Xbox Reviews

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Review

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider 

 Arkane Studios invites you to Dishonored once again, walk into the world of supernatural assassins. Sneak across fight clubs, infiltrate dark magic cults, steal precious artifacts and eliminate your targets to accomplish your hardest task so far: this time you’re meant to kill a god. Welcome to the first standalone adventure in the universe of Dishonored, welcome to Death of the Outsider.

 

THE GOOD

  • If you’ve already played one of the previous entries in the series, you’re aware of what you’re going to find: amazing visuals, extremely well-designed stages, and a deep and exciting gameplay! If you’re new to the series (like me!), don’t worry: the game teaches you all the basic and advanced abilities you’ll need during your adventure with text and video tutorials that aren’t boring to watch.
  • Once you understand how everything works (what won’t take long, I promise you), you’ll be lurking in the shadows, eliminating your targets silently, stealing magical artifacts without being noticed or engaging in fierce battles. And this is one of the best characteristic of the game: to let you play it on your own way: If you want to try a silent and stealth approach, avoiding enemy detection, you can. If you want to eliminate every single threat silently, you can. If you want to engage in battles against multiple enemies to test your skills, you also can. And it’s mind-blowing how the game plays differently according to your approach. Think about it as a great replay value, giving you more than one way to reach the end of the adventure.
  • Talking about the adventure, in Death of the Outsider, you don’t play as Emily or Corvo, but as Billie Lurk, who joins her old mentor, Daud, to accomplish one final task: to eliminate the one they believe is the responsible for all the misfortunes of the empire, the Outsider. He’s also responsible for what happened to your body, what gives you an extra motivation to go after him. But he’s one hell of an adversary: he’s an omnipotent enemy who’s believed to be immortal. So, what do you do to accomplish the unthinkable? What do you do to kill a god? Maybe your old mentor has some clues to help you in this mission.
  • Superb audio and dubbing work. Loved most of the voice actors who worked in the game. Some were very well chosen for their roles and had an outstanding performance. I can say that for both English and Portuguese dubbing work. Arkane Studios really had a special attention in this aspect.
  • Graphically speaking, I felt really immersed in the universe of the game. As fanciful as it may look, Karnaca really feels alive. The ambient is incredibly well detailed with a lot of things for you to mess with (or break, depending how careful you are). There are tons of documents to read, drawers to open and bottles to… er… be thrown at your enemies (or used to distract them).
  • Feeling too easy or too hard to accomplish a mission? No problem: you can adjust diverse aspects of the gameplay as you desire (like enemies’ reaction to your actions, HP, strength, between many others) making it possible to you to have enough challenge without compromising your fun.

MIXED FEELINGS

  • Some of you will love it (as I do), but I believe others may feel a little bit uncomfortable about it, so it’s important to mention: You can kill your enemies just by suffocating them or by dismembering, cutting throats or immolating them. So, remember this game is not suited for kids.
  • Even though the tutorial is great, I had a little trouble to understand how to use my special abilities correctly. I constantly got lost using some of them during the first levels. Hope you get used to them faster than me ?
  • A few side missions (the contracts) require more than creativity to be solved. You’ll have to try and try and try until you find out what to do. A few gamers will end up getting upset about it and recurring to videos or strategy guides (yes, I’m old!), but don’t worry. You’ll find the answer. Remember there’s always more than one way to solve it.

THE BAD

  • It’s rare when it occurs, but I’ve nothing to complain about. Arkane Studios delivered us a top-notch game!

Since I haven’t tried the two first games of the series, I’m unable to compare Dishonored: Death of the Outsider to the previous games. But I got so absorbed in its universe and its gameplay that I’m excited to try the early adventures. I can’t tell you how much this game impressed me, as a newbie to the series. And I believe that, if you’re already a fan of the franchise, you’ll have a great time with it. In other words, don’t be afraid: grab your copy right now!

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