Is Death of the Outsider (opens in new tab) really the best Dishonored game? The answer to that question will be a firm “yes” next week, because next week it will be free on the Epic Games Store.
Death of the Outsider is a standalone expansion—a separate game, really, I don’t know why we insist on calling it an “expansion”—that follows the events of Dishonored 2. Players step into the role of Billie Lurk, an NPC from the Dishonored DLC Knife of Dunwall (opens in new tab), who teams up with former mentor Daud on a mission to kill the Outsider, the smooth-talking supernatural being who gets his kicks playing Void-powered tricks.
The narrative in Death of the Outsider is generally not as well regarded as those of the first two games, but it also relaxed the rules (opens in new tab) that restricted Void power usage in the first two games, giving Billie the opportunity to indulge in her abilities almost without limit. For players who really wanted an opportunity to cut loose without worrying about the mess left behind, it was a welcome change.
But as I said, it doesn’t really matter where you usually come down on that debate, because Dishonored: Death of the Outsider will be free on the Epic Games Store next week, which means that for a stretch of seven days it will clearly be the best of the bunch. This will also be the first time that Death of the Outsider has gone free on the Epic Store, according to our running list of Epic giveaways (opens in new tab): Dishonored Definitive Edition went free at the tail end of 2022, while Dishonored 2 has yet to go on the block. (Hopefully that’ll happen soon—then it can be the best Dishonored game for a week.)
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider isn’t the only game going free next week: Also up for grabs will be City of Gangsters, a “management tycoon game” about building a criminal empire amidst the early days of Prohibition in 1920. For the record, this is not Omerta: City of Gangsters (opens in new tab), another management sim about building a Prohibition-era criminal empire: That one was developed by Haemimont Games and released in 2013, while the upcoming Epic freebie is a SomaSim game released in 2021.
Death of the Outsider is getting all the attention, understandably I think, but the current free games on the Epic Store shouldn’t be overlooked. There are two: Adios, a well-received narrative game about a pig farmer who decides he doesn’t want to work for the Mob anymore, and Hell is Others (opens in new tab), a top-down extraction shooter set in a very weird 1950s metropolis that was my personal pick (opens in new tab) in our 2022 game of the year awards. (Trust me, give it a look. It’s good!)
Hell is Others and Adios are free on the Epic Games Store until 11 am ET on February 2. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and City of Gangsters will follow and be free until 11 am ET on February 9.
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