Renault on 9/5/2017 at 18:24

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Mann Mansion
Review posted on July 27, 2008 by Username
Tagged with Guards • Mansion • Thief 2

If you're new to DromEd, you should stick to doing simple things and save advanced topics like custom textures, scripting or weapon replacements for when/if you get good. Tithian's first-time effort does just that. It focuses on getting simple things right, hence the rather basic setup that has Garrett looting a small mansion. There isn't much to the mission save for avoiding a lone guard and robbing the residents of their possessions, so if you're expecting anything earthshaking, Mann Mansion probably isn't for you. The readme file even mentions the lack of security as Garrett's motivation for breaking in in the first place. On the other hand, it is well worth checking out if you're looking for a positive example on how to tackle your first Thief fan mission.

Besides keeping things simple, Tithian took his time to polish the environment. The version of the mission that is available from most download sites is v. 1.1 for which the architecture was refurbished and refined. The mansion might not be particularly exciting, however, the effort is certainly passable. There are more than a few first-time authors out there whose ambitions to create mindblowing experiences were shattered by a lack of skill and a lack of time to learn the necessary skills to transform their ideas into a playable mission. A generic mansion surely is preferable to a sloppily constructed city district extravaganza.

The downside of Mann Mansions small-sized area of play is: there isn't enough room for sneaking or hiding in shadows, nor is that lone guard much of a challenge. Since the three civilians in the mansion all have their back turned to you, they can easily be avoided. This lack of proper gameplay could have been avoided with better planning. Whats more is that a playthrough of Mann Mansion takes five minutes to complete if you don't know layout. Ghosting on the second playthrough can take as little as two minutes.

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 18:28

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Mission With No Name
Review posted on January 7, 2009 by Melan
Tagged with City • Contest • Guards • Thief 2

Mission With No Name by mopgoblin

This mission, created for Komag’s fourth contest, is an excellent demonstration of just how much game content can fit into a restricted space. The playing area is just one tiny city block with a few housefronts, but there are so many ledges, nooks, crannies and balconies, and they are interlinked so well that despite the limitations imposed by the contest, the web of possible routes is so highly interconnected that the FM feels larger than you first expect. The exploration can even take you to places that have no in-game reward, but getting there feels cool nevertheless; this is very much a climber’s delight. What I also found positive was that the architecture is quite imaginative - instead of the repetition of stock features, there is a good level of formal variety (something not always easy to pull off in a contest). A puzzle related to trying to read a book in a dark room has an obvious solution, but the fact that the puzzle is there is still so clever that you end up feeling pleasantly surprised. All in all, this little gem is very much worth the attention.

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 18:36

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Raid on Washout Central
Review posted on June 21, 2009 by Dan7
Tagged with City • Guards • Rain • Sewer • Thief 2

The fan mission Raid on Washout Central was released on the 31st December 2000 by Steven Hindley aka Belboz. It is a good example of some of the earlier Thief 2 Fan Missions. It uses the weather effect capability of the game and introduces the old favorite “free City Streets exploration” like in the Assassins mission in Thief the Dark Project.

Background

The mission was supposed to be an entry to one of the old “the Circle” site FM contests that took place way back in the year 2000. The contest however got canceled in October, because of lack of entries. Exactly two months later Belboz released the first version of Raid on Washout Central. A month later came the first patch, fixing some bugs, and on June 8th 2001 the final version was released. Other missions by the same author include Garretts Revenge and Dock Land both for Thief Dark Project and the Tricksters Gem Mine series for Thief 2. Steven Hindley has a site called “Belbozs Thief Gateway” that includes conversions of some Thief 1 and Gold canon mission to a format being able to be run on Thief 2. The author definitely has experience with mission building and this is show in this particular mission as well. As far as rating goes The Circle gives it 9 out of 10 Hammers, which is among the top; Cheap Thief Missions gives it 9.5; but the Keep of Metal and Gold focused on some of its flaws and gave it a 7.

The Mission

As far as the story goes you’re not playing as Garrett. You’re Ryalla and that is also confirmed by the female sounds when you climb, attack and take damage. You start at Ryalla’s house and to find out what’s going on you’re supposed to read her diary. It turns out that she was visited by and old friend who wishes her to help him with a guy named Jakku. Ryalla’s supposed to go to the local inn find this Jakku and follow him to his home. It doesn’t sound too difficult. There are also optional objectives and other objectives that are found in the course of the mission. That is where the story actually gets interesting. After you red this (or just skip trough it) you go the Ryalla’s secret weapon stash pick up your weapons and head for the street.

