Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - Improvisation Run - Part 2

Our mission to assassinate The Outsider continues, and there's very little that anyone could do to get in our way.



As I mentioned in the episode, Death of the Outsider raises an interesting philosophical and moral question. The Outsider, as a god, and see all possible timelines except those where he no longer exists. When he finds an individual who exists at a moment of great divergence, he grants that person power, usually in the form of his mark. Though he hopes that they use that power for good, he is aware that there is always the chance they will abuse their new abilities.



Enter Daud. Like several before him, he was granted the Outsider's mark. Using that power, Daud lead a group of assassins as they hired themselves out for coin. Good people, bad people, rich people, poor people: Anyone was a potential target if the price was right. That is, until the fateful day where they were hired to kill Empress Jesamine Kaldwin.

Ever since then, Daud has been trying to make up for past misdeeds.Watching the chaos unfold, and an entire society nearly fall to ruins, as a direct result of his actions broke him. But rather than turn his focus inward, to self-improvement and redemption, he chose to focus his feelings on the person who gave his lethal abilities.

The question that Death of the Outsider poses is one of blame. Is The Outsider responsible for Daud's bloody campaign across Dunwall, since he was a possibility? Or is Daud the one to blame, for he is ultimately the one who made those choices even if The Outsider enabled him? Perhaps both, or neither. And even if one or both of them are to blame, is it right to punish them? Keep those questions in mind as we progress through the DLC.

As for the game, one of the cool new ways Death of the Outsider retools the Dishonored formula is by removing the need to neutralize targets. As you may have noticed in the missions we've done so far, we've put into the path of several Eyeless Cult leaders. While we absolutely can (and have) kill them, it's not required. And unlike previous Dishonored games, we don't even need to neutralize them. Despite the fact that chaos is no longer tracked, it is still possible complete the game without taking a single life.

This frees the team at Arkane up to allow for more varied objectives. Something like the bank robbery we left off in the middle of simply would not be possible in previous Dishonored games, because it would have to end in an assassination. Considering it has become one of the best missions in the whole series, it shows how untying Dishonored from its origins as an immersive assassination sim gives the franchise room to grow.