It looks like this is the year of stand alone expansions to established series, with Uncharted: The Lost Legacy releasing back in August, and now Dishonored: Death of Outsider finally releasing. In what seems to be the most heavily marketed Dishonored entry (at least in my opinion), we get the conclusion to this universe of Dishonored. “How does it fare?”, you ask. Well let’s get right into it.

What You Need to Know

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider takes place directly after Dishonored 2 in which players now assume the role of Billie Lurk voiced by Rosario Dawn (aka Claire in the Marvel Netflix Universe). Ready for one last hoorah, Billie embarks on a mission to release her former mentor from prison, Daud who is now much older. From there, they set their sight on the end of the mysterious Outsider; the man responsible for giving out powers from the Void like candy on Halloween.

If that intro confused you a bit, do not worry, as you can pick up this title and play it without fear of not knowing any off Dishonored 1 and 2‘s story since this title is it’s own entry versus being a continuation of the series. If you have played them, then you’ll be excited to see references to characters from the previous entries, but if not, you can still have a great time with this game.

Gameplay 

For those of you who have played the previous entries, this section will be a quick skim read and possibly a few new aid bits that’ll interest you. For those of you who haven’t played this series, read up and learn about the Dishonored franchise.

Billie Lurk handles just like Corvo and Emily. You can double jump, mantle objects, peak around cover, knockout or murder your targets, etc. She does come with a few tweaks, and upon gaining your abilities, you will notice a tremendous change; your mana recharges. In previous entries, you would need to use an elixir to recharge your mana, but this time, Billie’s mana recharges to full in like 3 seconds. This might sound “broken” since you could potentially use your powers constantly throughout, but players are only given three powers so don’t expect to go power crazy.

Speaking of powers, they are all passive this time around. Semblance let’s you impersonate any person you see, the only drawback is you have to go up and use it on the individual rather than stealing an identity from far away. Foresight is this entry’s version of Dark Vision with a twist. Time stops and you control Billie’s spirit which can then mark enemies or scout out an area. The drawback to this ability is that your spirit can only travel so far before you break the connection. Finally, there’s Displace which is similar to Blink. With Displace, you set a marker, which you can use to teleport too at any time while you’re in range. For example, I set a marker in a hiding spot, jumped down to steal an item, then teleported right back to my hiding spot.

Along with the new powers, Billie has some new weapons up here sleeve. If you’re feeling merciful, there are plenty of new options to spare your opponents. There’s the new Hook Mine which sucks an enemy up upon activation or the Electrical Burst to shoot and electrocute targets. The burst is nonlethal, but it makes a ton of noise so be silent (see what I did there?). The new Hag Pearl is pretty interesting. It can be used as a distraction, to activate buttons from a distance or to knock out guards, however the knocking out part never seems to work. Series staples such as the Rewire Tool, Springrazor, and grenades have returned.

Also new this time around is the ability to pursue contracts. They are exactly what they sound like, as you can take them on to get extra rewards. The contracts range from killing someone, to stealing an item without harming anyone, or even to kidnapping. Upon completion, you get extra coins which can be then used to upgrade your gear. Interestingly enough, you can’t upgrade your powers with ruins like in previous entries, but you can collect the bone charms which supplement them with passive bonuses such as allowing Semblance to last longer.

Impressions

I’m a Dishonored fiend. I love the freedom, the powers, the gameplay, and somehow they manage to keep making pretty decent stories to go with the game so add that to the list of things I like about the series.

Going into this entry hasn’t disappointed me. While Billie only has 3 powers, the abilities are so useful since I normally go for the nonlethal play through. The addition of a recharging mana bar is a great way to get players to experiment with said powers, and of course the other aspects of the gameplay are as solid as ever.

One thing I want you, the reader to note, is the amount of content you’re getting. There are 5 missions in total, but the locations are just so big and full of items and side missions you could definitely extend your playtime. For example, each mission took me about 2 hours each, and that’s with me doing most of the side missions and being nonlethal. If you play lethally, and aren’t concerned with extra stuff, you might just blow by it. There is more as you can replay the missions again with powers from Dishonored 2, upon completion of the game. Pretty cool, right?

With games focused on short experiences but meaty content, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider doesn’t disappoint. I enjoyed the story because you get background story on Billie Lurk and what her connection is to Daud and the Void, although if you played Dishonored 2 to the end, you have an idea of what I mean. For $30 I think it’s worth the pickup, especially if you like the Dishonored series, and the overall package feels like a full blown $60 entry.

That’s my opinion on this entry! Let me know in the comment show you feel about it, and of course if you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask me.