Queue on 27/3/2008 at 13:45
Quote Posted by Beeba
alright........you all have permission to come smack me upside the head..........I right-clicked and right-clicked and Garrett would NOT drop that cheese............The r key does it, doesn't it???? somebody save me from myself...........:rolleyes:
In the immortal words of Wedgie the Pirate: "ARRRRRRRRRRRR"
Beeba on 2/4/2008 at 01:27
lol.........thanks, Queue.....I should have known better.........I LOVE pirates! :laff:
The Phantom on 18/7/2010 at 19:37
After watching a nice classic briefing (how I miss them in today's FM), our friend Garrett arrives outside the castle walls in a vineyard for a next adventure. After stealing a priced trinket from Lord Rumsford it appears that the buyer, Lord Montague doesn't have the amount of money (yet) to pay in full. Meanwhile another Thief is hired to assassinate Lord Montague. To secure his payment Garrett heads to the Lord's castle to prevent the Thief from completing his mission.
An excellent intro to a mission that, to my surprise, has aged very little. It was exactly as I remembered from playing it seven years earlier.
The concept of following another Thief through a castle is quite unique. It makes up for some excellent gameplay, together with plenty of opportunities for Garrett to apply his skills, good placing of equipment and a clear difference in difficulty settings, something not seen in many other FMs. Expect more enemies and objectives when playing on expert difficulty.
Playing on Expert is definitely the most rewarding experience. I also tried ghosting and while not being entirely succesful (had to make one knockout), I had a great time sneaking my way through the winery and castle, making full use of equipment such as scouting orb and moss arrows.
Along the way there are some well-written scrolls around that variate from being hilarious to useful in the way of providing hints. The story element is quite good with a unexpected plot and several scripted events.
Don't expect any fancy special effects or custom stuff in a mission like this, dating from the early days of dromedding, but nevertheless the author has done an excellent job with the limited resources from the original Thief 2. It's something that many of today's authors can learn from.
The author (Kung Fu Gecko) found it's inspiration in the originial T2 mission Blackmail, and while not being able to match it's level design, and being a bit linear, it's as complete as an original Looking Glass developed mission should be.
Another Thief as a antagonist, a solid story with a strong plot, excellent gameplay, clear difference in difficulty setting, good ol' Benny on the watch, and good voice acting by Loanstar (who did Garrett's voice at the time before SlyFoxx took over). Also, few authors these days take their time to include maps and a briefing. +1 for seeing this included.
Only misser is that the game didn't ended for me as it should, but still a solid and entertaining mission overall that gave me a great time playing. One to recommend.
Well done Kung Fu Gecko.
Stats
Difficulty: Expert
Loot found: 2615 out of 2895
A technical note: when I tried the mission at first, the K-Lite Codec Pack I have installed conflicted with the briefing movie and the game crashed. Opening the Codec Tweak Tool and disabling 'ffdshow' fixed the problem.
Yandros on 19/7/2010 at 03:15
This is one of my favorite early missions, and was the one which most inspired the gameplay in Burrick's Head Inn.
Xorak on 19/7/2010 at 05:23
I've been playing through these old missions, and I think this was the first that allowed you to interact with the environment so much like knocking out the power to the lights and giving the food to the mouse to get a piece of loot. I liked the ending fortress the best and ghosting through there with the unconscious body of the assassin.
Simbad on 3/1/2011 at 15:11
didn't have the opportunity to feed that mouse, because I arrowed him before (thinking he might have swallowed the other gewlery). But still, I don't believe that explains my 2150 out of 2900 of loot (on hard).
lost_soul on 18/1/2011 at 01:08
I just completed this mission. It was fun. I especially like the use of light and shadows. The lighting is very fair and not too tough, forcing you to think in a few areas in order to avoid alerting the whole place. For the assassination objective, I just knocked the guy out and set him on the fire. :)
jiansonz on 26/9/2013 at 22:15
I can't believe I have overlooked this mission until now. It's freaking ancient, and very good. Gameplay is fun, readables are helpful/enjoyable/disturbing/humorous and of good quality. Great whining from Benny that he always wakes up somewhere with a lump on his head. :cheeky:
I have played it twice in a row now because the first time, I had already killed Squeaky (I HATE RATS. DIE, VERMIN!) before having read about him or found the gourmet cheese. So I had to see what that was about. Second time around I was not as thorough with searching everywhere so I did not find the slow-fall potion. This complicated matters for getting the last bit of loot, the diamond on the platform you drop down to close to the watchtower. My solution? An old Thief trick - I carried Montague's stiff corpse to the drop spot, dropped off while looking down and dropped the corpse just before I landed.
Loose end: In the same hallway that has a staircase going up to a dining room with some loot, there is another staircase going down that leads to an unfrobbable wooden door. Is that just a decoration or can it be opened somehow? If not, was there a plan for a larger basement area that was scrapped later?
BTW, I get a weird image in my head from reading the name Kung Fu Gecko...
Eiji on 26/9/2013 at 22:45
I have wondered about this.... there's some mention in a readable that a young girl is "missing".. anyone ever find anything about that?
kfgecko on 26/9/2013 at 23:16
Quote Posted by jiansonz
I can't believe I have overlooked this mission until now. It's freaking
ancient, and very good. Gameplay is fun, readables are helpful/enjoyable/disturbing/humorous and of good quality. Great whining from Benny that he always wakes up somewhere with a lump on his head. :cheeky:
....
Loose end: In the same hallway that has a staircase going up to a dining room with some loot, there is another staircase going down that leads to an unfrobbable wooden door. Is that just a decoration or can it be opened somehow? If not, was there a plan for a larger basement area that was scrapped later?
BTW, I get a weird image in my head from reading the name Kung Fu Gecko...
Good to hear that someone is still enjoying the level. :)
If I'm thinking of the same door you're talking about, that unfrobbable door represented access to the "rest of the castle". It was never intended to be implemented. I was originally going to represent even more inaccessible areas so the castle seemed bigger; but of course ran out of time.
There were also other game play ideas I had that I just never got around too.
Btw did the "gas Alex" thing work for you? That was the hardest scripting sequence and I tried very hard to make it work properly.
Did you notice the moments of "just catching a glimpse" of Alex?