#i am playing through the dishonored knife of dunwall DLC

[ask-ciaphas-cain]

I love videogames because they'll set you up like "you are a master assassin. Few know your name but those who do whisper it out of fear. You are a harbinger of change and an omen of ill fortune" and then you start playing and you immediately fall off of a rooftop and get beaten to death by the Pinkertons

[lncarnon]

@stingslikeabee I don't know anything about the media or muse but pls continue, art is pretty, I am interested (just overworked as per the norm aha)

oh my god i could talk about dishonored in general for a long ass time. i've played through the first game a dozen times, the dlcs a few, and the second game maybe three times now. but the knife of dunwall i've gone through at least eight times now and i always notice something new while running it. (and the art style is so cool it borders cartoony while being realistic and its just ugh love it)

daud has a very dry sense of humor and personality. it would be easy to miss his sarcasm as being something serious because he doesn't give any indication that he is not being genuine, which i'm sure he enjoys because it puts people on edge. he enjoys being the big bad dog in the room. he rose up from nothing because of his mark from the outsider (that which gave him his abilities) and it definitely went to his head by the time he kills the empress. her death and what happens afterwards definitely snaps him out of that power grab.

[exultedshores]

🔥 Billie lurk :3

(Send Me a 🔥 + a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It)

*John Mulaney voice* That’s my wife!

Confession time: when I played through the Knife of Dunwall DLC for the first time, I hated Billie. Always transversing right in front of you (causing several heart attacks, my life expectancy has gone down by a decade at least), always suggesting the most sadistic options, always with the fucking sass – and then, of course, the betrayal itself, which, surprise, did not help endear her to me very much. It was a high chaos playthrough, so I had no choice but to fight and kill her. I wasn’t sad to see her gone in the Brigmore Witches DLC, not in the least because Thomas is just such a polite breath of fresh air in comparison.

Goes to show that first impressions aren’t as important as people make them out to be, because Billie? Billie is amazing. I love Billie. I would die for Billie. If you even look at Billie sideways I will stomp you to death with my hooves.

Because after that first impression, I played through the Knife of Dunwall again, in low chaos this time. And Billie was still sassy. And she was still causing heart attacks. But she got less violent over the course of the missions, choking people out instead of killing them, suggesting helpful things. And her low chaos betrayal scene had me in tears – I was so amazed at her for standing up to Delilah and admitting that Daud had become the better person out of the two them, literally putting her life in his hands. I couldn’t kill her. To this day when I replay KoD, I still can’t (I did it exactly one time, just to see the scene; I cried and reloaded immediately).

I was intrigued, so I started learning more about her. I actually read her journal (which I’d shamefully neglected before, because you find it at the start of the Surge mission and saving the Whalers is much more important than snooping through Billie’s things), and I was amazed at how well she’d survived her awful childhood, as well as at how young she actually was during the events of the DLC. And I went from hating her to appreciating her for the good character she is – and I hoped she would find her happiness, out there in the world somewhere.

But then. Then came Dishonored 2. And Billie went from ‘this is a good character’ to ‘oh my fucking god I love her’. Meagan Foster is just… I don’t even have the words. The sarcasm? The guilt complex? The soft relationship she has with Sokolov? Her friendship with Aramis? D e i r d r e? Amazing. She’s a badass, and just the fact that she went and pulled her life together, got a ship like she always wanted and made friends after everything that happened in her youth – incredible. She definitely handled her guilt better than Daud, with his ‘let’s go to Tyvia and carve wooden owls for about a decade’; she even went back to Dunwall to warn Corvo about the coup despite the obvious reservations she must’ve had about that (especially without Sokolov to back her up), and I was so impressed with her. I am so impressed with her. What a woman.

I also love that she was the protagonist of Death of the Outsider, because she definitely deserved her own game. I have some choice words about the writing of DotO, but Billie and her dry wit are what made the game for me. Just the perfect flat delivery of “A secret knock? Really?” was worth buying the game for. Rosario Dawson is a gift.

Tl;dr: in this house we love and respect Billie Lurk.

[theflyingsealion]

This poster cracks me up in retrospect

Because in the original Dishonored it was just kind of creepy and played up the idea of Daud as a mysterious supernatural assassin, where the watch didn’t even have an image of him. But then if you play the dlcs you realize that everyone in Dunwall knows what Daud looks like. The random slaughterhouse workers you can free in Knife of Dunwall recognize you on sight, Abagail Ames launches into a buisness proposal 20 seconds after laying eyes on him, the non-lethal option in Eminent Domain (at least how I played it) is that you fall through a roof and there’s a random guy sitting there like “just the man I wanted to see!”

What I’m getting at here is that this conversation definitely happened:

Poster Artist: Alright, that’s the reward and the list of charges settled. For the portrait...uh...do any of you know what he looks like? Because, I mean, I sure don’t.

Watch Captain, who hired him to kill someone last month: Ha ha, no, why would I know that????

Noble, who hired him to kill someone last week: I’ve never seen this man in my life

Overseer, who got his ass kicked yesterday but doesn’t want to admit it: I’m pretty sure no one has. Ever. We probably shouldn’t even bother to ask around.

Poster Artist, who saw him on a roof once but definitely isn’t a narc: ...

Poster Artist: Yeah, ok, how about I just give him a mask?

[enby-freeman]

Video games..... what are your favorites. Feel free to go off about them

Man I LOVE Dishonored and Bioshock. Those games mean the world to me, they themselves along with Portal and later HL are what really got me into properly appreciating video games!

I like games that force you to think and figure things out. "How am I going to do this without getting caught?" or "How do I go about this puzzle properly and not feraly?"

I also like games that give you power but are like "Be careful with this. You might make everyone hate you and be a villain." Idk. They're fun? Their stories are fun? Dishonored 1 left a little something to be desired but I appreciate it. Knife of Dunwall was a lot of fun to play because Daud wasn't a silent protagonist like Corvo so it was something totally different.

Dishonored 2 gave you a whole house that was basically a big puzzle and also a big pain in the ass to get through with its robots. I've played through Dishonored 2 so many times I could honestly remember every level like the back of my hand. I like that it gives you the option to play as Corvo or Emily, and that both of their stories are pretty different even if they follow the same story line. Along with the fact that they both have their own multiple endings.

And then theres Death of the Outsider. I loved Death of the Outsider. I know its not a particularly enjoyed DLC in the Dishonored line of games but its really nice to go back through now and again. Get to know both Billie and the Outsider a bit better.

And the Bioshock series

The first game is always fantastic, the second game slaps and made me cry thanks Sinclair fuck you, Bioshock Infinite is alright? Idk. Its what got me into the series and also where I got the name Booker (which is why Im Crow Booker) but its not nearly as good as the others? Burial at Sea is....eh....its okay?...Its okay.

Minerva's Den tho, that DLC? Love it. I love Porter's story. I love the way it slowly makes you realize who you are through it. Its a short game, but its a good game. I enjoyed it a lot.

