Dishonored DLC – Knife of Dunwall EP1: Knife to Meet You

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Mar 1, 2017

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 46 comments


Link (YouTube)

I’ve never played this DLC, so this is my first time seeing this story. I like everything so far. While I’m okay with silent protagonists, having a voiced protagonist works better for what Dishonored is trying to do, story-wise. The outsider’s appearance is brief. The environments look better than ever.

 


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46 thoughts on “Dishonored DLC – Knife of Dunwall EP1: Knife to Meet You

  1. Warclam says:

    This is really nostalgic to me. Dishonoured was the current season when I first started watching Spoiler Warning.

    1. Benjamin Hilton says:

      Wow, me too now I think about it.

  2. Sharnuo says:

    I started watching in season one (So you can suck it! =P) but I think Dishonored was the best season so I’m also really happy to see it come back.

    1. Echo Tango says:

      Alan Wake for life! :D

  3. Bespectacled Gentleman says:

    Is there any chance you might do the Fallout New Vegas DLCs you skipped? I’d love to hear your takes on Old World Blues and Lonesome Road, now that you’ve had some time to cool off from the… problems surrounding the other two.

    1. Talifabian says:

      I imagine the question would be if they’ve still got the relevant saves? They could do it with a non-Reginald save file, but *sigh* it wouldn’t be the same.

      On an unrelated note, when will the next Shogun 2 post be going up, Josh? Looking forward to it!

    2. Daemian Lucifer says:

      I dont want them to do old world blues.Its a great dlc,thats for sure,but it shines because of what all the npcs in it say.So having the cast either talk over all that dialogue or just staying silent until they finish talking wouldnt be very entertaining.

      1. Sleeping Dragon says:

        This, I don’t think the wacky story lends itself well to serious analysis either.

        1. Emily says:

          I mean Marlo Briggs didn’t exactly lend itself to serious analysis and that season was stil pretty rad.

          1. Christopher says:

            And Mystic Messenger.

            1. Daemian Lucifer says:

              Thats because marlow briggs was bad and mystic messengers gameplay was mostly just text.Also,the two were short mini playthroughs,not full ones.A mini one week taste of owb might work,just as a place for everyone to say what they think of it while the brains are being goofy.

              1. ehlijen says:

                I thought the ended up going all the way through Marlo Briggs? (I do recall much groaning about the boss fights and much laughter at the end credits minigame).

                1. Sleeping Dragon says:

                  They did, though it wasn’t a very long season. Also bear in mind that they already dissected FO:NV mechanics in the proper season. I’m not saying this can’t be done just that myself I’m not sure there’s that much content to be milked out of OWB.

  4. Daniel England says:

    I actually really like the Dishonored lore. Granted, none of it has any relevance to the main plot themes, but still. I’m also the kind of guy who plays Assassin’s Creed for the lore. I picked up every game up through IV after watching your season on II.

  5. Julian says:

    I think this got put into the wrong category. (“Shamus Plays”, rather than “Spoiler Warning”)

    1. MichaelGC says:

      Particularly ironic given that he hasn’t. Which was also the case with Until Dawn … they might need to do Spoiler Warning: Factorio next. Or There’s Nothing Really to Spoil: Minecraft.

  6. Phrozenflame500 says:

    Very pleased to see this. I was really dissapointed when you guys didn’t do the DLC after the Dishonored series cause I really do think it’s ironically the game at it’s best.

  7. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Wait,Chris talks more than Shamus?Is this the spoiler warning dlc?

  8. Leocruta says:

    I enjoyed this DLC. Daud and his assassins were my favourite part of Dishonored. I really like their style and abilities. Though I must admit, I liked them more before I learned their powers are outsider gifts by proxy. I prefer my supernatural powers to come through training and an iron will, not borrowed from someone like the Outsider (however, if they had stolen the powers and made them their own, that’d be fine).

    1. Lachlan the Mad says:

      I’m pretty sure that, given the general Elder-God-esque nature of the Outsider, it wouldn’t be possible to actually steal his powers. He’d let you think you’d stolen his powers, then turn up with a “lol nope, I meant for you to do that.” It’d be like joining a Cthulhu cult for your own personal gain.

      Mind you, that still lends itself to a more interesting story than the Outsider randomly handing powers off to any shmuck who asks. And of course all these stories would be more interesting if the Outsider had any actual interesting qualities.

      1. galacticplumber says:

        Or, you know, if his given motive of wanting to see amusing shit happen was played with actual passion. Literally just inject some emotion into his voice, the odd chuckle too quiet for guards to hear randomly when you kill someone, and much more uproarious laughter if you start actually rampaging? This time loud enough to get people’s attention so you have to either keep doing it or do something clever? Bam. He’s still not Shakespeare, but he at least has one very tangible goal, and a not entirely boring personality.

