Arkane Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - standalone adventure featuring Billie Lurk

[Lyric Suite]

i would give it 6/10 if dishonored is 8/10 and d2 is 9/10

Well, considering that i'd give Dishonored a 6/10...

And i understand wanting to be incloosive and everything, but did they have to make the character so fucking ugly:

 

[Morgoth]

Billie went through a lot of shit in her life, so she ain't no princess!

 

[HoboForEternity]

Billie went through a lot of shit in her life, so she ain't no princess!

and how she is written doesnt reflect any depth except for typical edgy person with a dark past or something

 

[Morgoth]

Has Arkane Lyon found a proper Creative Director or are they gonna be stuck with those talentless Twitter gals?

 

[Infinitron]

Has Arkane Lyon found a proper Creative Director or are they gonna be stuck with those talentless Twitter gals?

A proper Creative Director for making what exactly?

The irony of hiring storyfag Twitter gals only to have them become leads on online multiplayer games with microtransactions

 

[Silva]

I rather have genuinely ugly characters than the boy band types of japanese games, or the american old square jawed gruffs. The problem with Billie is not her appearance, it its lack of any depth as a character.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You are into Brazilian trannies, you are not qualified to be talking about female beauty.

 

[Ash]

So did Harvey Smith manage to lay Witch_Hazel or Anita Sarkeesian yet?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/inside-dish...tandalone-adventure-that-lets-you-kill-a-god/

Inside Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, the standalone adventure that lets you kill a god
Arkane on delivering a fitting finale for Dishonored's spookiest character.

God-killing might sound like an ambitious notion for a standalone expansion, but with Death of the Outsider, Arkane Studios promised players the opportunity to do just that. The expansion is also the latest example of a trend where developers experiment with an established series to create something that’s not quite DLC or sequel, but something in between. Refining certain ideas, systems and mechanics present in Dishonored 2 enabled Billie Lurk’s revenge tale to be its own beast.

“It’s true that we could have told that story through a two or three-part season of DLC,” says Dinga Bakaba, the game’s lead designer. “The push for a standalone was really a choice that benefited the overall quality of the game the most.” Though smaller, more focused and arguably more linear than Dishonored 2, the tale of the Death of the Outsider was the perfect opportunity to give players a satisfying sense of finality.

Almost everyone at the studio agreed that a separate release was the best route to take if the epilogue was to be done justice. The series’ long-standing director, Harvey Smith, had actually toyed with the idea since the first day of working on Dishonored 2. Though post-release DLC for the original 2012 game was well received, certain restrictions always come when developing additional content in the traditional manner. The plan for Death of the Outsider was to avoid those.

Killing chaos
“The maps, the features, the systems, the art, the narrative design,” says Bakaba. “The amount of polish that comes with not having to meet a shorter deadline and multiple submission processes that are associated with DLC benefits both us and the players.”

While Death of the Outsider is, in many ways, a game about endings, the standalone offering also marked many firsts for the franchise. The most notable example of these firsts is the absence of the Chaos system, a previous Dishonored calling card where player violence affects things like the number of guards in the game as you progress. As Billie Lurk, you’re no longer punished for taking a more lethal tack when getting in and out of Karnaca’s objective areas.

“It’s a more compact experience, so we wanted players to get the most out of it and encourage them to use the tools at their disposal in our games, stress them, experiment, find solutions and create unique anecdotes and stories,” explains Bakaba. “I’m frustrated when someone says, ‘This is the right way to play Dishonored,’ or, ‘I wish I could play like this, but the game doesn’t want me to.’ I want players to play their own game, not the game that the systems tell them is the best.”

It’s a difficult balance to strike, but Death of the Outsider largely manages to pull it off successfully. Billie offering the player a grey moral compass—a far cry from the duty-bound personalities of Emily and Corvo—signifies an Arkane willing to trust players more than in previous outings, particularly in terms of pacing and how to best tackle the game’s optional side activities. Also contributing to that attitude is the fact that activities can be approached differently thanks to Death of the Outsider’s big new power: Semblance. This lets players assume the likeness of any available NPC, essentially stealing their faces to open up new solutions to problems.

“The idea for Semblance came in the first phase of the project where the plan was to rework existing powers,” says Bakaba. “Heavily based on Possession originally, not everybody here originally believed that it would be a good power; some thought it might never work. But as we decided to make the game a standalone product we took the opportunity to invest in making the power more ambitious through mechanics, AI, feedbacks and such. Jérôme Braune, our senior system designer in charge of the feature, did a great job in turning it into a really useful power, but he was the first to be surprised when people mentioned it as one of the best things in the game.”

Everybody wins
Death of the Outsider, then, makes the case for expandalones being the perfect means by which to blend systems and mechanics that are both old and new. They can be an ideal way of placing less strain on developers while still creating a product for new players who want an entry point to the world, or seasoned players aching to spend more time with characters and a setting they’ve grown to love.

“Returning players will likely enjoy the story more because the plot is about the Outsider, Billie and Daud,” says Bakaba. “The narrative works much better if you are familiar with the characters, you get the biggest payoff that way. But at the same time, in terms of gameplay, it’s a brand-new player character with new powers and gadgets.

