This review contains spoilers
Being a smaller, standalone adventure, I expected this game to pale in comparison to Dishonored 2. However, I think it stands shoulder to shoulder with that game, and in some ways surpasses it. This review has become a lot longer than I originally intended it to be, so if you don't care to read through all of it, the bottom line is this: I recommend this game, especially if you can grab it on a sale.
Billie is a much more charming protagonist than Emily, and charismatically performed. The occasional snide remark or sarcastic comment lends Billie a relatable energy while she remains a confident and stoic character. You get the sense that Billie has an inner world and a depth of character, that she contains multitudes. A stark contrast indeed from Emily, whose character was so murky and unclear that the game had to stop at points to tell you exactly how she was developing as a person.
To that point, the story is an improvement, but a slight one. The mystery of Billie's arm and the slight incongruities in the setting make for a surprisingly compelling opening hour or so, even if these aren't quite satisfyingly resolved in the long run. The return of Daud and, of course, Billie herself marks this as a bit of a farewell tour for the original Dishonored's DLC, and DotO's story certainly feels like an organic, logical terminus for these two.
To be frank, the story still isn't terribly interesting. However, there is a somewhat subtextual depth there. The final decision in the game presents the Outsider as a victim himself, albeit a victim who has endangered others through the granting of void magic to those in the outside world. Having the two former Whalers decide on how best to ensure that the Outsider's magic doesn't cause any further harm is quite a interesting idea, on paper.
In reality, the choice between killing the Outsider and granting him mercy isn't plumbed as well as it should have. The seemingly omnipotent, playfully meddlesome Outsider is shown as a scared, hurt young man, frozen in time in a moment of trauma. It's a reminder that he was once human, much like those granted power through him were. Killing him is an anticlimax in a shockingly strange way, even having Billie change her whole tone of speaking from a sympathetic one to an angry, ruthless one. It presents a wild tone shift in the scene, and not one that feels well considered.
My opinion on the matter is that the merciful option in this scenario is the intended one, as it more cathartically ties into the motivations of the two Whalers, and their shared history. Granting mercy has Daud forgive the Outsider, much as he forgave Billie during the events of Dishonored. It's a dignified end to his character, and a richer story moment than the typically surface-level melodramatics of Dishonored 2. With that said, it still feels somewhat half-baked. This series seems desperate to get you out of the game the second you're done hitting buttons, and this entry is no exception. Given the chance to breathe a bit more, I think this ending would land a lot better.
That's a lot about the plot there, more than I honestly thought I'd write. That's because I was very close to intrigued by this story, and I find it interesting to explore why it very nearly worked for me, but ultimately didn't. At the end of the day, the story isn't a main focus for me in these games, and it doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the experience in any significant way.
Speaking of the experience of playing this game... it feels very good! It's a slightly different flavor than Dishonored 2 with a pretty similar mouthfeel. Billie's toolkit is a reinvented mix of powers you would expect from a mainline entry, with nuances that make them feel fresher, more expressive, and more rewarding to use properly.
Displace is Billie's mobility tool, and it works a bit like Blink but with a twist of lime tossed in. Rather than placing your marker and dashing straight towards it like you would with Blink, Displace allows you to place a marker and swap places with it whenever you would like, assuming you're within range of it and you maintain a clear line of sight. This allows you to preemptively place your marker as a way to escape from enemies, ambush guards while they walk along patrol routes, or perform a risky action and withdraw to safety in a mere moment. It's a clever evolution of the design philosophy of Emily's kit, rewarding planning and prep work, while also working in emergency snap-second moments.
Foresight is the Dark Vision replacement. I ADORE this power. Dark Vision is imminently useful no matter the situation, but applies an ugly filter that muddies the look and atmosphere of the environment. Foresight works differently. Upon the use of the power, time freezes and you can fly around your camera and explore the environment in the frozen time, marking enemies, items, and other points of interest. When you end the power, you return to your body, with all you marked remaining clearly visible. It's both a more powerful information gathering tool than Dark Vision was, and a less intrusive one. It also synergizes wonderfully with Displace, allowing you to drop your marker while you fly around the environment, meaning you can scout an area and set up a Displace location far ahead of time if you'd like. If the mainline series takes anything from this game forwards, I desperately hope it's Foresight.
Finally, Semblance allows one to steal the appearance of a target and use it for short time to walk through areas undetected and solve puzzles. It's a very cool power in concept and has some genuinely useful applications, but it certainly feels the least flexible of Billie's kit. There are a few social situations in which you can participate if you have the correct stolen face, but this power is desperately crying for a densely populated, Hitman-style level to really shine in. As it stands, a welcome power, but one that could maybe use more situations designed to let you be creative with it in future games.
