Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials Review (MonteSasha)
A review, from someone who 100% of all the achievements, base game and all DLC's... including this one.
First of all, strictly from a casual experience, this game has a lot of fun trials. Most favorite is Burglar, Back Alley Brawl and Time Massacre. Some fun exploration of the game mechanics. The art and otherworldly framing of the game assets is amazing too. There is fun to be had.... HOWEVER
If you care about your score at all, which is kinda the whole point of the DLC. Or god forbid you're an achievement hunter (more about that later) you are going to experience some frustration at best, and wanting to visit an orphanage with a grenade launcher at worst.
You are going to notice imperfections that aren't noticed in the base game, the hitboxes, the wonkyness of the AI. These are noticed in certain missions way more then some. Most obviously in ASSassins Run, and Expert Bonfire.
Now getting to the achievements for this DLC... I wanted to 100% the game, it's one of my favorite games of all time. It deserved the 100% treatment. BUT HOLY SHIT, It is clear to me that these achievements needed more play testing. Some of these are either broken, or completely unfair. What do I mean by unfair? Too hard? Absolutely not, the problems are that the hitboxes, enemy AI are broken for some missions, and getting some of the achievements are trial and error and constant praying and sacrificing of brain cells to the RNG gods to bless you for a single opportunity for you to finally get a stab at the achievement.
I will outline SOME of the problematic achievements below:
1. Void Star
Getting 3 gold on each missions is infuriating. I should of spent my time doing something more fun, like ripping off all my teeth with rusty pliers.
The single mission I can point to, that I can say with my chest is broken, is Expert Bonfire. I am convinced that it is IMPOSSIBLE to get 3 gold on this one, without having extraordinary luck. The problem is, that the assassins will snipe you with their arrows. I am going full steam ahead, noting where all of them are, trying to avoid line of fire. It is impossible. They will hit you. You will fall to the void. I have spent so much time with this game, I am really good at it. Played it for years. I can promise you that this missions is just straight up broken. Found a glitch on youtube where you can stop the enemies from spawning. That's how I got 3 gold. By glitching the game, I actually fixed it. My god, whoever made this challenge.. who hurt you?
2. By My Hand Alone
Sounds simple enough. Kill all the enemies yourself, don't allow the enemies to kill each other. What's the problem? All it takes is one stray bullet, grenade or that one round with two tallboys. Their incendiary arrows are a one hit kill to some enemies. Even with time bend, you will have to have some lucky spawns and enemy placements just to have a chance.
3. Headhunter.
The hitboxes... are BROKEN. This is NOT a game that has precise fps mechanics in it. And that last room... just.. why? Did anybody actually cleared the achievement on the dev team before it went live? if you ever want to complete this challenge there is a glitch for you to skip the last room. I encourage you to look it up. Thank god it's not patched, because ironically that would break the achievement. Oops.
4. Daredevil
Okay, so this one is fun, but that's because I am super good at these mobility challenges. The unfairness comes with the randomness of where your way point is and the opportunities you will have to complete the challenge. Some runs you will absolutely not get an opportunity to get all the jumps due to the way point placement. Hey... speaking of which... HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT JUMPS YOU WANT US TO DO? Some of these "jumps" are actually several combinations of jumps that without watching a YouTube video you would never have found out yourself. Big ups to all the people posting videos, and helping all of us out.
This might seem like complaining about how hard these achievements are and that I'm just crying... but that's not the point.
Let me tell you what I mean... Getting 3 gold at expert Burglar. Took me so long to get. And it's hard. I failed and failed and failed. Over and over again. But never, EVER, did I get frustrated and infuriated. In fact, I had so much fun with it. Why? Because when I failed, it is because I FAILED. And not the game. My fellow Gentlemen and Gentlewomen... I will leave you with that. If you read this review till the end, thank you. I think I will go outside now.