During PAX East, I got the opportunity to play through the first mission in Dishonored: Knife of Dunwall DLC. In this extra content, you play as the assassin Daud — who if you’ve played Dishonored, you will know quite well. The game starts with some inner-monologue from Daud during the assassination of the Empress. Although he doesn’t question the attempt on her life, he realizes that there is something different about this mission compared to all the previous ones. The Outsider confirms that Daud’s suspicions are right and gives him information to start a search.
Right off the bat, experienced Dishonored players looking for a challenge will be pleased with the “Master Assassin” difficulty, which is basically a one-shot-kill mode. You’ll have you navigate through the missions practically flawlessly or find yourself respawning quite frequently. Remember, this is just an option; all the previous difficulties still exist for players to fumble around in. Master Assassin mode will only be in Knife of Dunwall and doesn’t unlock for the original game.
Daud plays similarly to Corvo but with some distinctive differences. When you blink and are not moving, time completely stops, which allows for some pretty unique moves and takedowns. I found this particularly useful for getting right behind a foe to take him down. It's also handy when using agility to jump higher to blink to those nearly out of reach locations. Once you get more used to it, you’ll amaze yourself with the level of control you have in platforming.
The other differences between Daud and Corvo include some unique powers. Daud has a passive power where he can share his Outsider powers with his assassins. Speaking of assassins, he also has a power that summons assassins, which brings advanced AI minions to take out selected targets. Hey, if you’re going to be the leader of an assassin group, you don’t have to get your hands dirty all the time.
Overall, Knife of Dunwall is the DLC fans have been asking for since the release of Dishonored. I absolutely love what Bethesda did by adding new story content without using Corvo. Not only does this give players a different angle to the Dishonored world, but it also adds new, enjoyable gameplay mechanics. This DLC is worth the purchase in content, game time, and difficulty. The Knife of Dunwall DLC will be released on April 16 for $9.99 on PC and PlayStation 3, and 800 Microsoft Points Xbox 360.
