Dishonored – The Brigmore Witches

Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches (TBW) is a DownLoadable Content (DLC) for Dishonored that continues and the story of Master Assassin Daud that started in The Knife of Dunwall (TKoD).

As in TKoD there are three missions.  For some reason I like these missions the most of all of Dishonored and TKoD.  Perhaps it’s simply that I have new environments to play in.

The first mission is a return to Coldridge Prison (where Corvo originally started in Dishonored).  It’s changed a little since Corvo’s escape.  While you’ll recognise some parts from before,  other bits have been destroyed or damaged, then patched up.  They’ve also beefed up the security.  You also get to poke into a few areas that you couldn’t last time, so it’s a mix of familiar and new.  Given you’re inside a prison it’s mostly claustrophobic environments, but also with a few places to hide, once you’ve worked out where things are.

The second mission is a trip into new parts of Dunwall, in this case an area hotly contested by the gangs of The Dead Eels and the Hatters.  There are forays not just into that contested area, but into Dead Eels and Hatter’s territories.  This gives the whole mission a lot of different areas, and atmospheres, meaning you have to be ready to change tactics.

The final mission takes you to Brigmore Manor, a long abandoned Manor taken over by the Witches, and being claimed by nature.  This almost feels like a shout back to the final Thief mission where you made your way through the “Mansion” of the Trickster.  It’s not a copy, and it’s very different, but it does feel like a “silent homage”

Each of the missions are different enough that they provide a huge amount of variety, and challenges   As usual, there are many ways to complete missions, many ways to find your way into places, or to find information. Plus there are a few side quests you can pick up if you want.

I’m definitely enjoying the return of Daud who seems far more complex and interesting than Corvo – part of which is probably explained by the fact that he isn’t a silent protagonist.  He’s not just a pure killer, he has various motivations that you learn as you go along.  Some are merely as simple as he doesn’t like mysteries.  At the other end of the scale is his desire to survive.  That gives the story an extra push that makes me want to find out far more than I did during Dishonored. Though to be fair, the idiot Loyalists didn’t help there…

The wide range of environments in this set of missions really helps to keep interest high,  and makes me wish for almost an open city style Dunwall.  But then, I wanted that with Thief too…

As befits the final in the series, the climax is suitably epic, while also allowing you to use whatever playstyle you’re used to to solve it.  I prefer a ‘wait for the right moment, hit from the shadows’ type play, and even in the heat of that final climax could still pull that off.  I found that quite impressive.

I did have a few issues with TBW locking up the entire console in the final mission.  I had to go back quite a few saves to stop that – so it’s probably an issue that crept in with one of my saves.  Still, that was annoying and it was looking very much as if I’d have to give up entirely!

Ignoring that though, I had a lot of fun, and if I hadn’t started playing Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, and if Grand Theft Auto V wasn’t about to come out, I might replay TBW again…

 

 

About Lisa

A Geeky Gamergrrl who obsesses about the strangest things.
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