downwinder on 3/2/2023 at 20:33
anyone find all 3 secrets i got 1 by start once you go up ladder there is a area close by with a switch/button to open a wall panel i think just loot i seen quite a few area's where i think there might be secrets, but never found anymore
let me know if you find the other 2 :)
Aemanyl on 3/2/2023 at 20:53
Finished on Expert, 2 hours 40 minutes.
My review, spoilers ahead:
Pros:
+ Beautiful and well-designed outside area. Loved the cemetery and multiple civilian houses I could get into.
+ Exploring the catacombs was a sheer pleasure. In my opinion, this is the best section of the mission. The skeleton and the lich were a nice surprise.
+ In general, the attention to detail is tremendous. It is clear that a lot of work went into designing the baron's monstrous castle.
+ The lack of annoying key hunts or puzzles. The objectives weren't too difficult, either.
+ I liked the variety of new colourful skins and objects.
Cons:
- The whole level is simply too big and given the confusing, maze-like design, navigation is very difficult. This is only my opinion, but I think the mission would have been much more enjoyable if you had scrapped approximately 20% of the factory, 30% of the castle, and left the catacombs as they are. This would have allowed you to improve the flow of the mission.
- Many parts of the castle don't make sense in terms of architecture.
- Though I enjoyed some of the readables in the factory and the presence of female necromancers/vampires, the story overall didn't captivate me. Fetching the body of Ballsy was just a chore and I couldn't connect emotionally to most of the personal stories presented in the readables. Plus, the texts could use some proofreading.
- As it has already been said, I didn't like the semi-transparent curtains.
Score: 8/10
prjames on 4/2/2023 at 02:20
Playing at Expert difficulty, and I got everything but the masks.
Can I get a more detailed inventory than 3 locations in the castle?
It's kind of hard, given that I don't know how many masks I have, because they just disappear into my loot.
I know there's two mask holders high up in the castle that I clearly got two of them from... but where are the rest?
- prjames
baeuchlein on 4/2/2023 at 04:51
I'm afraid I can relate to several points A. Stahl mentioned, and to almost everything Aemanyl wrote. Overly labyrinthic main areas, non-convincing architecture. The rooms frequently were too small for the amount of furniture squeezed into them. For me, the large windows in the sleeping rooms weren't the worst, but rather the toilets without doors, and sometimes with transparent curtains. Public viewing may be nice for sports events, but not if you're emptying your entrails while everyone else is watching.
The sheer amount of what the author built is notable, but unfortunately, size is not everything. I also did not find many interesting aspects concerning gameplay or story. The crown I found rather by accident in a room with almost no guards nearby.
Finally, I came to a kind of arrow trap in the Catacombs, but with explosive arrows. I found no way around that and thus gave up. It's quite possible that the mission would have been better beyond that point, but my motivation was gone, unfortunately.
Anyone who really liked the maze-like layout of the author's former two missions, "A Tough Night" and "Into the Dark Forest", will probably enjoy this mission a lot, though.
By the way, two objects in the game behaved strangely. A Knife (4373) hovered in the air when I dropped it. I could also throw things just through that knife. A Tall Pan (4382) instead blocked a doorway almost completely when dropped in it and hovering there. I almost found no way around it, which would have meant that I would have been forced to reload. Both objects could not be thrown away from the inventory either.
downwinder on 4/2/2023 at 05:23
ohh also i found a ship compass in mission=usable as compass for player, very cool thing to help with direction, also later in mission i saw another one but not frobable i wondered if i would have missed first one if the second one would have been possible to get?
the opera guy is so epic how he was on one of the dock i just chilled by him and let him prattle on :)
and those dracula girls omg how the memory's came flooding back to dracula series
and i liked the see through curtains a lot
Spyrano on 4/2/2023 at 06:15
I also like the see through curtains. The castle was quite a maze, but I enjoyed it! Great architecture throughout.
Master of Dromed on 4/2/2023 at 10:17
prjames: Three masks are on castle second floor. Two of them are in the same place, the other is in another place. One last mask in at the third floor of the castle. In total there are four of them.
prjames on 4/2/2023 at 13:20
Master of Dromed, thanks.
One more hint for those searching for masks: All four masks have holders that can be found to help you figure out which masks you've already grabbed.
Fun mission! :cheeky:
- prjames
Thinking Robot on 4/2/2023 at 19:14
Thanks for release!
Just finished this really huge mission with 6.5k in loot, I never thought I would miss that less.
The overall design was despite its huge layout lovely detail-oriented and architectonically very vell made, just like some piece of well-done art. Exploring the numerous floors, passages, nooks and crannies was a little bit exhausting due to the mazey layout and personally not my cup of tea.
Luckily the gameplay difficulty wasn´t that hard. Found everything without help, loved the catacombs which felt like a little independent mission due to its size, brilliant trap placement down there. Dragging Ballsy from the tombs all the way back up to the sewers took some time.
The castle was another big maze too. Countless stairs, mezzanine floors and doors everywhere. Thankful neither the masks or the crown were very well hidden like in other fan mission, I would have gone mad if that was the case. :D
Not a mission I would recommend for beginners, only to very patient Thief veterans.
WheretIB on 4/2/2023 at 20:11
This mission can be Supreme Ghosted, but at least one loot item has to be skipped.
