Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Review – Out of Sight, Out of Mind

(Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Bethesda Softworks)

<p>Chipped plaster and rotting wood gnaw away at the walls&period; Pocked cobblestones run from shadow to shadow&comma; swallowed by an empty universe&period; The Void’s open maw hangs overhead&comma; the stench of death upon its hot breath&period; You are Billie Lurk&comma; a creature of this universe&period; And you’ve been tasked with the greatest challenge imaginable—to kill a god&period; Welcome to <em>Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dishonored&period;bethesda&period;net&sol;"><em>Death of the Outsider<&sol;em><&sol;a> takes the well-established formula of the series and mass produces it&comma; upping only the narrative ante&period; I mean&comma; what could be more exciting than diacide&quest; The Outsider visits Billie after the first mission and grants her the power of the Void&period; You are left to wonder about his motivations&comma; but Daud assures you not to trust them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130694" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130694" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130694 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19004159&sol;DOTO-2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider 1" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130694" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider<&sol;em>&comma; Bethesda Softworks&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>At this point in the series&comma; can you blame him&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Whatever the reason&comma; you are given the abilities to teleport&comma; astral-project&comma; and disguise yourself as the people you encounter&period; And these abilities&comma; though few&comma; make for multitudinous ways to play out the missions&period; I had a lot of fun with the subterfuge of Semblance&comma; as the right face can get you into almost anywhere without a peep from guards&period; You can also use Displace to navigate elevated or remote paths to achieve advantage over targets and objectives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But wait&comma; there’s more&excl; Your stripped-down super power tool chest is complimented by a small array of lethal and non-lethal gadgets&comma; including shock projectiles&comma; grenades&comma; a marble launcher&comma; and the always-good-for-a-laugh hook mine&period; As before&comma; you can choose to be the conniving ghost or the brazen berserker&comma; or &lpar;and I don’t know why&rpar; some kind of lackadaisical hoodlum right in between &lpar;you probably have commitment issues&rpar;&period; The world is your playground&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130695" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130695" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130695 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19004606&sol;DOTO-4-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider 2" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130695" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider<&sol;em>&comma; Bethesda Softworks&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But&comma; like&comma; a really murdery playground&comma; stained by the blood of your most hated schoolmates…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Anyway&period; At this point in the franchise the folks at Arcane have made it clear how they think the story <em>should<&sol;em> go&comma; but <em>Death of the Outside<&sol;em> still offers opportunities to alter how your story plays out&period; New Black Market Contracts and other optional objectives provide a spice to the shifting narrative&comma; which means there are new things to learn with a second or even third playthrough&period; And the Original Game &plus; option grants Billie new Void powers to employ against her enemies and only reinforces replayability&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is nothing much remarkable to say about the soundtrack&period; Fortunately&comma; I think&comma; the worlds are largely silent&comma; which makes it easier to remain aware&comma; but can also introduce those suspenseful &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Quiet&period; Too quiet” moments&period; On a similar note&comma; I found the game’s rat voices to be over-produced&comma; requiring me to enable subtitles to understand what they were saying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also&comma; loading screens were a bit lengthy&comma; which can become particularly daunting if you&comma; like me&comma; are the bungling cat burglar-type &lpar;a la <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;top-five-directors-comic-book-adaptions&sol;">Guy Ritchie’s<&sol;a> <em>Snatch<&sol;em>&rpar; striving for an all-stealth playthrough&period; And you can only read and actually learn from the displayed gameplay hints so many times&period; It seems that the team <em>tried<&sol;em> to address this some with Quick Load and Quick Save options&comma; but they ultimately don’t cut too much from the wait time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130696" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130696" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-130696 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;19004748&sol;DOTO-1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider 3" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130696" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Dishonored&colon; Death of the Outsider<&sol;em>&comma; Bethesda Softworks&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; Arcane Studios adds another solid-but-less-than-inspired installment to the <em>Dishonored<&sol;em> series&period; The story carries enough intrigue&comma; and the level designs offer enough variation to compensate for the lack of innovation in gameplay and imagination in technique that had accompanied the series’ previous standalone<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;quiet-mysterious-loud-proud-dishonored-2-review&sol;"> installments<&sol;a>&period; If you’re a fan of the series&comma; I think you can get your <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;614570&sol;Dishonored&lowbar;Death&lowbar;of&lowbar;the&lowbar;Outsider&sol;">&dollar;30<&sol;a> out of it&comma; but if you’re new to it&comma; definitely start at the beginning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version