The Knife of Dunwall: Dishonored DLC, Xbox 360 review

The knife of Dunwall centres around the assassin that murdered the empress during the opening of Dishonored, Daud. After seeing the consequences of his murder and how it has affected the city, Daud seeks redemption. The Outsider that we see in the original Dishonored simply gives Daud a name to pursue, Delilah, who is somehow tied to Daud as well as the fate of the realm. The story here is not all that interesting apart from the twist in the final level. However, the story was not the star in the original Dishonored either, but it was still a great game. The knife of Dunwall follows this pattern.

Daud acts and plays exactly like Corvo bar a few minor changes. Gone are the powers of possession and devouring swarm which is a shame, particularly possession which was great fun to use. Instead, Daud is instead able to summon his trainee assassins to fight by his side, or use them as a distraction. Along with this are new gadgets including arc and stun mines, which can be useful but are often forgotten because there is no real incentive to use them. There is also now no area to interact with NPC's and upgrade your equipment. This is now done before the start of each mission, which means less wasted time managing equipment and more time actually playing the game, which of course is a good thing.

Just like in the original Dishonored, you can choose how you want to play. I personally prefer the non lethal, stealthy approach as it requires you to think about how to handle situations and I generally found it the most enjoyable play style to adopt. The run and gun gameplay option is still available for those that want to create havoc, but the enemies are more intelligent and lethal than in the original Dishonored, resulting in many deaths if you decide to play on the higher difficulties. The Knife of Dunwall is fun to play through whatever way you choose to play.

The areas visited in the Knife of Dunwall are slightly disappointing. The legal district is nothing special and feels similar to a few of the environments in the original Dishonored. We also come across Dauds hideout which was a level you played through as Corvo, only this time there is of course a different objective. I am not saying these places are not fun to play through, but given how diverse the world was in the original, I did expect a bit more innovation here. Having said this, there is one absolute stand out environment. The first mission we play through as Daud takes the player to a slaughterhouse which was superb. The slaughterhouse has some many different paths you can take. You can scale across the scaffolding, stalking your enemies from above, creep through the sewers below and many more. There also a variety of side objectives that you can do, or not, it really is up to you. I highly recommend purchasing this DLC purely for the slaughterhouse mission.

As previously mentioned, you are able to play how you want to. How you play changes the outcome of the first part of this two bit DLC, and there will more than likely be things that you missed first time around, meaning there is incentive to play through again. Despite the environments not being anything special, apart from the slaughterhouse, the Knife of Dunwall is well worth a buy. New enemy types provide a tougher challenge, and Daud has different powers to Corvo, that can change how you play Dishonored. However, if you played the original Dishonored and did not particularly enjoy it, this is not going to change your mind. But for anyone who loved Dishonored, purchasing this DLC is a no brainer.

Link to Dishonored Review - http://jonathanwoodgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/dishonored-xbox-360-review.html