Random Taffer on 30/12/2023 at 23:03

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As someone who grew up with the Thief franchise I was very happy to learn about the existence of this expansion. It was simply amazing. A big "Thank you!" to everyone who worked on this project. It gave me hours of joy and brought back the nostalgic feeling of playing a Thief game for the very first time.

Overall notes:


* The cut scenes, both the animated ones and the mission briefings, are top notch. Could haven been straight out of the games.
* All the maps felt huuuuuge. with lots of places to explore and hidden areas with more loot. Not to mention that there were usually multiple ways to reach your mission objective.
* So many new character models, some of them being only used for single character.
* The loot in the missions was well placed. I always managed to get enough to complete the objective without having to search every nook and carny (Hello “Haunted Cathedral”) yet at the end of a mission I was always surprised how much loot I missed.
* The EMP grenades (donÂ’t remember the name) were a cool addition. The Smoke bombs, however, felt kind of useless.
* Most missions in the mod felt like fan version of existing ones. Which isn't a bad thing, because they still had a unique touch and were very well designed.

First level:
This one reminded me of the city areas in Deadly Shadows. It was fun exploring all the buildings and getting rewarded by finding hidden areas. I especially liked the old factory with the zombie corpse. As veteran thief player I expected him to raise up and then the engine suddenly started roaring. Great jump scare!

Second level:
Lord BaffordÂ’s Manor with a touch of The Sword. Oh boy was it easy to get lost in the mansion's upper floors. Especial in the area with the vase. At that point I came close to wishing that the mission would be finally over. But I still had lots of fun and that's the important thing. Only found the Golden Cloak after looking at a guide but that was my own fault, because I didn't pay attention to the ticking sound.

Third level:
Wouldn't be a Thief mod without robbing our old plaes the Hammerites, would it? I love these fanatics. This level is basically St. Edgar's Eve. And you even have to steal a chalice! I liked how many different looking Hammerites appeared in that mission. These heavily armored Hammerites were a nice addition. Since I played on Expert I had to careful sneak past them . So when I found that Gas Arrow by exploring the map and taking out the one in the upper level of the church it felt really rewarding. The only critic I have is that the factory, the astronomy and the scriptorium felt like they were just there with no real purpose. All the main objects were in the Church or nearby place so you didn't really need to explore the rest of the map. There wasn't even that much loot inside these buildings, but I can't rule out that I missed some loot. I believe it would've been a good idea to place the book that Hume had to steal on the higher difficutly levels in the scriptorium, to make the player go there.


Fourth level:
Down In the Boneyard except it’s actually a good mission. :cheeky: I like how you start in the city streets surrounded by peaceful NPCs before actually venturing into the tombs full of the undead. I also liked how you took the marks from the Boneyard mission and expanded it, by having different marks for safe passages, traps and areas with undead. That was super helpful and made me pay attention to my surrounding, checking every area for marks to know what I could expect. There were also some pretty nice jump scares. Like when I jumped over an abyss to grab some loot on top of a tomb, jumped back and suddenly there was a “corpse” lying on the floor that wasn’t there before. And then at the end of the mission there was a convenient little passage back to the surface that lead through a gambling den full of hostile thieves. That was rather unexpected, but it was and great way to remove tension. The horror’s of the tombs are now behind you. Now you just need to deal with some regular homes and grab some more loot on our way out. That said, I felt that the ancient forgotten tomb was a bit to close to the sewers. Makes one wonder why noone else has discovered it yet. Somehow I also managed to miss the additional objects on Hard and Expert and had to go back in again after leaving the gambling den. Fittingly the "fire tomb" was the last area I explored and boy was that part scary. Sadly the scariness didn't last long because the creature walked into the fire pit and I killed the helpless creature from afar. If you're every going to releasea patch you should consider adding a fence to prevent that from happening. :)


Fifth level:
Next is a mission inspired by The Haunted Cathedral. It even takes place in the Sealed Section. As in the previous mission it was a good idea to have the player start in a populated area and have him find a way into the undead infested parts. Having people live right next to abandoned ruins full of undead, only protected by a few walls felt very atmospheric. The ghosts inside the villa looked cool and I appreciate that they had different weapons/attack patterns. Running into the Necromancers in the basement was the last thing I expected. Making a faction that was only a footnote in the games the major antagonist was a great idea.

Sixth level:
It starts as an Assassins/ Trace the Courier level only to turn into Deadly Shadow’s Of Brethen... And Betrayers. To me the first part of the level was ather lackluster. Unlike the NPCs you have to shadow in Thief 1 and 2 the Keeper never turns around and even the hostile guards could easily be outmaneuvered. The Hammerite factor also was too big and too empty with almost no loot (but again I may have missed some areas). Once Hume arrived at the Keeper Library the mission vastly improved. One nice surprise was finding the note that revealed that the leader of the compound was expecting Hume due to his role in a prophecy. Another not-so-nice surprise was actually running into Gamall. I’ve read the notes about her visiting the place, but didn’t expect her to be actually there. Yet there she was, burning books about the Unwritten Times, which was a great continuity node. When she spotted me and turned into the Hag I was equally impressed. The people who created and animated the model did an outstanding job. :thumb: And then the statues turned to live. Despite finishing Deadly Shadows and knowing that she cab do this I wasn't actually expecting it to happen in this mod.

