At long last, it is finally done. The Outsider, an entity on great power, who influenced the fates of so many, has finally been erased from the world. And with this accomplishment, so to ends our Improvisation Run. It has been an incredible experience for me, and I’m glad to have gone through this whole franchise with you all.

If you want to follow me onto the next series, be sure to follow my Twitch channel for content updates.

This area, where the Outsider truly resides, surrounded by the Eyeless Cult, is where the Void seeps into the living world. This makes it a perfect staging ground for the cult, whose sole purpose is to become one with the powers of the Void, obtaining omniscience and omnipotence.

One of the most interesting details about the cultists here is that they are visibly different from normal people. Not only is there skin taking on a grayish discoloration, similar in hue to the land masses the dot the Void when one of the main characters is taken there, but their eyes also glow an eerie yellow hue when they detect you. They are attempt to transform themselves into walking horrors know to them as The Enlightened. But this was not the first method they devised for tapping into the Void’s power.

Long ago, in order to first try to commune with the Void, they kidnapped a boy, and severed his name from him with a mystical knife, killing him. This boy became The Outsider, and entity through which the Void gazes onto the mortal world, and he has been fighting this fate with every fiber of his being ever since. A fate which Billie Lurk, one way or another, ends this night.

There’s also the added factor of the Eye of the Dead God, which hints at deities and powers that existed long before The Outsider. Deities that are so powerful that, even though they are long since passed from this world, still affect their surroundings.

There’s so much going on in Death of the Outsider, and so many different directions they could take the series. It’s a shame we won’t see Dishonored for some time, if at all, for both in story and gameplay this appears to be where the team at Arkane found their stride.

We have one more (brief) scuffle in Dishonored, but afterwards we’ll move onto another game I wish to talk about.

Let us continue our adventures as Billie Lurk, master assassin on a quest to kill a god.

Not only do we finish up The Bank Heist, one of the greatest levels in the series next to Crack in the Slab, Clockwork Mansion, and Lady Boyle’s Last Party, but we only return the Observatory and tussle with the occupying Overseers.

If you wish to watch content like this as it’s recorded, be sure to check out my Twitch channel.

As people in the chat noticed, I was a lot more… bloodthirsty in this run than I’ve been in previous “Improvisation Runs”. Were I playing by myself, I would be reloading and playing a lot more carefully. Indeed, even on camera, I’m usually a lot better at keeping casualties to a minimum. That said, it is hard to overstate how important it is that chaos is no longer being tracked. Removing that variable liberates the player in so many ways.

In the Death of the Outsider episodes, you’ll also notice that I’m a lot more fast and loose with the tools at my disposal. Even when I was caught in the other games, I was cautious to avoid using abilities and/or tactics that would spill too much blood. Sure, I did make a few kills, but I also took pains to protect my enemies from the worst of it. Here, I am able to cash in even more on the “Improvisation” part of the tagline, experimenting with and utilizing tactics that I come up with in the heat of the moment. It’s easier to show than it is to describe, but when the player has the controls in their hands they feel the difference.

Part of that also has to do with how much more varied and interesting the objectives are now that they’re no longer tied to the idea of having to perform an assassination/takedown. Something like this bank heist mission would not be possible in other Dishonored games, because the highlight would be less on the vault and more on the target the player would need to eliminate. Sure, the most straightforward solution is to move the vault into the bank director’s office, but there are several more interesting options available thanks to the more open-ended objective.

It’s a damn shame that we’ll probably not get another Dishonored game for quite some time, if at all, because they struck gold with this standalone.

Our mission to assassinate The Outsider continues, and there’s very little that anyone could do to get in our way.

As I mentioned in the episode, Death of the Outsider raises an interesting philosophical and moral question. The Outsider, as a god, and see all possible timelines except those where he no longer exists. When he finds an individual who exists at a moment of great divergence, he grants that person power, usually in the form of his mark. Though he hopes that they use that power for good, he is aware that there is always the chance they will abuse their new abilities.

Enter Daud. Like several before him, he was granted the Outsider’s mark. Using that power, Daud lead a group of assassins as they hired themselves out for coin. Good people, bad people, rich people, poor people: Anyone was a potential target if the price was right. That is, until the fateful day where they were hired to kill Empress Jesamine Kaldwin.

Ever since then, Daud has been trying to make up for past misdeeds.Watching the chaos unfold, and an entire society nearly fall to ruins, as a direct result of his actions broke him. But rather than turn his focus inward, to self-improvement and redemption, he chose to focus his feelings on the person who gave his lethal abilities.

The question that Death of the Outsider poses is one of blame. Is The Outsider responsible for Daud’s bloody campaign across Dunwall, since he was a possibility? Or is Daud the one to blame, for he is ultimately the one who made those choices even if The Outsider enabled him? Perhaps both, or neither. And even if one or both of them are to blame, is it right to punish them? Keep those questions in mind as we progress through the DLC.

