Dishonored is my GOTY. Hands down. I loved it and had little assassin babies with it. That’s what I did. I loved the open world feeling of the game, I loved the way I truly could choose my own path through the city of Dunwall, and I loved the way my choices had a real and tangible effect not only on the world, but on the character of the other characters.
The first DLC The Knife of Dunwall was brilliant. For the first five minutes it was hard to relate to the Empress-murdering-Daud, but then the pathos drew me in and, yes, I almost enjoyed being Daud a little more than I enjoyed being Corvo. It was the gravelly voice, I think.
My eager anticipation of The Brigmore Witches can not easily be overstated. I was, in a word, fiendishly excited.
So, is The Brigmore Witches worth it?
The game play is more challenging than Dishonored and The Knife Of Dunwall. I breezed through The Knife of Dunwall with no problems whatsoever, in both low and high chaos.
The Brigmore Witches is much more difficult than previous iterations of the game. It also includes new powers, the most notable being the Pull power, which allows you to suck items toward yourself from a distance.
I attempted playing The Brigmore Witches on Low Chaos first, which is not my usual M.O. My usual approach is to slay ’em all on the first run-through and come back a second time with a little more finesse. But I didn’t do that because a) I’d already imported my low chaos save from The Knife of Dunwall, and b) I really wanted to see what the game considered to be a ‘good’ ending for Daud, given the ominous overtones of the entire story arc.
So what can I share with you without spoiling the ending?
Witches Be Scary
I like witches, but I didn’t like these witches. They are scary. Proper scary. Needles in the knife drawer scary. Not only do they flash in and out like assassins, but they can summon vicious deamon hounds as well. This really changes everything. Most of the rest of Dishonored can be played simply by peering into rooms, then choking out or sleep darting the inhabitants. But in the final level of Brigmore Witches, you, the Knife of Dunwall, are surprised more times than you can count. One moment a room is empty, the next it is full of witches and hounds and you’re perched atop a bookcase in the hall like some sort of paranoid gargoyle, trying to catch your breath and restock mana.
This final DLC is serious business. I love hate it. I love it because I feel it really forces the story to a climax whilst simultaneously pushing the player’s skill to a climax and I hate it because… well, although I felt drawn through the game it was, at times, pretty gosh darn punishing. It wasn’t always ‘fun’, but it was good.