... And here are the anonymous review for my other mission, thank you everyone and I hope you all had fun.
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-A huge step up from Dewinder Manor, this feels like a much more polished product. I loved the construction going on in the cathedral and the unfinished feel of it all, though I think the buildings and streets might have been laid out a tad smoother. All in all a solid mission with a decent amount of fun to be had; it's definitely got the feel of a lot of classic early missions in that sense. With this rate of improvement I think your next outing will be even better.
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-This was a wonderland for thief fans, so many references and insiders. The story was as basic as it gets but considering all the humour and references, the readables and the funny conversation about the children and karras voice/face...this gets extra points in "story" for all of it.
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-It's snowing, but the architecture and the story is not exciting at all (mechanists taking over hammerites). Despite snow there are a lot of open windows. The city and the mech complex both feels okay-ish but boring.
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-Very good mission, loved the mech Cathedral and some of the memes. Only issue I have is the city feels a little bit empty at times with too many unenterable buildings.
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-Good verticality
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-Technically this mission is cool, but:
1) A huge amount of walkarounds prevent the... more methodical approach to exploration. This leads to much hassle and running back and forth.
2)Spine with the skull in a pool of blood? On the street? (Either I've missed some important part of the mission or that is taffing dumb)
3)Most of the goals were completed accidentally just by exploring. I'm not sure if this is good.
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-Nicely done city + cathedral mission, not master architecture but a bit of verticality and overall satysfying experience.
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-A wonderful blend of city and Mechanist missions and a large step up from Psych0sis's previous release, though the meme content felt kind of unnecessary.
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-This one barely missed the winners' podium. Very playable and a typical quality-T2-fm but the "special something" was missing. Do you know these city missions where you have the most fun traversing the streets to your actual goal? Yes, it is one of those.
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-I'm often wary when it comes to FMs that try to add to the main story of the base game, but this one surprised me by featuring stellar writing. The city is built relatively well, though I'd like to see more ground floors since having almost every building be accessible through a window in a mission that doesn't really focus on "the thief's highway" becomes a bit repetitive. Traveling off the beaten path feels rewarding due to the sheer amount of loot that's peppered through the map, which makes exploration very satisfying. The cathedral's layout is maze-like but that's counterbalanced by relatively uniquely-designed rooms. A very good mission overall that's written even better.
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-A solid city exploration mission.
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-Solid fm, good architecture and visuals, nice verticality
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-Solid streets/rooftops FM, very well builded. Nice to see some Hammer/Mech changes. Nice work.
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-Was a really good and atmospheric mission. A huge improvement compared to Dewinder Manor especially in architecture but also in the story.
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-Very good level design and atmosphere. The game play itself was a bit easy and somewhat of a let down.
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-Straightforward town and cathedral mission. Fun, but very easy. "Steal an object so I can pay next month's rent" is the most over-used plotline in the book. I liked the use of the Thieves Highway in this mission.
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-This one was well made but could have been improved if there were more obstacles to hinder your ability to complete the objectives. Accessing the vault for example was far too simple with the key on the nearby priest's belt.
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-The story is very basic, nothing fancy. But sometimes we don't need one. The city feels alive, especially interiors. There are good stuff like the transitioning church, or writer? apartament. Although the mission is solid, but good. It is not a masterpiece. I would compare to the well made home dinner.
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-This mission is one of the best in this contest. It has everything that a good thief mission should have. I would have made more buildings accessible on the perimeter, but it is just nitpicking. Good job, psych0sis!
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-Very atmosphric, but also very confusing layout because of all the odd angels.
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-Masterfully crafted level. Loved the references to other FMs. Dewinder's Mansion and the church were lovely and atmospheric. Sneaking through the houses and the streets was classic Thief fun.
All in all this FM deserves the highest praise.
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-Nice concept. Not a very complex or elaborated story, but it has a nice integration with the original game story. Also some really fun conversations and things to read. I liked the snow detail and the map is big enough and nice to explore, although I was a little disappointed that many of the buildings were not accessible. The cathedral is a little messy.
