On wrapping up Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, having decided the fate of numerous characters and satisfied with my ending choice, I was shocked to see I had racked up 15 hours of playtime during my full-stealth, pacifist run. This standalone expansion is massive in scope and easily matches, and at times surpasses, the Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches expansions for the first game.

Daud’s quest for redemption was a great premise for the original expansions and I was thrilled when Arkane Studios expanded on those events in Dishonored 2. The sequel reintroduced Billie Lurk, looking to make amends for once aiding Delilah Copperspoon. She’s a perfect protagonist in this expansion, neither good nor evil, able to fit into any playstyle.

Set a few months after the end of Dishonored 2, Billie is still looking to tie up loose ends and sets out to find Daud, her former master whom she betrayed during the events of Knife of Dunwall. Daud, now much older and less capable, asks Billie to help him kill The Outsider, the god-like figure that has imparted the power of the void on both the protagonists and villains in the franchise.

This kicks off a lengthy and complex quest to discover a way to kill The Outsider, investigate the cult that worships him, find a way to their lair, and ultimately cross into the void itself. Nothing is simple in the Dishonored universe and by the credit screen Billie has infiltrated the homes of Karnaca’s wealthy, robbed a bank guarded by Jindosh’s traps and clockwork soldiers, returned to the Royal Conservatory, and finally traversed an abandoned mining town to enter the void itself.

Although there are only five missions, each is sprawling and complex, with multiple primary and optional objectives to complete. I spent four hours on the Bank Heist alone, chasing down optional quests that would aid in my infiltration, while completing “contracts” – new optional activities with cash or bone charm rewards – which can be picked up from the black market.


Much like The Brigmore Witches expansion for the first game, Death of the Outsider takes you away from the city for the final hours.

Along the way, assuming you search the environment for documents and listen to conversations before slaying everyone, you’ll learn a whole lot more about the origins of The Outsider, the nature of the void, and the fanatical cult that has worshipped him for millennia. The Dishonored games have always excelled at creating a coherent world and the quality of the writing remains excellent. Also make sure to listen to the terrifying rat ramblings! Death of the Outsider introduces a few new foes that have been mentioned but not seen in previous games but unfortunately, with the witches coven disbanded and their source of power removed, these new enemies fail to spice up encounters.

Of course I don’t believe everyone shares my sneaky, pacifist ideals and, should you wish, you can choose to blitz through an area and slay everyone in sight, albeit with great difficulty until you’ve invested in some upgrades and found (or crafted) some powerful bone charms. If there’s a real benefit to exploring each area systematically, while rendering entire neighbourhoods unconscious, you’re more likely to stumble upon optional pathways and alternate solutions to encounters.

I spent over two hours skulking through the Royal Conservatory, stealing documents and avoiding the Oracular Sisters, only to discover a route that would have got me inside in less than a minute. I could have sneaked through a window, stole an overseer’s face (which is as entertaining as it sounds), had the documents handed to me willingly, and then dashed back out. This flexibility presents itself in every mission, catering to every gameplay style, and provides hours of replay value.

The way Dishonored is meant to be played, as a stealth-strangling simulator. For all my effort, I apparently killed one person in the final level ruining my pacifist run.

When it comes to handling combat, movement and magic, you’ll feel right at home; there are some differences but the same basic mechanics are in place. The Outsider, seemingly aware of the unfolding plan, grants Billie an artefact from the void that provides a range of powers, this time powered by recharging void energy. This removes the need for potions and speeds up gameplay, a necessity given the increased number of guards in comparison to previous games.

“Displace” is a variant of Blink that lets you place a marker you can teleport to at any time, assuming it’s within line of sight. Ideal for creating an escape route from interiors as you can pass between tight spaces or barred windows. “Foresight” allows Billie to scout ahead, as time slows to a crawl, allowing her to mark enemies and objects (much like Dark Vision) or place a Displace marker – a technique you’ll use to solve some light puzzles. “Semblance” is the most interesting skill and the most vital for dealing with large crowds of enemies. It allows Billie to assume the identity of a living victim – the spell knocks them unconscious – and move past other foes undetected so long as the body is not spotted and no wolfhounds sniff you out. You also assume the voice of your target, allowing you to manipulate other characters or devices to reach your objective. For those looking for incentive to perform a second run, the "new game plus" mode replaces these new powers with Blink, Dark Vision and Domino from Dishonored 2.


I honestly never grow tired of stacking unconscious victims in compromising positions. This needs to be an entire genre of its own.

Unfortunately, these skills do not provide branching upgrade paths as in previous games, so the only way to truly customise your character is through gear upgrades and bone charms. Scavenging for cash or completing contracts will get you the money you need to upgrade gear, and buy supplies, at the black market. Bone charms remain the most impactful way to customise your character and are always worth hunting down. They either impart buffs or modify an existing skill, albeit sometimes with caveats. Bone charm crafting returns, unlocked arbitrarily after the third mission, and this is where you’ll want to spend some time breaking down basic charms, learning those abilities, creating stronger variants, tailor-made for your playstyle. By the end of the game it took me only a second to choke out a victim and I would move at near-sprinting speeds when crouched and carrying a body.

Visually, Death of the Outsider is every bit as impressive as Dishonored 2; environments are crammed with even more details and performance is far more consistent, on console at any rate. It helps that Karnaca makes for a beautiful backdrop, especially at sunset, and I took far too many screenshots. Voice acting and incidental dialogue is excellent, no game does better rambling guards, and the clashing sounds of combat and magic feels impactful. The soundtrack, the final work from the late Daniel Licht, is fantastic and sets the mood in every scene. If I have any complaints, and this ties into the narrative as well, it’s that some important events are conveyed through cutscenes and would have been more impactful as player-controlled in-game sequences. It’s one of the few aspects of the game that probably suffered on an expansion’s budget.


Two missions take place in an upper class neighbourhood and skulking over the rooftops is all the more enjoyable with this breath-taking view.

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider is a massive expansion that, with some expanded mechanics and refined cutscenes, could have been sold as a fully-fledged sequel and I would still have been impressed paying full price. Instead, we get hours of great gameplay and an engaging narrative that wraps up a lot of loose ends, all for just R400. In retrospect, I should probably have rated Dishonored 2 higher, but for all the impressive set pieces and some memorable missions, it dragged on long enough that completing mission after mission began to feel formulaic. Death of the Outsider, even with my slow, methodical playstyle, had better pacing and I never once felt the need to take a break. If you loved Dishonored and the sequel, Death of the Outsider is a great send-off for the series and offers incredible value.