Could Arkane Studios' Dishonored 2 be overall Game of the Year? It has a lot going for it: stylised art, a world brimming with dynamic life, a multi-layered story that changes depending on which character you play with, brilliant and oft overwhelming level-design, stealth and action in equal parts and, most important of all, those infinitely stackable gameplay systems that create both emergent and doubly dynamic player-crafted outcomes.

We put our man Joaby to the task of review on his beastly PC, and he's come back with a Plato-esque review that is in-depth and insightful.

Here's an excerpt:

With the above in mind, there's potentially double the game -- if you play through as both characters, and you are going to want to play through Dishonored 2 more than once. While many games give you a variety of options for character building, technically giving you multiple playthrough options, most games aren't really designed for it -- Dishonored 2 is. With each level presenting numerous pathways through it -- both physically and in terms of play style -- you can easily lose hours just by playing the same level repeatedly and making different choices. The way you solve the puzzles of the game as Emily won't be the same as Corvo. Emily can link the fates of three guards together, so that when she kills one the others die, for example. Corvo would need to stop time to force all three to drop dead together. And bear in mind, you won't finish a full run-through of Dishonored 2 with all of Emily or Corvo's powers. I acquired just shy of every Rune on my first playthrough and there were entire powers of Emily's that I didn't access. I never Mesmerised anyone, a powerful stealth tool that forces those subjected to it to contemplate "the void". I also never unlocked the Doppelganger power, which would have been useful when I was going on a murder spree. I could play through the game again using those completely different powers, and again I'd be forced to solve puzzles differently.

Click here for our full in-depth Dishonored 2 review.