We-ell. I finished my first run of TBW. It took me a day, but I no-lethally ghosted it. Haven’t reached 10k coin though – I think I shouldn’t have tried, because I missed most of the favors (I haven’t bought anything at all). It seems to me it’s possible to get enough coin only via save transfer.

My favourite moment is, for now, when you meet witches in the sewers. It was really scary, and I felt that [censored] has really finally hit the fan. Also the music, and the contrast between the flowers and the tech were nice.

I still am not fully accustomed to Pull, but it obviously has a lot of potential. In the rare moments I used it, I always thought how it can and should change the way I see levels. Maybe it could be reflected more in the level design in future (if there is one with more Dishonored content) as a basic power like Blink.

The Coldridge level was very nice. The half-familiarity makes exploring exciting. You recognize, compare, explore anew. The “music” outside that blocked the powers also added a new layer (a bit more places with it would be welcome). And it is nice to compare the same places from Daud's and Corvo's perspectives. I am more of a Daud fan, but I think it won’t be too inaccurate, if I say, that Daud’s Dunwall is harder and scarier.

Draqer Ward was fine. A bit Bioshokey around the stores and very dark in The Hatter’s Mill. The Hatters are bizarre, as it turned out. Bright uniform outside and absolutely sick leadership. I wasn’t expecting it. It is also a bit strange, cause I dunno who would want to join if you’re constantly threatened to be gassed.

Daud collecting flowers is perfect.

However as some people said already, it is a bit unnerving how long the mission is, if a player wants to get certain stats. Also I love the idea of gang feud, and was surprised that a compromise was possible. I thought we would have to choose sides. But, I guess it is fine, since Daud doesn’t care about any agendas besides his own.

Brigmore manor is incredibly, insanely beautiful (I wanted to make a screenshot of everything from every angle), but as your initial horror fades, the level falls flat a bit. Partially that’s, of course, me not liking all this flowery symbolism, but also there are the rushed revelation and the schoolgirly witches.

In short, I enjoyed the DLC. It’s very good that it was different too - much more voidy and magical, a vip club of the Marked having a murderous party, with Daud sneaking in the alien agricultural fantasy.

But (yep, that’s the main part) I am still not so sure about story. Of course nothing could live up to my expectations, that’s obvious even for me, and I’ll work on consolidating the two DLCs, but my initial impression from the end of the story is that it is a bit unsatisfying.

I would definitely prefer an open ending, without Corvo deciding anything without my consent (I guess, not many people play TBW before the main game, so everybody knows what he/she has chosen). Also not everyone even had in his/her game this situation when Corvo is standing above Daud deciding his fate – some just stole Daud’s key, the others could insta-kill him.

Characterization is still lacking too, in my opinion. Daud is supposed to feel bad about what he did or what is in store for him, but that wasn’t even mentioned. And I knew that Emily would be the central part of the plot, but I do not exactly like Daud’s story turning into a moral incentive. No, the idea that you could kill, justly, as you thought, a man, who saved your most important person, is interesting and can make you reevaluate your priorities, but I’d like focus to be shifted a bit more on Daud. Emily is not the center of the world for him.

He sounded so lighthearted when he said that he was ready for what was coming for him in the ending, but I couldn’t understand why, after playing the game. It was not shown why what he had done is enough to change anything.

In the end Daud turned into a true DLC character, while I hoped that he would have a separate story, which could simply cross that of Corvo.

Also why Delilah even wanted to kill him? For fame and fun?

I am still at gripes with most Emily-related things. Like that tailor, for example.

I think that at this moment I like TKoD more. That part of story was simple and logical. You torture, kill, make deals in order to achieve a goal. And then in TBW there are confusing conspiracies and unexplainable magic. And too little killing. I understand that I did a low-chaos consciously, but this time Daud really mostly does quests, not disposes of targets.

