The Phantom on 15/8/2011 at 18:48
My experience with
Saturio Returns Home, the second and last mission made by RobinG, hasn't been very different during my second time playthrough. The mission, that dates back from the earlier days of fan mission design, is still looking surprisingly good by todays standards .
Lord Saturio mysteriously dissapeared after returning from the war and Garrett is hired by his bride to found out what happened. Guess his homecoming wasn't much of a succes. The plan is to infiltrate the family mansion and obtain information about Lord Saturio.
The story isn't overly complex but convincing nevertheless (it turns out
Lady Machado's will is the cause of the trouble). The few writings in the level give a nice insight from all parties involved. In terms of difficulty, the mission is not much of a challenge for taffers with years of thieving skills behind them. The player can kill everyone on Normal and freely KO people on Expert (a limit on KO would've been welcome). But playing on Expert while being as stealthy as possible proved to be enjoyable and rewarding. Plenty of equipment (scouting orbs, moss arrows) and dark corners to aid you in this. Most used equipment: the scouting orb. I would've ghosted the place but was forced to use my blackjack on one occasion (with Sigfrido as victim :ebil:). Great fun all around.
The pieces of classical music by (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dowland) John Dowland are enchanting to listen to, and really add to the ambiance of the place. I remember myself ending up in the drawing room on the ground floor, just listing to the music. Together with the classic design of the room, it felt as I was in medieval times. Great pieces. +1 for performing them yourself, RobinG :D
Layout and design of the mansion are convincing and the architecture is well done. There are clear maps of the place available and because the map isn't that large there's no fear of getting lost. Only the sewers might be a bit confusing at first. This place, in connection with the crypts, is sadly the only one that provides some alternative routes to travel. The rest of the mission is quite linear.
Saturio Returns Home still is a mission to recommend these days. It's a good old traditional mansion mission with no fancy detail or plot twists, but with good looking architecture, an interesting story, and some beautiful pieces of classical music that add to the atmosphere. While being pretty linear and no longer difficult, compared to more recent FMs, it's still a very fine mission, offering plenty of exploration and thieving, that aged very little.
Statistics:
Finished on Expert difficulty, within 1 hour and 37 minutes, all loot located, and 1 Knockout.
malau on 23/8/2011 at 05:05
I'm glad the Mods restored this thread, it was missing in action.
This was one of the first FMs I ever played and looking back I think it was one of the ones that represented an advance in build quality and storytelling. Some of the rooms, I just stood there by the fire thinking 'this is just like a real house' - and it was made in 2001 !
The only FM older than this I have is 'The Bathhouse' from 2000, (arguably one of the first ever T2 FM's) which is blocky, square and unrealistic by comparison.
I loved the music too, after it finished I went straight to Wiki and looked up John Dowland - thinking i'm going to pirate as much stuff of his as I can, only to find out he died 600 years ago !
But then it says in the README that ROBING played all the music himself ! Wow !! He's a genius !
I like all of (both of ?) Robin's FM's. the older 'Lady Whitman's Disease' is fun too - it showed how far Robin had come in the space of one year.
Does anyone know if he did more than 2 FM's ?
Sticky Fingers on 23/8/2011 at 12:04
Quote:
Does anyone know if he did more than 2 FM's ?
No, unfortunately (unless you want to count LWD v2.0 released 5 months after the original).
Yet another of the very classy early designers who stopped dromeding
way too soon.....
*sigh*RobinG on 23/8/2011 at 15:58
Many thanks for your compliments, much more when there are ten years later. Also I'm glad you liked the beautiful and melancholy music of John Dowland.
For the record, I also worked on T2X (primarily on cathedral mission)
I'm still a big fan of the Thief series (I guess it will be for the rest of my life). But design tasks robbed me too much time from my real life. Who knows in the future...?
malau on 24/8/2011 at 07:02
Robin G = Robin Gibb ! That explains the musical genius.
Robin, did you ever release any internet tracks of your classical guitar playing ?
theknitter on 12/7/2017 at 20:40
This mission has aged exceptionally well.