        1. Grudgeal says:

          I think most of us agreed during the original season that the Outsider could have been made to work better if he had a better design and a better voice actor, and possibly some slightly spruced-up lines.

          Personally I think he problem the Outsider has, looking back, is that he his something like the opposite of the Uncanny Valley — he looks and sounds too human to look like an inhuman eldritch deity, and he’s too banal to be this sort of Joker-esque agent of chaos. Like, if they took him more into the uncanny valley and made him look and sound not just subdued, but outright inhuman or something that mimics the appearance of humanity without ‘getting’ humanity, this distant, cold, uncaring being that does things for its own unknowable reasons, that could work. On the other hand, if they played up his humanity, injected some emotion and pathos into it and turning him into this creepy reflection of humanity that outright delights in our death and despair and really sounds and looks like it, that could work too. Instead, he sits in the dumps between the two approaches: Too boring to be interesting, too petty to be inhuman.

    2. Dork Angel says:

      I preferred the less supernatural route and choose powers that could have a natural origin that seemed supernatural. (ie. the teleport was just a sprung grappling hook and some smoke powder, summon rats was a pocketful of strong smelling cheese, etc…) and ignored the ones that couldn’t be explained away (ie. bodies disappearing on a stealth kill). It wasn’t that I had anything against a supernatural origin but I wanted to play a more ninja/assassin style character.

  9. Rutskarn? I think that bottle you remember Josh throwing at Daud @2:23 was made of the delight you took in imagining him doing so after Daud’s speech about choosing mercy, as Josh just let Daud go.

    It would have been funny, but he vanishes after the player chooses to not kill him.

  10. Christopher says:

    My biggest problem with Daud is his silly name. In Norway, there are two text-based languages. One is a Norwegianisation of Danish(after hundreds of years of union with Denmark) and the other being based on the spoken dialects of the country. The most popular one(something like 85-90 % of the population use it) is called bokmà¥l(“Book tongue/book speech”). The least popular one is called nynorsk(“New Norwegian/New Norse”), and is the one based on dialects. “Dead” in New Norwegian is literally “Daud”.

    They had to come up with the name of a professional assassin, and not only did they name him “Dead”, they named him “Dead” in a language that sounds like rural Norwegian dialects, which sound kinda corny to the majority of the population. Or alternately, if the last d is supposed to be silent(“Dau”) it’s exactly like a casual slang word for dead(“dà¸d”).

    I don’t know how interesting this is to anyone else, but it’s all I can think of when I see his name, so I had to get it out somewhere. It’s entirely possible they discuss the name somewhere in the games, I have barely watched any of the Dishonored spoiler warning on account of “Maybe I’ll actually play it myself sometime”.

    1. Grudgeal says:

      So you’re saying that, for you, this story is literally about a Daud man walking?

      1. Christopher says:

        He’s The Walking Daud, yes.

        1. Grudgeal says:

          At least you have your problem with him Daud to rights.

          1. Christopher says:

            With any luck he’ll have a Raud Daud Redemption and join the good side for Dishonored 2, and then it’ll be hard to dislike him. Though I somewhat doubt it with that name.

            1. I think we need to declare this subject as Left 4 Daud.

              1. Christopher says:

                I promise to keep it this comment thread. It’s the Daud Space.

                1. Speaking of spaces, I think he stole my vehicle. I was all like, “Daud, Where’s My Car?”

                  1. Christopher says:

                    That’s some Grand Daud Auto, that is.

  11. Akuma says:

    I know we’re supposed to talking about the DLC, but I really need to get this off my chest.

    Dishonoured 2 is a great game. It is hands down better than 1 in every way, but I feel like it’s really bad PC launch issues killed the discussion around it. That drives me super nuts.

    1. Baron Tanks says:

      If only people that develop and publish these games would take this to heart. I was looking forward to D2 but the issues around launch scared me off and in this day and age it’s quite easy to think, I’ll get it on sale. Which will probably be within a year. This trend is becoming more and more wide spread as people are wisening up to shitty release practices. Now, some people already were in on this but as a whole it’s getting to the point where the market is starting to send a message.

      Too bad most publishers defer to bitching and moaning that their games are not selling as much (think stories about Dishonored 2, Deus Ex MD*, the Tomb Raider games), rather than thinking there is a lot to be gained by going to market with working products. And, you know, have your budgets and expectations in line with the potential audience. Not everything is going to sell Call of Duty heyday numbers and it shouldn’t have to.

