Dishonored: Death Of The Outsider will give free rein to players before closing the main story.

A year after the release of Dishonored 2, the developers at Arkane Studios are ready to come up with Death of The Outsider - an independent addition that is intended to close the main story told in the first two games. Focusing on the exploits of the beloved fans of Billy Lurk - the former killer and Captain of “The Ugly Whale”, we got the opportunity to play one of the key missions during QuakeCon, as well as talk to creative director Harvey Smith over how Dishonored had evolved over the years, and about how much this series means to Arkane Studios.

A few months after the events of Dishonored 2, Emily Caldwin left Karnak and returned to the throne as Empress of the Isles, leaving behind the chaos in her father’s homeland. While Billy Lurk under the pseudonym of Megan Foster in Dishonored 2, finds the trail of his old mentor Daud, an assassin who killed Emily’s mother and the protagonist of the additions “The Knife of Dunwall” and “The Brigmore Witches”. She returns to her old occupation as a murderer, pushing her into an impossible task. Returning to his old skills - even helping his mentor in the fatal murder that drove Danuoll into chaos - Billy Lurk gets powerful artifacts and experimental equipment to find several traces to achieve his true goal - Alien, deity of the abyss, who had a great influence on the fates of those who were marked by him on the islands. During our conversation, the creative director told about the initial discussions, their emphasis on the supplement, and what story they wanted to tell.

“As always, we went through a dozen different variations of who the main character should be,” said Harvey Smith. “We had a lot of discussions about this DLC, which is now an independent addition, because for someone this may be the first immersion in the history of Dishonored. But at the beginning of the development of Dishonored 2, as well as five years earlier, I proposed a DLC, in which we should give the opportunity to enter the Abyss and let the players decide whether they want to kill the Alien or not. After completing the D2, we began to think more about what else we could do, and we always ended up returning to Billy Lurk. I just adore her, and I wanted to see what we can do with her. "

While Dishonored 2 had two playable characters in the main story, Death of The Outsider adheres to only one Billy Lurk, relegating Daoud only a supporting role. While Dowd made contact with the Alien who bestowed abyss abilities on him, Billy Lurk did not do this, and therefore must use several artifacts and equipment to compensate for the past years of her craft of the murderer. Because of this, many of her abilities and skills are different from the other three characters in the series. First, Billy does not adhere to the Chaos system, thereby freeing himself from the power devices that the heroes had to take into account when achieving their goals. Moreover, its energy is recharged by itself due to artifacts that direct energy directly from the Abyss, which makes blue potions unnecessary.

In many ways, Billy Lurk is the smartest and most deceptive killer in the Dishonored series, which gives an interesting look at the traditional gameplay in the sandbox. During our session, we had to play at a fairly significant level of the main story, which, according to developers, will take about 8-9 hours on average. In this mission, the action takes place in one of the most prosperous areas of Karnaki, Billy has to face an eccentric opera singer who has a strange interest in the relics of the Abyss, as well as to avoid the attention of the authorities who have placed search posters with her image throughout the city. The focus on Billy Lurk was not only the personal decision of Smith and the team, as she was a favorite character among them, but also as a way to correct the mistakes that were felt during the development of Dishonored 2.

“Honestly, after finishing Dishonored 2, I really wanted us to just stop at Emily, as the only playable character, and maybe save the Corvo for the DLC. We could reinforce the story of Emily in a similar way. This story arch in particular is related to the Death of The Outsider in that it’s about resolving this big political assassination that started with Jessamine Koldwin, and how to deal with the Alien as someone who gives this incredibly immense power. and then almost from the scene watching them use it. Thematically, the series has always been about power - with aristocrats, gangs, police, military and magic - and this is the only thing we needed. On the other hand, Billy Lurke must be the main character, because she is interesting, she is so multilayered, with an artifact in her eye and hand and her personal story with the events that occurred in the last two games made the choice on her obvious. ”

By analogy with the predecessors, Lurk is given several goals with easy instructions, and how she tries to remove these goals depends on her. Using Abyssal artifacts, Lurk gains several new abilities that offer strange and inventive ways to circumvent, theft, and general tricks. With Displace, the killer can mark a place nearby to teleport to him immediately. Although it looks like Blink, who used Corvo, but Displace works with a delay, which can be strategically used to wait for the right time to teleport or use it during unique puzzles. Billy can also use Semblance, which will allow her to take the form of a character that she steals, allowing her to quietly walk around hostile areas at the expense of the energy of the Abyss while she moves. Finally, her most valuable ability is Foresight, giving her the ability to project herself in the form of a ghost, to scout the area ahead and mark goals and key items.

