Marble is a type of stone and stones are rocks and metal is just a heavier version of rock so marble fits well enough.
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Thief fan missions and campaigns
- Thread starter SCO
- Start date
Just imagine all the new genres:
Heavy marble
Power marble
Death marble
etc.
These are all the types of marble known by mankind.
Think twice before you misgender your marble!
H3H3
Novice
Here are a few more screens for DarkMax's upcoming mission: Unexpected Detour!
Expect the unexpected.
Expect the unexpected.
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- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,587
cowking
Scholar
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2016
- Messages
- 115
You should lower your gamma.
H3H3
Novice
I only increase it for screenshots.
Don't know whether it's been posted here already, but this animation is pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCw516L54o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCw516L54o
So I played a bunch of smaller missions that I will now post impressions about. None of them are anything special though, so don't expect something spectacular.
Cashing In:
This is a competently made but overall unremarkable mansion mission. It was the dude's first FM (says so in the readme) and considering that, it's really solid. The architecture and creative use of the original textures are the highlights of this FM.
The downside?
Key- and switch-hunting. The first key you need is on a dude's belt, which is entirely fine. Open the door it unlocks, go in, lockpick a safe for money, get another key from the desk. Unlock a door on the ground floor with the key, go down into the basement where there's a diary on a desk and a box with more loot. Ok, nice. Now comes the retarded part. Hidden behind the desk is a switch. I had no idea what it opened. I checked a walkthrough, and the switch that is in the basement opens a secret compartment back in the 1st floor (European first floor, as in, above ground floor), in the room with the safe where you found the key that opened the basement door.
And of course, the item you need to steal is inside that secret compartment.
On a plus side, the writing makes you feel like a dick cause the mansion owner's diary mentions that he's in debt and the collectors are coming to take what he owes, and he can barely pay his debt with the gold he has in the house. The gold you just stole. He also fears for his family because h has some additional debts with the thieves guild... yes, additional. The gold he has is barely enough to pay for his regular debts with people who don't break your legs if you don't pay, and on top of that he also has debts with the thieves guild.
And you just stole everything of value he had in his house.
Also, the kitchen (which for some reason is hidden behind a secret switch) has the most neatly stacked apples ever:
My overall rating: 5.5/10 cause it's a competently made mission dragged down only by the retarded switch. There's not too much to praise about it but neither is there anything it does utterly wrong (except for that switch), so an average rating like this is the most appropriate for it.
Chasse A L'Homme:
This is a small city FM made by some French dude in collaboration with DrKubiac (at least I assume the "Kubiac" mentioned in the readme is the same as DrK).
It's not bad, but it's not good either due to a few issues.
The architecture and design of the level itself are solid enough. Nothing stellar, but solid. There are some ladders around that let you climb on roofs, and you can jump and mantle at some places too which gives it some solid exploration for its small size. There are some problems though.
- You need a key to get into the blacksmith's store, where you can get a sword (Which is an optional mission goal). This key is on a bunch of boxes and there's no indication that you should look there, so I had to consult a walkthrough.
- This is the only key in the mission and it opens all stores in the town. That still leaves some un-pickable doors that have no keys. You can enter these buildings through windows, and you have to exit by the same route as there are no keys for these doors. You CAN smash them open with the sword though. There is one room that is only accessible by bashing down the door - there is absolutely nothing in there, but it still annoyed me since there are two frobbable doors that lead into the room, yet you cannot open them in any way other than sword-bashing. If you have an empty room that isn't supposed to be accessed, make the door unfrobbable ffs.
- One mission goal requires you to kill a dude. You can see him through a window, but you can't access that room in any way. Only way to kill him is shooting through the window. Heh.
What I liked about it is the colored lighting, which looks nice. Hey, I just like colored lighting, ok!
Overall rating: 5.5/10, solid mission dragged down by some dumb decisions.
We Miss You, Bob!
So I guess this is the most "average" FM I've ever played. It's a tiny - very, very tiny - mansion mission that has you start in a garden, break into a mansion... and rescue a baby. The mansion has a few rooms, a few guards, a few readables, and a secret switch that isn't all too hard to find, and it has a baby in a crib that is an inventory object that you have to get, and when you enter the room where it is kept you hear baby cries which is probably the weirdest experience I ever had in a Thief FM. Imagine you're taffing about, just minding your business, and suddenly you hear a baby cry. Yeah. It's weird.
And, well... that's all. Author wrote in the readme that it's his first FM, and that's pretty much all this is. Someone's first FM. It's tiny, it has all the basic Thief gameplay we know and love, but there's not much to it at all.
Rated it 5/10 because completely average and unremarkable is what it is. It does everything it does competently enough, doesn't make any major mistakes, but doesn't do anything amazing either. It's literally just a 5 minute coffee break mission.
Bestest FM Series
I tried to play these masterpieces by Sluggs because I thought "hey, why not try this shit out?"
My tip: don't.
These are just like most entries of the Total Crap contest. The first mission is the most entertaining one, actually, since it is the simplest and doesn't take away too much of your time.
You have a bow and 8000 arrows that look like cucumbers and have to kill a bunch of floating people with them. Yeah.