As for the game, one of the cool new ways Death of the Outsider retools the Dishonored formula is by removing the need to neutralize targets. As you may have noticed in the missions we’ve done so far, we’ve put into the path of several Eyeless Cult leaders. While we absolutely can (and have) kill them, it’s not required. And unlike previous Dishonored games, we don’t even need to neutralize them. Despite the fact that chaos is no longer tracked, it is still possible complete the game without taking a single life.

This frees the team at Arkane up to allow for more varied objectives. Something like the bank robbery we left off in the middle of simply would not be possible in previous Dishonored games, because it would have to end in an assassination. Considering it has become one of the best missions in the whole series, it shows how untying Dishonored from its origins as an immersive assassination sim gives the franchise room to grow.

Although Emily’s adventure has come to an end, the world of Dishonored marches on. People are still destitute, and suffering is commonplace. It is in this part of town where Billie Lurk, infamous assassin, lives and thrives.

This is her story, and if you wish to see it unfold live, be sure to follow my Twitch channel for updates.

There are two changes made to the Dishonored formula in Death of the Outsider, and they have a massive effect on the player experience.

First, Chaos is no longer tracked. Billie is a assassin who has spent most of her live killing people for coin. By the time we pick up her story, she’s bathed in blood, and has no qualms about spilling more to do what she has to. In gameplay terms, this means that any lethality (or lack thereof) is completely on the player. The game will neither pass judgement on nor change the level based on how many people the player kills.

Secondly, mana potions are a thing of the past. Though she has powers, Billie is not one of the Outsider’s marked. Her power comes from her connection to the Void born from the temporal anomalies Delilah created in the Stilton manor. This gives the player free reign to use and reuse their powers as they please, with very little restriction. Mana still exists, but it regenerates incredibly quickly.

These two changes combined create a much more liberated Dishonored game. It’s hard to overstate what that feels like as a player. On top of all the tools Billie has access to, it is easier than it has every been before to experiment with all the options available in the open, immersive sim structure of the franchise.

Stay tuned, because you’re in for some shenanigans akin to the Crack in the Slab for Dishonored 2.

We’re finally made it. At long last, we have attained a way to defeat Delilah and save the empire.

It was a ton of fun to perform this improvisation run on stream. As we keep playing other, similar games on stream, you can always follow me on Twitch to keep abreast of what we’re playing. Be sure to pop in and say hello.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about Dishonored 2 that we haven’t already discussed in previous episodes.

The most interesting aspects of this final mission are all the myriad callbacks to the previous Dishonored game and its DLC. Since the vast majority of the mission takes place in a map that was used for both Mission 1 of Dishonored 2, and the prologue and Mission 6 of the first game, it’s only natural to reference what came before, as a treat to those who have stuck with it since the beginning.

• In Low Chaos, Megan Foster reveals that she’s truly Billie Lurk. And you can pickpocket the key to her cabin in order to hear Daud’s final confession.
• The Gazebo where Emily’s mother met her end is present at Dunwall Tower, as it should be. There, players can pay respects at the monument set up in her honor.
• Jesamine’s secret chamber for the first game is present here as well. Not only that, but players who remembered it’s location could use it to sneak by without turning on the elevator and alerting Delilah to their presence.
• The non-lethal method to dispose of Delilah identical to how she is stopped in The Brigmore Witches, by allowing her to complete her ritual after sabotaging it.

We’re getting close, friends. The finale is in sight. We only have a few objectives we need to complete before we proceed onto the finale.

If you want to watch content like this as it is being recorded live, please follow my Twitch at newdarkcloud@gmail.com.

Time travel/manipulation tends to follow one of two possible interpretations in fiction: Either there is one overarching timeline (which is either immutable or manipulated by events occurring in the story), or each change results in another timeline shooting off from the one the change took place in. While Dishonored 2 appears to follow the first model for now, Death of the Outsider will call that into question.

But even within that framework, Crack in the Slab very expertly uses time travel and manipulator creatively and effectively. And with the ability to affect the present by saving Stilton from his fate, there are effectively 3 different versions of the map that the player is traveling between. From a technical statement along a gameplay standpoint, this level is a achievement.

Meanwhile, the estate of Duke Luca Abele is impressive in another way. It serves as a great way to show players all they need to know about the character. Throughout the game, we see examples of the Duke making the lives of his subjects miserable for personal gain, from Emily and Dr. Hypatia to the citizens of the Dust District. Here, we see what it gets funneled into.

The Duke’s manor is the very definition of opulence. Aside from the final mission, it’s one of the largest maps in the game, by design of the good Duke. It’s filled with expensive food, trained guards, clockwork soldiers, and wealthy guests to regularly-scheduled orgies. The common people are nothing more than a means by which he maintains his lavish lifestyle, and the island nation is being drained as a result. All of that is here on display… which makes replacing him with his own body double all the sweeter.