The Book? The books alright. A good read to go back and read through now and again for info on other characters that you dont get much chance to know in game.

Portal and Portal 2 are always fantastic and never fail to give me a good time. Half Life, doesn't matter what game it is, makes me feral.

I also enjoy the Ace Attorney series and the Professor Layton series. Sometimes you need a change of pace and visual novels / fun puzzle games are good for that!

Yall already know how much I love Slime Rancher.

[pallideinanis]

Dishonored’s The Outsider :::: RP Starters

Alright kids, I wanted to experiment a little bit and get to know my character more so I WENT THROUGH AAAAAAALL OF HIS DIALOGUE (which includes all three games, both dlcs and the trailers for both Dishonored 1 and 2...) and have presented some of his lines for you all to use for prompts! Those that wish to avoid spoilers, please tread carefully.

Oh! And feel free to change the pronouns. :)

DISHONORED “My dear _____. What a sad hand fate has dealt you.” “We know what really happened, don’t we?” “You don’t want to end your life to the sound of idiots cheering as your head hits the muck, do you?” “Let’s see if we can do better.” “And to make things interesting…. My Mark.” “Consider it a gift.” “Your life has taken a turn, has it not? “You will play a pivotal role in the days to come.” “For this, I have chosen you and drawn you into the Void.” “I am the Outsider and this is my Mark.” “Use this new-found power, my gift to you.” “Come find me.” “In the days that follow, your trials will be great, _____.” “These runes will grant you power beyond those of other men.” “I give you this, the Heart of a living thing, molded by my hands.” “How you use what I have given you falls upon you.” “Know that I will be watching with great interest.” “You wouldn’t recognize her name, or even the name of her family.” “An emperor begged for her hand, once.” “Then she made a different choice.” “What will you do, I wonder?” “Now your choices interest me.” “I’m older than the rocks this place was built on, and even I didn’t see that coming.” “I suppose I should thank you.” “Rivers change course over many lifetimes, and eventually, all bridges tumble down.” “He’s not special like you are.” “If he really wants to meet me, he could start by being a bit more interesting.” “Going to a party, _____?” “I can see all her tomorrows.” “Will you tear it all to pieces?” “Either way, it’s _____’s last party.” “I suppose she had to go.” “What choice did you have?” “Here you are, _____, within the high walls of your enemy’s stronghold.” “How will you end his reign? By blood or by truth?” “He’s not an easy man to get close to.” “Is it just revenge you’re after? Or do you have another plan in mind?” “Will you restore things? Make it all right again?” “Or will you send them all howling into the Void?” “Either way, I expect a good show.” “You’re an unstoppable force, it seems…But also unpredictable.” “And that is most surprising.” “He must have realized that all his planning was for nothing.” “That must have been exquisitely terrifying.” “But in the end, you chose the more measured response.” “What will that mean in the days to come, I wonder?” “I’ve lived a long, long time, and these are the moments I wait for.” “The scent of his blood is still fresh in the air.” “My, how you’ve changed things.” “The truth is, he knew he deserved to die.” “Don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you he deserved sympathy.” “The worst part must have been knowing it was all his fault.” “Here you are at last, in a ruined and drowning world.” “Your friends poisoned you and dumped your body in the river.” “Did they do it to protect themselves, so no one would ever know what they had done?” “Perhaps that’s just the nature of man.” “You find your way into such interesting places, _____.” “How does it feel knowing your allies betrayed you?” “Strange how there’s always a little more innocence left to lose.” “You had him in the palm of your hand and you let him walk away?” “You fascinate me.” “Was it the primal desire to rise above other men?” “Do you even know why?” “You watched and listened while other men would have shouted in rage.” “You held back instead of striking.” “What will history tell us?” “Whether the stories told mention you by name or not, she will remember you were there, _____.” “I don’t know about you, _____ , but I’ve had a lovely time.” “Soon there will be nothing left for the rats.” “All it needed was the right man to send it over the edge.” “But now you’ll be off over the horizon on an outbound ship.” “I wonder. Are you chasing something? Or running away?”

KNIFE OF DUNWALL “_____, my old friend, it’s been a long while, but you got my interest again.” “How the years pass and the bodies fall.” “Did you know there are only eight like you in the world, bearing my Mark?” “I’m here because you’re right.” “This time, you can’t just fade away into the shadows.” “There will be consequences.” “Your story is close to ending, and even you can’t escape it.” “But what ending will you make for yourself?” “I’m here to give you one last gift, _____.” “It’s a mystery.” “Here’s one last lesson, for old time’s sake.” “I see everything. I see forever.” “And right now I see a man walking a tightrope over a sea of blood and filth.” “The Empress is dead and the water’s rising.” “Surprisingly clean work for a man with so much blood on his hands.” “Do you think this will help you dodge what’s coming?” “You better hurry. You’re running out of rope.” “You left a mess on the killing floor,  _____.” “I guess you know by now these things have a way of catching up with you.” “But maybe you’re past caring.” “At the last moment you seem to be acquiring a curious sense of justice.” “Funny how the final days always mean so much.” “He died before he could say his last words.” “She watched you. Learned from you. And then she saw you losing your grip.” “_____, who spared his betrayer’s life.” “When she saw weakness, she struck. Just like you taught her.” “Only you were a little better.” “In the seconds before she died, she remembered the first time she met you.” “She had no regrets. And you, _____?” “You once told me _____ was your finest pupil.” “She proved to be more ruthless and deceptive than you thought.” “But she was no match for you.” “I wonder what the final chapter will be.” “What happens to scary monsters, in the end?” BRIGMORE WITCHES “You keep surprising me, _____.” “I wonder? Are you hoping it will change the way things will work out?” “The song’s almost over. And when the music stops, we all fall down.” “This is the _____ I remember!” “They soon won’t forget you, either.” “What a relief. Life has been remarkably grim in Dunwall lately.” “But in the long view, a smoking ruin makes as good a monument as any.” “Hello, _____. I’m enjoying renewing our friendship, if we can call it that.” “You’ve become quite the peacemaker, _____.” “Be careful what you do.” “You’ve always been canny, a spider in the web of the city.” “But you may out-do yourself on this little adventure.” “It’s the moment just before the light goes that matters most.” “I can see nothing’s going to stop you.” “You’ll cover yourself in blood if you have to.” “He lived a long time and knew many secrets that were lost with him.” “Did you take pity on him or was it simply easier to get what you needed that way?” “You’re putting it together, aren’t you?” “It’s not easy. _____ is exceedingly bright.” “Change is coming, and  _____ has a plan. But do you, _____?” “What will you do with what you find there?” “_____ knows you’re coming, cutting a bloody path through the city in search of her.” “She’s afraid of you.” “I wish you luck.” “I don’t decide who wins and whose body gets tossed into the river to rot.” “But I enjoy watching.” “You have many talents, _____, and they’ve served you.” “We’re witnessing her masterpiece, and perhaps yours as well.” “I gave you _____’s name and you followed it to this moment.” “You see now what hangs in the balance.” “In your long life I’ve rarely seen you act with such consummate grace.” “I give my mark sparingly and I don’t play favorites but I will watch this… with unusual attention.” “Now you understand what you were doing all along.” “The next few moments may be the last choices you make in your life.” “There are times when I delight in seeing lives ends and chaos spread.” “The path you’ve taken here honors your skills.” “I give my mark sparingly, _____.” “You’ve taken a bloody road here, and no one has enjoyed it more than I.” “But there are still a few more choices left to make.” “The end is coming.” “It’s been glorious to watch you throw your will against the machinery you set in motion.” “All things end, all things burn to ash. But you, my friend, burn bright.” “You make an eloquent plea for a man with innocent blood on his hands.” “It’s a shame _____ doesn’t know the real story, isn’t it?” “You make your own choice, and accept the price.”

