<Username> on 1/7/2023 at 08:55

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This is the third released mission by IronEagle aka HawkflyAway that I played. I liked this one the best. The exterior and the main hall of the cathedral are some of the most impressive structures I have seen in T3. At the same time, this mission had similar issues as the author's previous ones: It feels somewhat unfinished and untested, contains multiple glaring problems that could have been fixed, and is practically impossible to finish without hints. The gameplay is aggravating because it revolves around finding hidden or even invisible objects, sometimes in locations that feel random.

Stats:
* Expert difficulty
* 2175 of 2300 loot
* 6 hints needed
Elements I liked:
* The size and detail of the cathedral exterior is impressive.
* The main cathedral hall is one of the most impressive areas I have seen in T3.
* The custom "Garrett" and "Black Hammerite" models are very cool.
* Objects don't have that atomic blue glow of T3 when they are centered on the screen. Instead, they light up like in T1 and T2.
* I liked the generator room with all the buzzing sounds and the electric arcs in the air.
* The ambient music changes frequently when you move between areas inside the cathedral.
* After the debriefing screens, you return to the mission. This is my favorite solution for T3 fan missions. Other missions load into one of the original missions after the debriefing screens.
Could be improved:

Gameplay:
* Like other missions by IronEagle aka HawkflyAway, this one is practically impossible to finish without hints because keys and other important quest items are hidden inside random spots in the walls, in the floors, or even inside other objects. You would have to blind-frob pretty much every spot in the mission to find them.
* Too many tiny, easily missed levers.
* Some AI kept walking into walls or were unable to move from their positions when they spotted me.
* The Jack Pigface objective says you need to find a ring, but the object you need is a diamond.
* A crystal at the start of the mission counts a loot, is embedded in rocks, invisible to the player, and can only be retrieved if you jump slightly out of bounds from the NE tower.
* You can steal two paintings from a wall next to some stairs. They have loot glint but don't count as loot.
* The bird statuette in HawkflyAway's room has loot glint but is not frobabble.
* The mission gives no indication where the player must go after all objectives are completed.
Architecture and textures:
* The base of the NE tower is not solid: You can walk right through it.
* The texture outside the front entrance of the cathedral is wobbling. I noticed an issue like this in IronEagle's previous mission Kings & Queens too.
* The giant hammer in the second room where you enter the cathedral is not fixed to the wall. If you walk into it, Garrett takes damage and the giant hammer may begin to wobble uncontrollably.
* The golden dagger in the rafters above the cathedral's main hall jumped out of the chest when I opened it.
* Halfway down the second ladder outside the cathedral, there is a lantern just floating high up in the air, not attached to a wall.
* In the generator room, the letters "dly Shadows" float in the air. The first letters are not visible.
Mission packaging and release:
* The version documentation is a mess: The filename in the mission archive says what I played was "The Black Hammerites Cathedral: Platinum Edition v3.0". The mission info says it is v1.0 but, one line below, that it is now updated to v1.2. In a further line of the mission info file, the mission is called "Knightdream". I think this line was copied from the documentation of IronEagle's other mission "The Knight's Dream" and was not updated.
* The mission info file is a mix of English and Italian words. The Italian briefing was not translated to English.
* The list of objectives is empty in the briefing screens. They are displayed once you start the mission, but some of the objectives were not translated from Italian to English.
* When you switch to the map, it shows the layout of the Blue Heron Inn.
* The mission end stats are broken: 0 minutes elapsed, 0% loot collected.
Sound:
* Every time you walk up the stairs where you can grab two paintings that don't count as loot, a creepy moan plays. Once would have been enough.
* Every time you reload in the main cathedral hall, you get to hear the creepy moan again.
Framerate:
* The framerate in the mission was rather low, especially when I climbed the towers outside.
Hints needed:[spoiler]
* Missed both the visible and the invisible crystal in the rocks above the starting location.
* Missed Jack Pigface's diamond hidden in a random post's light bulb because it is invisible.
* Missed the key hidden inside a granite block halfway up the NE tower because it is invisible.
* Missed the key hidden inside the wall underneath a window in the cathedral because it is invisible.
* Missed the tiny lever hidden on the wall behind pipes in the SW corner of the generator room.
* The mission did not end after I completed the last objective. I made my all the way back to the starting location, but it did not end there either. Turns out there is a spot in the cathedral main hall where you have to go. The mission does not tell you this.[/spoiler]