This standalone expansion is a fairly dramatic downgrade from a gameplay perspective when compared with previous Dishonored content. The broad array of powers present in the base game is trimmed down to just three here, and they aren’t as useful as previous Outsider abilities. The unfortunate result is that stealth / non-violence feels a lot less viable (the removal of the chaos system also eliminates any consequences for just killing everybody throughout the level). I spent a lot of time here just straight-up fighting dudes. I’ve always thought of the basic sword-and-gun play of Dishonored as a fallback plan for when you didn’t have the mana to remain undetected or wreak absurd chaos with the Outsider powers, so operating frequently in shoot-and-strike mode was a bit of a downer.

With that significant caveat out of the way, here’s where I should mention that Arkane’s ridiculously dense level design and stellar world-building acumen kept me hooked throughout the game. In any normal video game series, the wonderfully complex bank heist mission, for instance, would be a towering, singular achievement. However, because this is Dishonored, it will have to be content competing with Jindosh’s Mansion and Aramis Stilton’s Manor from the base game for the title of best level of the past console generation. Such is the level of quality we are talking about here.

The world-building here continues the Dishonored tradition of being extremely creepy and evocative. Bizarre rituals, malevolent cults, languages that can only be spoken by the dead - these are just a few of the tropes expertly deployed to maximum effect. If Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft had collaborated, this is the sort of world I would’ve expected them to create.

Our protagonists, Billie Lurk and Daud, are arguably the most interesting characters this series has produced. The writers at Arkane have definitely not received enough credit for the ballsy way they have gradually transformed their supposed antagonists into complex antiheroes. The interplay between these characters consistently feels real and engaging, aided by the superb voice acting.

The removal of most of the outsider powers and the chaos system notwithstanding, this is pretty much everything I hope for in a Dishonored game. It may not stack up gameplay-wise to the best in the series, but there is more than enough quality content here to compensate.

I always have the same problem with the Dishonored games, if you play stealthily and try to do the side-objectives and find the hidden spots, you end up spending waaaaay too long getting through some of the later areas. You might spend 4-5 hours getting through a level.

There are five levels in the game, and I spent the first three playing stealthy, doing everything, and I spent maybe 12 hours on those levels. When I came to the fourth level, I had lost my patience playing so slowly and went berserk, ignored all the optional stuff, and ran through the last two levels in like 30 minutes.

So how long you spend on this game varies greatly. Everything from 3 hours to 15 hours depending on your aptitude for stealth.

This long-winded stealth pacing is increased by the extreme amount of notes and books, there is lore everywhere, and if you try to read it all, the game feels like it stops and starts constantly. I have no idea why reading lore is a thing included in practically every room in the game. Backwards design IMO.

BUT, the game has some great levels, intricate and thoughtfully designed with a lot of detail and things to find. The teleporting ability is as great as ever, and figuring out how to clear an area of guards is very satisfying.

Overall the gameplay and abilities are great and the levels are fantastic, making the Dishonored experience still a great one. But the long-winded pacing for stealth players, the frankly dumbass story, and how the AI can't keep up at times, holds it back.

I enjoyed this on the merits of being more Dishonored, but it's definitely the weakest link in the series, for exacerbating some old problems and creating some new ones.

Existent in 2 but far worse in DotO is how much the game wants to spoon-feed you all of the various paths you can take to completing your objective. Every alternate route and alternate assassination method is announced as unavoidably as possible, and sometimes the "special" routes are made so painfully easy they're easier than just up and stabbing the guy.

The level and mission design here are also weak showings for the series. There's a lack of good character buildup on the antagonists, something that 1 & 2 do really well, and the levels just aren't very interesting or fun to explore. Good Dishonored 1 and 2 maps feel like puzzle boxes to pick away at until the whole space becomes clear (sometimes literally), here it's just, like, some streets. The last level especially feels quite bad all around.

Lastly, the story and themes of this game almost come together but just don't. Character motivations are all over the place and generally kind of gibberish, and there's this thematic arc of redemption that half-assedly gets explored through the game before being hurredly thrown in as a fulcrum of the conclusion which, eh. I see what you're going for, but it didn't land.

All in all, as a Dishonored game it's still pretty good, but Dishonored 1 and 2 are some of my favorite games, and Death of the Outsider falls short of those highs pretty noticeably.

Pros: Love Billie, she's got personality where Emily lacked one, and she's the perfect protagonist to end this journey on, with just enough grit to fit in the world but also a lot of heart that makes her likable. Limited but unique power set makes the game more challenging but more engaging for a stealth player like me. Interesting ideas and new areas that are fun to explore, even if none are quite as creative as the ones in DH2. More lore and more Outsider stuff, I love that little freak.

Cons: Just completely wasted my mans Daud. He deserved better than to croak on a boat off-screen. Would've still liked a chaos meter, even if it "doesn't make sense," it just feels like something's missing without it. The main plot and "good" ending have a very distinct whiff of fanfic that makes me believe the rumor that a Corvosider shipper helped write it. It just felt kinda fanservice-y.

Overall, more of Dishonored, and I love Dishonored, even when you're not really very Dishonored anymore.

Me ha gustado aunque es el más flojo de la saga por bastante. Se nota mucho que iba a ser un dlc originalmente, porque sus sistemas son muy simples. Tengo los mismos puntos a favor y contra que con el segundo juego, el diseño de niveles y las mecánicas están muy bien (pese a que en este la progresión flojea bastante), pero la mala historia y la falta de innovación lo empeoran bastante.

Aún que me halla gustado tampoco lo recomendaría demasiado, ya que existiendo las primeras entregas que hacen todo mucho mejor no veo porque alguien preferiría empezar este, y tampoco aporta nada sustancial a la saga.

A short but decent sequel that streamlined some of the franchise's mechanics, but failed to live up to it's predecessors.

It was fun to be able to play the conclusion of this story, and while I did not enjoy it as much as the first two games it was not a bad game by any means. In this one we play as Billie Lurk (captain of the Dreadful Whale, from Dishonored 2), and we are looking for our mentor who the Outsider had previously given powers to. The scope of the story is pretty narrow and there are only 5 missions. They are all pretty solid, but the game is short in comparison to the previous two.

Gameplay wise all the main mechanics return with sword combat, projectile weapons, traps/grenade, and void powers. They did streamline how the void powers work and took away the skill tree to obtain more powers, but the main ones were still there (blink, foresight?, and semblance). You also don't need to recharge void power with elixers anymore, it restores automatically after a few seconds. I didn't mind the trimmed mechanics but it did feel like a step down. It would have been nice to customize the powers a bit, but the core of the gameplay was still there.

I overall really enjoyed the feel of the game. It felt like a Dishonored where you could approach things in a stealthy or bombastic way. The choice was yours. It was just shorter and leaner on the main mechanics and not quite as good as it's predecessors.

I played this entirely on Steam Deck and it ran near flawlessly. I set it to 40hz/40fps with High graphics settings and it only dipped into the 30's a couple times. Overall the game played great from start to finish with 0 crashes. It took me a little over 8.5 hours to complete.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. It ran well, played well, and the story was different enough to keep it fresh. Definitely recommend if you liked the prior two games, but just know it is not as good, is shorter, and progression/mechanics are a bit simplified.