Renault on 9/5/2017 at 02:23

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The Deceptive Sceptre
Review posted on January 28, 2008 by Username
Tagged with Bafford • City • thief1/gold

The Deceptive Sceptre is a small sized level that has you reclaiming Lord Baffords sceptre from a small hamlet. In order to get it, you have to take out the hired hand who is guarding it. All difficulty settings have the same two mission objectives.

You start in a room with very high walls. There is a servant who is apparently admiring a painting on the wall. He can hear you but he cannot see you. A wooden ramp leads down to another room. There are the same painting again, three chaiselounges, a chair and a table with 100 loot on it. There is also a guard who will attack you on sight. A door leads outside the building down a narrow cobble street. You can jump up for a quick peek behind the walls surrounding the street. There is nothing behind them except the blackness the level boundary. The street ends at a small stream and a bridge. Two more swordsmen are guarding it. You cant sneak by them but you can try to get the stream between you and them, sometimes they fall off the ledge and drown. At the other end of the bridge is a table with 8 water arrows on it. You dont really need them because behind the door nearby is that guard you have to kill anyway. Go inside and take him out, then grab the sceptre.

Kill a guard and get the sceptre? That sounds suspiciously like the LGS-tutorial for DromEd. The Deceptive Sceptre is no doubt a first time effort. Its like the author started toying with DromEd and after a couple of days he decided to release what he had created so far. Hence unpolished architecture and unadjusted lighting in a level where objects dont cast any shadows and people look like the Charcoal Man from some angles.

So, how is it? Bad yet inoffensively so and most importantly: mercifully short. And hey, the author got doors working. Thats more than I managed on my first day with DromEd.

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 02:24

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Elizabeth Bathory - Chapters 1 and 2
Review posted on January 15, 2008 by theImmortalThief
Tagged with City • Guards • horror • Mansion • Thief 2

These missions are another set of gems by Sensut. Weve seen many spectacular missions from him (the Dracula series) and these are no less. Sensut has experienced new mission aspects than the ones he explored in the Dracula series. The results show that he is a master of his trade regardless of the missions type and setting.

What sets Sensuts missions apart are two important elements, first is his uncanny ability and eye for putting together sound, texture and light in a fashion that results in a chokingly intense and exciting atmosphere. Second is his superb mission layout and planning. As a mission author I can see that a stunning amount of forethought and planning must have gone into the designs of his missions.

In this series Sensut has picked another of Romanias notorious historical figures as the central role of his story. Doing some research on Elizabeth Bathory I was stunned at the magnitude of the crimes attributed to her. She is known as one of the greatest mass murderers in all of human history. Some believe these charges to have been grossly exaggerated. Sensut has another take on what really happened back then. This will start to be revealed as the player progresses through the missions. All the important characters of Elizabeths story appear in the missions. Their roles are cast in a different light that of the common belief.

Mission one starts at a citys gate. The setting is classic Sensut, its sunset. There are many native elements in the mission, this combined with the knowledge that this is the authors native land gives a special feeling to the mission. You feel as if you have an insiders view of the story from someone who may actually have better grasp of the events. Getting into the city which apparently is under curfew is interesting and creative. The city is not large but at first you can hardly access anywhere. Here we reach one of the shows of Sensuts brilliant layout. Without visibly and unreasonably limiting the player, the player is artfully channeled through the course of the story. Unlike most city missions where certain portions of a city are initially inaccessible, the whole city is accessible at the start. The mission expands in the z axis, from the streets to the rooftops.

Not all is perfect though. There are some few very odd hallways and doors on the rooftops which dont make much sense. The textures and buildings contain many wooden sections, but rope arrows hardly ever stick in any of them. A player may stop trying to shoot arrows into wooden surfaces, but that wont work. In order to progress you need to use your rope arrows in two occasions. In contrast to all other places in the mission, one of these occasions requires shooting an arrow in a place that youd normally think is not wooden!

Sensut encountered another problem in this mission, and that was the loot objective, which in my opinion was not very gracefully handled. In such story-driven missions with a no-return point, leaving out the loot objective is probably a logical choice, especially considering the fact that the players character is not a thief on a looting spree and actually is an agent trusted with an important job. The loot objective seems rather unnecessary.

