General Fan Mission Review And Discussion Megathread

[Mman]

Broken Triad:

Wow again. As with the original this is full of interesting events of varying sizes, and the exploration and general gameplay aspects are improved too.

The story involves Garret stealing a creepy Cthulhu statue from a museum, and this involves much exploration of the city around it as well; as with Ominous Bequest, this is just the beginning as the twists kick in, and, again, your perception of events is almost entirely different at the end; and it brings the series to a very satisfying conclusion. There's even some good use of cutscenes here, that add to the storytelling rather than taking away from it.

Ominous Bequest constantly changed the mood throughout, with sudden shifts out of nowhere. While that worked perfectly there, Broken Triad makes use of it's much longer length to make the mood transitions more moderate and subtle, and explore all the different styles in more detail than OB did. It's not the constant pile on of shocks that OB is, but it also has more substantial gameplay overall, with interesting puzzles, thieving and exploration opportunities everywhere. One secret tomb area almost seemed overly hidden, considering it contains a substantial and interesting puzzle.

The city in the first level is extremely well realised, with a relatively original snowy theme and varied environments. To say much about the theme of the second level is spoilers, but it's a unique theme and quite possibly has even better visuals. There's also some new enemy types that fit perfectly (and had a talent for catching me every time I was unprepared and scaring the hell out of me).

One major spoiler thing I want to praise now is a scenario bait-and-switch I really liked All through the first level you are wondering about what bad things are going to happen from stealing the creepy statue with a nasty back-story, but then the plot twists come in and you find it's actually the replica that had the supernatural powers.

As with OB saying too much would be spoilers, except that it's a must-play, and would probably come very near the top of a list of my favourite FM's.


The museum that is your initial goal.


Only Garret could think stealing this is a good idea.


It seems a shame this bit is so easy to miss.


As with OB, you can expect WTF moments.

[Melan]

These two missions have some of the best production values I have seen in Thief. Ominous Bequest's epic mansion exploration is only rivalled by Rowena's Curse, and Broken Triad has all those little elements and epic moments that question it can really be done in this engine/game. Waking up in a mortuary and getting out with your skin was one of those frightening sequences which are hard to achieve now after having played Thief for 12 years, but it works perfectly.

On the other hand, I think BT's genius is in the first mission, and the second, while neat, loses some of the interest and tension. It is more like a "what happens after the main conflict" thing; important to finish the various plot threads, but definitely post-climactic, and too long for that.

And yes, I missed that hidden area (although I found the Horn of Quintus, my favourite WTF moment).

[Azaran]

Broken Triad was definitely a milestone in FM history, in every aspect.
I found the hidden area by accident, exploring the mausoleum, I came across the frobbable torch...
What I found annoying about that area was that part in the screenshot, where if you take a wrong step you fall to your death. It took me forever to figure out the pattern, I died like 20 times trying. It was worth it though, the wand comes in very handy throughout the campaign.

[Mman]

On the other hand, I think BT's genius is in the first mission, and the second, while neat, loses some of the interest and tension. It is more like a "what happens after the main conflict" thing; important to finish the various plot threads, but definitely post-climactic, and too long for that.

I agree the majority of BT's biggest OMG moments are in the first level (with a couple of exceptions), but the new theme and models, along with what set-pieces there are, carried the second level for me.

The Seven Sisters:

This is a four level set (although the first is a short intro), taking place over three nights, with the middle two levels being in a heavily modified version of the same city area; there's enough differences to prevent it being repetitive though, along with many new areas (and closed-off old ones) in the second visit.

The story involves Garret trying to cure, and prevent, a mysterious plague that is slowly zombifying the city. This pack ends up presenting a somewhat different facet of Garret's personality; if it weren't for his rampant kleptomania he could almost be a Medieval-Steampunk Batman here, as he goes out of his way save the city, give hope to the downtrodden, and save baby Burricks (okay, the last was for money). The story develops well throughout, and there are various side-plots and extra discoveries to make as well. It all builds up to a satisfying conclusion and sort-of boss as well.