The map’s design is definitely on the level. The combo of rain and fog compliments well the dark atmosphere of the streets. Belboz has gone beyond the basic weather effect capabilities of Thief 2 and made it feel a lot more immersing. The water is dripping from the rooftops and surrounds you from every direction. This is the best rain effect I have seen in a mission so far. The outdoor areas are a mixture of mainly stone buildings and vegetation areas here and there. There are lots of explorable buildings that don’t connect to the main objectives like Estates, a Brick Factory, shops and small locations like mechanist chapels and guard post buildings. The indoor areas are mainly wooden rooms plus sewers. Jakku’s house is more like a horror house and you’ll see why. The rooms are not very well furnished and feel quite empty, but that is compensated by the inventive light source angles and the original room structures, that gives a thiefy atmosphere. The City as a whole does not present any spectacular architecture and is quite simple in fact, but it has its unique design and a mysterious concept. The downside is that the streets are as confusing as hell and the map doesn’t really help on that matter.

What the Raid on Washout Central has undoubtedly got is atmosphere. The rain…it really makes you feel wet just by playing the mission. The ambient sounds are well picked for the different areas and you can go from a nice evening at the inn to a scary experience in some basement. Before I played the mission I heard it had some wacky stuff and now I know why. Some of the character’s behavior is quite funny, Jakku himself is really weird and you’d find stuff in place you’d not expected.

The gameplay has nothing particularly special to offer. You just have a ton of areas to explore, lots of keys, plus some secrets. Still, some of the City Watch patrols have lanterns that illuminate their surroundings and that adds to the challenge. And there are a lot of guards. A fun fact is that if you start running around the streets you can get a lot of Guards to follow you and I do mean a lot. Most of the buildings’ rooftops are accessible via simple climb, but are too steep and one can easily fall off. The downside is that the game feels somewhat slow at times. It is one of those missions, like Ranstall Keep, where at the start you are required to read someone’s long diary – not my idea for the beginning of a mission. And although Ryallas house is well done, it takes some time to get out of it to just start the mission itself. Another example is when you follow Jakku to his home. I know it doesn’t take that much time to do it, but I still get the feeling that it is longer than it should be. And the map, like I mentioned, doesn’t help a lot, since you can’t make out what is where and which lines are buildings or plain streets.

There are some know bugs, like the dropping of a key may make some objectives’ completion impossible. Some times an objective might no thick. Also there is a chance of SHAS (sudden heart attack syndrome) in one of the areas, but although I deliberately tried to achieve it I couldn’t.

Conclusion

The pros of the mission are the interesting story and events, very original design of some of the city areas, lots to explore and of course the awesome soaking rain effect.
The cons are the confusing streets and somewhat ordinary gameplay. It may take you half an hour just to find a building you’re supposed to go to.
Still it is a fun experience, a big map with lots of side stuff to take your time and a mission I’d suggest to most taffers.

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 18:44

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Turning the Tables
Review posted on May 9, 2009 by Sperry
Tagged with • assassin • Crypt • Guards • Hammerite • Mansion • Thief 1/Gold • Thieves

In May 2000, shortly after Thief 2: the Metal Age was released (i.e. March 2000), Daniel Corder, aka Thiefs_Pawn at the TTLG forums, published Turning the Tables, his one and only fan mission for Thief: the Dark Project. The mission itself was to be remembered by Thief fans as one that had pushed the boundaries of technical effects in FMs, much like, just a few months earlier, The Treasury by Bryan Matthews and Rogues Honour by Triston Attridge, aka Totality. Just like these last two FMs, Turning the Tables provided the community an experimental FM experience, and has been both acclaimed and criticized for this reason. The author apparently wanted to break free of traditional Thief gameplay conventions. Nine years later, its possible to look back on this FM and understand how it influenced later FM designers. This is mainly why Ive chosen to review this FM.