But maybe my opinion will change on the second run. I’ll write about it even despite I understand how uninteresting it is for everybody else. ><

I utterly disagree with his lack of characterization. His fight with Deliah showed his motivation quite clear, as did the outsiders words. By the end (In low chaos.) He was a changed man. The fact he didn't do things simply, proves he didn't want to do them. He didn't want to cause any more suffering then he needed. Like when he helps up the witch, he say's very kindly, "Are you alright?" Saving Emily, the daughter off the woman you murdered. It wasn't for redemption, it was because it was the right thing to do, and he wanted to save Emily. He didn't care if Corvo killed him, because he could look himself in the mirror and tell himself "I did the right thing" . Furthermore, the big [censored] herself is like "Are you doing this for Emily?" it wasn't for his own sake, it was for her. (Proven further by the fact no one will even know what you did, your story will neverbe told.) Daud becomes the tragic hero of Dishonored. And Deliah's magic is explained, she can impart her will onto objects she makes or paints.

I really liked the flower symbolism. And the Birgmore witches. (There as you say "School girl attitude" really humanized them, they loved each other like sister (or even more, as I heard one of them call another "My love)

The part where nobody will ever know about Daud's good deed I liked a lot. That's a very strong and realistic point. Though I won't call him a tragic hero - he is still a killer who has done a lot of things he'd rather nobody knew too.

I mean that almost none of his motivation was expressed properly. I'll be saiving Emily also on high chaos, where Daud hasn't changed much. And he doesn't tell why he thinks that saving Emily is important to him personally - the last time Daud told something about guilt and redemption was in the TKoD beginning.

I can't bring myself to believe that Emily as a person is that important to him. If he thinks that his biggest sin is the assassination of the Empress, not at least 18 years of killing for money, and that he can be redeemed by saving her daughter so that after it all the pain he caused others will be washed away - well, ok, but I'd like to have at least some hints in-game. I thought that he was trying to solve the mystery for himself, to escape his fate. If that changed halfway, I'd like to have that articulated.

That's why I say "characterization" - I didn't like how it was handled, not the very plot, probably.

I wouldn't like witches to be turned into singleminded monsters, but a few more dirty secrets would be nice (though I found the Overseer whom they fed his partner). But this is subjective, of course. It's just it was handled so well with Granny.

I don't really get the complaints especially the ones about Emily. Daud isn't really doing this for Emily. You can interpret it how you want whether he is just trying to get redemption, stop Dunwall from collapsing completely, solve the Outsider's mystery, get revenge on Delilah for Billie Lurk, etc. There's a lot there.

Note how Bigbossbalrog just one post above says that he thinks Daud does it exactly for Emily.

We started Daud's story with the fact that he is ill at ease with what he's done. In the end he says that he accepts his choices. But in between there were few things which showed why the change has happened. It's a fixed story, Daud is not a blank slate, so I can't treat it as "imagine what you want".

With Corvo Emily worked incredibly well as motivation, but with Daud I don't see why she would be that important to him.

The Brigmore Witches was certainly a different flavor compared to Dishonored and the Knife of Dunwall.

Draqers' Ward was a large area and I loved it. It offered much more freedom of movement and approach to achieve objectives.

And you know what was really nice..........making peace with the gangs and being able to walk around normally, without having to hide. It was refreshing.

Brigmore Manor really caught me off guard at first. I wasn't expecting it to be so colorful. Fantastic level design.

Overall I do not think the conclusion to Dauds' story could have been better. If you think about it the developers had a lot of ground to cover and they offered up a lot of variety.

If there was one thing I'd have liked to see:

Corvo import save. That would have been sweet,

That was unexpected, but nice. Though at first I was "Ohmygod, I could pick all those things up now, without all that fuss and hiding!"

I believe that Arkane tried some things that they want to implement in their new project.

I wish I felt the same.

Eh I disagree. While it is a "fixed story" a lot of things can change. The ending changes, Outsider monologues, etc. Yeah is the explicit motivation a little weak? Sure, and that is partially because the whole thing is propelled along by the Outsider in the first place. I think at a certain point you have to accept that things did change for Daud like they tell you at the beginning. For some reason killing the Empress was different. Beyond that I feel that Arkane gave us enough in the world that we can interpret Daud in our own way. Just because he has a voice doesn't mean he can't be open to player interpetation.

I am fine with their way of stoytelling mostly. But the hole in character progression is gaping wide. And the saddest part of it is that the last act of Daud's story seems to be more about Corvo than him.