The gameplay involves a lot of exploration in the two main city levels, with many things to find. The last level is a different area from the rest, and is somewhat more linear and progression-based. The stealth is quite challenging; with you frequently having to deal with several guards in a single area. With the ramping up of supernatural foes (including multiple well-made new models) in the last level a couple of parts are almost brutal with the relatively limited supplies you have to get past everything. The only issues I had were a couple of flaws in the last level, such as the amount of backtracking required on the way back from the two initial paths you take, and your goals being a little vague to begin with in the second section It's only after stumbling across the stone key in the large cave by accident that I realised there's much more to the chaos area, and that the Black Sister is further in

The detail level is high, with a lot of interesting sights and geometry. What really sticks out is all the small details though, such as the custom meshes and shapes everywhere, and things such as almost everyone you encounter having a name, allowing you to track them across each level, and want to save them from their Zombie fate even more when you find out some of their backstories.

Another pack deserving of it's frequent place as one of the best of all-time.


The kind of details this series is full of.


Not pictured: several guards to deal with.


It's nice to get a new perspective on certain areas on the second night.


I liked the moody atmosphere throughout this mill area.


Stopping the plague involves entering the domain of an old enemy...

[Thor]

Man I have GOT to play this FM campaign. I've evaded it for far too long (Even R_T's liek "play 7sistas, like, right now, yo" post in "what-thread-was it-now?"

Oh and ofcourse the reviewer has done a good job too! Both in description and graphics. The 1st, 3rd and 5th screen especially intrigued me.

[quakis]

I've had so much trouble trying to write this one, even now I'm not overly happy with the results, but I've put it off for much too long. Finally this mission is review on my site;

Fables of the Penitent Thief

[Digital Nightfall]

Thanks for the review, quakis. It seems to read more like a summary description than a review though. It's a very good description of what to expect, but you don't share many opinions about it. Maybe that's why you're not happy with it? Or is that the result of you finding it a difficult mission to review?

[quakis]

Maybe that's why you're not happy with it? Or is that the result of you finding it a difficult mission to review?

That's probably it. Reads too much like a summary and not enough opinion going on. I've had this on the backlog since I played it after the release and always holding back on writing it, but it's been nagging at me and I wanted to do this mission some justice and finally get a review up on my site. I think the difficulty comes from having only good things to say about it and not being able to express this in ways without doing a, "this is good, that is good" approach. And I try to avoid spoilers as much as I can which probably doesn't help matter, since I would have loved to talk more about why I liked the Wizard's Tower, Gardeners and go into more detail about the second mission. It's finding that balance.

Thanks for bringing that up though as it hadn't quite occured to me with this one... I'll need to be careful with my future reviews to not fall into the same trap. Might consider updating this one if I can get around this 'block'.

[The Mike]

Megathread friends! It's been too long! You remember me right? It's me, that guy who mysteriously disappears all the time! No, not Batman. That other guy, the one with the reviews. As usual I have tons of reasons why I've been gone for all these months, instead of boring you with them I'll just post the following and let you fill in the blanks: [excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses].
Anyway, I was completely burned out on Thief reviews for a long time, but now for no apparent reason, I'm feeling it again. I'm hoping to start posting as much as I did back in the old days, at least one review a page again. I especially want to catch up on reviewing Haplo's missions, since he is currently standing in my front yard holding up a sign that says "Reviews?" and brandishing a knife. He's been there for a while.
Before I get to them though, here's a review for a campaign I just played:

Stones and Glass Houses

Some spoilers follow:

EVERYONE DIES. Nah, that’s not a real spoiler, but now you’re on your toes, see? When I post a spoiler warning, I mean business SON*. For your entertainment/brief diversion while you’re waiting for your porn to finish downloading, I’ll be reviewing FM author R Soul’s 4 mission campaign which acts as a sequel to his previous mission “All Torc”; later, I’ll be in the lounge practicing my knife throwing- first one in gets to be my volunteer (no pushing)!
*You can insert some chest pounding and gang signs here if you want. I would.

The story picks up right where “All Torc” ended, Garrett is in Vegas working as a showgirl when a shady talent agent appears and offers him a life he could only dream of, BUT IS IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Also he has this “torc” thing, which he stole from a guy named Lord Sarringham for another guy named Lord Barnham (since the only thing cooler than starting your name with the word “Lord” is ending it with the word “ham”). One day, while Garrett is back stage practicing his high kicks and sultry looks, a member of The Keepers appears and tells him that the Torc’s previous owner has come into possession of a letter of correspondence between Lord Barnham and the jeweler Garrett was planning on selling it too, and it’s chock-full of blackmail material for everyone involved. He then notices what Garrett’s wearing and throws up in his mouth a little.

