Why the hate for this expansion's story?

[Kain]

Is the story as terrible as people say? I mean, no Dishonored game was ever knows for it's amazing narrative, great setting, detailed levels, awesome atmosphere, but not narrative, not even the previous Daud's expansions, which were superior to D1 and D2. So why the hell are people so surprised about the story on this one, how is it SPECIALLY bad?

[Paranochat]

Because it feels like the game throws Billie out to kill the Outsider without real reason. Daud just says "Hey girl, go kill a god, I don't like him" and she obeys brainlessly to that. Seems like they wanted to make a game where you kill the Outsider, but didn't know how to put it. The levels and gameplay are still great, but the narrative is worse than the others Dishonored to me. At least they were consistent, they weren't "bad", they just weren't great.

[oh no]

I didnt like the narrative either. It starts off weak, but proceeds to become interesting in the middle. When you finally get to the ending its a big letdown imo.

[Kain]

I guess so, at least the motivations made 'sense', I mean how do you redemn yourself of a life of killing... by killing still. If anything, my guess was that Daud was supposed to die and his last wish was for Billy to kill The Outsider, but then someone of the development team pussied out.

[halbermensch999]

It's not that there is no reason for it, people do horrific things throughout the game series because of the influence of the outsider, who may not be directly guilty for the things but certainly has changed a lot of behaviour to the worse.

And it's also why Daud is held captive forced to make the eyeless some money.


"[T]he Outsider is something else, [...] a being that haunts creation from first to last."
—Overseer Sturgess describing the Outsider
http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/The_Outsider

[proclous]

I liked the game but I really wanted an epic battle against the Outsider at the end

[rehdwolfe]

I thought the story and the ending was great. The outsider was as much a victim of the void as anyone else. The consequences of base desires being given ultimate power. It also sets up the possibility of the a follow on story explaining what the void is and potentially the opposite of the void. I thought the motivation for stopping the outsider made sense. If you could kill the devil it eases your conscience that you really did all that evil. The character arc (or at least one of them) could be that you have to own your own actions.

[Zekiran]

Because apparently people complaining haven't actually paid attention to the overall story line in the whole of the series. The ending was perfect, and the characters were great. It was the only way this portion of the story could possibly have ended.

[ausgothic]

Or maybe because opinions are subjective and while you thought it was "perfect", others have different narrative structure tastes and didn't think it lined up with the rest of the series? I highly doubt it's the ONLY way this portion of the story could have ended. It's good that you liked the game but why are you being so hostile to others who didn't? They're letting you have your opinion; let them have theirs. Why does it matter so much to you that some people don't like a game or disagree with the narrative arc it took?

[TheLastLion]

Compare it to D2 then you'll notice how horrible it actually is. The story is nonsensical and as Paranochat already said lacks any motivation whatsoever. The idea might've been great but it is ruined by horrible execution. The gameplay and level design suffer too but are overshadowed by the stupid story so you'll notice only if you pay close attention.

[terminal_]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Because apparently people complaining haven't actually paid attention to the overall story line in the whole of the series.

Actually, the reason why I don't like it is exactly because I've been paying attention. The whole setup is not consistent with what happened in the previous games. The focus was never on how bad of a god the Outsider is, but on how the people that he marks use their powers in questionable ways. It was always a discussion on agency and responsibility and corruptibility, not about placing blame.

Next, Daud is a completely different character. He jumped from accepting his actions to blaming the Outsider for everything, from banishing Billie from Dunwall to worshipping her for being his best student (even if it's been 20 years since KoD happened) and from being a badass to being a sorry old man that gets killed off screen.

Finally, the way the story elements are presented simply sucks. We know how the game ends from the first mission. Even if you haven't watched the trailers, it's right there in the title. You get to kill the Outsider, whoop-dee-doo. The thing with this kind of story telling is that you're supposed to have a twist between the moment you tell the player what needs to be done to the moment where the player actually has to do it. There should be new elements of the story brought in that change the initial picture and add an element of surprise. I don't mean little details that lore hounds will appreciate (because those are present). I mean actual plot elements. Nothing changes. You are told you have to kill the Outsider and then you go and kill the Outsider. It's absolutely anti-climatic.

Take a game like Planescape: Torment. You are told from the start of the game that you have to get your mortality back . You don't know why, you don't know how, you have no idea who the character is or what is going on, you are not invested in any way so you go along with it. But along the way you start finding out details that give you an idea of whether you're still ok with the initial mission or not and at the end you get to decide what to do. And it's actually important plot elements that you discover along the way, not stuff like how the Outsider was an angsty teen before he got knifed.

In DotO, you are invested in the characters, the story, the universe, the mission to kill the Outsider comes on top of all this knowledge that you've build in the previous games and chances are you aren't going to want to kill the Outsider. Nothing fundamental changes in your way of looking at things from start to finish and you go along with the ride because that's what the game has you do. The talk that Billie has with Daud at the end, I was almost screaming at my screen "YOU COULD'VE ASKED THOSE QUESTIONS ON THE WHALE, BILLIE, AND I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO MURDER HALF THE POPULATION OF KARNAKA, WHAT THE ♥♥♥♥?".

I still think it's worth it to play the game, it's just poorly written in my opinion.

[Zekiran]

The upcoming novel involving Daud should likely have come out before the game - and will probably - let's hope anyway - solve this issue of why he did do that 180 on his last appearance.

[ausgothic]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

The upcoming novel involving Daud should likely have come out before the game - and will probably - let's hope anyway - solve this issue of why he did do that 180 on his last appearance.

If a tie-in novel (written by a frankly mediocre author, in my opinion) has to explain what a game cannot convey to its audience about a beloved character who was praised for his solid writing in the first DLCs, then that leads me to conclude there are some serious characterisation/narrative flaws inherent in the game. Why should we have to wait for a book that isn't due out until 2018 to explain what failed to be presented in a game that costs AUD$40?

[McDonald's]

This is just my opinion but I think that Billie was still deciding if she wants to kill the outsider then he shows up and says “hey let me dress you up for Halloween”. And after that she just wants revenge for the permanent Halloween costume.

[ausgothic]

Originally posted by geckoman242:

This is just my opinion but I think that Billie was still deciding if she wants to kill the outsider then he shows up and says “hey let me dress you up for Halloween”. And after that she just wants revenge for the permanent Halloween costume.

Interesting idea - it would certainly provide some actual motivation for Billie,.

On a personal note, while I think there does need to be a balance between what the audience can and should extrapolate for themselves and what needs to be explained in the game proper, this was one aspect that the writers seriously dropped the ball on... Billie just didn't have the appropriate narrative backstory - for me, anyway - to be on board with why she's determined to kill the Outsider.

[TheLastLion]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

The upcoming novel involving Daud should likely have come out before the game - and will probably - let's hope anyway - solve this issue of why he did do that 180 on his last appearance.

You have less consistancy than the ingame story. First you say if you pay close attention to the game everything makes sense, now you're saying there should be a novel adressing the poorly made characters.