Dishonored just seems to have lost something in its most recent installments. In the original game there was something Biblical hovering just around the edges of your vision - hints that the rat plague had some kind of vicious, retributive nature; whales as both divine beings and the foundation of industry and in fact the whole civilization is run on their grotesque slaughter (the horrified, reverent way the Heart says âTheyâre burning the whalesâ); everything regarding the Outsider and the way people react to him with either maniacal desire or equally obsessive disgust; the sacred music fundamental to the creation of the universe which cleans away the primordial forces of chaos and inquity and it hurts you; little things like Delilahâs teeth lengthening as she screams in the split second before her death (and thatâs one of the creepiest moments in gaming history because in the rest of the DLC she has it together perfectly, and then you realize how much sheâs been warped by being touched by the divine in the midst of her hatred and it came out of fucking nowhere). I was always a bit confused and slightly disappointed about how it never seemed to add up to anything - you get your spunky tween back, end of game. (Also a bit disappointed that you couldnât Fight the Power and the aristocracy is just the same as itâs always going to be. Yes I did want an expansion pack where Corvo can spend 40 hours arguing the legal precedent for a representative democracy.)
Dishonored 2 just kind of lost that and I donât think Death of the Outsider picked it back up. Maybe because the book wasnât good and in DH2 the Outsider all but drops his human background in casual conversation and so the dramatic crux of DOTO doesnât exactly get off to a good start. Itâs hard to put my finger on why.Â
(Aside from that Billie, who is about to perform an act of contrition on the level of her entire civilization, doesnât really seem to be developing complex or deeply-felt ideas about compassion and forgiveness - or guilt, responsibility, and condemnation - as we play. Sheâs robbing banks and mooning over her childhood sweetheart, which is disappointing to see from a middle-aged gay woman whoâs had plenty of lovers, not to mention kind of weird. The choices she has to make are both thin on the ground and donât really have anything to do with these ideas (the game doesnât even respond to your chaos levels so if you want to kill everybody on the map or spare them the difference barely registers) and her relationship with Daud is just a little thin to carry it all the way to the ending (not to mention theyâve already decided how theyâve felt about each other and what to do with one another), so itâs more like she stumbles on the Outsider and feels momentarily sorry for him, and thatâs kind of moving but not as moving as it could be.Â
Billie is concerned about whether she can change, but whether someone can change isnât entirely relevant to the question of what to do with the Outsider, where itâs more about whether the world is harmed by having him in the Void and if he has in fact brought evil down on humanity, how responsible he needs to be for that. Heâs been doing the same thing in there for four thousand years and he canât do anything while heâs dead and he canât do anything as an ordinary guy, so the question of whether he can change doesnât apply to him. Itâs easy to stretch it a little bit to âDo I deserve to live?â and consequently, does the Outsider deserve to live either, but you canât kill yourself or join a convent or whatever (I guess you could just put the game down and walk away), and I donât feel like the arguments for the Outsiderâs guilt and death are strong enough outside of Daudâs whining. I was never able to wrap my head around the Abbey of the Everymanâs actual theology and aside from enjoying being evil and totalitarian in general what exactly they needed to use the Outsider as a scapegoat for - the evil inside their own hearts, I guess? - and since the atmosphere is lacking in the second generation of games itâs hard to really be immersed in the idea that heâs a truly divine and fearful being that creates real terror in the heart of the religious. Iâm not the type to say we have to make the edgelord choices look better in gaming, but it would have made Billieâs choice to love and redeem him in spite of everything much more meaningful.)
Though honestly in a lot of places I can say âWell, it would have been good ifâŚâ and they did do something like that. Itâs hard for me to say why it didnât gel.Â
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