Each mission of this campaign takes place in a vastly different environment. The first mission is a city (good), the second is a prison (great), the third is a mansion (UCKIN’ FAWESOME), and the fourth is a surprise (one hint: Naked. Dance party. ). All of them have one thing in common: the fact that they look eyeball-poppingly* amazing. It’s true that they kind of suffer from TMR syndrome (TMR being my shockingly clever acronym for “Too Many Rooms”), but impressive architecture, splendid** texturing, and careful attention to all the little details really makes the whole thing come together incredibly well.
*and YEAH, “poppingly” IS a word SPELLCHECK. How ‘bout you try opening a book sometime, huh guy?!
** That’s right, I just used the word “splendid”: your move, bully-looking-for-someone-to-beat-up-and-steal-lunch-money-from.

…There are TOO MANY ROOMS though. I wouldn’t mind if there was something to do in all of those rooms, but too often I would enter one and realize that its entire purpose was to show “this house has a room with a desk in it, because in real-life, it probably would”. Put a letter in there, a gold candlestick, anything! It’s true that in real-life I rarely enter a room, realize I have no reason to be there, and think “I should really have this room bulldozed”, but in video games every room should ideally offer the player something reasonably interesting to look at or do. For the most part the level design was beautiful and engaging, but it could stand some trimming here and there. On the bright side, the author has included an automap for EVERY SINGLE LEVEL; which is going well above and beyond the call of duty for the author, considering that normally pressing the "map" key either shows you a big circle drawn in crayon with the word "CITY" typed in it's center or a Windows' blue screen error.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the voice acting- and I say that with a big thumbs up in the direction of the entire cast and very little idea what the word remiss actually means (it sounds classy though, right? Reread that first sentence and just try to not picture me wearing a monocle). While all the voice actors did well, I especially have to give props to Yandros and Slyfoxx. Yandros voices your Keeper contact with this haughty I.T.-guy type know-it-all-ness that has you spending every conversation with him weighing the heft of your blackjack and mentally painting a target on the back of his skull. Slyfoxx, who has an entire back and forth conversation with himself here*, tears it up in all four of his roles. He has probably his best line-reading yet here, in the way he angrily mutters “…Ass.” as Yandros’ Keeper walks away from their conversation in the first mission. Also, I don’t know who sang the “dewdrop song”, but they need to be showered with something great right now, like jewels or candy or sports cars (though the last one would probably kill them so I’d go with one of the first two).
*An honor reserved for only the most talented voice actors. Also crazy homeless guys.


Don't pick up this doll, YOU ARE NOT PREPARED.

If I had any problems with the mission’s story at all, it was just that a couple of interesting threads seemed to not go far enough. For instance, there’s this subplot in the first mission involving a murderer hacking people up throughout the town. A few minutes later I found a guy pacing back and forth over a corpse, knocked him out, and got an “OBJECTIVE COMPLETE” notification. What? That’s it?! I had my sunglasses primed and ready for a CSI Miami style pre-mystery solving one liner, and I didn’t even have time to drop it*! I. DIDN’T. EVEN. HAVE. TIME. Then much later in the campaign, to be as irritatingly vague as possible, you’re given the task of taking a certain item to a certain scary place by a certain scary extremely un-trustworthy sounding individual. You bring the item there, drop it, and he is just sort of like “Hey thanks bro”- and that’s it. Wow, no problem I guess. Um…not to be a dick but, can we like…fight or something?
*So here it is: It looks like this project…*puts on sunglasses, looks at camera*…just got dark. YeeeEEAAAH! Okay that was bad…well…here’s like 50 more. YOU HAVE TO WATCH THEM ALL OR YOU’RE RUINING MY REVIEW.

