Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (Computer)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): September 15, 2017
- Release Date (EU): September 15, 2017
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Developer: Arkane Studios
- Genres: First-Person Action
- Also For: PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Game Features:
Reunited
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider tells the story of Billie Lurk, who aboard her ship the Dreadful Wale is on a quest to find her old mentor Daud. It is not long before the two are reunited. That’s when Daud asks Billie for her help for a seemingly impossible task: to kill a God, i.e. the Outsider.
No Outsider
This title plays in a similar fashion to other Arkane Studios games like Dishonored (duh!) or even Prey. So if you’ve played those titles, you pretty much know what to expect: fluid first-person controls with lots of exploration to do at your liking, with its passive storytelling that flesh out the lore and even hint you for some missions. These might come in handy for a new feature in the Dishonored series: Contracts. These are optional side-quests that you can take on during missions and will reward you with some coins or Bonecharms at the end of the mission. Some of these Contracts are actually worth checking out for they offer interesting assassination cases that require you to think out of the box. Exploration is also rewarded as in so doing, you can find extra cash or new Bonecharms which will bestow you with new abilities like making less sound while running or dealing more damage with regular hits.
You'll find Contracts in the Black Market
And similar to other Arkane Studios games, this one has no “correct way” to play - stealth, full offence or a mixture of both playstyles, the choice is yours - but the higher the difficulty you set, the tougher the game gets becomes, particularly the enemies, so you’d want to opt for the stealth route.
Be as gruesome...
It was pretty fun to experiment with different playstyles by using Bille’s Displace ability to “teleport” across large distances quickly, scout the area for the perfect route to use to go unnoticed with Foresight, steal someone’s appearance with Semblance or just rush head-on, slashing anyone and anything that came my way. However this touch of wonder is somewhat lost as you keep rotating between the same abilities since they seem lacking as compared to Dishonored 2 but a welcome change is that the use of abilities don’t need mana to recover but you just have to wait it out to refill.
Nevertheless, there are other weapons at your availability to spice things up like the Hook mines that can pull your targets towards any surface to which they are attached to or other non-lethal weapons like the Voltaic gun and Hyperbaric grenade. The weapons and abilities choices are limited yes but you’re free to get creative with them.
... or as stealthy as you want
However, despite being developed by Arkane Studios, Death of the Outsider lacks their trademark feature of having your decisions influence the game since the Chaos mechanic has been let go of in this sequel. This news might come as a blessing to some but not so much to others as it noticeably takes away the feeling that your actions have weight, effectively diluting the Dishonored feel.
I've also noticed that while the game introduced some new enemy types, it has few main characters and makes the plot feel somewhat lacking in substance.
The story itself is quite simple and straightforward but the universe it takes place in breathes a life of itself: hearing the civilians chit-chat among themselves, watching the guards patrol the streets and overhearing workers complaining about their lives redeems the simplistic plot to a certain degree.
Graphics-wise, it's regular Arkane Studios-esque graphics, a pseudo-cel shading of sorts rendered in Dishonored's cyberpunk environment. The animations and environments are pretty and well detailed with complimenting bgm. The environments being pseudo-open world, you can take some time to appreciate the meticulous details of every nook and cranny and in so doing, look for secret paths should you opt for a more sneaky route.
Off to kill a God? Let's listen to what the rats have to say...
Dishonored
Spanning 5 chapters and priced at 30€ right now on Steam (10€ shy of its prequel), Dishonored: Death of the Outsider takes an average of 7 hours to complete, so it begs the question: is it worth it?
If you're a die-hard fan of the series, you'll want to check this title out to see how it possibly brings a close to the cult franchise and chances are that you'll find it enjoyable enough to justify the price and content. If you are not such of an ardent fan, you should wait it out until it goes on sale. As for newcomers, while this opus is definitely playable on its own, it is nevertheless recommended to play the other titles in the series which offer a far better experience.
Amen...?
Verdict
- Fluid gameplay
- Different playstyles
- Freedom of exploration
- Mana refills automatically
- Addition of Contract side quests
- Short game
- Simplistic plot
- Limited main characters
- Limited choice of weapons and abilities
- No Chaos mechanic
