Dunwall Diaries

"Who have your victims been Daud? Civil servants? The housekeeping staff? Drunken boys on watch duty and frail old aristocrats? None like me." The initial impression of the Delilah's Masterwork level is akin to an Elder Scrolls game. Shades of verdant green are a rarity in the gloomy world of Dishonored, and this is quite a striking first blush for the finale of these expansion packs. The hulking gothic facade of the manor is imposing and acts as a centrepiece to multiple battles with the witches on its lawns. The Riverkrusts are back and seem to act as a sort of alarm system, and there are more tripwires than anywhere else in the game. You can find the front door key or get in through the crypt, and I recommend at least visiting the crypt. Like much of the interior spaces in the level it features drooping vegetation that seems to glisten with an arcane light, like something from a Bloodborne chalice dungeon, and it has a wonderful jump scare that, although predictable, i...

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, d...

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 spen...

The final mission in Dishonored's first DLC expansion features a return to a familiar area, as Daud comes back to the Flooded District to find it has been assaulted by the Overseers and his assassins captured. This means infiltrating some familiar spaces but on different terms - you start with Daud's key, obviously, and it is the first thing you use. Almost as if the game is telling you that actually this is Daud on his home turf. I like this mission concept as firstly, going back over familiar territory in new contexts is pretty fun in these games - like in the return to the Hound Pits in the base game, and later in the series the trip to Karnaca's Royal Conservatory as Billie. Secondly I like the idea that from now on whenever I play The Flooded District in the base game I will have a much stronger association between it and Daud, how he would move around in it, and his approach to defending it. So you blink around the crumbling rooftops of Dunwall's former...

Eminent Domain is a very "more Dishonored" level in comparison to the visually and thematically striking A Captain of Industry . Daud is on the streets of Dunwall, in the Legal District this time hunting down a corrupt barrister. The watery daylight, boarded up tenements, walls of light and patrolling guards are all familiar.  However, the level is rich with optional narrative beats and worldbuilding. The familiarity also throws into relief how fine-tuned some things feel about this DLC in comparison to the base game. It supports a quick pace, but offers plenty of stealth and combat opportunities. The first map, the waterfront, is roughly a long tunnel that lets you take the rooftops or sneak along the streets, avoiding or engaging in fights with the guards. Being able to get back along it quickly is helpful, you'll most likely find yourself backtracking to find the key to the Legal District itself if you didn't explore on the way. Throughout the level you als...

With this mission I finally started my first run of Dishonored's talked about DLC story packs, The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. These are each packs of three story missions that were released in April and August of 2013 respectively, following Dishonored's release in October 2012 and Dunwall City Trials in December. I did play around with the latter last week, it features a series of self-contained challenges that get you more familiar with what the game engine can do - they are very fun. A Captain of Industry makes a pretty incredible first impression with the painterly visuals on show outside the slaughterhouse that functions as the main location. The other thing that makes an impression is Daud's version of Blink. You get a big advantage over Corvo's version, which is that if you are not moving time stops as you hold down the right-click looking for a place to Blink to. This recontextualises battle. Now, if someone spots you, you hold down the mouse...

The Loyalists is such a short mission I just had to wrap up this playthrough. Half an hour of Dishonored in a week is such a meagre amount, after all. Everything has been building up to this final, real rescue of Emily, and this involves scaling one of the most striking lighthouses in media. The lighthouse on Kingsparrow Island is a brutalist, steampunk horror, a utilitarian fist of steel looming impossible high overhead. In a game enamoured with vertical level design this is the tallest edifice Corvo will ascend. "Maybe after all this is settled, we'll see each other again." This level seems to be built in an extremely inviting way regardless of your playstyle. My first time ineptly bumbling through, this was nowhere the difficulty wall that The Royal Physician 's bridge was, though I certainly recall spending a lot of time by all that cargo piled up by the beach. Returning to it I feel as if it is just crammed with hiding places, lots of security systems that ...

