mean designing more stacked maps. Arkane Studios wanted to ensure that players really engaged with the short-lived time magic. Restricting every other power forced developers and players alike to think creatively about time traveling.
Moving, especially vertically, is difficult without blink or far reach but the timepiece introduces new means of traversal. Break a column in the past to cause the collapse of an entire balcony in the present. Knock over a leaning statue in the past to destroy it, opening up a passage that’s otherwise blocked by the same statue placed upright in the present.
2 Time Flies
Arkane Studios wanted this stage to be a highlight of Dishonored 2, not one that players dreaded. By this point, you’ve amassed an arsenal of magic tricks and not being able to use them two missions before the game’s conclusion could have been profoundly boring.
Time traveling is intentionally provided as a means to evade confrontation and keep the game’s pace up, but it’s not a “get out of jail free” card. While the present-day manor is less dangerous than in the past, bloodflies and nestkeepers are deliberately placed in the large passages (e.g. in the foyer with the tree) to keep you on your toes. Unfold the timepiece as often as possible and remember to look before you leap.
1 Bloodstained
This mission gives you the chance to right some of the wrongs caused by the Empire’s oversight and Delilah’s jockeying for power. Not only can Stilton be saved from his own madness, keeping him out of the ritual in any way keeps Meagan from having to track him down and therefore spares her the loss of her eye and arm.
On the other hand, correcting the present and saving Meagan does not mean that your actions in the other present are erased. The game does not forgive your bad behavior just because you stop one timeline from existing, so don’t think you can undo prior kills and come out with a merciful ending.
