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This is a very basic story to tell but fun. The gameplay follow it correctly, enemies are surprising and well made. And the atmosphere given to each section for this gigantic sandwich mission deserves additionnal points. (23/30)
the title fooled me,not a quick mission be prepared :P,real good mission
First part in hammerite Cathedrale classic and correct and second part a lot more interesting (Various challenge/atmosphere)
The Maw could have been much better, but everything else is stellar. Turbo-burricks forever!
Atmosphere is really nice, however it suffers a bit because of mixing up too many themes at the same time. Gameplay is very good, I didn't got stuck a single time. I enjoyed the sewers very much.
Overall this is a high quality mission, everything is well built, and its a map that offers various scenarios/atmospheres. My favorite part are the catacombs. The level design is really interesting.
Amazing concept and really crazy, but feels a bit unpolished towards the end. Very fast, sometimes too fast for Thief to be fun (the annoying enemies from the Lost City onwards). The story was funny. I was sad about Sutter.
Loved the differing environments and enemy types; leading to challenging gameplay. No or minimal explanation of the lower sections but by then you're expecting general craziness.
Hammerites, thieves, haunt and zombies, the lost city and the maw. A medley of Thief1/TG
What starts as a simple Hammerite mission slowly evolves into a highlight reel of the best environments of Thief Gold. 'Nuff said.
A mission you could call "How did I end up in the Maw of Chaos from this taffing tiny Hammerite church ?" That was a most original gameplay choice and a very nice tribute to T1, suitable for such contest : exploring different T1 original missions in one single FM : more or less Undercover, Thieves' Guild, the Catacombs, The Lost City and the Maw of Chaos. Even if all of these little universes have few in common, the way you came from one to another in this mission was smartly designed and settled, with a little background to explain each change of universe. This mission was then all but monotonous and offered different and revisited parts of the original missions, enough so that you could recognize the inspiring mission without being a simple copy of it. For this, bravo !
I enjoyed the long-way-no-return feeling this mission gave me, like I had it in other games, above all platform games. You also go deeper and deeper throughout the mission , giving the impression it's long and vast. And it is, above all the catacombs part which I find the best designed and the most original. Hard when you see the numerous and well-designed catacomb missions in this contest, but it was definitely original too there. Also enjoyed the underwater-walking craymen, this function is so underused, it was more than clever and challenging to use it there.
Now the story is not the best you could find in a mission, its gameplay remains standard, and of course, since this mission reuses parts of the original missions, it loses in originality regarding the architecture and sound ambience. But this mission still has its own feeling and its choice of story-design, from a sub-level to another, was a good one to make this mission a good one. Also, even if the Trickster's beasts invasion at the end makes ending the mission difficult and almost unghostable, I still felt it was welcome, for it avoided a boring ending and still gave a little tension until you reach back the streets. So I won't blame the authors for that. Good mission with good ambience !
When it's called In & Out you just know it will be anything but! Church, guild, bonehoard, maw! Solid effort but again another with ambient light set a bit high.
Awesome tour of Thief 1 environments. Fun to ghost! Story was a bit of an afterthought, but I liked how it expanded.
A fun crypt romp
Atmosphere - 4
Well, I hold that too many changes of style within one mission do not quite favour the atmosphere, and that's what happen to this one. I found the mission really lacking coherence, even if the individual parts themselves were okay. Couldn't immerse in this one.
Gameplay - 5
Tomb raiding is not my style, so I didn't quite enjoy a large chunk of the mission. Numerous overpowered enemies certainly did not help in making it more palatable. I liked what happened at the end, though. I had some loot difficulties, but that was my own oversight rather than the mission's.
Story - 5
A convincing video introduction was a promising beginning and the first part of the mission also looked quite well in terms of storytelling, but the underground parts lacked any depth whatsoever (save for a few lost downwinders). In fact, the further it went the more absurd it felt. There were, however, a few humorous bits here and there that I liked.
Review: (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124349&page=59&p=2413522#post2413522)
This mission is a sleeper. It starts out as a rather ordinary church with some reasonable but not outstanding game play, and not much loot. Then you get a sewer key from the priest. When you open that door you find sewers, a downwinders thief area, a feared "hole" where some thief has taken the Hammer of St. Martello you are seeking. Below the hole comes unique and well done imitations of The Bonehoard, The Lost City, and The Maw of Chaos. AI are changing as you progress. Funny fast burricks. Once out of the church the mission is very entertaining. The one objective, to get the hammer, requires a long quest through these scenes with lots of loot. The story was minimal, dealing with Thieves' maintenance and the hole. Ghosted.
A fan mission that starts deceptively simple, and turns into a fun ride through Thief's themes - from the rational world towards the irrational, all the while upping the difficulty level. As a three-author collaboration, it gains a lot of variety and original ideas, but also suffers from a few unpolished corners and quality differences. Where it is good, it is very good (its thief-inhabited caves and tombs are to die for). Fortunately, even its weaker segments are carried by the strong gameplay and enjoyable exploration. It is stealth done right, with a good rhythm of hiding spots and danger areas. Dodging around the mobile AI while picking up imaginatively hidden loot is the best aspect of the mission. There is a feeling of dungeoneering throughout. The use of stock resources is creative without being overdone, and the few changes made to some AI make for a good challenge.
An in-and-out job.. Garrett often gets more than he bargains for. This one started out deceptively slow, but the build was good, and surprises kept coming. The tombs were well-built and maze-like, and the new enemies fun to interact with. The baby crays.. adorable.. and the she-monsters.. I literally laughed out loud getting killed by one or three. Had a great time playing this, and it was a fun tribute to the OM's. Also, thanks for the abundance of fire arrows.. it was truly cathartic making use of them.
I was surprised by how big this mission is. Just when you think you're nearing the end, an entirely new area opens up with myriad environments (sewers, thieves' den, tombs, lost city, maw. There are some clever and entertaining new AI, one in particular that had me laughing out loud. All of that made for a great deal of fun and kept the gameplay fresh and engaging. The atmosphere is classic Thief throughout, very well done in both concept and execution, and very reminiscent of the OMs and very enjoyable. I especially liked the tombs, though the maze-like build made it a tad tedious at times without a map. The church was on the plain and simple side, but clearly the resources were spent, and spent well, on later portions of the map. My only real gripe, and it's a minor one, is that the return to the church at the end seemed unnecessary and a little tiresome since you had already been there and there was nothing new to discover upon your return. Having the place filled with new enemies yet receiving no new objectives made the end both anticlimactic and a little bit pointless as the enemy were no challenge to avoid at all. That aside, this was a very enjoyable mission and a nice homage to the original game. Well done!
If somebody made a Thief Gold amusement park, or turned it into a smoothie, you might get something like 'In & Out'. Where 'Ultimate Burglary' blended the city and mansion side of Thief Gold (warts and all!), this FM blends all the mystical and supernatural elements. You might call it jam-packed.
I didn't enjoy it as much as 'Ultimate Burglary', however, for two reasons. Firstly, I simply prefer the urban environments -- others have the inverse preference. Secondly, I feel as if 'Ultimate Burglary' fleshed out each of its four areas more, perhaps with the exception of its own zombie area. This might be a side-effect of that FM being non-linear, meaning I spent more time in each area, whereas this one is totally linear. Speaking of an amusement park, this FM is like a rollercoaster -- gripping, but over too quickly. None of areas were fleshed out enough to stand on their own. But they aren't meant to stand on their own! As a whole, this is an enjoyable pastiche.