Dunwall Diaries

At the end of Dishonored 2 Billie Lurk reclaimed her real name, and here at the end of her own quest she can return the Outsider's true name to him as well, should she choose. The game's single assassination target, a supernatural being created by a cult that needed a central figure and a lodestone for their occult worship, who was stabbed through the heart in the Void before enduring thousands of years seeing and knowing all, is within reach. This is the only setting in the series that isn't somewhere in Dunwall or Karnaca (although Brigmore Manor is technically just outside the walls of Dunwall). This is Shindaerey Peak, a mountain that has been visible behind the Karnaca skyline all along. There isn't supposed to be anything here - but Billie's investigations at the Royal Conservatory have revealed the existence of a secretive mining operation, as well as unlocking one of the best objective markers in the series: Flee to the mountains . This is where the corpo...

The Dishonored series has a great track record of reusing levels and adding fresh context, challenge and narrative import. We've seen Corvo go back to Dunwall Tower and find it has become a darkly brooding hulk of militarised authoritarianism rather than the stately venue for painters and courtiers it was on his visit at the beginning of the original game, despite it being the same architecture. We've then seen it become a raucous house party for the Brigmore Witches, who moved in and treated it with the respect a horde of teenagers would their hapless friends' parents' house the weekend after finishing their GCSEs. But I don't think there is another example in the series of a location feeling as defiled, as violated as the Royal Conservatory does here. To be fair, it was already in a state of takeover when Emily Kaldwin visited and eliminated Breanna Ashworth in Dishonored 2. But the witches had made it a sort of home and hangout, after a fashion. As bloodthirsty a...