Daud – For Science, You Monster

Dishonored’s Top Five Missions

My personal top five missions from one of the many games I sold my soul to.

This week, 9th-12th October, Dishonored celebrates its fifth birthday. Today marks the anniversary of its European release so what better time to fawn about my favourite moments of the game.

Whilst I’m not denying its sequel set the standard gameplay-wise, the original Dishonored’s nine story missions still provide a tremendous amount of entertainment and replayability. Bolstered by the arguably stronger DLC missions and the addictive Dunwall City Trials, Dishonored still retains a deserved place on my list of Favourite Games Ever. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Its lore is deep, its characters well fleshed out. The world is one of ruin and decay, with the rat plague eating Dunwall and its inhabitants into nonexistence and gangs running rampant. The Empress murdered, her bodyguard falsely accused of the crime and the rightful heir to the throne kidnapped, the story is not a happy one, but it’s engrossing and gut-wrenching and emotive. In short, it’s a masterpiece.

As with any listicle, the content of this one is purely subjective, and these points aren’t in any kind of order. I did decide to include the downloadable content for consideration, even though I’m aware it was all released after the vanilla game (plus, they’re too good NOT to include).

1 – The Surge

The final mission of The Knife of Dunwall, Daud returns to his hideout in the Flooded District to discover he’s been betrayed by his second-in-command, and the base has been stormed by a group of zealous Overseers.

This mission is a bit of a pig to complete regardless of how you go about it, but the sudden spike in difficulty hits nonlethal players the hardest. Stealth players rely heavily on the use of Daud’s powers, both to track enemy movement but also traverse around obstacles. In this mission, not only are there heavy patrols on every floor, many Overseers carry the dreaded Music Boxes, meaning Daud becomes powerless when in their vicinity. This, combined with the sheer number of enemies, makes it exceedingly difficult to traverse the dilapidated ruins of the district.

It’s precisely this difficulty that makes the level so satisfying to complete from a gameplay standpoint, especially without harming a soul or once being spotted. Imagining the horrifying realisation in an Overseer’s mind that Daud has managed to evade the tool built specifically to repel him is the best part for me. But what truly makes this mission stand out is the story, especially as we now know the canonical outcome. I’m a sucker for any kind of villain redemption arc, which is why I always played Daud in low chaos. Being a paid killer, Daud has always just shoved his blade into his target without a second thought, but when faced with the prospect of it being Billie Lurk, the lieutenant he’s raised from childhood, he’s put in a unique position. It speaks volumes to his character development, and humanity, given that we know he spares her. He can choose to do this regardless of chaos level, but I like to think the low chaos outcome is the canonical one: instead of tranquilising Lurk in combat, she gives herself up and kneels before him for beheading, only to be gently dismissed and exiled. I do not doubt that from the moment she departs Daud hopes he will encounter her again, and I’m super glad that he does (even if it is for all of five minutes before he DIES, GODDAMMIT).

2 – Bend Time Massacre

Sometimes all a person wants to do is kick back, relax and simply kill a shedload of people. (Note: this website DOES NOT condone real-life mass murder; remember the lack of Netflix behind bars). Whilst total annihilation is possible in the main campaign, this particular Dunwall City Trial allows one to do just that without consequence; no extra rat swarms, no extra Weepers, no terribly bleak ending. Just murder, and lots of it. Delicious.

Across the six rounds, players face an increasing number of enemies to eliminate, different time limits and a larger number of kills required to pass the level. From the moment the glass is smashed, Bend Time II is activated, giving a set amount of time to unleash a massacre before time resumes. Points are awarded for creativity (or ‘flair’), clearing out a level in its entirety and skills such as headshots. At the beginning of each round, a small supply of equipment and ammunition is available, along with a few powers. Each successful win also triggers a bonus round, a one-chance round to gain points by completing a specific objective such as using only one weapon or killing a particular target.

What makes this challenge immensely enjoyable isn’t the ability to massacre everyone before you, watching limbs scatter and nobles cower as they stare at the grenade at their feet in horror. It’s the satisfaction of plotting out a strategy and then watching it come to life. Having an infinite amount of time and a full view of everyone in each room means one can be meticulous about where to shoot this crossbow bolt, or to whom to attach that springrazor. Watching time start and all hell break loose is a pleasure, and with that I have established myself as an utter masochist. Excellent.