      *obviously I meant Mankind Divided. But I can’t help but imagine a game with Adam Jensen as a House analogue, grumpy all the time. Complaining about his coworkers and the red tape involved in his daytime job. Then at night you turn into a medical vigilante, breaking into people’s houses to secretly operate on those that can’t afford health care.

      1. What’s funny is I buy Bethesda games knowing full well they’ll be broken messes. I do this because modders will either fix the problems, or (in the case of Skyrim, mostly) come out with total conversion mods that fix Bethesda’s awful code and bad storytelling.

        It’s like some AAA games are being released like RPG sourcebooks: The adventures they come with are often sub-par, and it takes third parties to put out decent modules for people to enjoy.

  12. MichaelGC says:

    Rutskarn, start of Until Dawn season: “We're not going to spoil anything in this game.”

    Chris, start of this season (showcasing four-year-old DLC): “I won’t spoil anything.”

    Do you guys maybe wanna doublecheck the mission statement?

  13. MichaelGC says:

    Oo, nice callback on the ending credits music.

  14. Andy_Panthro says:

    I feel like I’m very much in the minority here, but I preferred Corvo and the main game to the DLC. I was never much of a fan of Daud and his troupe of magical assassins, and the DLC didn’t do anything to help me feel any more attached to him.

    To add to my minority points-of-view, I don’t particularly like voiced protagonists in first-person games either. (But that’s not why I’m less fond of Daud/DLC)

    1. Merlin says:

      I tend to prefer voiced protagonists simply because so few games take advantage of making the player character a cipher. Like… Half Life is not a series that’s enriched by Gordon being mute. You run through the same levels, along the same pathways, watching the same sorta-cutscenes. You’re given an empty vessel on which you could project a personality, but no means to actually do so.

      Dishonored is very much not this kind of experience though, and that’s why I think Corvo’s setup works better than Daud’s. The whole game is about enabling and reflecting whatever kind of behavior you want. You see Corvo as a brutal and bloodthirsty avenger? Sure, kick in the front door, throw some grenades, stop time to stab half a dozen people in the face at the same time. Is he a trickster jerkbag? Use your powers to make Rube Goldberg Death Machines and make guards kill each other. Is he an honorable operator? Go out of your way to help out the few decent people lingering in the gutters, and eliminate your targets with no collateral damage. The levels and powers are designed with this in mind, and the story & lore are written specifically so that a “good” playthrough doesn’t feel like the default.

      In Daud’s case, the gameplay all works out the same, but the scenario explicitly starts out with “I killed the empress and felt bad, and was confused why I felt bad.” It’s a pretty clear redemption story framework, which makes for serious (drink) ludonarrative dissonance when the game gives you the same freedom of expression it gave Corvo.

  15. Phantos says:

    I had a dream about this episode last night.

    Basically as a goof, the first 5 minutes was footage of Super Mario Galaxy, but the discussion was still all about the Dishonored DLC.

  16. guy says:

    Oh man, funny how you say that this DLC is critical to understanding the story of Dishonored 2, because my immediate reaction to the first connection was “WHAT!? WHAT!? I KILLED YOU IN ANOTHER DIMENSION! Okay, I guess that canonically Daud was low chaos, so instead she got trapped in a magical painting in another dimension that was then sealed off, which is the kind of thing that you do when someone can’t die and you want them to go away forever.” I spent the entire game in a sort of baffled rage.

    1. PoignardAzur says:

      Actually, I thiiiiink either endings are valid.

      In Dishonored 2, we saw that Delilah was brought back by a magic ritual; this ritual could have gotten her out of the void, or just resurrected her.

  17. guy says:

    Maybe in Dishonored 3 we’ll be able to go to Pandyssia. Briefly.

    Also, I still say this is the best replacement Outsider:

    http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HaruhiSuzumiya.jpg

    DAMNIT CAMPSTER.

  18. Destrustor says:

    My headcanon about the outsider:
    He’s a native of the elemental plane of boredom, but by being too interesting he was made an outcast.
    So he’s a trickster god who likes chaos, but his very nature still makes him the most boring thing outside the plane of boredom, where he’s the zaniest one.

  19. Dork Angel says:

    I loved Dishonoured and decided to kill Daud even though I’d knocked him out after reading something he’d wrote about killing Jasmine.

    I wasn’t sure about playing him in the DLC but it was really interesting in that it gave his side of the story and he was obviously tortured by the act. Ultimately he ends up saving Emily and the empire and in some ways gains some redemption before I took revenge on him as Corvo.

    It was also interesting in how it links into Dishonoured 2 (ie. Megan was one of Daud’s assassins and was involved in Jasmines assassination )

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