The Phantom on 29/9/2012 at 17:52
Now that the author of "Bloodsport" recently returned to Thief after a long absence (welcome back Metalhead :thumb:) and considers a re-release/update for his 2001 FM, I decided to give the mission a replay and write a review in the process.
After selecting my difficulty of choice (Nuckin' Futs), Bloodsport, first part in the so-called Thief: Revelation campaign and released in February 2001, begins with a classic briefing video, nicely designed by Lazarus and narrated by Loanstar as the voice of Garrett. Even though it re-iterates what is written in the readme's description, it's interesting to watch and provides something extra to an adventure that is always welcome :). First bonus mark received.
At the start of the mission Garrett finds himself in a cell with several other unlucky souls; captured, just like him, by a group of fanatics called "the Brotherhood of the Raven", which intents to let these people and a bunch of monsters fight eachother to the death in an arena. An interesting concept that might have been inspired by TheCapedPillager's FM Gladiator. But where the latter merely consists of a single arena is Metalhead's mission a much more complete piece of work, consisting of an entire complex that leaves the player with plenty to explore. Having no idea where he is (only being outside the city), Garrett doesn't fancy meeting his end in the arena and is determined to escape, find out who's responsible for putting him here, while collecting a certain amount of loot on his way out. The story isn't overly complicated but the information that is provided through-out the game gives a pretty clear picture of the Brotherhood's rituals and motives, being often pretty violent and horrific, in which blood seems to hold a special place. While some pretty gruesome scenes are included in the game (torture chambers, a room full of corpses :sweat:) there's some humour present as well, in the form of certain texts or some circumstances that occur (like seeing the unconsious Scholar of Air lying on the ground, probably knocked out by his own gas arrows. Very subtle :cheeky:). The writings are well written and vary from long biblical tomes to correspondence between the brotherhood members, often providing useful clues to locate a certain secret or finding a missing key.
Taking it's age into account, the mission doesn't feature any beautiful architecture or stunning graphics. The locations are varied enough, however, to make the exploration an interesting exercise. Corridors and tunnels are interspersed with larger, open scenery, like the arena, that encompass the complex. Even though the place itself isn't overly large in seize, navigating your way through can be pretty confusing in the beginning, due to the different floors and the absence of a map. Once you escape your cell there's no telling which way to have to go to accomplish your goals. It's not a big complaint though, as the mission is more or less no-linear, giving you the freedom to go where you want at whatever moment, only halting your progress once you end before a door for which you not yet own a key. Drawback of the keys is that they're not labelled, making it hard to tell if the key you need is in your posession.
In terms of difficulty, Bloodsport isn't that hard to complete for experienced taffers, especially once you've located your scattered gear. This can take a while, however, in case you take the long way (the sewer route) around the level. And apart from the unlabelled keys, it can be a bit confusing for the player where the exit is. But as long as you avoid getting into a fight and take your time scouting the area, you shouldn't encounter a lot of problems. Ghosting doesn't seem to be possible but most of the level can be explored rather stealthly (just watch out for some AI that get alerted once you open a door :eww:). Nuckin' Futs - the highest difficulty setting - delivers some replay value by featuring more enemies, a no-kill restriction and also providing a couple of extra objectives to complete before you can make your escape. The level has plenty on offer to make it worth your time, having some rather original ideas and custom content for it's time, like crates with all sorts of content, bots and brotherhood members with custom skins and special weaponry. Nicely done! There are plenty of secrets and hidden passages to uncover, and it's lot of fun to be found by releasing some undead and watch them fight the thieves who guard the prisoners. Always a delight :joke:! Just watch out don't end up in the middle of the brawl.
VerdictMetalhead created an interesting FM around an imprisoned Garrett who has to escape an evil cult and find his way through a complex. While lacking the fancy graphics or complex architecture we're all accustomed to these days, it manages to grab the player through special characteristics like refreshing (custom) design elements, a mysterious enemy and a briefing movie. It suffers from a number of bugs that can make the gameplay a bit annoying but nevertheles manages to keep the player immersed. There's a nice mix of horrific and humorous moments, contains plenty of secrets to uncover, provides some fun AI battles to watch, and does a good job in providing the brotherhood with a certain background. Not as atmospheric as it's successor, Dyers' Eve, but an entertaining and solid introduction to a campaign of which sadly only two missions made it to release. Worth trying out :thumb:. Hopefully we will still see a next part ((
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=3&p=218448&viewfull=1#post218448) Absolute Power?) released at some point.