3 – Dishonored

Dishonored as a game effectively begins when Corvo Attano escapes from Coldridge Prison. Given the key to his cell by a bribed officer of the City Watch – he can be rescued from his own execution by Daud in The Brigmore Witches – Corvo’s only instructions are to escape the prison and find a hidden cache of equipment, which he does with relative ease. This is a man who, despite being brutally tortured and presumably starved for six months, still manages to overpower the guards, blow up the blast door and disappear into the sewers, either leaving a trail of blood or loud snores dependent on playstyle.

There’s nothing especially deep or complex about this mission, either in its gameplay or its story, barring the introduction of the loyalist conspiracy at the end. It’s easy, with fewer and lower-level guards on patrol, plenty of cover to hide behind and no alarms to bring a hundred more guards running. What makes it memorable is the fact that it takes place before Corvo has received his Outsider’s Mark and therefore has a wealth of powers at his disposal. Armed with only a sword, a gun and his wits, Corvo still manages to escape the prison – doubly as satisfying if done with nobody being aware of him leaving his cell until he plants the explosives on the outer door. This mission does its job of establishing the protagonist as a force to be reckoned with, a man not to cross else end up dead (or slumbering beneath a pile of your mates).

4 – The Golden Cat

Tasked with eliminating the twin Lords Pendleton and retrieving Emily, all of whom are holed up at Dunwall’s best brothel, Corvo treads the familiar path through the Distillery District to the bathhouse as it prepares for its grand reopening following an internal plague outbreak.

As with many of the nonlethal punishments for the targets, death is perhaps kinder, and this mission is no exception. Sure Corvo can enter the brothel, find the twins and kill them in cold blood, but what I love about this mission is the ability to eliminate them without even having to go near them. Acquiring the combination of a local art dealer’s safe for Bottle Street Gang leader Slackjaw results in the twins being kidnapped, disfigured, and worked to death in their own family-owned mines, although this is the first time the player is presented with a real plethora of choices in regards to taking out a target. Storm The Golden Cat and slaughter them all? Do it. Have Slackjaw’s lackeys take care of the twins? Sweet. My personal favourite is to gain the safe combination but kill the twins– a bonus is getting to steam one of the twins to death in the Steam Room because it looks like an accident! – and then deliver the combination to Slackjaw anyway, after picking the safe clean.

Some of the best parts of his mission are the little details, such as a drawing of a Golden Cat by Emily that’s visible on Madame Prudence’s desk, the two courtesans in the dressing room talking about how cute they think the girl is, or the audiograph Emily records after her arrival at the Hound Pits Pub safehouse, detailing an exchange between Prudence and Custis Pendleton as he casually strolls into her office stark naked making his demands.

5- The Flooded District

The seventh mission of Dishonored marks a huge turning point in the story. Upon realising just how powerful a man Corvo is, the loyalists betray him, having him poisoned and dumped in the river. Fortunately for Corvo, boatman Samuel is not corruptible like his former allies and, whilst he does accept the payment, he puts only half the poison into Corvo’s drink and leaving him a hair’s breadth from Daud’s hideout.

I have a love-hate relationship with this mission, but ultimately it remains one of the best. It is long and complex, although it’s not the first time Corvo encounters the Whalers: during the Golden Cat, three lie in wait for the bodyguard as he traverses Bottle Street. Taking these three out is no real problem, but when faced with a district crawling with them it becomes exponentially trickier. The Whalers, able to leech some of Daud’s abilities, can Blink from spot to spot, making their patrols more widespread – instead of just one rooftop, they will patrol two or three.

I’ve never attempted to complete the mission without first collecting Corvo’s gear, thrown into a nearby warehouse, although it is possible – Corvo will then be stuck with any sword he picks up rather than his folding blade, and will be without a crossbow for the remainder of the game. I strongly urge everyone to explore the warehouse though, because it’s this mission where I find the game’s continuity is at its finest. If Campbell is branded a heretic in mission two, he can be encountered in the basement of the warehouse as a Weeper. The District is also full of Overseers, the remnants of the zealots’ storm of the Whaler’s hideout in The Knife of Dunwall.

