Updated FM: Mission X version 1.13 - Walkthrough, Lootlist, Lexicon, Trivia, Album - by Digital Nightfall
pavlovscat on 30/10/2009 at 20:18
All TTLG links were updated for the new server. :thumb:
Summer on 14/1/2010 at 11:08
I wanted to throw my two cents in here, too.
Thanks, Digi, for a wonderful, new and innovative mission. I'm actually playing it at the moment, and I have mainly positive things to say about it:
The mask and the communication with the team was great. Sometimes it's good to know that one isn't all alone in the big world. It was new and fun, once you got the hang of it :D Please keep it in subsequent missions, if team work is involved.
Level design is complex, but splendid. Having to ghost most of the place just added to the thrill - though I don't normally play without BJ'ing everybody. Man, sometimes I thought my heart would stop when I was in a lit area and a guard was coming up from both sides. :eek:
Being able to "case" the place before-hand was a nice touch :cool: It just made things more challenging, beacuse not everything actually stayed the same after you cloaked-up, so to speak.
Since gathering at the inn, which I loved, loved, loved, I liked the way you've added info on the map section: the important people, the notes... I can't begin to tell you how many scribbles I have from other OM's and FM's 'cos there were no notes in the game itself - except for the "new objectives".
Visuals blow me away. I kept staring at the roof of Ivory Hall like a dumb tourist from the country for like five minutes... Liked the snow in gati, too. real crinkling of snow, ahhh....
However, I do miss my trusty BJ... Other than that, no complaints.
Thanks for a great Mission X, Digi :cheeky:
Summer
P.S. I've heard that Dante won't be the protagonist in the upcoming cosas 3. I love his voice, which is sooooo different from Garrett's. I hope this isn't the last we've heard of him....
Digital Nightfall on 14/1/2010 at 11:28
Thank you for posting, Summer. It's nice to have a soothing positive post to read every once in a while. I hope your experience with the mission continues to be good, and that you can achieve the best ending.
The next installment won't feature Dante, no. However there's a couple of more Dante missions waiting in the wings, which I certainly hope we'll be able to get to some day.
Summer on 14/1/2010 at 11:39
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
Thank you for posting, Summer. It's nice to have a soothing positive post to read every once in a while. I hope your experience with the mission continues to be good, and that you can achieve the best ending.
The next installment won't feature Dante, no. However there's a couple of more Dante missions waiting in the wings, which I certainly hope we'll be able to get to some day.
I can't wait :cool: I'm sure any future missions will be as awesome as the two previous have been.
Also, I would like to say it was absolutely great to hear guards yapping away in gati, in the beginning, by the front door. These sort of little details make a gaming experience just that - an experience! More of that, please. And snow... Yes, I do love snow :thumb:
Summer
P.s. where the heck is the stuff agent Steel left behind in the storage room? I swear I've looked and looked... Mayde I'm blind or something... It's propably staring me in the face with an evil grin somewhere in plain sight!
Digital Nightfall on 14/1/2010 at 11:58
He left it up in one of the vents. If you don't already have the vent key you should find it sitting right outside the grating.
Summer on 14/1/2010 at 12:16
Man, I was right! The answer was staring me in the face! And I was looking at the bleedin' floor :tsktsk:
Thanks, Digi :cheeky:
BTW, I know one is supposed to have 15 sec time to shut off the cameras, but I dusted the code panel and waited in a dark corner until one of the cameras that was active was no longer facing me, ran like hell, pushed the buttons (guessed really) - and voila! Didn't need that 15 sec after all, yippii :joke:
Oh, BTW2: toilets... what's up with that? Finally a place to rest one's tushy ;)
Great mission!
Summer
Summer on 15/1/2010 at 06:40
Thanks, Digi: I was playing Mission X really, really, really late last night, so I was late for work this morning and I’m not exactly in peak condition right now… Woahh… So tired… :bored: :bored:
My observations of Mission X – having finally completed it last night after over four hours of straight gameplay (man, I must be the slowest sneak in the City…):
- Music: Different music in different locations – excellent! Corridors with guards – dangerous, unnerving music. Suites and guest rooms – soft melodies filled with images of luxury and timelessness. Various halls, casino, bar, etc. – different music to display different kinds of moods and atmospheres. Nice one! Just downloaded the music stuff from this site today, hopefully get to lis-ten to it over the weekend. Oh, and being able to turn the music off and listen to other sounds – niiiiiiceeee.
