The Abominable Dr. Dragon (01/04/03) - by Nightwalker
The Phantom on 28/7/2008 at 20:59
Very enjoyable :thumb: Great job Chiefdreams!
Lovely scenery. The forest area is the most convincing i've ever encountered in a FM, with the use of branches and the original T2 tree texture, which still looks very nice. Loved the castle as well with all it's custom content! Makes the place more then an ordinary castle.
There are surprisingly many custom resources used, from all kind of tough enemies never seen before (those
floating statues is my favorite) and various powerful new weapons that. It's worth playing even to check this all out :D
Storywise The Abominable Dr. Dragon doesn't dissapoint either. Many readables provide a lot of background information, telling about Dr Dragon and his activities, as well as his reasons for his presence near the ruins and castle, with a lot of interesting side stories. There's even a mention of Karras, being formerly
Dr Dragon's assistant before his rise of power. Fun stuff!
There was (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=955964#post955964) talk of a sequel... over 4 years ago, but sadly no news ever since. Imagen going through
the portal to chase Doctor Dragon. That bit reminds me of Jabberwocky's World's Collide, which has a similar ending.
Also some weak points:
The easiest difficulty setting only has 1 objective (find 500 loot). The average thief player has found this within no time and sees "Mission Complete" before getting very far into the game. My advice is to avoid Lazy difficulty!
Garrett is send to find out what happened with that spy working in the castle, but for some reason this isn't mentioned as objective.
And some secrets + optional objectives would've been welcome.
But overall this is a excellent debut mission. Well designed, polished story and a lot of interesting features.
It's a shame the author never made any more :erg:.
StatsDifficulty: ACD (Expert)
Time taken: 1 hour 20 minutes 54 seconds
Loot found: 1605 out of
1855Dawggon on 30/7/2008 at 03:23
I saw this post after 4 years, so I had to play Dr. Dragon again. It is not your usual thiefy game. It stands alone for its artistry and innovation. New stained glass windows that come "alive". Glass Hammerites, unusual AI's. A player can manage to pit your adversaries against each other and you can stand nearby and watch the games.
The drom-ed-er, Chiefdreams, appeared from nowhere, it seems, and we haven't had the pleasure of seeing his work since. This was an amazing first FM. Where has this talent gone? Last I heard, he was working on Part 2...that was in 2004.
Any news?? :)
demagogue on 30/7/2008 at 06:05
I saw (part of) the movie that inspired this FM for the first time not too long ago, and I recognized it from the FM right away. That's always fun.
The Phantom on 31/7/2008 at 18:51
Clearing, where did those two haunts come from? I only remember seeing one, and that was in the cemetery crypt.
I've send the author a message, asking about the sequel. I hope he'll let us know what to expect.
Dawggon on 31/7/2008 at 19:34
Phantom, those 2 hammerites were the stained glass windows on your 1st right after crossing the drawbridge. They were near a small office. A note promised swift justice to whomever broke them.
Ditto on sending Chiefdreams an e-mail. Awaiting a reply....hopefully.
The Phantom on 31/7/2008 at 19:39
Quote Posted by Dawggon
Phantom, those 2 hammerites
were the stained glass windows on your 1st right after crossing the drawbridge. They were near a small office. A note promised swift justice to whomever broke them. Ahh brilliant :D
BrokenArts on 1/8/2008 at 01:05
Chiefdreams is/was a regular over on the Eidos Thief forum. Its been a little while since his last appearance. He does pop in from time to time. He's a commercial pilot, I think semi-retired now.
DarkElf_Mairead on 3/3/2009 at 15:21
So...was there ever a sequel?
Chiefdreams on 15/3/2009 at 00:16
Hi all.
As you can see I had to reregister as TheChiefdreams because I can't remember my password for Chiefdreams.
Anyway I'm flattered that people are still playing my FM after all of these years. Yes I have part 2 mostly finished and Peter Smith was kind enough to beta test it way back when. I'm currently trying to catch up on all of the news about making FM's now. Dromed was so very limited in what you could do back then. It's wonderful that people still enjoy the Thief world.
P.S. The Stained Glass Haunts made the sound of breaking glass when you destroyed them if I remember correctly.