Most importantly, however, this is the mission where Corvo finally gets to face the man who murdered the Empress (and the mother of his daughter). Here Corvo faces a dilemma not dissimilar to the one Daud will have faced in The Surge. Does he kill the assassin and avenge Empress Jessamine’s death? Or does he sneak in, steal his money and then leave, thereby sending him a greater message: look how close I got and you were unaware. Canonically of course, Daud is spared, escaping Dunwall for the sunny heat of Karnaca where he’ll eventually resurface. Perhaps I’m too emotionally invested in this series and its characters, but I could never bring myself to kill Daud, regardless of how high a chaos level I was sporting. Makes me wonder if Corvo can see Daud’s inner turmoil and understand his weariness, or if he simply spared the killer to prove he was still above him.

So there it is, in black and white. My top five missions from Dishonored. Do you agree? Disagree? Have no opinion whatsoever? Feel free to share, and watch this space. After all, the game does have two sequels full of content to rank – I need only the flimsiest excuse to boot up my Xbox and play through this series well into the afterlife.

REVIEW – Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

My review of what I consider to be, well and truly, a masterpiece.

I’ll preface this by clarifying I’ve only played through once; a semi-lethal run without much exploration, ignoring all but two contracts. It still took me fourteen hours. (This factors in the eleventy-billion times one particular insta-kill enemy sent me to oblivion, but more on that later). As with the previous titles in the series however, the way Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is played is entirely down to the individual, so my play time isn’t saying much.

Being a tremendous fan of Dishonored, I’ll swallow anything related to it I can get. The Knife of Dunwall in particular stuck out as a true highlight, Dishonored at its peak. I’m not alone in thinking that Daud felt far more fleshed-out than Corvo as a protagonist, although this may partly be down the gravelly tones of Daud’s voice actor Michael Madsen. For this reason I was itching to see Daud reappear as more than just a passing mention, and my prayers were answered. My first-class seat on the hype train was booked from the moment this game was announced.

Snapshot - 6 — Billie reuintes with Daud

Although the old assassin does play a role in Death of the Outsider, players instead step into the boots of his one-time apprentice and second-in-command, Billie Lurk. Tasked with one last contract from her old mentor, Billie sets out to find a way to enter the Void and eliminate the Outsider himself. In true Dishonored fashion there is a choice in how this is achieved, although I took the lethal route.

Death of the Outsider plays virtually identically to the previous games. Billie has a small arsenal of physical weapons and supernatural powers at her disposal, although in this instance she is not branded with the Outsider’s Mark. Instead he takes her right arm and eye, replacing them with what amounts to pieces of the Void, allowing her powers to draw energy from the Void itself and for her energy meter to replenish itself fully over time. This dispenses with the requirement of collecting mana potions, leaving Billie with mostly unlimited use of her powers.

Being that the game is only an expansion, Billie’s skill set is more limited than Daud’s for example. There is no upgrade tree for her active or passive abilities, nor can she purchase new powers by collecting runes. The powers she does have, however, are unique to her character whilst remaining comfortingly familiar.

Billie’s Displace power is something of a cross between Blink and Emily’s Shadow Reach from Dishonored 2. As well as allowing her to cross wide gaps or climb to higher places, it also allows her to transport herself to the exact same spot occupied by another person: it transports her into that person and they explode from the inside out (this does cause Billie damage). This is termed Displace Interpenetration and is undeniably the coolest ability in the game.

Snapshot - 5 — Billie’s Displace power, with her ‘marker’ in place

She also has Foresight, the ability to project herself in spirit. Much like Dark Vision, it gives her the ability to mark enemies to view their movements/lines of sight through walls and identify bonecharms, useable items and important objects in the environment. The caveat with this power is that it drains her energy incredibly quickly, and she can’t stray too far from her physical body, making it sometimes impossible to scope out a heavily-guarded location from afar.

Semblance is her third and final power, although I only used this twice. Similar to Possession it allows her take the form of an unaware (human) NPC, although in this instance she is simply mimicking their outward appearance rather than using them as a meat suit (I found out the hard way impersonating a guard with this power does not trick Arc Pylons). It is a useful tool if you want to simply walk through a guard outpost, or if you’re trying for a ghost run and find yourself facing numerous enemies without much chance of picking them off one-by-one or navigating around them from above.