All nitpicking aside though, how does “Stones and Glass Houses” ultimately stack up in comparison to some of Thief 2’s other great FM campaigns? While for me personally it’s not quite up to the untouchable holy ground that “the Seven Sisters” stands on, it’s definitely in one of the upper class FM country clubs clinking champagne glasses with the likes of “The Mirror of Return” and talking about how DREADFULLY boring poor people are. The few problems I had ultimately don't amount to much in light of how spit-shined to perfection everything around them is. It’s only 78 megabytes, and I know you don’t have dial-up, so I’m just going to stand here and stare at you with a stern no-nonsense expression until either you download it or things get really awkward and uncomfortable.

AND THEN THERE WERE SCREENSHOTS:


The horrible aftermath of me reminiscing about a cold glass of Kool-Aid.


Hammerites? On MY throne collection? It's more likely than you think.


A million more important things to do and staring at nudity instead, or, every day of my life since the internet was invented.


As you can see from this screenshot, if you were wondering if this mission had both a tree and a lamp in it, the answer is a resounding YES.

Next up: Fables of the Penitent Thief. And then a Haplo mission, honest!

[Thor]

Damn I will have to fully read all your reviews one day. And possibly finish my shitty T2x reviews? Would be embarassing to just pick something up so randomly again in a thread like this that just keeps moving on, wouldn't it. Alright we'll just see about that.

[Haplo]

Seems like an interesting review; but I need to finish the missions first before reading it. Halfway there!

[DarkMax]

Nice reviews guys

[Thor]

Alright I think I'll help ya there The Mike with reviewing Haplo's work. Alright this ain't gonna be completely a review; I'm gonna try and mix it with my own playthrough thoughts & adventures. Also excuse my inability to put together a proper sentence every now & then. (I think my English has actually gotten worse over the last few months)

Just played (as in ~6 hours ago) Haplo's Unholy Vivid Innocence. Man that was a crazy mission. It had some great ideas and challenges. The mood given was quite nice. A little surreal but personally I could cope with the ghostly haunts and skeleton thingies... Yes, it's a crypt raiding puzzle solving mission. I don't have much thoughts on that though. What really interested me was the fact that just looking at something in particular hurt my poor Garrett.

Anyway for a guy like me who can miss a tiny switch or an object in a tiny nook first time around, this mission required a lot of backtracking. See, I originally ghosted this mission. But after I went by those hauntsy guys 10+ times, I just murdered them all. Felt good, man. Then I could start looking around more thoroughly and it actually helped in at least 1-2 points.

Now that I said some good about it, I'm gonna make this little paragrahp of the aspect I loathed.
This mission I liked a lot up until the point where I had to resort to the thread. And I really hate doing that when I've searched hard everywhere. Turns out I simply missed 1 bloody object on the ground (a wand, who's existence wasn't even mentioned I think).

Well other than such a mindless non-optional object hunt I really adored this mission. Also a fun thing was the bit of coin loot down in the area with the bridges. I saw that by myself, but while searching for the wand mystery in the thread but fortunately read that one can get down there through exploiting the engine's bugginess. I had thought of doing that (broke lots of FMs that way before tho ) but I just couldn't figure out how but I just had to drop a haunt's body with r while falling down but the haunt's body must hit a wall when I drop it so it doesn't go further and I can actually use it as a pillow. That took my a dozen or two reloads.

Now sorry I bored you with that incoherent techy rambling, I should probably reward you with a screenshot or something... Well soon I guess. I mean you'll probably have skipped the entire text and jumped to screens right away and dismissing it as a semi-old mission you've already played. If not, thanks a bunch lol.

WHERE WAS I... Well yeah, to point out the really good things about this mission would force me to continue in the manner of how I did 2 paragraphs ago with the tech mumbling... So honestly, there was a bit of an atmosphere that the b&w helped giving, but that wasn't a strong point or anything. I didn't feel that attached to it. So all in all it's a mission to play if yer reeally good at not missing anything ever and have a decent amount of that common thinknig pattern that when you see a waterless fountain named waterless fountain, you consider shooting a water arrow into it. Or moss on a deadsie tree. I think the screenshots are going to tell it better then I could.


Garrett posing for the crowd.


This room did some awesome green light flickering. Then again I'm a sucker for green lights. Did I mention this FM is in black&white?


The gangstas were scary, man.


What a disgrace! ... That is the thing I'm supposed to say here, right?