As far as non-magical weapons go, Billie's crossbow equivalent is the voltaic gun, a wrist-mounted launcher that pleasantly reminds one of the rebar crossbow from Half-Life 2. The voltaic gun is extraordinarily strong, especially with the abundance of ammo you'll receive if you buy the upgrade that lets you fire improvised bullets, like scalpels and fountain pens. Launching a pen at a guard is great fun that reinforces the scrappy, underdog energy/power fantasy tightrope this series excels at. The new grenade types are welcome, if not particularly exciting. Hook Mines are certainly a standout addition, a mechanically exciting replacement for stun mines that are delightfully physics-driven and can lead to grimly violent Looney Tunes-esque situations.
Finally in regards to mechanical differences, Death of the Outsider removes the iconic chaos system and revamps mana. Honestly, I enjoyed not having to consider chaos at all during my time with this game. Being able to use my whole kit, even the lethal parts, and not having to worry about long-term ramifications on the plot was refreshing. Likewise, the mana rework is welcome, and instead grants you three "pips" on a mana bar that you can spend on powers. These all regenerate automatically, meaning that you no longer feel wasteful using powers in quick bursts while traversing. It instead more forcefully limits your power use during scenarios like stealth and combat, meaning you need to carefully consider how you use them in a pinch, lest you find yourself briefly powerless while in a poor position. I hope both of these changes make their way into the next entry, or at least just the mana system.
Levels in this game are as sprawling, well-designed, and detail-rich as is the norm of this series. None reach the outstanding heights of the clockwork mansion in Dishonored 2, but they're a joy to explore and lurk through nonetheless. A special shoutout to the bank heist level for offering a great deal of ways to approach it, with each offering a substantially different experience. That level in particular feels quite like a self-contained little story arc, with you starting at the bottom and slowly becoming stronger and more confident, leading to a fun climax with, if you can find it, a gratifying way to exert mastery over the level by exerting control over clockwork sentinels, security systems, and human enemies with the information and powers you earn in the bank's vault.
I also liked the final level for the halfway point where you backtrack through the level, now with a fully void-infused environment that puts a twist on a location you had already explored fairly well.
Overall, I think this game offers a very worthwhile experience, even with its relatively short runtime. My run sat at about 11 hours in total, although I progressed fairly slowly. If one can grab it on sale like I did, it's a great value for money that you can beat over a weekend. Or play it like I did, with a level every evening after work. If you dig this style of game or you've already enjoyed a previous game in the series, this is a total no-brainer. Give it a shot!
Billie is a much more charming protagonist than Emily, and charismatically performed. The occasional snide remark or sarcastic comment lends Billie a relatable energy while she remains a confident and stoic character. You get the sense that Billie has an inner world and a depth of character, that she contains multitudes. A stark contrast indeed from Emily, whose character was so murky and unclear that the game had to stop at points to tell you exactly how she was developing as a person.
To that point, the story is an improvement, but a slight one. The mystery of Billie's arm and the slight incongruities in the setting make for a surprisingly compelling opening hour or so, even if these aren't quite satisfyingly resolved in the long run. The return of Daud and, of course, Billie herself marks this as a bit of a farewell tour for the original Dishonored's DLC, and DotO's story certainly feels like an organic, logical terminus for these two.
To be frank, the story still isn't terribly interesting. However, there is a somewhat subtextual depth there. The final decision in the game presents the Outsider as a victim himself, albeit a victim who has endangered others through the granting of void magic to those in the outside world. Having the two former Whalers decide on how best to ensure that the Outsider's magic doesn't cause any further harm is quite a interesting idea, on paper.
In reality, the choice between killing the Outsider and granting him mercy isn't plumbed as well as it should have. The seemingly omnipotent, playfully meddlesome Outsider is shown as a scared, hurt young man, frozen in time in a moment of trauma. It's a reminder that he was once human, much like those granted power through him were. Killing him is an anticlimax in a shockingly strange way, even having Billie change her whole tone of speaking from a sympathetic one to an angry, ruthless one. It presents a wild tone shift in the scene, and not one that feels well considered.
My opinion on the matter is that the merciful option in this scenario is the intended one, as it more cathartically ties into the motivations of the two Whalers, and their shared history. Granting mercy has Daud forgive the Outsider, much as he forgave Billie during the events of Dishonored. It's a dignified end to his character, and a richer story moment than the typically surface-level melodramatics of Dishonored 2. With that said, it still feels somewhat half-baked. This series seems desperate to get you out of the game the second you're done hitting buttons, and this entry is no exception. Given the chance to breathe a bit more, I think this ending would land a lot better.