Garrett was spending some time at his favourite pub when Skeller, presumably a familiar thief, attempted to assassinate him. Garrett unyieldingly killed his opponent, and discovered with amazement that his victim was carelessly carrying a note from his employer, a certain Lord Bifford. Thanks to this letter, he learned that Lord Bifford had hired Skeller to kill him after he had declined joining his crime ring, much in the same way Lord Ramirez attempted to kill him in one of the original Thief missions. He decides to return the favour by assassinating Lord Bifford himself and placing both his and Skeller's corpses in Bifford's treasure room so as to make it look like they killed each other for money. The fact that the main plot elements are so close to the Assassins OM may allow the player place this mission in the Thief timeline continuum: because the player already has lockpicks, and since there are no references to the Pagans, the Mechanists or the Keepers at all, one may assume this mission takes place sometime between Assassins and Garrett's first encounter with Constantine (unless one assumes that Garrett once had lockpicks before his confrontation with Ramirez but never used them in the OMs). And finally, despite the text briefing justifying Garrett's killings through legitimate self-defence, one may argue that such aggressiveness is nonetheless unusual, and that perhaps the young Garrett from the earliest days of FMs is more reckless than the more experienced Garrett from T2 and beyond.

The first thing that might strike the player at the outset of this mission is the unusual lack of luminosity; one feels completely surrounded by the menacing, strange, pitch black obscurity of the depth of the night. The atmosphere is definitely darker than any of the original Thief games. In the garden, which is the missions starting point, one may even welcome the lantern guards that slowly trudge through the hedgerows. Furthermore, the sense of a cramping obscurity is intensified by Skellers corpse which obtrudes the players view when carrying him all the way to Biffords treasure room. Other aspects of the mission, especially the constraining objectives as well as the unguarded state of Lord Binford and his room, are rather unusual. All of these factors combine to create a sensation of unease and paradox. Yet the mission itself is very well built. The intricate rafters in the attic-like sections of the two wings of the manor in particular are very convincing, and also darken the setting by casting black, gothic shadows. While the garden area includes a straight-forward maze, with only one way out, the manor offers interesting strategic possibilities thanks to its many entrances and constructions. The handful of key characters are more or less well conceived, although some of them Brother Larson, Captain Bill Tyler, etc. lack depth and sometimes feel as though they have been placed in the manor just to fill it up. The readables are rather useful, especially regarding the particularities of Biffords Hammerite-built alarm system. Also, some of the key readables content change from one difficulty to the next, in order to convey the most useful information for the objectives. However, one might feel there could have been more of these useful readables in this mission, especially regarding how to access the treasure room. This is very unfortunate, because the solution is really quite simple, and there is a fair chance the player will feel compelled to frob every nook and cranny in Biffords room in a frantic button-hunt. I myself stumbled upon the solution by sheer luck. Fortunately, there is one very excellent conversation, although only present on Hard or Expert difficulty levels.

The architecture of this mission is definitely one of its strong-points, not so much because of its aesthetics, but because of how creative it is and how it increases the potential variety of strategic gameplay. The most impressive structures are probably the rafters already mentioned, and the manor itself, especially its multiple entrances, large rooms and massive rooftops; in each case, the player has almost complete freedom to wander about and use these structures as tools in order to complete the mission. Also, there are some great opportunities to use rope arrows in this mission. All of this increases overall replay value. The claustrophobic garden maze, on the other hand, might displease some players; this is unfortunate because its unavoidable and at the very beginning of the mission. Overall, the level of architectural detail of this mission subtly surpasses that of the OMs, and it has a very unique style throughout. The lightmaps (static lighting) are simple, but rather effective. One might have wished for a bit more variety, but then again the chosen obscurity also sets the mood, if one can get used to the darkness. The room brushing (sound propagation) is good, without being exceptional. There are a few rare areas where AI can hear the player through the walls and especially the roofs; but this is more or less compensated by the fact that they have rather low hearing abilities. The mission has both map and automap features, which is a very nice touch, but the maps themselves are unfortunately not very pleasing to look at.