“We added video tutorials for new players, the action can be very unshackled as it ships with features like custom difficulties, and the new Contracts system allow you to plan a shorter play session around more bite-sized objectives. So new players can really enjoy it for the gameplay.” The intention, Bakaba explains, is that “all will have a great time” with the game.

 

[Silva]

Regretted my purchase midway into the game. It's the worst entry in the series. Lacks the grandeur of Dishonoreds levels and the personal, narrative punch of Knife of Dunwall. How they made Billie Lurk such a soulless character is beyond me, considering she was an interesting support cast in the past.

 

[fantadomat]

Regretted my purchase midway into the game. It's the worst entry in the series. Lacks the grandeur of Dishonoreds levels and the personal, narrative punch of Knife of Dunwall. How they made Billie Lurk such a soulless character is beyond me, considering she was an interesting support cast in the past.

Why did you buy this shit?! They chose the protagonist only because it is black and a woman,you even get to kill her like 3 times before this. This should have been like huge neon sign "It will be shit!".

 

[Silva]

i would give it 6/10 if dishonored is 8/10 and d2 is 9/10

Well, considering that i'd give Dishonored a 6/10...

And i understand wanting to be incloosive and everything, but did they have to make the character so fucking ugly:

Also, niggas gonna whine anyway because her hair is wrongly represented.

 

[Silva]

Oh and I could swear Bllie was actually jap in Knife of Dunwall, instead of black.


Edit: she was a japanigga. Two birds with a stone, heh Arkane?

 

[fantadomat]

She is like immortal nigger,every time you kill her,she becomes darker!

 

[Silva]

She is a dark elf.

 

[fantadomat]

She is a dark elf.

NOOOOOO! They are beautiful slaves! This one is more like a orangutan.

 

[Belegarsson]

Just finished the game, non-lethal playstyle just like how I blasted through the previous games despite not having chaos status. Really like some of the new tools and powers, Displace feels more like an offensive tool as I can air assassinate someone then teleport instantly back to cover through a single button click, great synergy with Foresight. Also, if you stick somebody's leg/torso up ceiling with hook mine then throw another one below them, it gonna rip their head off. Ouch.

The story though... so basically the entire thing is like this

Daud: "sup billie, wanna kill the outsider?"
Billie: "why tho"
Daud: "he gave me powers so I can kill ppl easier"
Billie: "what an asshole, let's do this"

This is how they treated their franchise's god damn epilogue?

 

[Vibalist]

The story was always shit in Dishonored tho

 

[toro]

The story was always shit in Dishonored tho

Yes. But the universe had great potential.

The setting is just perfect for some good stories ... but that will never happen as long as Arkane is hiring SJW writers.

Drop the karma system, implement real quests or Thief like missions (basically put some meat on the combat bones) and you have a classic.

 

[Vibalist]

It's not an SJW issue. It's an issue of poor writing, period.

I just replayed D2 and the problem with the characters is that they describe their own personalites to you, either directly or through conveniently placed tape recordings: "Hi, I'm Meagan, and I'm a seasoned sailor/retired assassin out for revenge". "Hello, I'm the Duke of Serkonos, and this witch craft ritual is more wild than any orgy I've ever participated in". It's the classic case of "show, don't tell", done completely wrong. No character will ever do anything that shows you what they are like.

For instance: Instead of implying that something is emotionally difficult to talk about by, say, lying, distracting or stalling, a character will say "this is hard to talk about... but maybe I will tell you later", etc. It's something that happens a lot in video games, but somehow is even worse here (maybe because the peripheral storytelling in both games is some of the best there is).

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Eh. There is good writing in the Dishonoreds. It’s just that for some reason it’s hidden from view in the lore books no one reads or the snippets of conversation between guards that no one listens to. It’s honestly really mystifying why there is such a massive disparity between the “ambient” writing and the “herp derp magic REVENGE!!11!” writing of the main plots.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I like sokolov at least in dishonored 1 when he is sort of an amoral crazy scientist. D2 softened him up too much, then again he is like 90 there.

 

[Vibalist]

Eh. There is good writing in the Dishonoreds. It’s just that for some reason it’s hidden from view in the lore books no one reads or the snippets of conversation between guards that no one listens to. It’s honestly really mystifying why there is such a massive disparity between the “ambient” writing and the “herp derp magic REVENGE!!11!” writing of the main plots.

That was my point, but yeah. They need to promote whoever wrote the lore and the secondary dialogue and fire whoever actually wrote the plot and characters.

 

[Mikeal]

Just finished the game, non-lethal playstyle just like how I blasted through the previous games despite not having chaos status. Really like some of the new tools and powers, Displace feels more like an offensive tool as I can air assassinate someone then teleport instantly back to cover through a single button click, great synergy with Foresight. Also, if you stick somebody's leg/torso up ceiling with hook mine then throw another one below them, it gonna rip their head off. Ouch.

The story though... so basically the entire thing is like this

Daud: "sup billie, wanna kill the outsider?"
Billie: "why tho"
Daud: "he gave me powers so I can kill ppl easier"
Billie: "what an asshole, let's do this"

This is how they treated their franchise's god damn epilogue?

Worst offender is Outsider's past. Yo I was some teenage brat and some assholes nobles stabbed me in the butt with magic knife so I became god. All of the Dishonored's potential died that day.

 

[Deathsquid]

Wait that is his backstory? What?