Mission two starts right where the first one ends, but with an interesting change in the players character. The first 15 minutes through the mission are rather boring, as the architecture is pretty bland and actually seems a bit halfheartedly done. I was almost starting to be disappointed, but worry not! The mission suddenly picks its pace up and the architecture improves dramatically. Here more of the story unfolds and history is retold, but with Sensuts creative take on it. There are a few large and empty places in the mission which dont seem to have been necessary to have been so big and empty, but little by little the players starts to get a feeling of the huge estates layout, and I can tell you that once again, Sensut has done a great job. Sections are blocked and accessed and the player is channeled through the storys flow through a series of keys and well placed locked doors. although this system seems pretty simple in the first glance, if you pay attention youll see that its actually very complicated and once again, well executed.

All in all, these missions were very enjoyable and Im looking forward to chapter 3. They are fun, interesting and highly original. My hat is off to you, Sensut!

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 02:30

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Ashen Age Pt. 1
Posted in Reviews, Thief 2, Campaign, Classic, City, Keepers, Guards
December 2nd, 2006 by Bulgarian_Taffer

FM Title: Ashen Age part 1
Author/Builder: Sliptip
Thief Version: Thief 2
Genre: Daylight, City, Guards
Size: Medium
Number of times played: 1
Difficulty levels played: Normal

REVIEW

Its one of the best daylight missions ever made. This is a very good first attempt, so I applaud Sliptip for his work.

The briefing in the mission readme tells us about strange disappearences of people in the city. Even members of the Keeper order are missing. Garrett has to find out whats going on as soon as possible and that explains the fact why he cant wait for the night to come.

The mission starts in the Garretts appartment. Of course, the first objective is to find out some information about the missing Keepers, but there is also a loot objective. When you get out on the streets you find that the architecture of the city is very well made and gorgeous. There are guards lurking around (it seems that even little noise can alert them), thats why I chose the safest way to move around - swimming into the canal. Later I discovered that this part of the city is not so big as I thought at first. Actually, I was able to complete this medium-sized mission in about 50 minutes.

The atmosphere is very tense. What are these portraits of the Keepers doing here? There is a lot to investigate, though many questions remain unanswered in the end. After you finish this masterpiece, better calm down and patiently wait for the second part, taffer :)

WHO WOULD LIKE THIS MISSION?

If you enjoy daylight missions, this one is for you. If you dont - please, dont hesitate to download it, it offers a lot of game value so you wont be disappointed.

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

UliB: Great FM. It felt a bit like T3. Very nice textures.
Aspirin: This is Taffers heaven !!!
Angelot: A wonderful and state of the art mission, for graphic and sounds! Great!!
SlyFoxx: Fantastic work Sliptip. Youve really broken new ground. You should be proud!
DrK: Well, what should I say a Masterpiece !
cardia1:i want to congrat the Author of this mission for the beautiful Architecture, Textures, wonderful light, i loved the ambient sound
Dia: WOW! Absolutely GREAT FM!!! The architecture is breathtaking; the textures and sounds are fantastic!

RATING

Ill try to rate this mission as they did on the Circle long ago. Sorry, Digi, if I didnt do it well, but I tried my best :)
Visuals: 10.0 - It gives you a bit Thief 3 feeling.
Atmosphere: 9.0 - Very tense
Story: 9.5 - Excellent, though it needs a little polish.
Gameplay: 10 - Very challenging, interesting, a lot of areas to explore.
Pros: Gorgeous architecture, excellent texturing, the story is just great.
Cons: Nothing significant comes to mind, except that sometimes you get the feeling as the guards have eyes on their back.
Bonus/Penalty: +1.0
Final: 10

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 02:35

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A Shopping Stopover
Posted in Reviews
October 6th, 2006 by nicked

This fairly small mission is set in a log cabin building in the depths of winter. Theres good use of weather with a heavy snowfall in all the outdoor areas, and the architecture and texturing looks good at all times, although the poly count creeps up in some areas!

The missions storyline is that Garrett has to steal some weapons, having retired from thieving some time ago. The mission is a prologue to a larger mission (yet to be released) and as such is quite small and easily completable in about half an hour.

As Garrett has to get some tools as his objectives, the levels main focus is ghosting, which proves a challenge but not too difficult - theres lots of good hiding spots. There is a lot of keyhunting - as Garrett has no lockpicks at first. However, there is a solution - if you can find it!

