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Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches Mission 2, "The Dead Eels"

The penultimate mission of Dishonored's DLC packs involves you immediately walking into the middle of a gang war. You can get involved or observe from the rooftops in a nice example of a game world existing and carrying on regardless of what the player is doing.

The Hatters and the Dead Eels fill the four maps that comprise this expansive level, and there is much fun to be had. Hopefully you have got Daud's Pull ability unlocked and upgraded, as this is a good mission to mess about with it. Waiting for an Eel gang member to huck an acid flask at you before pulling them in front of it, dropping people into the river for the hagfish to snack on and generally moving people around while they're trying to have a brawl that you may or may not be a part of.

Overall this is one of the most bustling open areas in the various slices of Dunwall that the Dishonored Definitive Edition has to offer. You're dealing with wide areas including shopping concourses, market streets, docks and a mill, plus more confined spaces including the sewers and the mill's interior. There are limited but steep opportunities for vertical travel, encouraging you to vary your tactics if Assassin's Creed style rooftop traversal has been your go-to. You also get some underwater exploration out at the docks, and in general this feels like a natural and organic environment with a lot of potential for fun due to how open-ended it is.


For example, there are a number of opportunities to get into scraps on and around the boat you're trying to wrest control of alongside Lizzy Stride (who you broke out of prison in the previous mission). The boat itself makes a good defensible position, or you lurk around it slowly taking out targets, or go in for a full assault. Later, you'll find yourself defending it again when the titular witches show up for a rumble with the gang. The sheer amount of runes up for grabs in these packs means that my Daud can take pretty much anything at this point, making the brawls a lot of fun in this High Chaos playthrough.

The best Easter Egg of this mission is that this is the day of Lady Boyle's Last Party. While Corvo is probably talking to Pendleton, who couldn't possibly intend anything nefarious by asking the Serkonan royal retainer to run an innocent errand for him while at the party, Daud is getting his hands dirty with the Dead Eels. You meet Jessamine Kaldwin's former dressmaker, now arthritic and destitute, and he has a letter from Waverly who promises to ask after salves for him. Meanwhile the Eels discuss how they'd rather be at the party robbing the fatcats blind than at the docks. And I have to make mention of the wonderful facial work done with some of these characters, there's one Eel type who looks like Bob Hoskins which really adds to the way they make condescending digs at Daud once you've got them back on Lizzy's side.

The geography of this level is pretty neat to, especially how at street level you're dealing with Dunwall's gangs and organised crime, but once you head beneath the surface you encounter the witches, the supernatural and a couple of weepers. The arcane activity beneath the streets of Dunwall literally bubbles to the surface when the witches attack at the end of the mission.

As I mentioned it's massive, and feels like one of the biggest missions prior to the gigantic maps of Dishonored 2. Like in that game there are lots of side quests and activities available - I didn't get any special actions and felt as if I had explored pretty thoroughly so there'll be good times to be had on a revisit.


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