DISHONORED 2 “It’s happened again: someone’s pulled the rug out from under you.” “An empire at your feet and you’ve lost it all.” “Be honest, did you really deserve any of it?” “More important, what would you do to get it back?” “Careful, there’s always a price to pay. What you decide will ripple across the years.” “Blood in the gutters and corruption on the wind… It will be fun watching this unfold.” “What will you do with the power I’ve given you?” “How will you make your mark on this wretched world?” ”The years are long, but it’s always good to see a familiar face.” “_____ old friend, do I even have to say it?” “Fifteen years ago _____ could have warned you about her, if you had bothered to ask.” “But you were too busy for questions.” “Times have changed, _____, and you haven’t been watching the dark corners of the world.” “Maybe living in a palace has made you soft.” “What happens when you push a man farther than he ever thought he could go? Does he snap?” “What happens when he tries to go home?” “Maybe you’ll finally know what it feels like to kill an empress.” “_____ could have told you about that, too.” “There’s no one quite like _____.” “She took all the abuse the world could deal out, and now she has a crown.” “But I’ll let you in on a secret; she’s got her eyes on a much greater prize.” “I gave you my mark for a reason.” “I wanted to know what happens when you take an honorable man’s life away.” “What will he do, given the chance?” “And what a sight it was.” “You gave yourself over to blood and terror, and gave it everything you had.” “Then you spent fifteen years making sure it wouldn’t happen again.” “Will you do it all again? Where is that good man now?” “I’m a friend of your father’s from the bad old days.” “I never expected us to meet.” “I thought that was the end of the excitement.” “You’ve lost your throne and your father… And I promise, _____ won’t just give them back.” “So what are you prepared to do about it, _____?” “And are you clever enough to do it without spilling a river of blood?” “I asked _____ these same questions fifteen years ago.” “This is the moment that changed him. Now it’s your turn.” “How many of your own subjects are you willing to slaughter and what are you willing to become?” “We’ve both seen cities go bad before.” “I hope you’re ready.” “Did you miss it? The years that made you who you are? Don’t deny it.” “Welcome back. Welcome home.” “People like you and _____ are a part of places like this.” “But you’ll always remember the truth, won’t you? Your truth, at least.” “Look at you, making your way across this shuddering city.” “You know he’d be happier deep down if this ended with _____’s head on a spike.” “Look at you, leaving a trail of bloody boot prints across this dying city.” “He doesn’t care a fig for me.” “What will he leave behind? And what about you? Who will you leave behind to pick up the pieces?” “Three years ago, something inside of _____ snapped like a cheap lock.” “The Void is not exactly a place, and it is much older and stranger than you could ever know.” “See for yourself what they did.” “Look around you, a crumbling island at the very edges of the Void.” “But this one is special.” “It’s the place where my life ended and began again.” “It’s where they made me.” “Right up until the end I thought I’d find a way to escape.” “I fought but the ropes cut my skin and I went limp.” “And the knife touched my throat and I knew I had waited too long.” “The blood ran out and I became a god.” “_____ is… a part of me now. And I don’t like it.” “You have to give _____ credit.” “But what comes after that might be the hardest thing you will ever have to do.” “You’re back at the heart of your homeland.” “Feeling nostalgic?” “Will you ever be comfortable in _____ again, assuming you make it back?” “You’ve seen the suffering here, the decay.” “Here you are back among your own people.” “Are you feeling more comfortable, _____?” “It never seemed to bother you before.” “Maybe it looks different up close.” “In any case, I know what you’re after.” “You better be ready to leave something behind.” “_____’s waiting for you.” “_____’s been waiting for you with murder in her heart, but also fear.” “All hail the victor, assuming there’s anyone left to celebrate.” “But now she’s got a secret as well.” DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER “She can see it all.” “We carry what was done to us throughout our endless days.” “No one asked if we wanted it.” “I’ve seen the bones these places are built on.” “I’ve seen them under the mud in the riverbanks, under the stones in the streets.” “It will all shudder and writhe.” “All the old boundaries are falling apart.” “She  watches them crumbling.” “They cower, fearful, and try and halt the tides.” “A thousand lives, a thousand choices, all converged into one wounded body, one wounded mind.” “Let me tell you something about the Void, _____.” “It touches the minds of the dreaming and the dying alike.” “And sometimes, dreams can only tell you what you wanted to forget.” “People usually want something from me. But you don’t want my Mark, do you _____?” “So, I will return something you lost.” “The world was wounded around you, and you carry the scars.” “You will never be the same… I wonder if you’ll like that?” “There is death in their dark eyes.” “They kill and dive deep to escape the slaughter.” “They scramble to find meaning while each day cuts deeper into their throats.” “Some want revenge, others just want peace.” “There is freedom in being hated.” “There is license in being cast out.” “Some learn this lesson a little too well.” “You and I were both abandoned to uncertain futures on dangerous streets.” “_____ spared your life all those years ago.” “But I was taught a lesson that you still haven’t learned.” “Some wounds stay with you, even in the Void.” “Time repeats in the same unending patterns.” “Four thousand years ago, this knife cut my name away…Forgotten forever.” “You know what it’s like to lose one name and live with another.” “We are all made from the things that are taken from us.” “I know more than most.” “I know that time is bleeding itself around you.” “I know that you have felt it.” “I know that _____ is dead where you left him on your ruined ship.” “And I know that you will carry that knife to face me at the black center of all things.” “I’m here because you are different.” “The Void has found you through the cracks in your broken life.” “And when you cut me out of it, what will remain?" “What will you leave behind when you walk away?” “The Void tempts mysteries and craves answers.” “Bones and dead things, thrown into the dirt.” “They scream against the indifference and whisper questions.” “I died because they demanded it.” “But soon there won’t be any more demands.” “They won’t meet my gaze.” “She will peel back all the lies and symbols.” “For some, a catastrophe. For others, a revelation.” “And for some, my death will be a promise.” “What will it be like, to finally experience and ending?” “I see forever, and even I can’t see that future.” “When I died, this world was remade… And when I die again…” “Soon she will see me unobscured.” “The age closes around us all like rows of black teeth.” “I can taste blood in my mouth.” “I can hear _____’s voice in my ear.” “You have done something impossible.” “These eyes were closed for centuries. And I saw…everything.” “Bound here, I walked through the minds of generations.” “I see...I see… There are no choices left.”