Seventh level:
Assassins the second half. Stealing the gem from DeWall and framing him for the murder of a priest without even laying a hand on himfelt very satisfying. I knew that Raputo was a Warden by the time Dark Project takes place but I wasn’t aware of the fact that DeWall was a character mentioned in the first game, too. Like with the necromancer I think it was a great idea to take such a minor character and making him a central part of this story. That said the dog was frustrating to fight because I had a hard time hitting it and was forced to use a gas arrow.

Eight level:
The first level that didn't feel like it was inspired by an existing level from the games. It also was very different from every other level. Very few enemies – except for these creepy things in the last area – and not much sneaking. Instead the player mostly had to find “keys” to progress to the next area. Basically a first-person Tomb Raider level. By all means I should hate this level for feeling out of place, yet I didn't.It still was fun exploring the tomb, getting deeper and deeper and encounter all these strange and unique creatures. My favorite was the spider with the statue on the back. The level also did a good job playing with my expectations. The briefing mentioned brigands and the higher difficulties included the usual "Don’t kill any civilians/ anyone" restrictions. So making my way to the bandit camp and finding it empty was a nice surprise. I also expected a lot of Undead, yet they were notably absent. And leaving the tome after completing all objectives and being greeted by daylight felt very satisfying. Just like the second level, however, the tomb felt almost to long. And we sadly never learnt what was attacking the brigands. Pressumbly it was done by the creepy creatures and the bottom of the tomb but I can't figure out how they would've gotten all the way to the surface. Especially since there was no way they could've become aware of their presence. The lone bandit who contiuned exploring the tomb against the advices of the others couldn't have made it that far.


Ninth level:
Another level that feels like an original one. Sure we had a Hand Mages level in Thief Gold but I don’t think the map has many similarities with The Mage Towers expect for being occupied by the same faction. At first I was a bit miffed that I wasn’t allowed to steal anything on the higher difficulties. But I realized that the negotiation with the head mage would fail once I discovered that many areas were inaccessible at the start of the mission. And lo and behold, Hume was forced to steal the last artifact for the mages and the “no stealing” and “don't hurt them" restrictions were removed. The festival taking place outside the castle was pretty cool, too. Was it necessary? Absolutely not! Did it look great? Absolutely yes! And like in the previous level once the main objective have been completed the map changes with the festival now being over and Hume walking through far more empty streets. Great way to make the city feel alive.

Tenth level:
Unfortunately this level was a bit of a letdown. Just a black stone tower full of almost empty rooms. It lacked the weirdness and variety of the Maw of Chaos and was far more linear than Sabotage at Soulforge. The final boss was also exact copy of the “battle” with the Trickster. And unlike the Trickster, who required a fake eye made by the Hammerites for the sole purpose of killing him, the head necromancer was defeated by grabbing some ingredients in the room before and stumbling upon a note that basically says: “Please don’t sabotage my ritual with the ingredients next to this letter. That would be very unfortunate for me!” Huge wasted potential! Then the mission ends with the bad guys limping away. So I checked the Wiki and learned that he was the corpse in the Necromancer Tower in Thief II. That's felt very unsatisfying. I think it would’ve worked far better if the Head Necromancer had been an original character that could’ve been killed without interfering with the canon of the games.

The ending:
When Hume ended up in the “Shadow dimension” and I read the note from the Keepers explaining that they had manipulated him to fulfillone of their prophecies I already had a sneaking suspicion that the poor guy wouldn’t make it out alive. When Victoria showed up, I had a glimpse of hope that maybe she would be able to save him. But nope, Hume dies. Alone and forgotten. Despite everything he went through. And I like this ending. It’s fitting for a guy who was set up by an old friend and forced to work for a crime boss who send him some of the most dangerous places of the city to steal for him. At the end of the day, Hume always had really bad luck throughout the game. In an alternative universe where Victoria would be able to cure him, he probably still would die after delivering the Eye to Constantine.

So tl;dr version: Great mod. There were a few things I didn’t like but overall I had tons of fun. You can tell that this is a work made with passion. By fans for fans.

Random_Taffer on 31/12/2023 at 08:22

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https://i.imgur.com/6eBr8cu.jpeg

Random Taffer on 1/1/2024 at 14:53

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There are some similarities to The Lost City but it still feels like a completely different mission. Karath-din was a whole underground city with lava rivers and full of hostile creatures. This level was a series of tombs with only a few enemies. In Karath-din you had multiple areas with building to explore. This level it was much more linear.

The tomb was part of the lost city? Totally missed that. How fare is the Hag Forest away from The City? Karath-din must’ve been huge.





It's true what they say: Great minds think alike. :cheeky:

ultravioletu on 2/1/2024 at 18:16

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I just started mission 4 (which will keep me busy the whole week, I suspect), but I have to say that I love the small details.

Until now each level had at least one conversation/monologue that cracked me up: from marbleman's delicate parfumed skin to "And you missed an occasion to shup up" / "I won't marry you", "I promise to smash the face of any taffer..." and now "That's what ARROWS are for!".

Also the animation of some AIs must have costed a lot of effort, which must be honoured. Until now, my favourite is of course the blacksmith.

TafferCat on 3/1/2024 at 01:10

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my final tally: 9 out of 10. 9 masterpieces, 1 dud...

seriously, tho, even with some missions going on too long, and making it a little to hard to keep my bearings at times (why no automaps?)... if this game had Garrett's voice and you could cut that dud of a final mission... this would be better than any of the official thief games....

no offense to the guy who did Hume's voice... he did a fine job... it just cant be the best overall Thief experience without Garrett....

also, you should release the outro credits song on spotify or something... its awesome... gave me goose bumps...