Ieldra on 14/7/2003 at 09:10

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Here my ratings and a few comments on this excellent mission:

Architecture: 8 (Reference: 10 = The Seventh Crystal)

Nothing truly innovative, but what's there is very well-made, very believable, and nice to look at. Unlike a few other missions I have played lately, I believed in the place almost instantly. I also like the mix of places - a small mansion to start with, some city area to explore, and the mechanist seminary at the end. There's something there for everyone, except for those who like caves and outdoor areas like in "A Night's Stroll" (which, as a rule, I don't) or undead (which I like, but have seen too often lately). The police station looked a bit too much like an apartment house from the outside, but who's to say every police station has to look like one ;).

Technical quality: 8 (Reference: 10 = The Inverted Manse)

Another mission with absolutely no glitches (I'm beginning to think they're quite rare) - no place to get stuck in a brush, no place where you're supposed to jump but it often doesn't work, no AIs stuck behind corners, no problems with objectives, nor any other kind of frustrating - or even slightly annoying - half-bug. This is about as good as it can get without some innovative technical wizardry. I get the impression that this mission has been very well tested.

Gameplay: 10

Perfect! All aspects of Thief gameplay are there, and in a particularly satisfying mix. Someone abovethread has said this mission had one of the best gameplay flows ever, and I can only agree. As with the architecture, I especially appreciate the variety. If you're not committed to a certain playing style, there are places for every one of your skills (excepting combat skills on Expert, but I count that as a virtue). If you play on Expert, you must ghost the seminary, and that was a very nice objective for me since I usually lack the patience to ghost a whole mission, but like the challenge nonetheless.

Atmosphere: 6 (Reference: 10 = Calendra's Legacy)

Not much to be said here. OK, but nothing that stands out, neither in a good nor a bad way.

Story: 7 (6+1, tentatively since the story isn't finished) (Reference: 10 = Emilie Victor)

Hard to rate a part of a story. So far a kind of "standard" story hook, but with a lot of room to improve. There are hints of a few twists that I hope to see in one of the later chapters. The +1 is for the little side-stories about the people living in the area. They did a lot to make the place a living area. I have seen that kind of attention to detail only rarely.

Ah, I forgot to add my biggest complaint of all: Part 2 isn't out yet :cheeky: ! I'm looking forward with appreciation!

Balrog on 15/7/2003 at 16:39

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Thanks for an excellent FM Morrgan! I finished it the other day and thought it was splendid :thumb:

BTW, you now have 2 missions on my very short and exclusive FMs To Replay list! It may not be as good as a review but it does mean I thought it was as good as....hmm, well....that would be telling wouldn't it!!

Roll on part 2 anyway :sweat:

epithumia on 16/7/2003 at 04:34

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That's not quite fair as I wasn't keeping track of downloads in a when GatI was released. It is, though, an extremely enjoyable mission.

BadArm on 16/7/2003 at 10:26

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I have a couple of questions no one seems to have asked. I guess I missed quite a few things, but that's nothing unusual with me. There seems to be a whole area on the map that I couldn't get into. It's the area south of where you start, and north of the seminary. I tried stacking crates and climbing over a wall, but it just seems to not be possible, as if you're not supposed to get in there. But why create such a large area if you can't go in? I still think there must be a way.

In the seminary there's 2 doors I can't open. One is the orange door that I assume has the crate I have to hide in, and another door (I forget where it is). How do I get into these doors? I thought I had to get into that other area of the map and I'd find the keys, but how do I get into there?

Other than this, it's been a good mission. The best thing about it has been there are no spiders, and no undead. Thank you Morrgan for having the courage to release a mission without these 2 overly used Thief elements.

BadArm on 16/7/2003 at 14:44

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Morrgan ... The wall I tried to climb over is in the Cherville area. After you leave the Drovers Gate area there's a guard up some stairs patrolling. The wall is up there. You go up the stairs and through a metal door. The wall to your left is adjacent to the area I couldn't find a way into. I brought all the crates from the south part of the map here and stacked them against the wall. I climbed up them and tried to mantle up and over the wall. But it's like I'm hitting the end of the map and I can't get there. Is this what's supposed to happen? So then that whole area on the map is inaccessible?

I found the key to the orange door in the seminary. I quite foolishly never tried to get into the high priests room without picking the lock first. That's why I couldn't get the door open. Because of the face-camera watching the area, and because the other door up there was locked, I just assumed the priests door would be locked too. Sometimes I do these things. There were also the metal double doors down where the Mech beast was. I got into them with the key, but I had already found another way in there. So I finally found the crate and ended the mission. It was a good mission, but I wish you didn't make such a large area that's inaccessible, especially with an Automap (which btw, I loved. Bravo for the Automap. :thumb: What a refreshing change in a FM). Keep working on the next one, I'll play it. (unless you load it up with spiders and the undead :( ) Keep the missions coming. :)