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-Mechanist cathedral was big and well done. I liked the city and it was really nice to see it snowing! At times I was a bit confused about my location but the city wasn't so big that I would be completely lost and soon learnt roughly where everything located. There were lots of nice climbing spots and open windows that made the mission interesting! From time to time ambient music was slightly monotonous (there might have been a bit more variation). All things considered this mission was very nice experience!
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-I dug the idea of exploring the Mechanists just starting out, and it was well done. Also liked the lone dude in the tower that turned his back on them.
Gameplay was pretty standard, but done well for that.
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-I really liked this mission, although not a classic it is a top quality, well built city with a wonderfully confusing Hammerite Cathedral, so Psych0sis you should feel really proud of yourself.
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-The author's improvement over time is evident within the mission. Some brushwork around the start is really rough, and only a few of the buildings in the city are especially pretty or remarkable. The cathedral is a whole other ballpark, showing off the author's true talents.
Per the categories, the story is easily the weakest part. A less expository narrative is always a welcome feature when told in an interactive way, but the mission doesn't lack exposition so much as fill that budget with in-jokes and tonally unsuitable rubbish. The city serves little story purpose beyond these gags, aside from the odd bit of relevant flavour text.
The gameplay mostly makes up for these deficits. It's a joy to explore, and the flow is focused no matter what direction you take. Perhaps it's a little too open-ended on occasion, but backtracking is entirely avoided. Street level could do with some more attractions, however -- there's very little reason to ever go down there, which detracts from the feeling of a real locale somewhat.
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-Thank goodness! No key hunt (except for one . . .). So many rooftops, windows, and pipes and that means exploring (for me, a key to a fun mission). Everything blended so well into a nice story line, particularly the DeWinder Mansion and the Cathedral. The difficulties were reasonable. And the story fits nicely into the world of Thief II.
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-Review: (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124349&page=119&p=2450337&viewfull=1#post2450337)
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-Solid mission with lots of exploration. Plenty of apartments to plunder and the Hammerite church being converted to a Mechanist one is a unique idea we haven't seen before.
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-I quite liked the overall construction of the mission. The designs were okay, but mostly limited to simple, closed spaces, the only more complex structure being the main nave of the cathedral. The ambient sounds didn’t really give any distinctive character to particular places, because there were so many different locations. Also, the use of snow textures was rather pointless – the mission didn’t have winter feeling at all.
The mission offered some classic Thief gameplay with strong focus on stealth and stealing. I liked the option (or even necessity) of accessing many locations through windows and connection pipes. I wish getting inside key locations was more challenging, though. The idea of collecting Hammer-themed objects was interesting and fit well in the general theme. The mission played well and felt quite rewarding after all.
I liked that you expanded on the topic of transformation of Hammers into Mechanists in multiple places. The little models of Mechanist buildings were lovely. I quite liked the secondary stories to come across and the fact you used many conversations. On the other hand, the main quest wasn’t really fresh nor exciting.
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-A city/church mission revolving around the rise of the Mechanists, and their split with the Order of the Hammer, in an interesting, atmospheric Winter environment. The architecture of the mission is labyrinthine in a good way – visually creative, and fun to navigate through either the rooftops or the streets. The places you can visit, and the snippets of information you can gather are fun, but the focus of the mission is the church, undergoing refurbishment from old Hammerite roost to antiseptic new Mechanist facility. This sense of upheaval is conveyed expertly through visual storytelling, readables, and the challenges you will be facing. There are a lot of routes to take, and the whole complex has a very satisfying flow.
There are minor weaknesses: the street level is much less populated with interesting stuff, and prowling with many more guards than the rooftops, so it makes little sense to venture there too much. Likewise, you can notice the signs of conceptual overreach – sometimes, the FM wants to be a much bigger mission than its scope allows. These are overall small nitpicks, and the FM shows tremendous improvement over the author’s submission from last year’s TDP contest.
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-The title talk about "transitions", how about an author's transition who comes from novice to expert in one mission? This mission is a prove of the definition of improvement!
The atmosphere is nice and the place hide several interesting game elements and easter eggs.
The balance in matter of difficulty is not perfect but still decent. Good job!
25/30
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