smithpd on 15/10/2003 at 13:38
I am very pleased to announce the release of a new Thief 2 Fan Mission Pack, Elevator Mission T2, by JIS. EMT2 is a nine mission pack. The file is very large-- 135 MB, so it is available initially only using BitTorrent. A link to the file may be found here:
(
http://thiefmissions.com/info.cgi?m=ElevatorMissionT2)
Some of you know JIS as the author of The Elevator Mission, Undeadland, UFO and others. You may remember Elevator as being extremely difficult and requiring a lot of killing. Elevator Mission T2 is completely different - it does not allow killing in most of the missions. If you BJ an innocent, he/she is killed, at least in the first few missions, and the mission fails. So, this mission pack is intended for ghosting or at least sneaky play. The only resemblance to the original Elevator Mission is the presence of quite a few elevators. :)
I am a great fan of JIS's work. It is quite varied in playing style. One will be a "kill 'em all," one will be a race against time, and one will be a loot hunt. Most of his missions are quite challenging to play. A theme in all his work is excellent architecture, a dark and moody feeling of dread, and somewhat tricky mazes. These missions are no exception in that regard, although I have not played them so I do not know the main theme or the difficulties.
I learned about these missions when corresponding with JIS on another matter. JIS speaks no English whatsoever and relies on a very poor Japanese-English machine translator, so communication with him is a challenge at best, unless you speak Japanese. At first JIS told me that EMT2 would never be released in English. I volunteered to help him by trying to interpret the bad machine translations. This I have done, and this release is the result. However, I have not played the missions yet, so I cannot be sure that my translations are correct.
[EDIT: I have completed the series. I enjoyed it a lot. Please see below for a review.]
We will learn together whether the objectives are clear enough and what are the challenges in the missions. If you find problems with the objectives, please post here. If you have questions on game play, feel free ask here, but remember that there are no English speaking beta testers to help. It may be a while before someone has an answer.
I spent about 10-20 minutes in each of the missions before uploading it. From what I have seen, the game play is fun and the architecture is excellent. There is very little loot to be found, so far as I can tell. There are very few texts to read, and those are not essential to game play, according to JIS, so they have not been translated. I think the game play is simply one of exploration and avoiding AI. That is good enough for me. :)
According to JIS, mission 9 contains notes for some Japanese friends and colleagues. No attempt was made to translate them.
JIS has stated that this is his last Dromed work. I would like to thank him for sharing this with us and taking the time to convert it to English. Enjoy! :)
Peter
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EDIT: A few days ago I completed the series. There are nine missions, not eight as I originally reported. All nine are real missions. I have corrected errors above.
I enjoyed playing the series a lot. Playing in Expert, it was a real challenge, and I had a great sense of satisfaction to get through it. There's no question that it is fairly difficult, and it takes a lot of perseverance.
It was classical JIS all the way. The architecture is excellent but sparsely furnished. The atmosphere is creepy, grungy, and forbidding. The AI are challenging and must be fought in a few places, but sneaking will be a great advantage, either in bypassing the AI or getting into good position to BJ them. Most of the missions involve solving puzzles that have no clues and finding switches that have a remote action, such as opening a door in another part of the map. JIS is toying with the player, making him think, making him frustrated. You can visualize JIS pulling your chain, working you like a puppet. Depending on how you feel about puzzles, you may feel compelled to get through it, or you may give up. If you like puzzles in general, I urge you not to give up if you can stand it. You will emerge a better player and a better person if you don't go nuts trying.;)
The first mission is just a walk in the park. Not much to do. Some say it is boring. Don't worry. It is just setting the stage and giving you some architecture to look at. There is a problem of finding a key....
The second mission is a rewrite of the original Elevator Mission. It has many of the same elements as the original, often dressed up in different textures. But the elements have been divided up and moved around. There are some towns in the middle. Some parts of the original are missing. So, it is more or less a new experience. I thought it was a great improvement over the original Elevator in design and in game play. It is easier, but not too easy.
The first few missions have a no-kill requirement. That tests your mettle as a sneaker or a runner. About mid way, the no-kill requirement is relaxed and you can whack away to relieve your frustrations. But you don't have to. In most cases, sneaking will work. In a few cases, you must kill to proceed. It could be the solution to a puzzle. Those places are pretty obvious.
Most of the missions have very little or no loot. Only one mission has a loot requirement. That is a mansion job. In expert, you must find all 200 of 200. There are a lot of little coins worth 5 each. It is very tough! Unless you are dedicated loot hound, as I am, I suggest playing that one in Hard or Normal.
Missions 3-9 are completely new.
The last two missions have lots of little puzzles in them that allow you to progress from one area to the next. Some of the areas are very nice in design. The puzzles have no clues (at least none in English), so you have to think: "What are the resources at my disposal, what can I do with them, and is there any pattern here that suggests something I can do?" They can all be solved with that logic, using the process of elimination, with some minor frustration.
The last mission, Men's Tale, has objectives written in Japanese. Even though they hang over your head, don't worry about those objectives. They will all be resolved at the very end.
So, if you play EMT2 and have difficulty, don't say you weren't warned. If you can succeed and get through the whole thing, then I think you will be very pleased, as I was. :)
I would like to thank JIS for providing me with many hours of entertainment and for his brilliant work.
