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Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches Mission 1, "A Stay of Execution for Lizzy"

What a shame Agent 47 doesn't have the ability to stop time at will and arrange sticky fates for would-be pursuers and aggressors. 

The Brigmore Witches, Dishonored's second DLC released almost a year after the base game, opens with a revisit to Coldridge Prison. This was the setting of Dishonored's introductory level, where an escaped Corvo either flitted past or carved through the guards and made for the sewers. Following his absconding security has been upped, and Daud faces more manpower as well as familiar security systems like alarms and arc pylons.

Fortunately you are likely to be more than equipped to handle it all, with Arkane's "the designers thought of everything" signature flourish on even the mission prep this time round. If you have played The Knife of Dunwall you can choose a save file to continue with which carries over your equipment and powers - I even had the choice of my high chaos and low chaos files. As well as that, you spend a few minutes at Daud's base, where you can not only scrounge up a couple of runes and a bunch of money but some really good readables. Whatever you choose to do, you should already have or be able to purchase some gear and so forth to help you.

Apart from that, you can take an Agent 47 approach to this level and buy a (very reasonably priced) disguise in the pre-mission upgrade store and shop. This lets you enter in the guise of an Overseer, meaning the guards won't be hostile and will let you into the interrogation room. This recalls the social stealth of Lady Boyle's Last Party, with more of the tension of a Hitman mission since you have fewer areas you can safely explore without drawing attention to the fact you might not be who everyone thinks you are.

This also puts you in a position to have some easy fun with the deactivated arc pylon the guards have got set up near the entryway. Stopping time and going into the guard station to rewire the circuitry, then bringing over a bunch of whale oil from near the interrogation room leads to much cheap hilarity as everyone haplessly runs over to get disintegrated.

There is also a handy switch inside the same guard post, which closes the door - if I hadn't already turned everyone in the prison into either arc pylon dust or rat food in keeping with my high chaos playthrough this might have been useful too. Either to ominously shut the door and let Daud basically become the Predator, or stop time as it closes while carrying Lizzy Stride out to stop pursuers catching up. Again, if you enter in the disguise it means your entry and exit for this level will most likely be very different in terms of pace and what is happening around you, which is very neat for a series that offers such varied gameplay.

I don't think I have ever resented revisiting a map in the Dishonored series - from this, to the Flooded District, to the Royal Conservatory, I've only ever developed more of an appreciation for the environmental design and the subtle changes that have been put in to tell a story or change the gameplay. Scouring the prison and seeing how things have been changed after Corvo's ultimately very public escape, and soaking in the atmosphere of paranoia that now hangs over the place, is nothing but cool. It makes me want to immediately go back to the original Coldridge Prison level to look at it all again with fresh eyes.




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