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Little light on the story and other such details, as it feels like it was thrown together very last minute.
Gameplay and map layout is very well done though, and kept the experience enjoyable as everything flowed very well!
Great atmosphere all round, good gameplay (if a little easy), and a serviceable story make this a solid mission all in all. The vertical design makes it feel a little Thief 1-esque, but that's not a bad thing at all. There's a lot crammed into a small space, but nothing is wasted. Perfect for a quick fix of classic Thief.
Short but fun.
Rather trivial FM, but looks good.
Some jokes like the piles of wooden cheese are non-obvious.
Some people might score this mission against every FM ever released. This is a ridiculous criterion, at odds with the author's obvious intentions. I think an 'unambitious' but technically flawless release is far more valuable than a pretentious opus that crumbles under its own weight.
With this context in mind, the mission is basically perfect. The brushwork and texturing is immaculate, the layout is varied, there are no gameplay sins.
The only thing I can penalise it for, and I really have to, is how derivative it is. A modest scope is commendable, but this can be retained while having something memorable or a unique selling point in the style or atmosphere. Everything about it is enjoyable, but almost nothing about it stands out stylistically. There's nothing that would make someone say, "that's a Jayrude mission".
That said, I am still scoring it quite highly. Sure, this mission is an imitation, but it is a perfect one. The author clearly knows how to build, and how to design gameplay.
Small but very good mission, hard to say anything bad about it.
Solid city, good verticality.
It's solid and could potentially fit seamlessly next to the game's original missions (or even as an introductory level akin to Running Interference), but at the same time it feels a little bit generic and is relatively short.
Architectural styling was very similar to the Feast of Pilgrims entry. But textures were not as well chosen for this one, and in general it looked more rushed, or inexperienced. I loved the design of the astrologer's place. And the tumble-down darkness of some of the outdoor areas. The story was good, but I didn't feel as engaged by it as I should have been. It did very much resemble Thief 2 in atmosphere. And it was a good go. A solid mission.
A straightforward heist that makes great use of vertical space and rewards sharp-eyed players with useful shortcuts and cleverly-hidden loot.
This is always the kind of T1/T2 gameplay I enjoy the most, a rats next of a city, with lots of nooks and crannies and a nice main story to dip in and out of as I explore.
This is a nice (barely) medium-sized mission with a very smooth design - but not much of a story, not many readables and not exactly many secrets. It's slick, but professional and low on emotions.
Got everything I like about Thief2, a mansion and some thieves' highway. Dewdrop was a little hard to find, even though it was in plain sight... I smacked myself for running around in circles looking for it :D . Really enjoyed the gameplay!
Really beautifull small city mission, perfect architecture, verticality and rewarding gameplay..
This was great - short and very sweet. Some excellent, and very vertical level design and a small but engaging story. Great bite-size chunk of Thiefy goodness!
Nice solid little fm, many details and good visuals
Very nice quarter with verticality, well builded
A little smaller in scale than some of the other entries, but everything that is here is really well done. I enjoyed this one a lot.
A small but gold mission with classic thief experience. Maybe this mission resembled OM's the most out of this contest. The story was a bit lacking in my opinion, but the simple and straightforward (in a good way) setup made for it.
Small space; good architecture, but only a moderately interesting story - defeat the business rival - and very easy to find treasure and defeat enemies.
Tiny and tight mission, but vertical and places avaiable are taken with care. Good mission, a good treat for one sitting.
map for around 30 mins, might be bigger
Another small, but beautiful fan mission from this author. Much better than the other one (which was still good). Wonderful level design, great use of sound, and I liked the story. Would love to see more from Jayrude in the future!
It was a simple, short mission. Really nice to play, and with some side places to visit. Doesn't have much of a story. You're supposed to steal information but you can't really read anything so it could as well have been any other object. The side goal was pretty good.
This mission was very well done and the gameplay worked nicely! At times this reminded me from TDP but there were still enough TMA style. On expert: objects were pretty hard to find to complete all the objectives but that created a good challenge. Lord Thorack's mansion was beautifully built!
This was a really solid small city/mansion with gameplay that was a bit better than average though without really standing out as unique.
I look forward to the author's future work
Nice little map if a bit easy to find your way around and even easier to complete your objectives, still a massive step up from Jayrude's TDP contest entry so congratulations.