Absolute pain in the arse to get down here.


SUP BISH.


I think I saw this kind of painitng in real life (NOT GRAYSCALE THOUGH) - cool stuff anyways.


Grando Escapo! Behind this guy were at least about 5 other haunts I think. Basically for those who've played it, I had the 3 haunts in the blade room defaulty + all the spawned ones when I picked the blade up on my ass.

Alright, this review didn't turn out good or even funny! Well that's ok, I'm just glad I spent these last 30 minutes or an hour doing something.

[Thor]

Oh man I don't care that it's doubleposting, but I remember The Anniversary Contest now. I was all new to ttlg and FMs (well I joined in August but apparently I +/- disappeared till december when this stuff was ON, baby). AAAh The Affairs of Wizards, Ashes & Dust (I think?), The Tower... these missions absolutely kicked ass. And not once have I replayed them. I suppose I might replay them one day; not that any of you care. This is a bit of an exposed monologue. A museum? A little bit.

Yeah well whateva & stuff. Also that was the time this thread was created.

Where hast SneakyJack gone to, anyway? A Thief burnout? I suppose from that ridiculous amount of activity he caused back then he ought to neve rbe as excited about Thief again. Me neither, I think.

[The Mike]

Man, I love UVI, so many innovative ideas in that mission! Cool review, man!
And not to be nitpicky but it was actually from Uncadonego's No Pressure Un-contest, not the Anniversary Contest (I remember because that is still my favorite title for a contest ever).

[Haplo]

Thanks for the review Thor, now I feel like playing that mission again.

By the way, you don't need to drop a dead body to get down the big room, there is a slow-fall potion in one of the secrets.

[Thor]

Well thanks & stuff.

There's a slow-fall potion, huh?? Well I'll be damned. What secret was that I wonder. Well I guess I'll play the sequel too someday, dunno if today or in a month (I am never stable with these little thief burnouts), maybe review that too.

As for The Mike - my doublepost was actually just a super-random musing about a long, yet not so long time ago - 2008 Anniversary contest. I just saw some other pages in this thread and Affairs of the Wizards was reviewed in one. That took me back in those times... UNP(u)C came a year or so afterwards I think and then I didn't really play anyone's mission from that contest, shamefully enough.

[Mman]

Rowena's Curse:

I didn't realise until I finished Seven Sisters that there was predecessor level to it. There don't seem to be any real overt links between them though, so not playing this first didn't matter much.

Garret has to break into a mansion to save a woman who has mysteriously disappeared there (for a large reward); it almost goes without saying that things are much more complex than they seem, and like Ominous Bequest and Broken Triad this is a level that becomes almost entirely different to how it starts as things move along. Actually there are quite a few similarities to OB here, like losing your equipment at the start, the vaguely circular layout of the upper floor, the various hidden tunnels and the general developing backstory. While some of it comes from the "mansion with a dark secret" style of both, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some intentional homages to OB here (it's still more than distinct enough for that to not be a problem). One thing that did bother me in the storyline/mission development is one of the forced murder objectives; while those objectives in themselves don't bother me, here I found the context of one an issue it seemed to be stated that Cedric is under Rowana's control due to a mistake he made (a mistake he shouldn't have made, but not necessarily one he could have foreseen the full consequences of). Maybe I overlooked other things about his character elsewhere, but the deep condemnation of him in plot terms seemed odd when he wasn't really responsible for his actions.

The house looks great with tons of small details and a few things that change as the mission progresses, which is especially cool in the case of the painting of Rowana, all the side areas make it very varied as well.

As with the Seven Sisters the stealth side of things is actually quite challenging here, with guards everywhere and certain areas covered in marble, along with various areas with light sources that can't be extinguished. From browsing the thread of the level apparently the enemies were buffed a bit too, so I guess it wasn't just me sucking that resulted in half the enemies I took out being alerted in some way in the process. Once you've found the first thing that kicks off the main plot things are relatively linear despite how large the mansion and it's other areas are, with one area leading into the other. One part did involve some switches that seemed way too small though; in particular, there's one that I knew the general area of and still couldn't find until I checked the walkthrough for the specific location (hint: use the Thiefmissions walkthrough for help, as it's easy to get spoiled in the level's thread). One body important to a sidequest also became impossible to move after I did that sidequest and had to load a save from before I did it (this didn't matter much as it's only an optional mission). There are also Zombies that somehow kill you when they explode; it should be hilarious but it got irritating when it happened after fighting through a couple of other things before them.

