T2 FM: Reflections in Red (11/14/25)

OldPoorman on 17/11/2025 at 19:51

Quote Posted by chk772

Is that on a lower difficulty?`

There was an objective regarding Barlowe which was mandatory for me, on expert difficulty...

Yes, on normal.

MrMunkeepants on 18/11/2025 at 02:13

Quote Posted by chk772

Just finished this. Excellent mission, with two niggles I had with it. This is from my review on ThiefGuild, because I think feedback is important:

The gameplay is great for the most part. But, here we come to my second point of criticism: The invincible Barlowe monster. You face a new A.I., and don't know how it's working. I can only assume that it 1. hears you, and 2. smells your blood. I don't think it can see you (not sure about that). You can pick up a dagger in the mission, with which you can inflict wounds on yourself, dripping blood, which, I guess, was implemented to lure the creature to the wine cellar to destroy it. I can only guess here, because that is not the way I lured it there, as I couldn't figure out how the mechanic works (luring it was quite tricky, had to use speed potion and bear traps...). It would have REALLY helped to have some more info on how this is supposed to work. Especially towards the end of the mission, I don't think you can expect people to trial and error for an hour how this works. So, that's a point I would have liked to see better in this mission, and which, alongside the bad performance, prevents a 10/10 rating for me.

The other issue I had with it is the bad performance in the outside areas. Visual fidelity or not, when the engine is getting an overload which severely affects framerate, then I think that's a bit too much.

It always just appeared near me and patrolled the area, then responded like a normal enemy.
I thought the dagger was in relation to a text regarding curing the curse so I figured I'd have to find an empty bottle, bleed a virgin, expose it to moonlight, and cure... someone?

I don't think I had any issues with the outside areas, though I got a new computer last year.

chk772 on 18/11/2025 at 08:08

Quote Posted by MrMunkeepants

I'm pretty sure that it can't see you. Also, the Thief says when you pick up the dagger something along the lines of "Now I can lure the monster to my location, but, it won't be fooled for long.". So, yes, I'm pretty positive that the dagger is there to lure the monster into the wine cellar. No idea how though, and, that's my point. It's unclear.

Quote Posted by MrMunkeepants

I don't think I had any issues with the outside areas, though I got a new computer last year.

As far as I understood, your hardware won't matter.

When you run something like the performance meter of the Nvidia Geforce graphics driver, you see that neither the GPU nor the CPU meter are anywhere near showing full workload.

Try the area where you start in the mission. It gets a bit stuttery there, and the framerate drops to 50 FPS or less.

Sir Reginald on 18/11/2025 at 14:48

Fantastic Mission, Skacky!

speedwaystar on 19/11/2025 at 12:13

in my playthrough, on expert, i didn't have to use the Dagger in the Wine Cellar. Barlowe did his "teleport to yr location" trick all by himself while i was standing just inside the entry door then ran past me down the cellar stairs without alerting, even though i was well illuminated.

pixel hunt note: i'm still looking for the switch to open one of the several brick walls (most likely the one with two candles on either side at the top of the east staircase), after which i assume i'll be able to put the Strange Key to good use. i may need a hint here.

bugs: Barlowe got stuck semi-frequently and i also found a spot in the Laboratory standing near the southeast corner of the desk where Barlowe's attacks were not able to connect with my hitbox.

stuck guards: the west and east staircase entries both had instances of guards stuck walking south into the wall just east of the doorway.

stonkingly great mission, btw.

Severian_Silk on 19/11/2025 at 13:25

Congratulations on your latest FM. And a big thank you! It looks so good I thought I accidentally booted Dishonored instead of Thief 2. I have a potato laptop, but the fps dipped considerably only at the very start. Also, this FM is very unsettling.... Great use of the creepy ambient music from Silent Hill 1's "Nowhere".

Dr.Sahnebacke on 19/11/2025 at 18:24

What an impressive adventure, dear Skacky!
My heart beats faster, as the monster was everytime after me, while I tried to find the vine cellar key, with trembling fingers, in my inventory, to close the door, to place the tinder box on the dynamit.
I loved the fine tuned atmosphere, like as a movie in cinema.
I only forgot to free Agnes, but in "easy" level I saw no mission goal like this.
May I ask you, how long you was busy with this piece of gold mission?

skacky on 19/11/2025 at 18:51

Quote Posted by speedwaystar

pixel hunt note: i'm still looking for the switch to open one of the several brick walls (most likely the one with two candles on either side at the top of the east staircase), after which i assume i'll be able to put the Strange Key to good use. i may need a hint here.

Hint: this passage can only be opened from the inside on this side, but it can be reached from elsewhere.

Quote Posted by Dr.Sahnebacke

May I ask you, how long you was busy with this piece of gold mission?

Thanks. It took me three months.
Could you put spoiler tags in your message, though, please?

RJS66 on 19/11/2025 at 19:10

Finished with 4285/5260 and 3 of 4 secrets
Nice mission, 10/10 from me.

Toward the end, the wolf guy followed me into the wine cellar. I thought I was being clever locking him in there while I spent the next couple hours looking for an exit.. Oops

Dr.Sahnebacke on 19/11/2025 at 19:43

Quote:

Could you put spoiler tags in your message, though, please?

... Sometimes I act like an beginner... Sorry