[doctorpariahdax]

Stick around Corvo fans-How Daud was thrown away and enlightened as a character in Dishonored series.

This is gonna be long so buckle up kiddos. There's a couple things that immediately come to mind for fans of the Dishonored universe and from what I've come across is that you either love Daud or you hate him. And I don't think that's directly a flaw with the character himself but how he was presented. There are a couple things I want to list that I'll further elaborate on that pertain to how Daud was thrown away as a character (ruined) and elaborated on. -dauds inital purpose -mercy or le death -yay classic redemption arc - except lol maybe not what did you do -true character nature -the marked and the outsider's approval -the purpose of doto -the end of daud Now to give you full disclosure I have not yet run through all of Dishonored 2 or doto. I am by no means a completionist, I don't feel pressured to explore every nook and cranny just for some obscure letter written by one of Delilah's witches that tells you something about someone somewhere about hlahblahblhab. Now because I'm a responsible impulse efficient and self controlled person roaming social media I spoiled the end of doto for myself and I am deeply saddened because Daud is my favorite character. I don't know if it's a kink of mine to like dangerous emotionally unavailable and unattainable men (cuz he's ded. Lel nah he's fictional) but Daud was genuinely more interesting to me than Corvo. This is not to say that the first Dishonored is bad, but the story was lacking for me - I'm very much a story seeker- and when the game first came out I played the intro and immediately set down the game thinking, "ehng...". When I decided to give Dishonored another try (*cough this summer cough six years later cough*) I kept going not because of my interest in Corvo or the outsider, or getting Emily back safely (don't get me wrong I like kids but Corvo is either best or worst parent and I can't decide which); I kept going because I wanted to know more about the "villain". He's an assassin, a merc for hire which to me meant his character is either going to be really deep or inexplicably shallow. I was upset at first, he wasn't in the game as much as I thought he would be but Dishonored has a tendency to shove information by into your face /after the fact/. I spared the villain hoping I would see him again. I didn't. ....until I found out there were dlc's. Staying with my rant? Digital cookie for you. Dishonored's story telling was on par and in many cases far better than the knife of dunwall, but the first dlc was very much a setup for the brigmore witches dlc, which in turn was what I think the best story telling in the whole Dishonored series.. Gonna go into my points listed above now because either don't want you to read through this thinking it was total anxiety induced stress writing (...which it definitely isn't....by the way....) There's a general healthy mindset that people inherently dislike villains, evil doers and all round moral miscreants, Daud being an assassin for hire and not much more in Dishonored as his initial purpose was already be placed in a rough position that a portion of players might find amiable but mostly for his badassery and not much in the character development isle. The way I see it is that you first are greeted with Daud's be character development in one of two ways(or a blend): you want Corvo to be moral and spare Daud, or upon hearing that Daud reports to you there's something by inside of him suffering you spare him to let him suffer more. Daud's intial purpose was to be a 'bad guy' and in either scenario he is still seen as being the bad guy or getting a cliche "this is worse than death and you deserve to suffer" sort of ending. When you come to knife of dunwall Daud is...tired. there's no simpler way for me to describe it. He's lived above and away from any higher power than himself (cuz we all know the outsider doesn't seem to give a hair on his left ball about Daud but he'd dress in drag and do the hula for Corvo...#dauddeservesbetterfriends) And we know or at least can vetire the thought that Daud has adjusted to his life as a killer, but he doesn't seem active enjoyment from it. I'm not exonerating Daud's tendency for murder, but think of it this way, he is a serial killer by death count but he's not a Ted Bundy or Hannibal Lecter. Killing doesn't give him satisfacyion, it is just a job and people are hard to become attached to when you have to look at them often as return receipts and cashiers. That's not to say that Daud doesn't feel love. I genuinely think he loved Billie as a sort of best friend and daughter. The death of empress kaldwin has hit daud hard too. He knew it was a bad idea but it was habit, it was just a contract, and jessamine meant nothing of compromise to Daud personally. When Daud is betrayed by Billie and given a death date from the outsider Daud has already submitted in some form to his own fleeting mortality and is pained after decades of his reputation getting ahead of himself to the point where he wouldn't say 'no' to a contract. I feel that Daud felt as though he was becoming more of a Lecter esque serial killer to the public, that who he was, his identity had been lost underneath the bodies he's left in his wake...and he regrets all of it, realizing its futility, pointlessness. People are just contracts to him, but he never actively sought to I'll with the purpose of hurting the very fiber of others' existence... When you spare Daud as Corvo his single line proclaiming how extraordinary your willingness to give him clemency is isn't a line to me that was ultimately thrown to the wind, it was something that genuinely sparked upset and fascination in Daud. Corvo did something Daud hadn't done since he had moved from serkonos, and without the incentive of pay - Corvo decided to spare a life. That ruptures something deeply in Daud, who had already endured his midlife crisis and brings me to the third bullet point "classic redemption arc" although it does matter what you do....that changes Daud's character to me...idk. All in all the only right way I saw to play brigmore witches was to go non-lethal stealth...and trick Delilah into her own spell. Daud is a master assassin. It made no sense for him to merely go jumping around murdering everyone who saw him (this is how I initially played Corvo because dayum I was bad at stealth games also pc controls, but then again Corvo isn't a master assassin when you first meet him...Daud is). After a struggle with Delilah, you hold onto the platform and read her citations and she flies off of you, into the painting, I wanted there to be a classic breathless hero who mutters calmly "gotta quit smoking" ( drum crash) and goes about his business. But! Something I feel a lot of fans of Dishonored overlook is that Daud had no need to further pursue Delilah. He could easily have faded into obscurity around the second mission when he realized that Delilah was after Emily and not him, but he ventures forward, accepting his fate - tired and downtrodden about his choices and the inevitable futility of his fate- in the efforts to save the life and hope that still exists in young Emily, the daughter of the empress he murdered right before her eyes. It's a move of an apology, a silent, self accepting apology with no further requirements for acknowledgement. Which brings me to the true nature of daud in addition to the nature and approval of the outsider to his marked ones. Daud in canon does not kill but traps Delilah. Daud is a mater assassin. He's quick he's quiet he is an efficient man with little room in his life or care for killing as a sport....he is to some extent evil, but he is not incapable of doing good to simply do good. The outsider is decribed furtively as a true neutral character who appeals to the benevolent options but is known to commit 'evil' by not intervening. He seems to be a strong advocate of free will but does extend the occasional helpful hint to his marked ones. Daud is told by the outsider that how he handles Delilah will be viewed with great curiosity which is another added caveat to Daud's evolution as a character and devolution as an identity. The outsider became bored with Daud, stopped willingly checking on him, but when Daud does the 'unusual' sparing Delilah but torturing her for (what was supposed to be eternal) ...he gains the outsider's favor, even if for juat a moment. He fades into obscurity for both Corvo and the outsider, even to his own men, abandoning the identity of 'daud' and presumably not going on a killing spree. The purpose of doto.....I'm not 100% sure of a 'purpose', but doto makes or breaks Daud for most people. For me it did both. But it didn't break Daud's character development for me because he saw the outsider specifically as an excuse for all the murder and the theiving and the murder and did I mention Daud murdered? He had to kill the outsider to prevent another 'daud'. The outsider was the omniscient condoner. 'daud' would not have ever easily existed to such fame or success without the aid and the passive/spontaneous condoning of the outsider and his abilities. Few be if any would have managed to be a 'daud' identity without being able to be so far above the confines of human abolity to cheat mortal instruments of death.... Corvo and his attempt to save Emily would have been a fly's breath shy of impossible without the outsider to tinker with the impossibilities. Daud's action to kill the outsider was selfish, I can see and agree with that, but he only wanted to destroy the exoneration of evil, not to simply forgive his transgressions by eradicating and blaming the one who allowed and corroborated with him to be such. How doto has presented Daud in doto and how many people have received and reacted to Daud's presented purpose in doto did misrepresent and destroy in some regards the development they took with Daud's character, but let me reiterate that his character development itself was not thrown out the window, it was how his character was presented in a plot and the narrative around doto. ...let me again remind you I said I haven't exactly finished doto....because I spoiled it for myself and I don't want Daud to die...again....finally? Maybe not the right words - oh look I've made myself sad, fancy that - but the point. Of this ramble which now I don't know how to end and I don't think I've ever spent so long on Tumblr in one sitting .... Daud is not a poorly constructed character. Doto poorly presented him and he deserved better. Doto also made Daud's character solidfied. He's not a gentle being. He's stern, violent, reserved and determined, but he's also deeply emotional and self loathing. He aspires to destroy the outsider because of what the outsider allowed in to do, he did not pursue or seek to blame the outsider into naively forgiving himself for the crimes he committed. It was a matter of settling his conscience. Probably with the abuse of his powers, a lot of stress, whiskey, cigars, and breaking a handful of bones repeatedly over his career and his guilt Daud was well aware he was on his deathbed long before Billie found him and he had been haunted by his blindness and decades of him /having forgiven and forgotten/ his crimes that it drove him to death. Daud is not a poorly constructed character. I would argue he was a character that the Dishonored series put the most time and effort into.