I dont think so, Daud starts off as a person who had the weight of the empire and the death of an empress on his shoulder (And the reason why he feels so guilty about it is because he's shocked and horrified he killed someone who was trying to do good in the world. His usual target are corrupted nobles, not loving empresses). And he dramatically changes over the course of the DLC to a person who can accept the consequences of his actions, due to having a clear conscious. He didn't just save Emily, he saved the entire empire from Deliah's evil. For every life he took, he repaid in full for his redemption. Every life he spared instead of killed added to his redemption. Daud isn't just the savior of emily, he's the savior of the empire.

If Corvo spares him in low chaos, there's a small scene post credit where he's placing his sword at the tomb of the empress. Symbolizing he's done fighting, and has genuinely repented

Whaat?! How did I miss this post credits part?! I've watched the credits till the end. Maybe I got distracted... Need to rewatch and make screenshots.

I agree with you in that it, probably, should be the story. But it wasn't told in-game. Daud doesn't tell and doesn't show any hints on how a hardened killer, who murdered for money for not less than 20 years, suddenly changes.

Also, even if it is like that, Daud started looking for Delilah for personal reasons. Saving Emily was more of a collaterial. Maybe that was more important for him than his life, after he had learnt Delilah's plans - but I couldn't know it.

I'm not trying to be critical on purpose. I want to like everything about this DLC, but the story or, more exactly, how it is handled, doesn't sit well with me.

I have some issues with it too, even outside of Daud. All of these problems however, can probably be pinned down to a single reason. Dishonored's philosophy is all about choice. You choose how to do things, and the world reflects the choices you make. To do this however, you need the player-character to be a non-character so that any choice you make is valid. Daud is an actual character, and thus there are things he'd do and things he wouldn't do. The way I see it, to get around that, they played him down.

Daud is a character treated like a non-character. Arkane tried to have their cake and eat it too, and in doing so both the choice-making aspect and Daud's character were sort of brought down.

I feel like I explained this wrong because my attention's separated between this and some other stuff at the moment, but basically the issues I had with Brigmore Witches were that it made Corvo's choices for you in both the final cutscene and a few of the others where it says a killer is stalking the streets, and that you didn't have many choices in how to do anything. There was only one way out of Coldridge, with you carrying Lizzy. Edgar had no creative way to get rid of him. Delilah and the Geezer were the only ones with some choice to them, and even then, Delilah's just sort of happened.

Maybe it could be avoided if they gave him different lines for different chaos levels? This way there could be a proper self-reflection. I don't know how hard it is, but it's, probably, possible.

And an open ending would be nice too. Dishonored has many ambiguous moments anyway, so, I believe, by the third DLC players could connect their walkthrough of the main game and the ending of the DLC themselves.

I think people are perhaps over-thinking Dauds' story and looking for things that simply are not there.

Of course, I realise that people wanted to see the hardened killer side of Daud but in Dunwall I guess hardened killers are many. Take the Hatters and the Eels.....even Lizzie Stride, they are all murderers and thieves.

I'm struggling to get my words out but simply put...........there is dialogue between Daud and his Whalers early in BW.

Daud reminds them who it was that killed an Empress and came out untouched. That line alone sums the man up. Yeah, he has regrets and he wants to ease his mental anguish......but make no mistake about it, Daud is a bad-ass.

Yes, I had that too. It just has such an awesome atmosphere, especially, I feel, the outside. I kinda think that art in this game is something that's just not praised enough. Every aspect of the game is discussed but the art... everyone takes it for granted I guess.

This entire game is just visually stunning.

As for Daud's motivation. In my eyes, it has little to do with Emily but a lot to do with the Empire. A couple of Daud's lines indicate that his uneasy feeling is related to the fact that he really screwed the entire city, and the Empire, in killing that one person. At least that's how I take all this talk about 'it all falling apart' etc etc.

Probably because of graphics. :\

But tumblr is full of nicely edited screnshots, so the beauty of Dunwall is not entirely unrecognised.

I've finished TBW on high chaos, and while the process itself was fun and there were many interesting moments and references, the whole thing with saving Emily as primary motivation had even less sense.

I understand that it is open to interpretations, but really, Daud's remorse isn't shown very well.