- Voice-acting: Practically professional, I would say. Not melodramatic, not sappy. Just straight-up good interaction that complemented the story. My fa-vourite was agent Stone: Hurray for the girls! She was elegant in her quiet, strong, smart demeanour. I do hope to hear from her again. All of them were actually such unique, distinct personalities that their/our interaction was won-derful to listen. More of that, please.
- Level / mission design: Can be summed up in two words: Makes sense. The complex, even labyrinthine building became, not frustrating, but challenging because the level made sense. There’s the bar, there’s the toilets; there are the big halls, there are the overlook windows and balconies; there are the guest rooms, there’s the janitor’s closet; etc. Places that would near each other in real life were near in the game. Not even the fact that one might at first get a little lost, it didn’t matter, ‘cos the floor plan made sense. Beauty of the archi-tecture, room placements, even the clocks that told actual time – it was all sen-sible, so the mission took hold of you immediately.
- Gameplay: Smooth, fluent, exciting. At first a little undercover work, could wonder around gawking at stuff; then the bulk of the mission; then some more freestyle exploring; then the hick-up and solving that; and if something’s still amiss some more free exploring. I could play by myself and go where I wanted, but I never felt alone. Big plus for that. In some FM’s once you get stuck you can get so frustrated without any help – and you write on forums like this complaining about this’n’that. The walkthrough and loot list are nice to have – even though I haven’t looked at them yet: Don’t want to know how much I missed until after the second run-through.
- Equipment: The Mask, brilliant master stroke. In many games team work means that you either lead or follow a group that never leaves your side. Man, that would really have blown my fuse… That’s why the mask worked: Team was “near”, but not near. Moving on… I miss my BJ – nicknamed M’o’M, my Mace of Mojo, heh… – but in the end Sap worked just as well. In the OM’s you could BJ everybody except for those guards with the neck protection or whatever it was, and so the sap was actually an elaboration of that same theme which I though worked rather nicely in Thief sense. Moving on… KO Drops, more of those, please. Always kept running out. I liked them because it made the sword fighting less problematic than in the OM’s where it usually meant getting killed right then and there. I know I shouldn’t always resort to KO’ing everybody and do more ghosting but still… More of them, thanks.
Oh, and it was nice to notice that despite all the other thieves in the Ivory Rose, they all were kind enough to steal nothing, and leave everything to me :cheeky:
Summer :thumb:
P.S. Who made the artwork in the literally dozens of paintings in the casino and hotel? Nice touch, I thought. Not too contemporary. Complemented the casino-hotel aspect well.
Digital Nightfall on 15/1/2010 at 17:05
Though many of the custom paintings were selected from artists of the same era and style as those used in Thief 2, I suspect you're talking about the Harrison Fisher magazine illustrations. I picked those because they seemed to fit the style and mood of the Ivory Rose, even though they represented a time and place quite different from the world of Thief. I think of them as fantasy art in a reverse sense. :)
I hope you enjoy the little album our musician made. I don't seem to recall getting much feedback on it in the past. Also, don't forget to check out the making-of trivia list from the start of this thread.
It sounds like MX really worked for you. It also sounds like you probably haven't played many other FMs, so I encourage you to dig in. There's enough here to keep you busy for years!
Summer on 27/1/2010 at 13:29
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
It sounds like MX really worked for you. It also sounds like you probably haven't played many other FMs, so I encourage you to dig in. There's enough here to keep you busy for years!
Jep, Mission X did work for me. I've played other FM's over the years on and off. Heist Society, Ominous Bequest and Transitions in Chaos being right up there with the OM's. Not all FM's are fabulous, but there not supposed to be. Sometimes, despite impossible obstacles, super-smart AI's, mindblowing music you can't shut off... it's the atmosphere that counts more than gameplay in some cases... Ah, well...
But you're right: Everytime I think I've finally got enough FM's on my computer, that finally I can keep repeating some mission, new ones pop up! Great missions that one just has to play... If only there was enough time in the world for all possible FM's out there...
Summer