Following the lengthy trip back from The Flooded District, Dishonored's penultimate mission is very short - not least because it takes place entirely in an area that has functioned as your hub and pre-mission downtime area until recently. Corvo returns to The Hounds Pits pub, which is crawling with guardsmen as well as three Tall Boys. Havelock, Pendleton and Martin have murdered everyone and left, although Samuel, Piero and Sokolov have managed to survive. All you need to do is get up to Emily's room - if you're in low chaos, Callista will have been spared and will let you in. In high chaos you have to get the key from her body. You can also work with Piero and Sokolov to upgrade the arc pylon and non-lethally stun the guards in one go. There isn't much to say about the level itself. Its verticality favours the player now that it is hostile, as getting above the Tall Boys is key to taking them out if you want to do so, and a reasonably dense number of guards in a...

Having been betrayed by the loyalists, Corvo finds himself poisoned and left for dead, eventually retrieved by the assassins of Daud, who deposit him in a boarded over pit. You begin with your assassin's blade, crossbows, pistol and traps and so on taken away. This is probably one of my favourite versions of the old trope in games where you get captured and all your stuff is gone. Reason being, Corvo can still use his powers, so if you've been finding runs you are a pretty big problem even without your gear. This could go two ways. If you have an arsenal of powers, you might end up having a lot of fun finding new ways to use them. If you haven't been diligent in finding runes, this is going to be a challenging area. I remember the first time I played this mission it took me a long time to get my gear, for exactly that reason. This time it was done very quickly by possessing first Daud's assassins and then some hagfish to get past everything. However, it is a pre...

Return to the Tower is a pure infiltration level. It is also testing the player on how they are using their powers or at least engaging with the systems, and seen in another way is giving you an excuse to have fun with what you've learned to do so far. You are immediately presented with a highly fortified location, crawling with guards and tallboys, that you need to scale and enter to perform the hit. And this is the hit it's all been leading up to - as far as Corvo is aware at this point in the story, once he takes down the Lord Regent everything will go back to "normal" and Emily can be installed as Empress. So there's big climactic energy here from both the stakes and the design, almost as if this was a version of a final level the team eventually decided to put at the end of the story's second act instead. This is also a level where planning will help you a lot. There aren't many corridors where you don't have a clearly telegraphed option o...

Lady Boyle's Last Party, The Clockwork Mansion, A Crack in the Slab, The Bank Job. It's the canon of talked-about, acclaimed Dishonored series levels, the moments where ingenious design, absorbing environments and great stories are considered to come together strongest in already consistently rock-solid games. In this level Corvo has to infiltrate a fancy party, find out which of three wealthy scions is in conspiracy with his enemies, and assassinate them. The clever complication is that the sisters are all in masks for the party, and that the level randomises which of them is the real target each time you play. Because the guests think your mask is a costume in poor taste (much to their delight) and you freely walk around the party, this feels like a Hitman 2 mission that you can still play like a Dishonored level if you want. Once inside, you can do everything by talking. Anyway, despite the fact Sokolov's extraction had been highly chaotic on my first r...

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 settle...

After neutralising the High Overseer, Corvo's next targets are his co-conspirator Treavor Pendleton's two older brothers, Custis and Morgan. By eliminating these two Pendletons, the one remaining will be entitled to their votes in parliament to use for the Loyalists' purposes. It provides an insight into Dunwall gentry and how even voting influence is retained in powerful families like land or wealth. This is also the mission in which Corvo will rescue Emily, who is being kept in the same location. The elder Pendleton brothers can be found in their frequent haunt, The Golden Cat, which is a ritzy brothel not far from the Abbey headquarters. In Dunwall, the buildings containing the tools of law enforcement and those designed for the excesses of the wealthy are nestled closely together. You actually start with a small quest where you have to investigate the Weepers in the sewers under the Hound Pits pub. These are Dishonored’s version of zombies, people who hav...

Corvo's first assignment for the conspirators involves him finding a way into the daunting Abbey stronghold and eliminating High Overseer Campbell. The Overseers are part of the Abbey of the Everyman, a religious institution with Imperial backing that nominally wards against the eldritch influence of the Outsider and the incursion of the Void into the corporeal realm. In practice the Overseers are arbiters of morality and use cruel and extreme measures to propagate their philosophy. With Burrows in charge the Overseers are very much off the leash and are exerting violent force against Dunwall's population. Campbell orchestrated Jessamine's assassination along with Burrows and will now pay for it at Corvo's hands. As the first mission proper of the game and with tutorials out of the way, this is a very strong thesis statement. The Distillery District is decently sized, with optional sub-worlds you can stumble upon or be sent to as part of a side-quest, with an emp...