[terramythos]

Review: Dishonored -- The Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches DLC (2013) by Arkane Studios

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Dark, Stealth, First-Person, Single Player, Great Story, Strong Worldbuilding, Steampunk (Sorta), Moral Choice, Dystopia, Redemption Arc (Depending).

Warning(s): Standard M-rating stuff; similar to the main game. The world is messed up and you can make that better or worse. Fairly graphic depictions of torture, including animals.

Playthrough Notes: Played Normal Difficulty, Low Chaos, No Detection or Kills, on PC (I got one detection on the last level and I’ll go back and fix it; no idea what it was).

My Rating: 4/5 (Recommended)

**Minor Spoilers and My Thoughts Follow** 

"Your story is close to ending, and even you can't escape it. But what ending will you make for yourself? I'm here to give you one last gift, Daud. It's a mystery. One that starts with a name - Delilah." - The Outsider

Note: I am reviewing both DLC packs, since they are one connected story.

My Summary: Remember Daud, the dude who killed the Empress in the base game? Well, turns out he’s feeling a bit off about that whole thing. As an assassin marked by The Outsider, Daud has killed a lot of people in his life, but this one feels different.

The Outsider pays Daud a visit, says some cryptic stuff about fate and destiny, then throws a name at him -- Delilah.

The remainder of the game follows Daud as he tries to piece together who this Delilah is. Assisted by his second-in-command Billie Lurk, Daud eventually deduces her identity. She’s a powerful witch also marked by The Outsider, and she has a plan she wants Daud far away from. The two antagonize each other before things, as usual, come to a head.

The Good:

Had many memorable levels in terms of design and aesthetic. The Slaughterhouse, Draper’s Row, and the Brigmore Manor come to mind especially. Generally, the level design felt stronger and more distinct than the base game.

Like in the base game, the stealth-style gameplay was very enjoyable. It felt tense and methodical, and the ability to use spells transforms the standard stealth elements. Notably, the DLC mixes things up enough that it still felt fresh. For example, Daud’s version of Blink freezes time, which changes how the whole thing feels.

Daud was an interesting protagonist. Unlike Corvo, he’s not silent, so we do get to hear his thoughts and feelings (although he is a pretty quiet guy). He’s certainly a morally gray figure based on what we already know about him. Playing low chaos, the game frames his story as a redemption arc, and I feel it does a good job with it. Daud’s a great choice for a DLC “day in the limelight” type of character and he makes a good foil to Corvo.

Complex female characters. The base game had interesting female characters, but not many central to the narrative other than Emily. Between Billie Lurk, Delilah, and several side characters, the DLC features enough interesting women that I felt spoiled.

The conflict between Daud and Delilah could have felt forced-- but it didn’t. There’s a lot of setup and confrontation between the two before the end of the story, and the barbs they trade make the conflict feel believable.

Was great for additional worldbuilding. I wanted to know more lore at the end of the main game, and this expands on interesting stuff. Whales, how do they work? (I really wanted to know, okay?)

Since I played this with stealth, I took my time through most levels. I felt I got a lot of bang for my buck, as the DLC took a long time to beat and I felt consistently entertained.

The character designs were badass-- Daud’s assassins, the Brigmore Witches, the two rival gangs? They all felt so distinct; I really dug it. 

The Mediocre:

I’m somewhat neutral to this, but I feel it’s worth mentioning. The DLC reused two levels from the main game-- Daud’s Hideout and Coldridge Prison. For a DLC I’m paying additional money for, it doesn’t feel great for a third of the content to be a rehash. I can let this slide a little for a few reasons. To the credit of the developers, they both make story sense and are approached in much different ways, which makes them feel a bit less stale. I can also appreciate seeing something from a different perspective, since Daud is a foil for Corvo. Budget might have been a concern here, but I would rather have new content if I’m paying extra.

The story was interesting, but the base game had a stronger one. This is common for DLC (unless you’re Fallout New Vegas). With the exception of Delilah, the targets felt rather disconnected from the main story-- one-off villains I’m getting rid of for… x objective. This was not the case in the main game, where all of the targets have a purpose and are connected to an overarching story.

As before, some glitches. This time I didn’t run into anything major, but there were some annoying ones, like jumps not working properly or clipping problems. 

The Bad:

Nothing major.

Final Thoughts:

Overall this was a fun DLC-- another good time through Dunwall and an interesting exploration of the world and lore. I thought Daud was a great choice as a DLC protagonist, and the game did a good job differentiating him from Corvo both for story and gameplay.