The dynamic aspects of the mission are probably the most interesting and the most debatable. First of all, as already mentioned, this mission introduced ground-breaking technical effects: it is one of the first Dark Project FMs ever to use dynamic lighting capable of affecting the players visibility (via the on-screen light indicator); hence the lantern guards can spot the player even in complete obscurity. Secondly, Lord Bifford's manor is endowed with a special electrical power system which can be switched on or off in an electricity control room. All electric lights in the manor, in theory at least, are linked to these controls, except for the ones in Lord Bifford's treasure room. The alarm system is also connected to the electrical power system, so the anticipating player can actually disable the entire alarm system if needed, which can tremendously change the gameplay experience for this mission. This is very fortunate, since the mission becomes impossibly difficult and even quite ugly if the alarm is triggered due to the amount of hostile AIs and the almost exaggerated amount of alarm lights. One can only regret that the AI is not more reactive if the player disables the power; the one guard responsible for the electricity control room does not budge at all when the player flips the switch. More generally, AI placement is also rather unusual, as the player might feel there are often too little or too many opponents; but this isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself, as it makes the mission less predictable. Furthermore, one may find that the objectives pertaining to each difficulty level are not very well balanced. For example, the player is actually only required to bring both corpses to the treasure room on Normal difficulty; on Hard and Expert difficulties, a special event occurs which ultimately rids the player of the corpses in the treasure room objective. One of the objectives on Hard and Expert, which has been lively criticized by Thief fans, forbids the player to steal any loot from the manor. This unusual objective which is justified by the fact that Garrett seeks to carry out his mission completely unnoticed in order to clean his slate has obviously been well thought-out by Corder, since the player will find absolutely no loot hidden inside containers, footlockers and such, in order to avoid picking loot up by accident. Yet the sheer unorthodoxy of this challenging objective might be enough to displease some of the less open-minded Thief fans. There is also a no blackjack/no killing/dont be seen objective on Hard and Expert that may discourage some. Finally, the mission is only truly ghost-friendly on Normal difficulty level, due to an unforeseeable special event on Hard and Expert difficulty levels. This being said, the AI placement and large rooms generally give the player enough slack to be able to find a way out of more than a few tough situations. Yet this event, despite having the merits of being well executed and rare enough in FMs, has the potential to confuse the player, who might not know at this point what to do and especially when to do it. Perhaps more indications should have been provided to guide the player through this new type of situation for example, by having Garrett comment to himself something like I've got to get out of here.

Overall, Daniel Corder's Turning the Tables presents a very unique Thief: the Dark Project experience, with many technical oddities and a very innovative design. The mission has some very unpredictable elements, too. There are some really good things here. Thief fans, especially those interested in older experimental missions, will want to give this one a try.

Pros: A very original FM, with a good setting, unusual objectives and interactive architecture. A working automap feature. Good replay value too. Some large, complex areas to explore and to use to carry out the mission. Many opportunities to use rope arrows. Very dynamic, with good technical effects for the time and changing objectives. Lord Bifford's voice is very well recorded and very convincing. Good replay value.
Cons: Too dark at times. Somewhat lacking character development. Some players might not like the objectives. There is no alternative to the garden maze puzzle. Some puzzles lack clarity, such as how to access the treasure room; this one in particular can potentially become a frustrating button-hunt. A special event on Hard and Expert difficulty levels may confuse the player. No multi-language support. No custom AI skins. AI are not very reactive to the players crucial actions. The maps are not very pleasing to the eye.
Bottom Line: A surprising and experimental FM, with many very original gameplay elements, but somewhat lacking depth.

Renault on 9/5/2017 at 20:11

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The Seven Sisters
By The Mike Published: September 17, 2009Posted in: ReviewTags:

THE SEVEN SISTERS
By: Lady Rowena

Long ago I promised in this FMs thread over in the TTLG forums that I would review it, and being the predictably lazy bastard that I am, I never got around to it. Why am I doing it now when everyone already knows its phenomenal and absolutely worth the download? Why!? Why did Columbus sail across the sea to discover America when everyone told him it was suicide? Why did Louis and Clark explore whatever it was that they explored that made them so famous (I'm sure Ill get around to wikipedia-ing that before I post this)?? Why? WHY!? Because I'm an asshole- that's why.

