The Case

It has been written (by me) that Dishonored was a good game. It's also noted for its low meme potential, which is a good thing, because those are usually run into the ground by 9gag and then by everyone complaining about said memes. Anyways, the game already had one important DLC (and a pair of non-important ones) where we had the chance to play as master assassin Doud. Well, now his story is concluded in The Brigmore Witches DLC.

The Trial

The Knife of Dunwall started shortly after the assassination of the Empress Jessamine, with Doud - her killer - having regrets. Out popped the Outsider – a mysterious god-like entity that gives powers to a select few – who said that Doud's fate is tied to Delilah. Over the course of the DLC we found out that it's the name of a whaling ship, which in turn was named after a young painter. She was revealed to be another person gifted by the Outsider and that she was leading the Brigmore Witches. Well, Doud's pursuit of said witches continues.

The game is nice enough to let you start with the assumption that you finished the last DLC, because if Doud started his adventure severely underpowered (for a nigh mystical master assassin) here it would have been extremely out of place. Of course, I got the Outsider to wonder how peaceful and merciful I was for a master assassin. If you were more kill happy in the last game... well, you probably don't really want the low chaos ending - you rebel!

The more you learn about the Outsider and his business, the more Church of the Everyman, with its strict puritan rules and masked Overseers, looks like a force for good; out of four people in Dunwall to have been granted powers, two are insane and murderous, Doud is master assassin and Corvo didn't kill everyone in his way mainly because the player is warned that mounds of corpses will give you a bad ending. This makes the moral decision a shallow one, much like the work of the people who made all the lethal weapons and powers. You might also want to throw in sexism there, because it's the empowered ladies who are evil.

The newly introduced “Corrupted Charms” lead only to misery and death, further diminishing any ambiguity about Outsider's neutrality (then again, knowing that he's probably a mystical whale, there's a high chance that he just wants to dick over humans who are killing his brethren). Gamplay wise, these take up slots of normal charms, giving you some increased powers but always costing something – most usually, your mana stops regenerating. They are only useful for “combat Doud”... and we already established that there's little use in playing like that.

So, once we get back to stealthing around we get a new toy! Well, it's not exactly new – choke dust can now be upgraded to confusion dust. The end effect? Using these grenades no longer has negative consequences since targets will forget someone threw an explosive canister of choking dust at them. Is it useful? Sometimes. Sleeping darts are still king, especially when married to time stopping and your willingness to finish the game without being “undetected”. Since this doesn't factor into the good/bad ending equation, you're free to abuse it to your heart's content.

Talking about freedom, the levels here seem to be bigger and you have more choice in regards to how you approach a situation. There's less copy-pasting (unlike with the last level of Knife of Dunwall) and the locations have their own distinct feel, with the last one being the most free and interesting. On the other hand, unlike the whale slaughter house in the first DLC, we get less new details about life in Dunwall. It’s still fun to Blink around and explore, though. The DLC itself is of a satisfying length but some people might find the lack of difficulty unsatisfactory. I played either on hardest and it's quite easy to stealth around, while targets themselves are even easier to reach.

The Verdict

The Brigmore Witches is a worthy DLC on the whole, one that should not be missed by any fan of Dishonored. Its greater length makes it feel more satisfying, removing the feeling that the two DLCs should have been combined into one and justifying their separataion. More lore, more stealth and most importanly, a lot more Dunwall – it has it all. Also, you know, you can choke a...lady... Not in the lethal way...if you're into that kind of thing of course.

Case Review