StatisticsDifficulty: Nuckin' Futs (8 KO's)
Time: 2 hours 44 minutes 5 seconds
Loot: 2935 out of
3095Secrets: 5 /
10The same review with added screenshots will appear in the (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124349) FM Review and Discussion Thread (EDIT: now online (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124349&page=94&p=2144825&viewfull=1#post2144825) here)
P.S.: Metalhead, in case you go ahead with making an updated version, here's a list of bugs I encounter as well as a number of other suggestions to improve the mission. And I'll be happy to beta test if ever needed :).
Bugs:
- a Thief guard passing Garrett's cell is alerted and goes into attack mode when seeing Garrett, while he is beihind bars and the cell door is still locked;
- using the
antidote has no effect once Garrett is
hit by the venomous water crystals and is losing health;
- the buttons and levers on the arena control panel aren't working (properly); makes me wonder if it's possible to control the elevators of the beasts in the cages, to bring them up into the arena to fight?
(EDIT: just found (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=5&p=263735&viewfull=1#post263735) this explanation, see the hidden text. Maybe it's now possible to get this fixed while keeping the framerate down, Metalhead?)
- waterbot.str, page_0: "
is posessed of a venom" should be "
is posessed with a venom";
- flipping a switch in the
office of the Lesser Leige openes a secret compartment in the centrus. But once the piece of wall openes, only a black barrier is visible;
- when opening a few doors to a game room, the thieves in the room are alerted and immediately turn to investigate;
- overlooking the arena from above, when standing on the patrols walkway, all the stars are visible in 360 degrees right through the walls of the arena.
- crapper.str: "
next Odinsday" ?? (don't know if this is intentional or not)
- the small spiders in the tunnel leading from Garrett's cell are unable to chase him through the entire tunnel;
- sound issue: no lockpicking sound on the double door inside the room with two chests, three powderkegs and barrels, unless you're leaning into the doors;
- in the same room as above, the flickering wall lamp retains it's light texture once it darkens;
- bots switch back to their standard Thief skin once destroyed;
- the Brotherhood member patrolling the cistern pier can spot Garrett right through the big crates situated nearby.
Other suggestions:
- labeling all the keys (like cells key, storage room key etc);
- the hole in the wall in Garrett's cell is a bit too obvious. Better to make it possible to highlight a piece of wall which can be removed or to make the piece of wall move upwards, rather then having it already opened at the start. I noticed (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=3&p=218448&viewfull=1#post218448) this post you made but since today's Thief players are more experienced than a decade earlier, you might want to reconsider;
- once Garrett swims
through the burrick gate he reaches a dead end, making his
escape route not really; convinving. I suggest lenghtening the tunnel a bit or add an additional piece of tunnel beyond the cave he ends up;
- changing the objective text "get the hell out of here" into something that is obvious to the player about where he should escape. A suggestion: alter it into "make your escape through
the burrick gate" once the player reads the scroll doh.str.
Also a few questions:
1: there's a moveable wall torch in one of the barracks. Does it open something nearby?
(EDIT: scrap that, I found an explanation (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=2&p=218416&viewfull=1#post218416) here)
2: in a corner of the room next to the Lesser Leige's there is a hatch in the ceiling. How can this be openend?
(EDIT: never mind, I got my answer by the spoiler! in (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&page=3&p=218444&viewfull=1#post218444) this post and found 3 more secrets as a result. I must say there's a lot more hidden
behind those walls then I imagined. Loved exploring those
secret tunnels and all the monsters (
cheese shooting mice, lol :D). Cool stuff, Metalhead! But locating that tiny switch, hidden in the place described in the post I linked to, is incredible hard to find unless you know where to look :p. Maybe it deserves a lead in one of the writings, to make it a little easier?
3: some secret compartments hide nothing important/no value, like the
loft above the Lesser Leige's bedroom. Is this intentional?
(EDIT: never mind, found the answer (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15656&p=218403&viewfull=1#post218403) here)