Small and intricate but cohesively laid-out map that was a pleasure to explore as I kept finding multiple entrance and egress points. The story was a simple Thief-job, but there felt like story teasers in there that I would have really liked to see expounded upon. Ended up still missing a bit over 600 loot, so I must go back and explore further at some point!
A fun, tight mission. Nice layout.
Review: (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124349&page=60&p=2449688&viewfull=1#post2449688)
Solid small mission, but nothing too original. Not much to fault but there are simply much more innovative missions.
Little light on the story and other such details, as it feels like it was thrown together very last minute.
Gameplay and map layout is very well done though, and kept the experience enjoyable as everything flowed very well!
Small city mission with great verticality and a beautiful manor to break into. Some rope arrow action, lots of window-to-window jumping. Visually impressive and great exploration.
A very well designed mission with some nice architecture both in inside and outside areas. The little district made a good impression and had a classic feel to it, while the mansion(s) felt cosy and welcoming. Other minor locations were also given nice distinctiveness. The author did good work with ambient sounds around. Good classic thief atmosphere after all.
I liked the steady, pleasant flow of the game not interrupted by overcrowded areas or too difficult puzzles. It was also nice to see many open windows and other locations up high with fair accessibility, not requiring devilishly hard leaps as in some of the missions in the previous contest. Some loot was really well hidden, but I didn't like a few design choices, for example placing loot on every rafter was not necessary and too obvious. Other than that, really enjoyable classic Thief gameplay.
I found the main quest interesting and more original than the usual objectives we get. Some credible side stories were also included, adding more depth to the in-game world. There could've been a bit more going on around the Lord, though.
Competent mansion mission with a nicely developed infiltration segment. This FM is classic Thief in its approach: a small mansion where you have to liberate some stuff and grab some loot, placed in a city environment where you have to find your way inside (and/or stop along the way to help pay the rent). Both the outside and inside parts are neatly built, looking and playing good. There is a good balance to exploration and sneaking, with a good use of tight spots where you have to time your movements precisely to get through undetected. I feel like something extra is missing from the mission - but it is an enjoyable experience on its own.
Fierce Competition is a very small mission that shouldn't take you very long to complete. Garrett is hired by a third party to disrupt one of his rivals' affairs, and also rob him otherwise that wouldn't be fun. There isn't much to talk about Fierce Competition: the mission is divided into two parts, the streets and the mansion, and the story is as simple as it can get.
The streets are more reminiscent of Thief 1 than Thief 2, with more medieval-looking buildings with tall peaked roofs and uneven masonry. The mansion on the other hand is a very posh estate tucked between several buildings, including a Watch station, and is as Thief 2 as it can get. Atmosphere is fairly good but there could really have been more sounds here and there to give the mission a more lively feel.
Gameplay is where this mission shines and it is always appropriate: several ways to enter any given place, several little loops, enough shadows to hide in and decent patrols. Bottom line is, Fierce Competition is a little slice of Thief 2 that shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes to complete.
Rating: 23/30
How to say? The mission is classic, well balanced with an original plot and very fun to play with!
It joins the competition and carries a good T2 experience with classic things. That's a good mission to play and replay! This is the reason it deserves a 25/30!
Fierce Competition is a model FM let down by weak identity.
Gameplay is solid. You have a small but fleshed out and vertical city area leading to a classic Victorian estate that is well balanced for the casual ghoster. The only notable gameplay flaw is an expert-level objective item which is unnecessarily difficult to see. The story is standard Thief 2 fare (I couldn't recall the names of any characters offhand), but there's some interest added by the fact that you have to retrieve instructions from your client before tackling the main objectives.
The mission looks good - similar to one of the original missions but with better polish and fine details, and the full moon skybox and stark lighting imbue the city section with a menacing mood. The problem is that the city section is a more or less generic iteration of the "Thief 1, but taller and more gothic" style that has become increasingly popular over the last few years. I don't mean that as an insult (it's a cool style), but it leaves the mission lacking an edge over the competition. Nonetheless, the mission is impressive for having been built in a short timeframe (according to info_window), and it's one of those FMs I could see myself replaying in the future, when I want to play some good Thief but don't want to set aside the whole afternoon for a grand adventure.