The plot is interesting with a lot of very well written readables giving an insight into the lives of the inhabitants of the cabin, although it can be tricky to read some of them, as the text appears onscreen temporarily for most of the signs, and unless youre a fast reader, you can get caught by a guard mid-sentence!

The most memorable part of the mission is when you find the barn around the back of the cabin. I wont spoil the fun for you, but suffice to say, opening the barn doors results in some amusing chaos!

All in all, its a very fun mission and well-designed although small. Its good for a quick 20 minute to half an hour blast - and one day it will hopefully nicely complement its sequel!

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 02:43

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Mr Chuz
Posted in Reviews, Thief 1/Gold, Mansion, Undead, Guards
August 29th, 2006 by Morrgan

The mission description of Mr Chuz by Azrarhn gives little background to go on: the mission is set before the events in Thief 1 and Garrett needs some cash in order to stay low for a while. The objectives screen gives few hints about the mission itself: the target is a mansion owned by a Mr Chuz and in addition to regular looting you need to obtain some notes of his as well as a tome called the Book of Magic. Not exactly what Id call the usual set of goals for a usual mansion heist, with no explanation given as to why Garrett should find those extra items.

Your first view as the mission starts up is a brick wall seen very close, which continues the baffling impression; but turning around, you get a nice view of the facade of the mansion. The bottom half of it boasts a few unusual but pleasant architectural details; the second floor of the mansion looks unfinished however, creating a strange contrast between the two parts. This type of conflicting design continues throughout the mission: the mansions architecture ranges from imaginative and detailed to extremely simple, giving the mission an unfinished feel. Most plain areas make sense judged by their purpose, such as the servants quarters being less decorated than the guest rooms. In this case however, less decorated means single-textured cubes. In general, the use of textures seems sloppy.

One problem I noticed is that many brushes are not aligned properly; leaving a thin edge that usually has the wrong texture, sometimes even the default jorge. I encountered another construction problem with some of the stairs: the steps are too high, which means the AI can get stuck on them.

Once inside the mansion, three things caught my attention. First of all, the use of lighting is effective. Light sources are used well to create an interesting contrast between bright areas and shadows. A small complaint is that no torches seem to have a light radius set, so that their effect on the light-gem continues well beyond the range of their visible light: meaning that if you want to create a convenient shadowy area, you must extinguish all torches in sight.

Secondly, while sneaking further into the mansion, I noticed the effectiveness of the guards patrols. It seemed that every time I thought I had cleared a corridor, yet another guard was just around the corner. The patrols are not that complex but they overlap, making them hard to predict and adding that extra bit of tension.

Thirdly, the mission contains numerous details linking texts and story to the level itself. For example, a text mentions a card game that occurred earlier in the evening; soon after that I found cards on a table. The person who wrote the text also declares that he will get drunk tonight; what do you know; a little later I stumbled upon a very drunk guard. I do love little details like that.

The mansions layout can be confusing and there is no map. The keys that can be found have no names to indicate what they are for, which can result in a lot of running back and forth, trying to remember the locations of those unpickable locked doors that are found before the keys. The keys are few though, and the mansion is not that large, so this isnt as frustrating as it may sound.

The story is revealed piece by piece as more of the mansion is explored. To begin with, the mansion seems like a normal building, perhaps with a more peculiar choice of textures here and there. However, not too far into the mission you find the first worrying hint, then another, and soon it becomes clear that something is amiss; a nice way of building tension, I must say. Near the end you leave the mansion for a while, and this is when things get really absurd. At this point many players might find some of the oddities too much to stay immersed in the level. I know I did the first time I played the mission, although the second time I already knew the story and could appreciate most of them as part of the plot.

A major weakness of Mr Chuz is the lack of background. Why did Garrett choose this mansion? How did he find out about the Book of Magic? What will he do with Chuzs notes? Some of the areas found in the level would also benefit from an explanation. Still, the mission itself is quite fun to play and has a delightfully creepy atmosphere - not to mention being a pleasant change from the usual mansion heist.

Pros: Good gameplay; creepy atmosphere; some creative architecture can be seen.
Cons: Too many questions remain after finishing the mission; architecture and terrain could be improved in many areas.
Bottom Line: A very strange mission, but strange in a good way.
Note: The original mission had a problem with a couple of objectives that didnt tick off when they should have. This problem has been fixed in version 2.0 according to the readme, but for some reason a warning is still given on the objective screen. The objectives ticked off when they were supposed to every time I played the updated mission.