Is it as good as the main game? No. To be fair, that’s a difficult thing for any DLC to accomplish, and I’ve rarely seen it done. I will say, however, that this is above average for a story DLC, as it contains lots of content and interesting lore/characters. It’s connected to the main story in ways you wouldn’t expect rather than being a total side thing. That being said, it felt separate enough from the whole pandemic/political corruption of the main game, which was a nice break.

I’d say that if you enjoyed Dishonored and wanted more from the world, this DLC is perfect for you. I really did enjoy it, and it seems like a good story segue into Dishonored 2. Which I plan on playing next!

[syrupwit]

Letter for Femslash After Dark 2018

Hi writer! Thank you very much for creating a work for me! I hope this letter will inspire or at least mildly entertain you. If you have an idea that diverges from my prompts but doesn’t cross my DNWs, please go for it -- I’m just spitballing, as they say. (As someone presumably says, somewhere.)

I should note that I’m slightly more into this exchange for dark themes than for smut, but I 100% don’t object to non-dark smut either! All in favor of smut.  

DNW: Unrelenting grimness, entirely miserable stories with entirely miserable endings, guro/gore meant to titillate, children in sexual situations, kinks commonly considered “opt-in” (scat, bestiality, etc.), 24/7 BDSM, unrequested identity headcanons, issuefic.

Do Want: Dark themes and content, complicated relationships that may or may not merit the label “unhealthy”, twisted/one-sided/manipulative relationships that decidedly merit the label “unhealthy”, explicit sexual content, sexuality-related angst, dubcon, enthusiastic consent, Bad Ends, hurt/comfort, possessiveness, bondage, Stockholm/Lima syndrome, emphasis on age difference in pairings where it applies, humiliation, dirty talk, “this isn’t technically sex because xyz (except it’s totally sex)”, aliens and robots misunderstanding human stuff but trying really hard to get it right anyway. 

-

DISHONORED

The worldbuilding and characters in this game have me consistently like ♥_♥. I’ve spent way too much time playing it! Waaaaaay too much time. I’m only through The Brigmore Witches DLC, so... avoid extensive spoilers for Dishonored 2 or Death of the Outsider if you can help it, please. I’m spoiled on a few things, like Delilah’s good ending in DH2, but the bulk of it is mystery.

For this exchange, I’ve requested Delilah ships featuring characters introduced in the first game and its DLCs.

Delilah Copperspoon/Billie Lurk | Meagan Foster

Lots to work with here! I feel like these two could have serious chemistry of the “this is definitely going to explode” variety, in addition to the whole canonical betrayal / manipulation thing.

Prompts:

How do they meet? Fugue Feast encounter, “happenstance” that Billie later realizes was calculated, honest actual happenstance, fleeing a botched job, spying on the same mark, what?

Delilah makes Billie pay for that “bit of a bitch” comment in the Timsh estate.

AU: After Billie defeats Daud at the end of The Knife of Dunwall, she expects to assume control of the Whalers. Delilah has other ideas.

AU: Delilah’s plans succeed in The Brigmore Witches and she goes to track Billie down. (If she’s in Emily’s body at this point, I’d prefer no sexual content unless Emily is an adult.) Dark themes? Draw the curtains and turn out the lights, we’re heading to shadowtown.

Delilah Copperspoon/Lizzy Stride

Though she only appears in one of the DLCs, Lizzy ranks among my favorite Dishonored characters. I adore her pointy teeth, her awful bare feet, and her zest for the life of crime. Delilah could chew her up and spit her out, but do I want her to? Maybe.

Prompts:

Something goes haywire in the Brigmore Manor mission, and Delilah ends up taking Lizzy captive (crew optional).

Fugue Feast! Cutting loose and having fun with a distinguished (Delilah) or rowdy (Lizzy) stranger. Maybe they wear attend the same wild party. Maybe they run around in the street sharing bottles of whiskey. Maybe they’re teenagers and Lizzy wants to impress / mess around with / brag about having gotten it on with the arrogant lady in the pretty mask. Maybe Lizzy bosses Delilah around, or vice versa, or both. Just show me these women enjoying themselves at an event where they feel entitled to do so.

AU: Empress Delilah takes a keen interest in the affairs of a certain minor crime boss. (Is Lizzy her lover? Does she want something from her? Is this a fantasy in Delilah’s dream?)

AU: Delilah, not Daud, is the one who breaks Lizzy out of Coldridge.

Delilah Copperspoon/Vera Moray | Granny Rags

As may become apparent, I’m fascinated by evil old lady witches. Granny Rags is an excellent example of such and I am quite fond of her.

As far as I know, these two haven’t encountered each other in canon, but I’d imagine they’d have a power struggle or an uneasy alliance if they did... or, who knows?

Prompts:

Delilah and Granny Rags meet at an Outsider shrine.

Delilah's attempts to form an alliance with Slackjaw are repeatedly thwarted by an inconvenient muttering old woman.

A young Delilah confronts the scariest witch in the slums.

One of the things that drove Vera Moray mad on the Pandyssian Continent was an apparition of void-bound Delilah, unstuck in time.

Delilah and Granny Rags meet at an Outsider shrine, where Delilah is attempting to complete a somewhat risqué ritual.

One of the things that drove Vera Moray mad on the Pandyssian Continent was an apparition of Empress Delilah, stuck in her painting.

Delilah kidnaps an inconvenient muttering old woman and gets more than she bargained for.

-

PORTAL

I just played these games for the first time and I! Love! GLaDOS! Hello voice kink, hello hilarious ridiculous complex evil-yet-sympathetic female villain, hello AI with a definite gender, hello... WORLD. Or something.

Chell/GLaDOS

This may seem unusual for a ship where both characters canonically attempt to murder each other on multiple occasions, but I would prefer lighter/happier endings for this canon and pairing. Like, please seize and run with any dark thoughts that might accost you, but if I had to pick I’d pick Rated Explicit For Sexual Situations rather than Rated Explicit For Doom and Misery.

Note: I am SUPER INTO hurt/comfort for this pairing. And GLaDOS reluctantly relenting because Chell just continues to exceed her expectations...

Prompts:

Post-Portal 2, Chell runs into some problems in the outside world and reluctantly turns to GLaDOS for aid. GLaDOS agrees to help her, but there’s a price.

During Portal 2, after Chell and Wheatley have awakened GLaDOS, Chell finds that GLaDOS’s new tests have taken on an unusual new theme... a sexy (?!) theme. What’s going on?

At some point in any game, Chell fails a test. Instead of letting her die, GLaDOS rescues her and keeps her as a pet.

GLaDOS attempts to seduce Chell. Chaos ensues.

AU: Chell is an Aperture test subject while Caroline is alive.

AU: Chell is an Aperture test subject. Cave Johnson is dead and Caroline has assumed his position. But is the woman who oversees testing really Caroline? (Androids! Cyborgs?)

Chell is trapped somewhere for a bit, GLaDOS can’t physically reach her, but can talk to her for xyz reason. The taunting that ensues gets weirdly sexual.

