So the missions will be laid out in a linear fashion, in other words you can't choose which target to kill first because it follows a predetermined order. With that in mind, I ask if Corvo unlocks weapons and abilities along the way or does the outsider give him all the powers from the start? The reason I ask is because I want to know if we will have all the abilities at our disposal for every mission or be limited early on by the nature of a progression system. If I can't use a certain weapon or ability during an early mission because I haven't unlocked it yet then I would at least hope that there is new game plus that lets us keep our weapons/magic from the very beginning, so as to have more choices during the entire campaign. Hope I was clear enough...

I imagine there will be a little bit of a progression system; ie you will have most of your abilities and weapons at the beginning and you get only a few more throughout the game.
Maybe you start off with all of your abilities and a standard sword and crossbow and find better weapons/weapon upgrades throughout the game.

I can understand the want to have everything at the beginning, but I think it's always fun to find something new and have some "look at my new toy! *evil laughter*" time with it.