It's not that writing got worse - the task became more difficult. While in the main game Corvo's motivations were mostly very understandable and personal, Daud is involved in a more complicated intrigue, which needs more effort put into explanation.

As it is now, I can't understand why Delilah had to make things so complicated to herself by assaulting Daud just before her masterpiece or why Emily's fate is suddenly so important to Daud that saving her makes him make peace with all his previous choices.

I didn't think that Emily was a motivation at all for Daud. It was just irony- the Outsider's sense of playfulness or balance, perhaps- that he ended up saving Emily. His motivation was to figure out the name in his dream in order to figure out what the Outsider is doing to him. His regret- or rather, doubt- over Jessamine and Emily is part of that but because he's realizing that the Outsider's gifts led to the city's ruin.

I think you can explore his guilt more in your emergent story of whether you play low or high chaos. High chaos feels right for Daud as he was, but low chaos feels right for the arc he's on, where he's less ready to just take a life since he sees how much impact one death can have.

I understand the story mostly like this too, but I don't see it in the game.

On high chaos I talked to Delilah in the final mission, and the dialogue was about Emily, they even brought up Corvo. I was cringing to be honest.

Well Daud does heavily regret killing the empress. It's sort of the last straw of being used, though, moreso than any particular compassion for her or Emily- as I see it, anyway. Delilah is the one fixated on Emily. Of course there's no real reason for Daud to try to stop Delilah once he figures out her plan. So trying to right the wrongs he created probably is the big motivation by the end.

Hm, you think that he rebels against the Outsider?

I just would like him to express something of this in-game. Because we get dialogue only about Emily.

Cool signature, by the way.

I just finished TBW this evening, and I have to say, I really enjoyed playing as Daud. I wanted to punch the Outsider's smart mouth in every time he gave lip on how the actions weren't characteristic. Whatever, freak. Just send me on my merry way so I can take care of Delilah.

I definitely enjoyed the power of the bone charms in this game, especially the fast choke one. In fact, that was pretty much the only bone charm I needed. With the fast chokes, nothing else mattered since speed is usually a necessity because of the slower chokes. Dark Void and Blink were the only rune powers I used, a carry over from the main game. Just don't see a need for the other powers, I suppose.

I concur with the spookiness of Brigmore Manor. The sheer number of enemies guarding the place made for one very interesting game. Loved it, even if I had to reload often because of the way those guards moved. Ha! Stupid dogs (or whatever they are).

Low chaos run through done, though I blew my Ghost on the second chapter because of that damned sewer encounter. Cheaters!! Now I had to redo the entire chapter.

Heh, not that I'm complaining. I still need to do them again for the high chaos.

Oh, and for those who are trying for the 10k gold, here's a bit of bad news. I don't know if anyone else paid attention, but when I was tallying up my gold earned vs gold missed, I noticed something very odd: There isn't 10k gold in the DLC!!!

This means if you want the achievement, you need to carry gold from previous saves.

Very dastardly, Arkane.

There's 10705 gold in the DLC. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1470630-brigmore-witches-coin-guide/, and then you start with 3000.

Saving gold from the previous DLC is a lot easier though, with a total of 14927 gold in the two DLCs together.

Well, blew the gold run. I was... get ready for it: 100 gold short. Man, I swear. I always seem to be 100 gold short.

Anyway, I'll be trying it again because the game threw me for a loop with the witches attacking the Undine and I lost ghost. In fact, there's been some heavily questionable parts in this game which really ticked me off, having to reload from my last save, and trying again.

The sewers under the textile mill was the biggest. It took me forever to figure out how to open the door with the wheel and not get detected by the two witches ready to ambush. I finally had no choice but to dash out and find some spare mana because I was hanging by a thread at this point, so I didn't have enough for stop time.

Oh, yeah, I should point out: I only carry 1 spare each in my game. I find this to be a self-imposed challenge.

Anyway, I'm glad the DLC is fun to play, because I'll have to do it again to clean up a few loose ends.

Also: this DLC is major PitA without the Strong Arms bone charm. I don't know why I didn't get it this time through, but man, what a difference it makes. Taking down those witches in the manor is painful when you're not knocking them out quickly. With so many witches doing their "zip", ugh....

Next time: I'm buying sleep darts.