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Dishonored: Mission 4, "The Royal Physician"

The Royal Physician is a funny one after Dishonored’s very strong start of expansive, winding levels. I remembered it very clearly from my first time through, both because of its impressive setpiece mid-section and the level of challenge.

Abducting Sokolov, though nominally Corvo’s mission, is in truth less of a hurdle than the heavily fortified Kaldwin’s Bridge. The bridge looks amazing, for one thing, cutting a striking profile in the centre of the level and really feeling quite gigantic. Although there are the usual chunks of town either side, the player is basically funneled onto the bridge and will most likely have to reckon with it one way or another. This is the point in the game where the density of guards begins to add to the challenge, and the tight stairwells and cramped control rooms of the bridge’s fortifications will obviate the pattern of Blinking from place to place to avoid fights and reset encounters that many would-be stealthy players will have settled into by this point. In addition, Walls of Light and Arc Pylons will cause a problem even if the guards aren’t paying attention.

In my first run this is where Low Chaos went out of the window and the journey across the bridge basically became a bloodbath, and a very hard one at that. This time, with Possession upgraded, I could walk past guards as a rat, or even better, walk past as a guard and just remove the whale oil powering a security system. Then hastily shuffling the last few steps in order to be in reach of a dark corner to hide in or a ledge to Blink up to as the power wore off. I have also had much more experience with these games having played the others, to be fair, and I still feel players who haven’t been scrounging up every rune and buying additional powers may face some frustration.

Although this isn’t a standout level to me, especially sequenced as it is between the visit to The Golden Cat and Lady Boyle’s Party, I did uncover new ways of getting around and neat secrets. Powering up a lever and hiding in a mine cart to get past a well-guarded street was one example. Also, while creeping through Sokolov’s house was probably my favourite bit of stealth gameplay the first time I did this level, my early upgrades of Blink and Agility meant I was in a position to see a route across the rooftops straight to the target, bypassing the entire interior of the house (which I later returned to for treasure, while Samuel waited with Sokolov).

The level has a great example of the immersive sim genre’s ability to tell a short story in an apartment-sized space, with the Mad Survivor’s flat at Drawbridge Way. Inside you find a series of increasingly unhinged notes suggesting his discovery of an Outsider rune has driven him to kill his cousin, whose body is presumably the one slumped nearby. It’s all very Gollum, but as a side story it is well communicated and a nice reward for exploration (not to mention that rune).

The thesis of The Royal Physician seems to be to force the player into considering their power set and available tools when restricted to a linear area. While the interior of The Golden Cat does this a bit, it is also a very good stealth playground with lots of places to hide and usually a window to escape from, whereas on the bridge you tend to be more exposed and with limited options for disengaging when found. With Bend Time, Possession and Wind Blast available (the latter of which is helpful for buying time without necessarily going lethal) I found less resistance than the first time through, but it is still tough.

Non-lethal solution: 
The target must be captured non-lethally 
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