Sex pollen goo.

-

ORIGINAL WORK

Divided by theme! tbh I’m loving these Extremely Specific Pairings That Function As Prompts In Their Own Right.

ROBOTS / AI

Robot Haphazardly Built Of Spare Parts/Glamorous Fashionista

Prompts:

The Fashionista, a renowned ditz whose heart of figurative gold remains concealed from the public eye, adopts a Robot because that is the thing to do. Dark societal truths come to light... or maybe they just hook up and it’s awesome.

They meet backstage at the runway. The Fashionista is promoting someone’s new line. The Robot is working as dress assistant, janitor, and/or decoration, for a pittance. What are these feelings???

The Fashionista’s Robot lover is her greatest shame.

The Robot’s Fashionista lover is her greatest shame.

The Fashionista has never had an orgasm. The Robot’s unusually shaped and/or vibrating appendage promises to change that.

The Robot has never experienced physical pleasure, at least not to a noticeable degree. But... the way the Fashionista attends to her...

A power couple enjoy a day out. Is it sinister? Is it sensual? Is this a boring prompt? Only you can say.

Nanite-based Shapeshifting Female Alien Robot/Space Explorer

Prompts: 

[on their way]

Ice-Cold Mob Boss/Robot Bodyguard She Would Die For

Prompts: 

The Mob Boss has always assumed her feelings for the Robot Bodyguard were, and would remain, unrequited. When she is injured, kidnapped, or otherwise placed in severe danger, this assumption is proven wrong.

Rival gangsters or law enforcement agents kidnap the Robot Bodyguard for information. They don’t expect the Mob Boss to care. They especially don’t expect her to personally storm their hideout / prison / whatever.

Rival gangsters or law enforcement agents, informed by a snitch of the Mob Boss’s secret feelings, kidnap the Robot Bodyguard. She knows it’s a setup exploiting her weakness. She personally storms the hideout / prison / whatever anyway.

Snapshots of the relationship between Mob Boss and Robot Bodyguard, beginning to end.

Female Sentient AI/Female Prisoner Recruited for Human Subject Trial

Prompts: 

Question Prompts -- How ethical is the human subject trial and what is its purpose? What is the AI’s interest in the Prisoner, or vice versa? What was the Prisoner’s alleged crime, is she guilty or innocent, and was she justly or unjustly imprisoned? Is the AI supposed to be sentient, or is her consciousness a happy (depending on how you look at it) accident?

The AI gains or solidifies a consciousness while being tasked to perform increasingly sadistic experiments on the Prisoner. Does she continue the experiments or hatch a plot to rescue her subject?

These new sexually-themed tests would cause the Prisoner enough shame if they didn’t also turn her on. Is it just her imagination, or does the proctor AI seem to respond to her arousal?

Programmer/Rogue AI She Created

Prompts: 

Question Prompts -- How has the AI managed to go rogue? Is this the cyberpunk future? What is the Programmer’s area of industry? Exactly what kind of stuff can the AI do?

Now a hostage of her own creation, the Programmer struggles to explain the decisions that led her to these circumstances. 

WITCHES

Evil Spellcasting Witch/Evil Hedge Witch She Is Having the Spawn of their Evil Love With

Prompts:

Enthusiastic pregnant sex that may or may not be part of an evil ritual. (What exactly is the spawn...?) 

Enthusiastic we’re-conceiving-the-spawn-of-our-evil-love sex that may or may not be part of an evil ritual. (Again, what exactly is the spawn?)

A torch-bearing mob descends on the cottage of the pregnant Evil Hedge Witch. Hark -- Evil Spellcasting Witch to the rescue!

Powerful Hermit Witch/Princess Who Comes Seeking Her Aid and Won't Take No For an Answer

0 Witch/Female Witch Hunter(s)

0POP STARS

Female Pop Star/Fake Girlfriend Hired by PR Team

Prompts: 

[under construction]

Female Pop Star/Controlling Manager

Prompts:

[coming soon]

[exultedshores]

🔥 + breanna ashworth, please? 👀

(Send Me a 🔥 + a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It)

Dishonored’s one and only functional lesbian.

Breanna is yet another character about whom I’ve had to adjust my opinion over time. During my first playthrough of the Royal Conservatory? I was utterly indifferent towards her. I don’t think it helps that the Royal Conservatory is the weakest mission of the game, in my opinion – taking place right after the intricate Clockwork Mansion, it just feels incredibly lacklustre, especially with how easy the low chaos option makes clearing out the Conservatory itself (although I will confess, on my first playthrough, not knowing about the low chaos option yet, I painstakingly went through the Conservatory from the basement to the top knocking witches out by hand). And Breanna herself didn’t immediately catch my eye as a character. I could appreciate her loyalty to Delilah (because we all know by now that I am the worst sucker for loyalty), but other than that she felt sort of like a standard lieutenant of the main villain. The strongest feeling I had during my playthrough of that mission was, ironically, not about Breanna at all, but about Jindosh again – because he had a much smaller role in the conspiracy than Breanna did, yet he gets lobotomised while she gets… to walk away scot free, just without magic powers? Yeah, I wasn’t particularly sympathetic towards her wallowing about losing her connection to Delilah. Try sitting in an electric chair, then we can talk.

But then I got to A Crack in the Slab. And watching the séance take place, I wasn’t expecting Breanna to take the lead in the group of conspirators. Perhaps I should have seen that coming, since she is the only actual witch out of them, but I was expecting the Duke to take the lead in everything pertaining to Delilah. So, just like with Billie in the Knife of Dunwall DLC, I got intrigued. And on my next playthrough, I paid closer attention to Breanna. My conclusion?

Breanna Ashworth is a BAMF.

Breanna has always been a BAMF. When she was a young aristocrat and she was about to be forced into a marriage with a man three times her age who wouldn’t stop wheezing about their wedding night? She ran. Left her whole life behind and really just said ‘fuck this shit, I’m out’. The Outsider hints that if she’d stayed, she would have been so unhappy she’d likely have committed suicide, so her own bravery saved her life. Then Breanna met Delilah, founded the Brigmore Coven with her, presumably helped her with her plans to take over Emily’s body. And then she lost Delilah because of Daud, which must have been absolutely devastating for her. Delilah was the first good thing she ever had, after leaving her family, and Breanna was so in love with her, so loyal to her, that losing Delilah must have been the very worst thing she could imagine.

You’d expect someone like that to wallow in self-pity. But in the decade or so between Delilah’s first defeat and the moment she was brought back, three years before the events of Dishonored 2, Breanna went and made something of herself. She went to Serkonos and worked her way up to being curator of the Royal Conservatory – which I imagine is one hell of a feat, considering how important that Conservatory is to Karnaca. Despite the heartache, she pulled her life right back together and thrived, and if that’s not badass I don’t know what is.

