Dishonored DLC Announced

Dishonored is a brilliant game, and it’s now getting not one or two, but three separate pieces of DLC.

Here it is straight from the horse’s mouth:

We are pleased to announce three upcoming add-on packs for Dishonored, the critically-acclaimed first-person action game developed by Arkane Studios. All of the Dishonored add-on packs will be released simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials, being released in December for $4.99 (or 400 Microsoft Points), will include 10 challenge maps that will test and track your combat, stealth and mobility skills. Ten distinct trials await challengers – including an arena battle against waves of enemy AI, a gravity-defying run of drop assassinations, and a race against the clock. Dunwall City Trials also features a whole new set of achievements and trophies as well as a global online leaderboard that will establish the greatest assassins for each challenge.

The second and third add-ons for Dishonored will be coming in 2013 and will each feature story-driven campaigns. Pricing on these two packs will be revealed closer to launch.

Apparently the first story-driven DLC will feature Daud, a prominent figure in Dishonored. Whether this takes place before or after the story of Dishonored’s protagonist Corvo Attano, there’s no way to say, though my guess is before.

The more important question was not answered: will this DLC take place only within the confines of Dunwall yet again, or will it also venture outside, to the much-more-interesting-sounding Tyvia, Morley, Serkonos, or even better, the Pandyssian continent? The press release does say “new Dunwall locales”, but I’m holding hope they don’t mean “new Dunwall locales only“.

Let me talk about that for a bit: Dishonored’s biggest flaw, in my humble opinion, is that it takes place in the potentially least interesting city of its universe. Within the game, you read so much literature about the incredible Pandyssian Continent, that you can’t help but feel duped for playing a game set in crummy old Dunwall. If we won’t get to see those sights in the DLC, then perhaps on a sequel? I’d love to speculate more, but a sequel seems unlikely at this point.

Let me just say one last thing: where the hell are my ship battles against whales? Why would you write so many amazing accounts of what capturing whales is like, Arkane Studios, if you won’t even let us capture one ourselves?

It’s alright, we still love you.