Apologies for the technical mess that is this recording. That said, we went through quite a decent chunk of the game in this stream, and it ended up being a lot of fun.

If you wish to see content like this as it’s created live, be sure to follow my Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud.

Dishonored 2 is a really fun game, and honestly pretty stable once it starts running (at least, now that it’s been patched). That said, I always get a bit nervous when I launch it because I can’t tell how many times I’ll need to relaunch it to get it to run properly.

Even then, there’s a separate problem that really only affects streamers like me. Whenever I Alt+Tab out of the game, I find that it’s basically impossible to load back in. This means that if I need to make audio adjustments live, that I need to quite the game in order to do that. It’s easier to save, quit, and relaunch that to Alt+Tab out and back in. I didn’t include it in the final post, but the first 13 minutes so this stream were plagued by these types of technical issues.

But in terms of what we covered in the stream, we entered and completed the Dust District. There are two really cool aspects to this stage. One, the fact that multiple, opposing factions in the same level, in opposition to each other. Though I didn’t take advantage of it in my run, you can use this fact to have members of the two factions take each other out so you don’t have to. They toyed with the idea in Brigmore Witches, but it’s nice to see the mechanic return.

The other thing I adore about the Dust District is the number of solutions of available to the player, and how they impact the ending (in a small but noticeable way). The goal in the Dust District is to solve the Jindosh lock’s puzzle and open the door to Stilton’s house. While difficult, the player can just work through it’s logic and move on, skipping the level entirely. If that’s not to their liking, they can give one of the two faction leaders over to the other, securing the solution from the one they side with. But if that idea is also displeasing, they can instead do as I did, and steal the solution from the person who normally gives Stilton his food and supplies.

The fact that this one level has so many interesting options is astounding, one that even skips the level completely. At the time, this attracted quite a bit of attention from critics, and for good reason. Many designers are terrified of the idea that a player might miss content, so having the option to skip it completely is a bold choice.

Then, we have A Crack in the Slab. As I said in the stream, it was really odd that both this and Titanfall 2 came out in the same year, and both had a level with a time travel mechanic. And like the one in Titanfall 2, this one is quite abusable. We had a ton of fun getting caught by guards, then popping out of time to escape, only to run around and re-enter time to choke them while they’re turned around. The Assault/Non-Lethal option is best in this mission. Time travel is also used in a number of really interesting puzzles to acquire Runes and Bonecharms.

Next time, we’ll finish up Crack in the Slab, and discuss it’s most interesting features a bit more.

Over the course of almost 2 months, my Interactive Friction co-host Sam, and Chris, the other half of the Marvelous Duo, came together to subject ourselves to David Cage’s latest disaster-piece: Detroit: Become Human.

Why did we do this? Because David Cage’s game have always proven to be a strong source of unintentional comedy. The plot’s are usually so badly written that they are practically incoherent, with characters that act like they’re from an alien planet.

That’s certainly present in Detroit: Become Human, but it is a lot worse in so many ways.

Here are the streams, all 5 of them. If you wish to view content like this as it’s recorded live, be sure to follow my Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud.

In the first stream, I made mention of an article about how the androids of Detriot, by virtue of being playable characters, are more human than the actual “humans” depicted in the game. From the start, they are all given agency because we, as players, impart it onto them through our actions. I claimed it was probably written by Gita Jackson on Kotaku, but I have unsuccessfully tried to location it. I know the idea was not my original idea, so if anyone out there can find the piece, please let me know so that I can attribute credit where it is due.

The relationship between Connor and Hank is the highlight of the whole game. Both actors have phenomenal chemistry together: Bryan Dechart as Connor, the fresh-face android detective, and Clancy Brown as Hank, the grizzled policeman who never recovered from the death of his son.  If you ignore the implication of a young, black cop (since despite David Cage’s assertion, this is clearly a racism story) trying to gain the favor of his racist, white partner, there’s a good buddy-cop dynamic between them.

Connor and Hank also play off one of David Cage’s strengths: Strong individual scenes. If you play a single scene in a David Cage game separate from the context of the rest of the game, it’s usually good in that vacuum. In fairness, Cage shows some improvement in this category compared to Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain, but there’s still much to be desired.

Kara’s plot suffers from another of Cage’s weaknesses: His bizarre tendency to treat women as fragile torture/rape victims. Heather Alexandra from Kotaku wrote a brilliant article about it, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but it continues an uncomfortable trend I really wish he would try to break. I also brought up the questionable handling of domestic abuse in Kara’s segments during the stream, but Thomas McMullen goes into greater detail in his piece on the subject.

