<Username> on 16/6/2022 at 11:48
I respect this mission for the amount of detail put into every room. I would have had more fun with it had I not become stuck that often. It requires a lot of patience because the entrances to some of the many hidden rooms are hard to find.
Stats:
* Expert difficulty
* 191 minutes
* 91% loot
* 7 hints needed
Elements I liked:
* The hotel looks great. This is some fine map design.
* The atmosphere in the abandoned wing of the hotel was delightfully creepy.
* Good use of ambience music throughout.
* There a plenty of Garrett quips.
* For players who like to hunt for hidden rooms, there are plenty of them in the mission.
Elements that could be improved:
* The title "The Hotel" sounds uninspired.
* Every time I picked up loot and the loot percentage counter did not go up, it felt disheartening. There is so much loot in the mission it got tedious to pick it all up.
* There was some impossible to see loot behind pipes in the basement that I only got thanks to fortuni’s walkthrough and blind-frobbing.
* There are several grammatical and spelling errors in the briefing.
* After you complete the mission, Stonemarket from the original campaign is loaded and Garrett starts talking about Big Bertha.
Bugs:
* Being limited to hard saves is annoying, but I heeded the author's warning about quicksaving causing issues in this mission.
* The elevator to the basement is completely silent when it moves.
* In the library of the abandoned wing, I got stuck between one of the tables and a bookshelf.
* In a small room near the throne room in the abandoned wing, you can destroy a bookshelf with the dagger. After it dissolves, the twelve chalices there were stacked inside it float in the air.
* I encountered two instances near the beginning of them mission where items (a flash bomb and a health potion) "jumped" out of their chests when I opened them. I am not sure this is intentional.
Hints needed:
* Missed the key ring hanging on the wall in the basement.
* In front of one of the first doors in the abandoned wing, Garrett told me "This door is bolted. There is no way to open it." So, I assumed there was no way to open it. Turns out you can smash some of these doors with the dagger. Garrett’s hint was misleading.
* Missed the attic above the pub in the abandoned wing of the hotel.
* Did not know some bookcases in this mission can either be destroyed or moved if you slash them with the dagger.
* Missed the hidden attic in the upstairs dead-end of the abandoned wing where you can snatch a painting from the wall and Garrett quips this will make a fence smile.
* Did not realize you can smash the picture frame with the dagger instead of frobbing it to get the Ruyan wand.
* Only got 86% loot before I grew tired of the mission, then resorted to fortuni's walkthrough to find what I needed for the 90% loot goal.
<Username> on 26/6/2022 at 15:02
I finished v2.0 as well. Here is my report on changes I noticed from v2.0 to v3.0:
[SPOILER]AI:
* The invisible ghost of Ruyvan is not sitting at the desk of the room where he died anymore. He appears if you frob the picture frame behind which his wand is hidden. Additionally, his appearance triggers a blackness that engulfs the entire hotel for the rest of the playthrough.
* The undead with the helmet in the abandoned wing appears to crouch and eat the bloody body on the ground. In v2.0, he just stands over it.
* There are more undead patrolling the corridors of the abandoned wing.
* A guard patrolling the floor below Garrett's room was added.
* A cat in the locked room with the sleeping woman at the end of the stairs below Garrett's room was removed.
Architecture:
* Several hidden rooms were added, often accessible by climbing up hatches in the ceiling or through fireplaces.
* A sewer area with two patrolling pagans and a wood beast that can be accessed from both the inhabited and the abandoned wings of the hotel was added.
* In the abandoned wing, a room was added that connects the new sewer area with the pub.
* Fireplaces in Garrett's room and in the other guest rooms on the floor near the pub now lead to tunnels.
* The room with the keyring in the basement is not a dead-end anymore. It connects to the new sewer area.
* A shaft in central ventilation leads to a different area in the abandoned wing.
* In Garrett's room, an attic was added.
* A room west of the indoor pool was added.
* The bookshelf in front of the secret tunnel to the landlord's study in the abandoned wing cannot be moved with the press of a hidden button anymore. Instead, you must slash the shelf with the dagger.
* The pub in the abandoned wing can now be entered through the fireplace.
Decorations:
* The library and other rooms in the abandoned wing look more dilapidated.
* The valve on a boiler in the room with the keyring cannot be turned anymore. In v2.0, it turned off some steam in the same room.
* The furniture on the balcony above the pub in the abandoned wing is slightly different.
* More victrolas in the abandoned wing can be played.
* The large number of frobbable books in the abandoned wing was reduced. In v2.0, there was at least one bookshelf where every single book was frobbable.
Lighting:
* Windows with bright daylight behind them were changed.
* Lights in the pub near the starting location were changed.
Loading screens:
* The Keeper Enforcer was removed from the loading screen.
Loot:
* The amount of loot was increased.
Sound:
* The spooky pounding on the walls in the abandoned wing was removed.
* More Garrett quips were added.[/SPOILER]