The Seven Sisters is of course the sequel to Rowena's Curse, which was created by the FM making hive mind that calls itself both Lady Rowena and Eshaktaar but is actually a single highly advanced being with pure awesome coursing through its veins (Eshaktaar would be the creator of Ominous Bequest and Broken Triad, two missions which are extremely close concept-wise to Lady Rowena's missions yet were created at exactly the same time eliminating the possibility of one of them influencing the other. Maybe the idea of them being a singular giant pulsating brain in a jar hooked up to several computers running DromEd is a bit of a stretch, but I'm not ready to take off my tinfoil hat just yet). Actually its more of a follow-up to Rowena's Curse than a full out sequel, the story of the previous FM only influencing this one in minor ways. The story here is a tale about a happy marriage and the zombies that tear it apart. That's what I like about Lady Rowena, she gives the ladies their romantic subplot and us guys she gives the zombies, gore, and one-liner spewing robots on motorcycles.

Actually, while Im on the subject of the story, this is a perfect time to discuss my one and only problem with this mission. The characterization of Garrett. Now first of all, I'm all for FM authors re-interpreting Garrett a bit to match their writing style, but if you don't stay true to the heart and soul of the character you might as well just change the main characters name (this is an easy fix that for some reason not many authors think of). Garrett in the original games was a total dick who only was saving the world because his own ass was on the line. In The Seven Sisters Garrett is a big huggable softy with a heart of gold that believes in the healing powers of love and probably owns The Notebook on DVD and sobs into a tissue at the end of the movie while shouting GO TO HIM! at the screen. Saving your friend Basso because he is an old reliable accomplice is one thing, and I could totally swallow that when it happened- on the other hand, having an objective appear that tells me to let someone know that they're loved is totally another thing. Why would Garrett care?! Why would he risk zombies eating the area in and around his face just to play love connection!? Why must you threaten my masculinity by putting me in dangerously close proximity to emotions!? But GOD if it wasn't adorable when I reunited that baby burrick with its owner but that's COMPLETELY different!

As far as issues with this FM go, that's about all I can think of. Id nitpick but this FM is completely nit-less and any attempted picking of said nits would be fruitless. The level design is absolutely gorgeous to the point where you could mash the print screen key the entire time you're playing it and end up with about 4,000 worthy desktop backgrounds. Not only that but the levels are built in such a way that it plays as good as it looks. I didn't even mind the occasional too brightly lit street full of patrolling guards. We Thief players are getting too damn good at this, I like it when an FM actually tempts us to use the tools we have at our disposal (even if it means ruining our perfect ghost and subsequently being exiled from our hometowns leading our children's children to look at us in disgrace while we sit huddled under a tree for shelter while the rain beats down around us, all the time wondering what life would have been like if we hadn't used that moss arrow).

Actually I just thought of another problem. There are a couple doorways in the mission with metallic frames around them, but soft flooring on either side, so of course sneaking isn't on your mind until you walk through them and CLANK! everyone is unsheathing their swords and giving you that You'd best quickload before our terrible fight AI kicks in and things get awkward look. I'm not happy that I had to make myself look like an ass for bringing up something so inane but this is cheap. That, however, is about the last possible problem I think I can come up with. I'm pushing my whineiness about as far it can go and I swear I just cant think of anything else to cry about you know what that means, get out your hymnbook because I'm about to sing some more praises.

The game has 4 missions (It almost seems like I should have gotten to this earlier in the review?), one is an introduction which is uneventful but pretty, the other two are basically the same town mission split into two parts called nights one and two, and the last is something completely different I wouldn't spoil here (Ill just say get ready for some HARDCORE NUDITY). The idea of exploring the same level twice might sound tedious, but missions two and three really feel completely original, and stand on their own surprisingly well. Most buildings are explored only on one specific night, meaning that other than the main streets, you aren't just going through the same old places again on the next mission. Night One does a great job of teasing you as far as whats in store in the next mission by giving you only one lockpick which means that doors you can only half pick you will have to come back to on the next night. Unlocking those doors on the following night results in much giddy giggling followed by a whole lot of nervously wondering if anyone heard you. In short, there's a whole lot of gameplay here, and its all brilliantly planned out and fun.

So, is The Seven Sisters worth downloading? As I said in the second sentence which you all probably got to before you stopped reading, yes. Is it one of the greatest FMs of all time? Definitely. Is it THE greatest FM of all time? I'm not so sure but if it and Ominous Bequest and Calendra's Legacy had a cage match, it would certainly be the one holding the foldable chair.