While Lurk’s personal set of tricks is not as strong as Corvo or Emily’s, their versatility more than compensates for this flaw. During one of my favorite sections, the killer had to remove the key from one of the side targets in the area, a man named Ivan Yabobi, who is associated with several terrible murders. Finding that he was practicing in front of several guards in the yard, there were several ways in which to descend - I chose the most interesting and elegant way. Using a combination of Displace and Semblance, I was able to sneak up and take control of the guard, and just get to the target and grab the key from it. Considering how many differences there are in how Lurk uses his strength, and how they manage to relate to the main narration, the Arkane developers considered this independent game as a way to try out different things and move away from the main systems that could prevent the players do what they wanted to do.

“Everything in this project feels like an experiment,” said Smith. “This is a merit of Dingi Bakaba (Lead Designer of Dishonored 2, Arkane Studios), who has long said that we should take a look at making the game separate from the main one. As with all the rest, we have long overburdened this topic, and believed that everyone who loves Dishonored will play in addition, but those who have not tried to play the game before will also be able to try it out. It was an interesting decision, and in fact I did not see anything wrong with that. In this game, we felt as if we had switched the mechanism in such a way that we discovered a way to try something fundamentally different. ”

Later, Lurk penetrates the house of the main target, in which there are several guards, traps and a strange locking mechanism for the safe, which opens with specific singing. Although the story of Billy Lurk is a rather gloomy story in which a lot is said about the many twists and turns of the plot that took place in this series, there is still a place for a strange, unexpected sense of humor. When trying to figure out how to open the safe, Billy will try his best to hum the opening of the lock, but soon gives up, entrusting the opening to a deaf sound. Moreover, this is present in the new black market contracts, for which Lurk can take on - these are all optional objectives at all levels with specific instructions on how to handle them. In one of the funniest moments of the level, Lurk accepts the contract “Death of Mime”, which sets her the task of eliminating Mime in action, but making it so that it looks like an accident in public.

Death of The Outsider gives one of the most beloved minor characters from Dishonored 2 the opportunity to open up fully, as well as close some of the gaps found during the last two games. Accepting requests from Dishonored 2 post-release support, having passed the game once, you will have access to the New Game Plus mode, giving Billy the opportunity to transfer all the achieved skills to a new preservation, as well as delve into Corvo and Emily's skills - to learn such skills as Blink and Domino. Arkane Studios wanted to open such things for players in the next game, which, in their opinion, will lead to the fact that the main story told in the last two games will come to an end. Looking ahead, Smith feels pleased with the Dishonored franchise and that they have fulfilled most of what they wanted from the series.

“I am very pleased with this series, it was a very interesting chapter of my career,” said creative director Rafael Kolantonio, who was co-founder of Arkane Studios and creative director of Prey. Now moved on to other things, and it was a huge change. I have been with Arkane for nine years, at least eight of them I worked on games in the Dishonored series, and I must say that it was nice in terms of feedback from the players, and we took a high note in terms of the distinctive world, characters and gameplay . It really feels like we are closing a huge arch. Be that as it may, I cannot say whether it will be more like Dishonored, whether it will be different or remain the same, but what can I say with precision — this game will be felt as the end of this storyline arch, with the story of Jessamine Caldwin . It is rare when an opportunity falls, and it is more pleasant, to make a game with such a story. You usually have the opportunity to work on such a game, that's all. Most often, something does not work out or goes wrong, or you make a game that has a sequel, but in it you do not control anything. But here, it was definitely felt that we did everything we wanted to do with Dishonored. We did a lot of what we wanted. "