DirkBogan on 12/4/2020 at 21:55

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john9818a: Karras' doors are opened in this room: (https://imgur.com/a/56HpVkQ) The levers need to be in the position shown in the screenshot. This room is accessible from the top floor of the throne room, on the 'northern' side.

Wormrat on 13/4/2020 at 02:36

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Expert, 3 hours 17 minutes, 4156/4771 loot, 7 secrets. I completed the optional objective, but needed 2 hints: for stone and vine. I knew from the first couple rooms that I was going to like this mission. I love maintenance tunnels and industrial basements, and when I entered the facility and heard that ambient track with the low horn melody, I REALLY knew I was going to like this mission. The concept is so memorable and well-executed. Very clean mapping style, very readable with lots of strong lines, and the stylization and mechanisms reminded me of the Myst series at times. Which is appropriate, because there was lots of adventure game-style exploration and puzzle solving. I even liked a certain persistent enemy and thought he added a lot to the atmosphere. But, I'm glad there were plenty of combat supplies, too, for when the player chooses to go that route.

<Username> on 14/4/2020 at 13:45

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Another TMA20AC submission that will surely become an all-time classic! A mission so large I felt a bit overwhelmed at certain points. Every room has something interesting to discover, be it a strange machine, an important item, or the journal of a fallen Mechanist. After cataclysmic events in the City, the living quarters of this Mechanist facility are now badly damaged and the floors are littered with corpses. There was a constant sense of dread as I cautiously made my way through the rooms. Some areas felt reminiscent of the claustrophobic interiors of System Shock 2, sometimes I felt reminded of the horrors lurking in the depths of (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113886) Lord Alan's Factory.

Finished on Normal in 3 hours and 40 minutes with 4105 of 4771 loot and 2 of 9 secrets. At one point I got stuck because I had thought it was impossible to get to the throne room without deactivating the turrets first. I ended up using an invisibility potion and ran past them. There probably is another way to get there, but I could not find it.

Two points of criticism in an otherwise spectacular mission: Why does Karras sound like (https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Professor_von_Kriplespac) Professor von Kriplespac in this one? He came off sounding like a cartoon villain. Also, his death in Sabotage at Soulforge was more satisfying. Those seconds in the final cutscene of The Metal Age when his eyes widen as he realizes the Necrotic Mutox is being released in his chamber, that was one of the most memorable endings for a villain I have seen. Contrast this with The Builder's Paradise, in which you only hear him getting attacked by his own creations and later on see him fall down to the floor after he gives a weak final speech.

vfig on 19/4/2020 at 05:00

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This mission is astounding!

General spoiler tags because I cba figuring out what's spoilerific and what's not. Okay, so bad stuff first: this mission feels surprisingly rough and unpolished despite its scope. You should've searched for a better Karras voice actor (all respect to Ceamonks, but his Karras voice is a long way off). The retcon of Thief 2's ending feels clumsy. The writing is often awkward, and the wording sloppy. None of that matters at all though!

More significant bad stuff: too much reliance on lock-and-key. The main objective depends on the player willingly going into a very threatening room and then staying there after the angels activate, and finding the button (in my case, three hours spent wandering because going in there seemed like a really bad idea). The museum is a bizarre tonal anomaly. Kernel is a terrifying enemy that ends up utterly wasted because you never really get to confront and defeat him (WHY is there no quest to install corrosive water in the "airlock" and trap him in there!?). Finally defeating Karras is underwhelming; doubly so if the other objectives are still left to be done afterwards. All this matter only a little bit.

The good stuff! My god this mission is incredible! The basement is drab an uninteresting, but doesn't last long until you get to the roof, and then WOW! I get to see with my own eyes what the Builder's Paradise looks like. Orange lighting, orange newsky, large orange dust particle effects used to stunning effect. Jaw dropping. And everything's dead. Everything's silent. It was over 40 minutes (for me) before I encountered the first enemy, and the silence is thoroughly oppressive.

And then there's a multifaceted use-Karras's-tools-against-him plot that's reminiscent of the first half of Soulforge (the good half). And the people revolting against Karras and holing up that—well yeah, it's System Shock 2 all over again, but transplanted back into Thief's universe—works amazingly well.

I have a ton of small criticisms that I could levy against this mission, but so what? It has a huge vision, and it's thrown me right in the middle of that with utterly compelling effect. I took a single point off for the "negatives", but that's really just me nitpicking. This mission knocks it out of the park on each and every category: atmosphere, gameplay, story.

bjack on 22/4/2020 at 18:12

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Nope, I second that. I will come back to it to try again, but it’s not really my cup of tea. That’s OK though. If others like it, cool. I do think it deserves another chance at play though. I think I will play it on easy from the start and see how it goes.