And then Delilah’s return? How Breanna immediately sprung into action when she began to hear Delilah’s whispers from the Void? How she made that sculpture of bones that’s capable of housing a human spirit? How she organised and led the séance successfully? How she went and gathered the Serkonan branch of the new coven? How she truly cared about the witches under her guidance? How she designed and built the Oraculum with Jindosh? Iconic. All of it. I really did not give Breanna Ashworth the credit she is due in my first playthrough, but hot damn. If everyone had the amount of competence Breanna has in her pinkie finger, the world would be a much better place.

I do think her non-lethal option is a very light punishment, especially when compared to Jindosh’ lobotomy or even Luca’s imprisonment. Yes, you take away her magical powers, her connection to Delilah, but she otherwise gets to go and just live her life. If you play low chaos and spare all the main targets and leave Byrne and Paolo alone, she can be seen being arrested in the council ending for Karnaca, but that requires such a specific playstyle I doubt it’s canon. However, despite the fact that her punishment is not nearly as severe as it could have been, I still feel awful for her every time I take the non-lethal route.

Because by taking away her magic, you take away everything from Breanna. Her whole life has been about Delilah, from the moment she ran away from home. She lost her once, fought tooth and nail to get her back, and by taking away her powers, you strip away Delilah, too. Delilah says as much, when you engage her statue after eliminating Breanna – that they will not speak again, because Delilah couldn’t bear to see her in her weakened state. Which makes me furious every time, because even without her magic, Breanna is still that strong, determined woman who brought Delilah back. She’s still the same woman who loved Delilah, who risked everything for her. For Delilah to just cast her aside the second she’s not useful anymore… Well. Let’s just say I have no trouble killing Delilah during the final mission of the game.

But Breanna already dealt with the loss of Delilah once, and came out on top, so I hope she’ll be able to do the same thing the second time around. I think Breanna needs to figure out who she is as a person, without Delilah looming over her. If she can do that, she might be happy again someday. I hope she will be, because she’s badass and she most certainly deserved to be loved better than she was.

[terramythos]

Review: Dishonored (2012) by Arkane Studios

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Dark, Stealth, First-Person, Single Player, Great Story, Strong Worldbuilding, Steampunk (Sorta), Moral Choice, Dystopia, Silent Protagonist

Warning(s): Standard M-rating stuff; severity depends on your choices, but you can be a pretty sketchy person. The state of the world is pretty sketchy and you can either make that better or much worse. 

Playthrough Notes: Played Normal Difficulty, Low Chaos, No Detection or Kills, on PC.

My Rating: 4.5/5 (Strongly Recommended)

**Minor Spoilers and My Thoughts Follow**

“You are like the rivermen. They spread their nets wide, and pull up all manner of things. The sweet, the deadly, the poisonous, all together in one catch.” - The Heart.

My Summary: You play Corvo Attano, the Royal Protector to the Empress of totally-not-alternate-London (uh, Dunwall). As you return from a long trip overseas, you play adorable hide and seek with totally-not-your-daughter Emily, heir to the throne. This is cut short when someone assassinates the Empress, kidnaps Emily, and frames you for the crime.

Six months later, Dunwall is in chaos. A disease known as the rat plague explodes and wipes out huge portions of the city, leaving people in a zombie-like state. The figures who framed you for the murder have seized political control and rule the crumbling city with an iron fist.

Before your execution, resistance allies help you break out of prison and give you the task to eliminate a series of key figures, including the people who framed you for the assassination of the Empress.

However, to add an interesting twist, you are visited by a mysterious eldritch figure known as The Outsider, who grants you magical abilities to aid your mission. However, The Outsider has their own ambiguous motivations for taking an interest in you.

The Good: 

Exceeded expectations. In the past I’d always looked at Dishonored promo material and thought it was a Bioshock clone. However, this game has a unique story and gameplay style that really differentiates it from Bioshock; it’s hard to compare the two once you’ve played it.

The world-building itself was excellent and effectively handled. Rather than inundating the player with a lore dump, it throws you into the world and culture of Dunwall and gradually reveals the more intriguing details in little notes or snatches of dialogue. It left me in a position where I wanted to know more, so I’m glad there’s additional content in the DLC and sequel.

Building on the above point, the story is interesting and involved. It’s nice to have a rich background world, but too often it comes at the cost of the overall narrative. Was not the case here. Certain things are implied that the story lets you figure out on your own, which was cool.

The characters were multi-dimensional and had compelling motivations. The Heart, a key item you use to track collectibles, also has the secondary role of providing character insight which would be too awkward to introduce otherwise. I thought it was a cool touch, as you are not forced to use it for that purpose, but the option is there. On the protagonist, Corvo truly feels like a distinct person no matter how you play the game, and all the paths make narrative sense.

Moral Choice is handed well, especially for when it came out. Your actions affect the game and characters significantly, and it makes sense from a story perspective.

By choice, I played the most stealth-intensive version of the game (no detection or kills). While it took me a long time to do, I find this kind of gameplay really fun. It felt designed with players like me in mind.

The integration of supernatural elements is interesting for both story and gameplay. Story-wise it ties in to my comments on world-building. For gameplay, it felt smooth and natural and gave me a lot of interesting options. Even the basic spells like Blink transformed how I played the game.

A minor one, but collectibles were fun to track down and quite rewarding. It didn’t fall into the Assassin’s Creed trap of having way too many things to keep track of, so I felt in a good position from a completionist perspective.

Nice credits song!

The Mediocre:

Minor irritating bugs: guards seeing bodies through walls, and an especially humorous one where I would sleep dart a weeper and it would repeatedly careen forward 180 degrees and snap its neck. Repeatedly.

As with many games, once you figure out how the AI ticks it’s easy to take advantage of, which affects immersion.

Sometimes gameplay elements are not standardized. For example, an encounter with a spoiler character judges detection on a completely different metric than anyone else in the game. This would be fine except it’s never explained and has to be looked up; not knowing can hamper a no-detection playthrough, as it happens to be during the longest mission in the game.

The Bad:

Some major bugs got very irritating. I ran into a glitch that rendered a level completely unplayable and had to reset the whole thing. Basically everyone’s aggro went completely haywire and I got attacked and instakilled by everything on the level. I’m glad that restarting the mission solved the issue, because I would not have been able to proceed otherwise.

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this game! The story, characters, and overall aesthetic really did it for me, and for the most part the game was fun and interesting. I enjoyed approaching tasks in a variety of different ways just to see what would happen, and by the end I wanted more of the world and the story. Overall I’d say that’s a great place for a game to be in. My main issues were with bugs and a few stray programming choices, and while I feel those are valid concerns, they are relatively minor on what matters to me in a game.

I am planning to play the DLC story packs (‘The Knife of Dunwall’ and ‘The Brigmore Witches’) so might review those together. Maybe. Will also play Dishonored 2– not sure when, but hopefully soon! I’m excited either way.

I definitely recommend this if it sounds like your kind of game (and you, uh, haven’t played it before? I’m a dope and it took me way too long to get to and everyone has probably played it.)