Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall DLC Review

A return to Arkane's incredible world, but from a whole new perspective. Say hello to the bad guy.

The Knife of Dunwall is the first piece of story-based DLC released for Dishonored. It’s a great slice of gameplay, and has one hell of a premise. Remember Daud, the leader of the assassins and all-round badass? I'm sure you know the guy... hung out with those BAMF-ing dudes with the gas masks... straight up murdered the Empress at the start of the story... was either killed or spared by you near the end?

You with me? Cool. He was a somewhat conflicted character in Dishonored: a hardened mercenary and killer, he was nonetheless guilt-ridden over his role in the death of the Empress and the city's descent into chaos. The Knife of Dunwall tells Daud's story, following him from that fateful day at Dunwall Tower through to – presumably – his confrontation with Corvo.

I say "presumably" because this will be a story in two parts. The concluding chapter, The Brigmore Witches, won’t be available until later this year. Quite why Arkane has chosen to do it this way is a little confusing. The Knife of Dunwall, you see, feels less like part one of an episodic release and more like, well, half a game. The conclusion is disappointing, with a weak twist that will be irrelevant in the next set of missions, and a central storyline that meanders along.

I still enjoyed it from start to finish, thanks to the excellent gameplay and visual design, but it's disappointing that there isn't more urgency in the storytelling. Instead, Daud is simply out investigating a “mystery” that The Outsider clues him in on. This is not an overt tale of a character with a villainous past seeking redemption (although low-chaos players are sure to fundamentally change Daud by the conclusion of the second part), and the cost of avoiding that cliché is that Arkane has made it a lot harder to care about Daud as a character.

It's a shame, because there's still a lot of good story content here; it's just less about narrative thrust and more about establishing characters and world building. And boy, what a world. The Knife of Dunwall fleshes out Dishonored's plague-ridden, broken, and brilliant universe even further. The themes are all familiar – power struggles, revenge, extreme corruption, and callous disregard for human life, but they very effectively strengthen the history and lore of this city.

The opening mission in particular, which takes us deep inside the brutal and abusive whaling industry that powers the city's industry and technology, is an unsettling insight into Dunwall and its machinations. There’s some particularly fantastic visual design on display here too, especially if you enter the slaughterhouse from the sewers and come in beneath the belly of the beast.

As much visual panache as ever.

Dishonored's greatest strength, however, is gameplay, and for the most part The Knife of Dunwall does not disappoint. Players familiar with Corvo will be right at home using Daud, as most of their powers are common between the two characters. But Daud does have a couple of very cool new tricks: the ability to summon an assassin to fight alongside him, and additional powers for said assassin. Level these bad boys up, and you’re able to do things like enter a fray alongside a master assassin, then slow time and both move at normal speed.

Shades of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, right? Well, there’s another mechanic that very much reminds me of that game too. The new Chokedust grenades can be used in much the same way as the smoke bombs in Brotherhood, creating a cloud of dust that gives you a couple of seconds to quickly dispatch any enemies unlucky enough to be caught in it. It was a winning tactic in Brotherhood, and it works pretty well here.

It’s satisfying to toy around with a slightly different set of powers, charms, weapons and tools, but the changes certainly aren’t as earth-shattering as I'd hoped playing as a different character would be. Even new structural elements like the Favors system – which lets players pay for information, runes, or other help ahead of missions – are only half-heartedly explored.

It's also worth pointing out that the new powers largely favour players on high-chaos playthroughs. If you're not killing anyone you'll actually have fewer tools at your disposal than Corvo does in Dishonored, because Possession is no longer available. That said, the Blink teleport mechanic has been nicely tweaked – you can now freeze time at the apex of a jump to aim your Blink, and this makes it even more powerful.

One significant strength of The Knife of Dunwall – like Dishonored before it – is that you’ll get at least two playthroughs out of the content. I’ve finished it twice now (high chaos then low chaos) and thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. I do think stealth is still the most satisfying way to play, however, both from a gameplay perspective and in terms of story. To that end, it's a shame the team didn't replace Possession with another stealth-minded power.

Regardless of your approach, each mission is cleverly designed to accommodate it, with multiple entry points to every location and countless routes within. The mission design in The Knife of Dunwall is more functional than inspired: there is no Lady Boyle’s Last Party-style mission here, or a trek across a towering bridge, but the freedom in gameplay is still as refreshing now as it was when Dishonored was first released. Players who are content to take their time will get a huge amount out of it too: there are many, many secrets ferreted about this world. That exploration might also uncover an odd bug or two – particularly around mission markers that, well, aren’t quite sure what they’re meant to be doing.