Dunwall Diaries

Dishonored 2's final level's central message is not subtle. At the beginning of the game you descended from a great height, perhaps as a whirlwind of vengeful bloodshed, perhaps as a shadow flitting from doorway to doorway. Now you'll climb back to where you started, and again the choice of violence or evasion is yours. You might find your playstyle causes you to consider how your approach has changed. Did you take care to avoid casualties when leaving Dunwall, only to have found by your return that the most straightforward route to victory really does lie along a blade? Did you leave bodies in your wake before, but come to shun collateral damage after seeing how much misery had already been allowed to build up throughout the Empire of the Isles during the Kaldwins' reign? Death to the Empress actually contains a version of the map for A Long Day in Dunwall as well as a new rendering of the Return to the Tower map from the original game. On this visit the tower and su...

After his appearance on the anniversary of Jessamine Kaldwin's death to bring Delilah's coup to fruition, Duke Luca Abele has been a near-constant presence throughout Dishonored 2. His voice is heard from loudspeakers as you explore Karnaca's streets, and the advanced state of dereliction in several areas is made clear to be due to his mismanagement of the country's economy. The protagonist has walked through choking dust in the streets of Batista as the Duke, via the loudspeaker, extols the land of riches he perceives as he looks out from his mansion. As corrupt and negligent as he is vainglorious and egocentric, he personifies the truth that in every hungry country you will find a well-fed king. The wages of Delilah's coup and the instruments she has used to make it happen are among other things the further empowerment of the hollow, self-centred man that is the Duke. A note found earlier in the game even reveals Delilah's delight at Luca Abele's penchant ...

"Like the ore he mines, there is something of value underneath that gruff exterior." Time itself is shattered at Aramis Stilton's mansion, and so is the owner's mind. Having solved the Jindosh lock that seals the way to the Karnacan silver baron's residence, he can be found inside, playing the piano tunelessly and raving to himself. The place itself is in disrepair, unlit and unkempt, no staff or guards, overgrown with Bloodfly infestations and mould. We will now get a chance to see who Stilton really is, and what's more to understand how Delilah has returned, in another well-known level that will change how the player interacts with the world completely. In 1849 Duke Luca Abele and Breanna Ashworth, having heard Delilah whisper to them of her return, planned a seance to bring her back from the Void. They were joined by Alexandria Hypatia in her Grim Alex alter-ego as well as Kirin Jindosh, and held it at Aramis Stilton's manor who they involved because of...

"And what are the cups at Dunwall Tower made from, Empress?" Anton Sokolov doesn't mince words with Emily or her father and Royal Protector regarding the Empire's complicity in what has befallen the Batista Mining District, stating that the "new Duke's misery has only been possible with Dunwall's support". This region has been the engine of Serkonan prosperity, but the avarice of Luca Abele means that the silver mines now work round the clock. The town and its population get no respite from the dust that gets blown through the area, and doctors' notebooks and citizens' journals found in Batista attest to the lethal toll it extracts from the workers. The silver baron Aramis Stilton helped build Karnaca, but this is a walk through the centre of its silver mining industry without his direct influence felt any more. With only the profit-driven machinery of the mining business itself remaining, stripped of Stilton's management and his co...

"Just before her mother and father married her off, so many years ago, she found Delilah instead.  It was all highways and graveyards after that, never looking back." Corvo or Emily awake on board the Dreadful Wale to another trip to the Void, this time arranged by Delilah rather than the Outsider in a demonstration of her power. She shows them her childhood. A child of a kitchen maid and the vaunted but philandering Emperor Euhorn Jacob Kaldwin, she grew distraught at her younger sister Jessamine's inclusion at court while she was hidden away. Here we see the sad, cruel upbringing that embittered Delilah against her half-sister and caused her to be obsessed with surpassing her. Blamed for something that Jessamine had broken when they were children, she was thrown out with her mother. They lived in a debtors' prison until her mother's death. Delilah is not just a fairy tail villain to scare Gristolian children along with the Outsider. She is an embodiment...

"Welcome to the final mystery, Jindosh." The Clockwork Mansion is the point at which Dishonored 2's level design goes from being simply magnificent in scope, detail and intricacy, to being also conceptually awe-inspiring. Lady Boyle's Last Party is very clever - this is very clever and an engineering marvel on the part of the developers. While still retaining all the opportunities for different avenues of ingress, exploration and optional side activities, this mission eventually draws aside the curtain to reveal a central conceit both unforgettable and ingeniously disruptive to the playstyle you might have been developing. The very structure of Jindosh's residence will move around you as you pass through it, and although the concept is kind of given away in the mission's name there is no preparing for how impressive this is and how it informs the way you'll engage with this environment. Having rescued (or eliminated) Dr. Hypatia, the protagonist and...