What is dead may never die, unless you've got a really cool sword

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider feels strangely like a direct response to some of my criticisms of Dishonored 2, even though those criticisms didn't exist until yesterday.

Stealth tactics work much better here than they did in Emily's story. Billie's abilities are just more inherently stealthy: Foresight, alone, makes the game more about "planning" than "reacting." Tips about secret routes are more readily available and discoverable, thanks to ... rat-speak. There are no more mana elixirs - Billie's "Void Energy" fully recharges - so there's no risk of depleting your sneak-powering magic.

And many encounters, especially early on, are simply designed more for sneaking than for fighting. This game isn't afraid to put a ton of enemies together in one place; these crowded situations are clear and delightful opportunities to look around for alternate solutions. Sometimes they include the limited-but-fascinating Semblance ability, which is a really awesome trick to pull on unaware targets.

The levels themselves are richer, and bigger (at least they seem bigger), than Dishonored 2's. And, Death of the Outsider is more inviting in how it handles optional objectives: like the first game, it presents "Contract" side-missions up front (or after visiting the Black Market), rather than hiding them in a nook or cranny somewhere.

The result is that, while I'd still love a Prey-style fully-interconnected map, each of Death of the Outsider's levels presents a substantial, rewarding world of its own. Even though this game has roughly half as many missions as Dishonored 2, it doesn't feel short at all.

Its revised gameplay formula isn't perfect -- in fact, one significant flub is ability progression. Rather than finding runes and picking upgrade options, this game just unlocks active abilities after each mission, and replaces passive buffs with bonecharms. Which isn't a bad idea, necessarily, but the implementation isn't paced very well: you don't have any magic in the first mission, and most really-good bonecharm buffs don't appear until the game is practically over.

I appreciate how this design simplifies Billie's ability loadout, and I honestly don't miss the power-unlock screen. But I really wanted some magic in the first mission, to distinguish my experience from less-magical games like Thief.

I haven't even talked about the story yet, which is a step up from Dishonored 2's political vengeance boilerplate. It's in the title: Death of the Outsider dives deep into the mythos of the Outsider and the Void, and some of the dark magic it shows off is pretty damn freaky. There's not much in the way of character growth or empathy, but this side-story has higher stakes than Emily had with Delilah. (I'm also stoked that Michael Madsen came back.)

In spite of its smaller level count and running length, and even accounting for its awkward ability pacing, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider easily out-classes Dishonored 2 in my book. This installment strikes a much better balance between stealth and combat, and more-consistently fulfills the franchise's commitment to intricate, curiosity-piquing level designs.

Better than: Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches, Dishonored 2 (yes, better than the full-length game)
Not as good as: Dishonored (purely due to mission/locale count), Prey (2017)
Better gameplay than, but not as good of a story as: BioShock Infinite

Progress: Finished with high chaos.