An excellent level that's up with Ominous Bequest, The Seven Sisters was definitely a refinement on some of the ideas in this level though (especially obvious in the case of a couple of set-pieces that are quite similar).



One room showing the attention to detail in this level.



Like OB, this is a level that manages to thread an atmosphere of unease throughout.



The use of lens flares only in this room seemed a little strange, it fits the slightly lighter atmosphere though.



You won't want to go down there.

I said I would try and do at least one level a week a bit back, but now I'm a little busier than expected I guess I'll go with the more conservative goal of doing at least one level a month.

[The Mike]

Great review dude! This is one of those missions that makes it extremely easy to just ramble on about, but you really stuck to the important points and covered just about everything worth mentioning- "quick, informative and to the point" is never something I've managed to achieve, so props to you man! You really seem to have an eye for picking out quirks in level design that would pass entirely over my head: that one room being the only one that has lens flare is something I never would have noticed. I like how you used a screenshot of the "white room" for that "the mission builds up a steady sense of unease" caption. I don't know why, but those color-coded rooms had me constantly expecting something to jump out and eat my face, and no, I really can't explain why.

Also, I love over-analyzing the similarities between this mission and Ominous Bequest. Here's some I posted in OB's original thread:
1. Both feature a holy sword in them which is eventually required to kill the last boss.
2. Both start with Garrett falling over a wall and losing half his equipment.
3. The plot of both starts as a simple mansion raid and turns into a ghost story.
4. Both feature a mansion with ancient, evil ruins below them.
5. Both end with a woman on an alter ready to be sacrificed.
6. Finally, and most shocking of all: both have a two word title! DUN DUN DUUUUN.
Crazy stuff yo!! Or not....I THINK IT'S COOL.

[jiansonz]

While some of it comes from the "mansion with a dark secret" style of both, I wouldn't be surprised if there are some intentional homages to OB here

That would be kind of weird, since Rowena´s Curse is older than OB!

(OK, so it´s only about 2 months older, so there might have been contact/cooperation during development, but still...)

[Mman]

Great review dude! This is one of those missions that makes it extremely easy to just ramble on about, but you really stuck to the important points and covered just about everything worth mentioning- "quick, informative and to the point" is never something I've managed to achieve, so props to you man! You really seem to have an eye for picking out quirks in level design that would pass entirely over my head: that one room being the only one that has lens flare is something I never would have noticed. I like how you used a screenshot of the "white room" for that "the mission builds up a steady sense of unease" caption. I don't know why, but those color-coded rooms had me constantly expecting something to jump out and eat my face, and no, I really can't explain why.

Thanks. I have to stick to the point because I'm not funny . Noticing the smaller details is in part because I've mapped for other games, so I try to look for things custom level authors have done to get across the mood they want when I play levels.

Whenever there's stuff like colour-coded rooms in buildings there seems to be something unnerving about them; probably a combination of completely uniform colour schemes not being natural or "Human", and that rooms in houses tend to have a defined purpose, which naming a room after a colour or something else abstract disguises (or hints at it having another purpose).

That would be kind of weird, since Rowena´s Curse is older than OB!

(OK, so it´s only about 2 months older, so there might have been contact/cooperation during development, but still...)

Reading it's thread I got the impression RC came out later, but I guess I misinterpreted it. I guess all the similarities must be mostly coincidence then.

[Thor]

Nice review Mman You brought up all the main points and aspects and kept it solid. We do need proper reviews here too once in a while. :P

I decided to make another chaotic review too. Actually let's see how it turns out

So I played Heist Society recently and thought I might as well add to the life on this thread.

Heist Society's storyline goes like this:
Lord Bafford's manor,, except lord's name starts with a G (gonna call him LG from now on, cause Zanussi just isn't as good...). That means that Garrett wants to rob a manor, while the lord himself and his chief guard are out of town. In addition Garrett wants to find some proof that LG is eavesdropping on his guests. To make LG have a taste of his own medicine, perhaps? Coolcool.