Snapshot - 10 — An Envisioned Cultist marked with Foresight, showing line of sight, patrol path and patrol end

One difference is the inability to upgrade Billie’s existing powers or purchase new ones. This omission is logical, seeing as Billie’s powers do not stem from the Outsider’s Mark and therefore runes would be of no use to her. Certain bonecharms can be found that do affect her supernatural abilities, such as extending the reach of her Foresight and increasing the number of enemies she can tag. Some of the passive powers from previous games can also be obtained as bonecharms, such as Agility.

As well as Billie’s unique powers, the game also introduces the original Clockwork Sentinels, featured heavily in the trailer for the second game, which were included due to them being a fan favourite. These Clockworks, whilst being decidedly more sinister in appearance thanks to their grinning faces, have the advantage that they do not, I repeat NOT, have the ability to see out of the back of their head. (As someone who hates the Clockworks in Dishonored 2 with the passion of a thousand suns for that very reason, I thank you Harvey).

The game itself spans five missions, starting with Billie’s rescue of and reunion with Daud and culminating in her facing the Outsider. Set in the gritty underbelly of Karnaca, players can find familiarity in not just getting their asses kicked by the game’s difficulty but also exploring the nooks and crannies, looting items for coin and of course listening to the same handful of NPC voice lines. Players will recognise the Royal Conservatory from Dishonored 2, which makes a reappearance as the setting of the fourth story mission. Karnaca is as visually striking and atmospheric as it was in Dishonored 2, the buildings much more dilapidated but still strangely pleasant. The atmosphere of a world awash with dangerous secrecy is palpable, especially in the final mission where an already creepy abandoned mine becomes a horrific eldritch world filled with crazed cultists and the aforementioned insta-kill enemies, the Envisioned, creatures that are remnants of the original cult responsible for creating the Outsider (by sacrificing an innocent teenage boy).

In addition to the main campaign objectives, Billie can also pick up a number of contracts from the black markets. These are optional side quests that pay a handsome amount of coin, or sometimes a bonecharm. Some contracts are simple, some need specific requirements to have been met. They vary from theft to multiple assassinations, and inject some true variety into a formula that can sometimes feel a bit monotonous.

The biggest difference, one that has been met with a mixed response, is the lack of a chaos system and with it the lack of the core message of the previous games: any decision, however big or small, affects the world around you and those in it. Ultimately, Billie killing civilians or sparing the Overseers bears no effect; there are no extra swarms of hungry rats or bloodflies, nor are the sewers crawling with Weepers. Ultimately, the impact of whether Billie is an unseen phantom, a blood-soaked psychopath or somewhere in between ends with the player’s own decision of how to play. I will say not having to worry about a chaos level made it far more comfortable for me to hack, slash and shoot my way through the game in places where I would’ve thought carefully about leaving everyone unharmed.

Snapshot - 7 — Nice little Prey Easter egg in the bank’s archives

Much like the previous games, the true strength lies in the holy trifecta: terrifically complex story, brilliantly written characters and astounding voice performances. The raw emotion audible in Billie’s voice after Daud’s death is heartbreaking. The relationship between master and apprentice is an example of unconditional trust: even after her betrayal in The Knife of Dunwall, Daud knows he can still count on Billie. The fatherly affection he feels for her is obvious in the diary entry he writes at the beginning of mission three, and his final audiograph in mission four. I’m not ashamed to admit listening to it made me cry.

Billie is driven by her loyalty to Daud and the will to complete his dying wish, but is also conflicted thanks to her own guilt at the life she led before. If you choose to kill the Outsider, there’s a tiredness within Billie as she resigns herself to being ‘just a murderer’, conceding that killers never change despite being given the chance. It’s this gem of writing and voice acting that means the ending, a simple action rather than an action-heavy brawl with a deity, was a fitting climax to the tale. This is all interwoven with Daniel Licht’s emotive soundtrack. Sometimes eerie and sinister, always somewhat bleak, each note of the ambient music ripples through the tense atmosphere of the game and provides a perfect backdrop to the game.

There’s a strange, hollow feeling that grips me as I write this. It’s the feeling one experiences at the end of an era, when the stories of beloved characters have come to their conclusion and been laid to rest. The entire series was a true masterpiece, an obvious labour of love packed with detail, and for this reason I think Death of the Outsider is a truly fitting swan song that is likely to stay with me for a long, long while.