That's a lot about the plot there, more than I honestly thought I'd write. That's because I was very close to intrigued by this story, and I find it interesting to explore why it very nearly worked for me, but ultimately didn't. At the end of the day, the story isn't a main focus for me in these games, and it doesn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the experience in any significant way.
Speaking of the experience of playing this game... it feels very good! It's a slightly different flavor than Dishonored 2 with a pretty similar mouthfeel. Billie's toolkit is a reinvented mix of powers you would expect from a mainline entry, with nuances that make them feel fresher, more expressive, and more rewarding to use properly.
Displace is Billie's mobility tool, and it works a bit like Blink but with a twist of lime tossed in. Rather than placing your marker and dashing straight towards it like you would with Blink, Displace allows you to place a marker and swap places with it whenever you would like, assuming you're within range of it and you maintain a clear line of sight. This allows you to preemptively place your marker as a way to escape from enemies, ambush guards while they walk along patrol routes, or perform a risky action and withdraw to safety in a mere moment. It's a clever evolution of the design philosophy of Emily's kit, rewarding planning and prep work, while also working in emergency snap-second moments.
Foresight is the Dark Vision replacement. I ADORE this power. Dark Vision is imminently useful no matter the situation, but applies an ugly filter that muddies the look and atmosphere of the environment. Foresight works differently. Upon the use of the power, time freezes and you can fly around your camera and explore the environment in the frozen time, marking enemies, items, and other points of interest. When you end the power, you return to your body, with all you marked remaining clearly visible. It's both a more powerful information gathering tool than Dark Vision was, and a less intrusive one. It also synergizes wonderfully with Displace, allowing you to drop your marker while you fly around the environment, meaning you can scout an area and set up a Displace location far ahead of time if you'd like. If the mainline series takes anything from this game forwards, I desperately hope it's Foresight.
Finally, Semblance allows one to steal the appearance of a target and use it for short time to walk through areas undetected and solve puzzles. It's a very cool power in concept and has some genuinely useful applications, but it certainly feels the least flexible of Billie's kit. There are a few social situations in which you can participate if you have the correct stolen face, but this power is desperately crying for a densely populated, Hitman-style level to really shine in. As it stands, a welcome power, but one that could maybe use more situations designed to let you be creative with it in future games.
As far as non-magical weapons go, Billie's crossbow equivalent is the voltaic gun, a wrist-mounted launcher that pleasantly reminds one of the rebar crossbow from Half-Life 2. The voltaic gun is extraordinarily strong, especially with the abundance of ammo you'll receive if you buy the upgrade that lets you fire improvised bullets, like scalpels and fountain pens. Launching a pen at a guard is great fun that reinforces the scrappy, underdog energy/power fantasy tightrope this series excels at. The new grenade types are welcome, if not particularly exciting. Hook Mines are certainly a standout addition, a mechanically exciting replacement for stun mines that are delightfully physics-driven and can lead to grimly violent Looney Tunes-esque situations.
Finally in regards to mechanical differences, Death of the Outsider removes the iconic chaos system and revamps mana. Honestly, I enjoyed not having to consider chaos at all during my time with this game. Being able to use my whole kit, even the lethal parts, and not having to worry about long-term ramifications on the plot was refreshing. Likewise, the mana rework is welcome, and instead grants you three "pips" on a mana bar that you can spend on powers. These all regenerate automatically, meaning that you no longer feel wasteful using powers in quick bursts while traversing. It instead more forcefully limits your power use during scenarios like stealth and combat, meaning you need to carefully consider how you use them in a pinch, lest you find yourself briefly powerless while in a poor position. I hope both of these changes make their way into the next entry, or at least just the mana system.
Levels in this game are as sprawling, well-designed, and detail-rich as is the norm of this series. None reach the outstanding heights of the clockwork mansion in Dishonored 2, but they're a joy to explore and lurk through nonetheless. A special shoutout to the bank heist level for offering a great deal of ways to approach it, with each offering a substantially different experience. That level in particular feels quite like a self-contained little story arc, with you starting at the bottom and slowly becoming stronger and more confident, leading to a fun climax with, if you can find it, a gratifying way to exert mastery over the level by exerting control over clockwork sentinels, security systems, and human enemies with the information and powers you earn in the bank's vault.
I also liked the final level for the halfway point where you backtrack through the level, now with a fully void-infused environment that puts a twist on a location you had already explored fairly well.
Overall, I think this game offers a very worthwhile experience, even with its relatively short runtime. My run sat at about 11 hours in total, although I progressed fairly slowly. If one can grab it on sale like I did, it's a great value for money that you can beat over a weekend. Or play it like I did, with a level every evening after work. If you dig this style of game or you've already enjoyed a previous game in the series, this is a total no-brainer. Give it a shot!