But really now I think Heist society's main trumph card goes for varied design and happy explorations (guards not contributing to the happiness, so make them UNCONSCIOUS IN SILLY PLACES (like bed, for instance)). It's got ledges and rafters, partially transparent window textures, beautiful ceilings everywhere, little arcs for torch spots - you'll see what I mean by this stuff in the screenshots.

The only thing that annoyed me about this mission was the dull ending puzzle - SWITCH HUNT, YO. I didn't find a hint for one of the objectives at all, or maybe I just missed it. I dunno, but getting stuck like that in all other aspects SMOOTH mission AT THE VERY END really did not appeal to me.

But to make up for that this mission had like the best automap I have ever seen in an FM (except maybe Mission X, heheh) with the drawing style quiiite true to the OMs. Also custom voiceacting was AWESOME, especially Benny (slyfoxx, maybe? Didn't sound like him tho, but that's why they call it voice acting, huh!). Only little flaw in that area was that compared to all other thief sounds the custom dialogues and such were sliiightly (about 3 times) too quiet.

Oh and this mission had Watchers. You know, those mechanical cameras. I love those things. Made a little Gervasiosu Mansion's touch there. (Did I mention that "Masks") is one of my all time favorite OMs? Yeah so it's 2 levels twice, big deal. Beats playing "Kidnap" just once.)

Hm, anything else, you might ask? Well let me think. I know I had something just stuck up on my mind.. oh yes! I experienced an unexpected dislike, almost hatred towards LG and his suck-up dog of a captain. They were being shown as cheap and heartless bastards . I mean really now, WHO would give their staff moldy food products just to make things a little bit cheaper. A CHEAP BASTARD, I'd say.

If I made the capital lettered words too often, let me know. I feel like I might get parodied for this move.

Also when you start this mission you start in a graveyard... AGAIN. (Referencing to his other mission - "Hidden Agenda" here), but when you turn around and look at the moon, it's glorious. That first mood impression keeps bumping into the mission randomly once every now and then cause you hear a bit of thundering. Can be quite scary if you're caught off guard.

Alright enough babbling I guess, let the screams (<--- I really did type that in first) screens begin... or whatever.
*clicks into his screens folder* Oh that's a whole lotta screens..
Ok, so this time I didn't make the screens to make eyecandy for people who like bigass rooms but instead screens of little or bigger touches that I personally adored. Capiche? THANKS!
Oh darn I forgot to brighten them (remembered only after uploading) so I guess you will have to straaaain your eeeyes, sowwy.


This is what I wanted to say when I said "little arcs for torch spots" - pretty awesome, isn't it?


The ground is burning, huh? Wow, that's pretty low. LITERALLY. No seriously I didn't expect the fire to come from practically below ground level, but that just adds to the interestingness to the level. YES, that is a word since right now.


This? Yeah, 'tis pretty sweet - a little greeen liight, a little whiite liight, a little bit of red bricks, a little bit of pipes, a little bit of snow. Now that's score for variety even in the more mundane rooms.


Felt a little stoopid frobbing the switch without knowing what it does. But it was a security room so it must be good for us.


Transparent stained glass windooows. My favorite!


Silly attempt at making something... I dunno, artsy? Y'know, with the light and the view that now is way too dark. Well I dunno, I just like the idea for some reason. Don't ask me why.


Feelin' cozy there, mr. guard? Ey? Feelin' a little eh... cozy? Yeh?


Absolutely awesome place (for my personal aesthetical taste). Probably my favorite in the map.

Well I hope this review wasn't too blunt & stoopid for you fancy people. Otherwise I gotta learn a whole lotta terminology to keep up with you guys!

[quakis]

Good to see you're back and updating this topic Thor, it felt dead here half the time. I also have a contribution today;

(TDM) Flakebridge Monastery

[Haplo]

For me Heist Society is the best mansion mission. If I ever have enough money to build my own mansion, I will build it just like the one in Heist Society.

[Summer]

I agree with you, Haplo. Heist Society is the best mansion mission. Although I do have a fondness for Transitions in Chaos, too.

Good reviews, Thor and Quakis.

Thor, man, you and arches... Almost begs the question. Almost.