Aside from that, Kara herself wasn’t really that interesting. While her side characters have some meat to them, her whole plot-line could’ve easily been cut without losing much in terms of the overall story. Even though this game largely exists on the strength of the tech demo she stars in, she’s weirdly ancillary to everything else going on.

As for Marcus, you can see how annoying I found his plotline in the streams. Though I am a white man, I’m hardly alone in pointing out how Detroit, and Marcus’s plot in particular, grossly misappropriates imagery from the American Civil Rights Movement. Several writers of color have already produced articles about this topic in more detail than I could never hope to convey in my writing, but know that it is an issue.

Then there’s the extremely uncomfortable holocaust imagery Detroit invokes towards the end of my playthrough. I’m not going to say that it’s taboo to talk about the Holocaust. It’s an event in history that deserves to be acknowledged as one of the most vicious crimes against a group of people to ever occur in human history. In the context, it is a subject that needs to be handled with some form of weight and respect. Here, I get the impression these concepts were thrown in almost as an afterthought, and it infuriates me that Cage failed to see how hurtful that could be. Being left the option to free my menu slave, and to buy a new version of her if I did, just rubbed salt in the wound.

There are undoubtedly aspects of Detroit: Become Human that I liked. That said, I was expecting something along the lines of Heavy Rain: A junk food game that tries and fails hilariously to invoke powerful feelings in David Cage’s usually inept manner. What I found left me angry and annoyed. Where I’m usually left laughing and jovial at the end, I was silent. As a critic, David Cage makes a big enough splash where I feel compelled to play them just to stay informed, but next time I’ll remember to keep my guard up. Clearly David Cage doesn’t give a damn about anything but his desire to make people feel “emotions”. Doubly so if the allegations against him and his studio are to be believed.

And so we continue our adventures with Empress Emily Kaldwin.

Gwen sadly couldn’t join us for this recording, but we still had a great time regardless.

If you want to watch content like this as it’s recorded live, be sure to tune into my Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud.

The Clockwork Mansion is one of the most creative levels out there, and one of my favorite in Dishonored 2. The nature of a modifiable area, combined with immersive sim gameplay, leads to a ton of creative design space. We saw an example of this with a few of bonecharms located in spaces between the walls and hidden in places one can only reach by re-configuring the environment.

It’s also a perfect reflection of it’s master: Kiran Jindosh. Like many of his inventions, the manor is undoubted both clever in it’s creation and impressive to behold. Jindosh wishes for people who visit to behold his genius with every reconfiguration of the house. However, as impressive as it is, it’s ultimately impractical. No one would ever need to live in a home like this, simultaneous expensive to build and unwieldy to use despite the ostentatiousness. While I do not if the idea for the Clockwork Mansion or Kiran Jindosh’s character came first, they both compliment each other well. In a way, Jindosh is the Elon Musk of Karnaca.

We also talk a bit about challenge runs. One of my commenters talked about how they would like a game where players cannot beat guards, either through stealth takedowns or in fights. While I can appreciate the idea, I do not believe it would be an easy sell unless it had a small budget. This is why players who enjoy that type of challenge will often play games like Dishonored with their own imposed constraints. I myself made a couple of such runs with all the games in the franchise. I’m okay mandating difficulty for myself (which is why I love the Custom difficulty options), but I despise when those constraints are forced upon me.

Sorry I didn’t post anything last week. I was too sick to stream, and thus too sick to make anything for the blog.

This time, I have a guest joining me for the run. Gwen is a friend of mine who loves Dishonored even more than I do, so she’ll be a great co-host for the rest of our time with the franchise.

If you wish to see content like this as it is recorded live, be sure to follow my Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud.

I feel like the Crown Killer is wasted this early in the game. The intro sets them up wonderfully as this secondary villain with skills on par with our lead characters. Their presence is felt all throughout the first mission, and the objective as Megan Foster tells it before we arrive at the Sanitarium is to find a lead on who she might be. I was thrilled on my first run, thinking that they might be a recurring antagonist I’ll need to fight off throughout the game as I try to stop Delilah.

Then, when I get to Adermire and learn that we don’t just need to find a lead on the Crown Killer, we need to take them out. They spend all this time building up an incredible powerful villain only to eliminate them outright as one of the first genuine targets in the game. Thankfully the mission is still interesting, and I love the twist with Dr. Hypatia, but it still feels weird to deal with such a threat so early on.

On another topic, Gwen makes some really interesting points on where the series can go and how they could have improved the Chaos system in lieu of just scrapping it outright. I’m not as down on the Chaos system as a lot of other people because I like the dichotomy between having the power to kill guards quickly and easily, but choosing not to use it out of a sense of morality or “honor”. That said, there’s no denying that Death of the Outsider is a stronger game for its absence.

Next time, we’ll finish up our sojourn with steampunk Elon Musk, and keep gushing about one of the best levels in the game.