Mission 2 has you on a carnival where you have to find haunts and kill them. Highlight: a ghost train you can ride, and at various intervals it triggers screams from Garret to simulate him being scared by it. I gave up on this FM when I was catapulted up a large tower and the only way to get down again was to hit a faraway button with an arrow.
Mission 3 might be the worst of the bunch. You can pick up a crate that puts 500 crates into your inventory. Apparently you need to use these to kill Mechanists with. But I never made it that far because the mechanists are located so far away it takes you minutes of walking to get there. NOPE
Mission 4 might not even be completeable, as you need to throw people into a swimming pool and get 1600 loot but all the loot items I saw weren't frobbable. The people could all be picked up without knocking them out first (lol), but I also gave up on this FM when I realized there were more than a dozen people in the building and I'd have to carry each and every one of them to the swimming pool to throw them in.
Overall, this is just... yeah. They're pure troll missions, and they certainly are funny, but they're not fun to play in any way. The entertainment value entirely comes from the "oh god how did he come up with this shit" effect. Playing them for 3 minutes to see what's going on, then abandoning the thing before your attempt to seriously completely the mission goals wears you out, is the best way to play these.
Screenshots:
Annihilated
This mission, also by Sluggs, is much more entertaining than the Bestest FM series because it's not only silly and ridiculous, it's also not a chore to play.
Zombies have for some reason invaded your home and killed your wife. Now you must destroy them before they kill you.
In order to do that, you have to ghost for like 10 seconds in order to sneak behind a zombie wielding a glowstick and pick a key from his belt. That key opens the footlocker in your bedroom, where you find several fire arrows.
Then you proceed to blow the zombies to bits, and that's prety much it.
It's short. It's amusing. It's good for 10 minutes of having a laugh.
It also has balloons that are fun to throw around because they float upwards for a while before coming down again. Fun!
Rated it 6/10 because while it's nothing special, it's an entertaining little romp to go through.
And it has zombies with glowsticks. What's not to love?
Cashing In:
This is a competently made but overall unremarkable mansion mission. It was the dude's first FM (says so in the readme) and considering that, it's really solid. The architecture and creative use of the original textures are the highlights of this FM.
The downside?
Key- and switch-hunting. The first key you need is on a dude's belt, which is entirely fine. Open the door it unlocks, go in, lockpick a safe for money, get another key from the desk. Unlock a door on the ground floor with the key, go down into the basement where there's a diary on a desk and a box with more loot. Ok, nice. Now comes the retarded part. Hidden behind the desk is a switch. I had no idea what it opened. I checked a walkthrough, and the switch that is in the basement opens a secret compartment back in the 1st floor (European first floor, as in, above ground floor), in the room with the safe where you found the key that opened the basement door.
And of course, the item you need to steal is inside that secret compartment.
On a plus side, the writing makes you feel like a dick cause the mansion owner's diary mentions that he's in debt and the collectors are coming to take what he owes, and he can barely pay his debt with the gold he has in the house. The gold you just stole. He also fears for his family because h has some additional debts with the thieves guild... yes, additional. The gold he has is barely enough to pay for his regular debts with people who don't break your legs if you don't pay, and on top of that he also has debts with the thieves guild.
And you just stole everything of value he had in his house.
Also, the kitchen (which for some reason is hidden behind a secret switch) has the most neatly stacked apples ever:
My overall rating: 5.5/10 cause it's a competently made mission dragged down only by the retarded switch. There's not too much to praise about it but neither is there anything it does utterly wrong (except for that switch), so an average rating like this is the most appropriate for it.
Chasse A L'Homme:
This is a small city FM made by some French dude in collaboration with DrKubiac (at least I assume the "Kubiac" mentioned in the readme is the same as DrK).
It's not bad, but it's not good either due to a few issues.
The architecture and design of the level itself are solid enough. Nothing stellar, but solid. There are some ladders around that let you climb on roofs, and you can jump and mantle at some places too which gives it some solid exploration for its small size. There are some problems though.
- You need a key to get into the blacksmith's store, where you can get a sword (Which is an optional mission goal). This key is on a bunch of boxes and there's no indication that you should look there, so I had to consult a walkthrough.
- This is the only key in the mission and it opens all stores in the town. That still leaves some un-pickable doors that have no keys. You can enter these buildings through windows, and you have to exit by the same route as there are no keys for these doors. You CAN smash them open with the sword though. There is one room that is only accessible by bashing down the door - there is absolutely nothing in there, but it still annoyed me since there are two frobbable doors that lead into the room, yet you cannot open them in any way other than sword-bashing. If you have an empty room that isn't supposed to be accessed, make the door unfrobbable ffs.
- One mission goal requires you to kill a dude. You can see him through a window, but you can't access that room in any way. Only way to kill him is shooting through the window. Heh.
What I liked about it is the colored lighting, which looks nice. Hey, I just like colored lighting, ok!
Overall rating: 5.5/10, solid mission dragged down by some dumb decisions.
We Miss You, Bob!
So I guess this is the most "average" FM I've ever played. It's a tiny - very, very tiny - mansion mission that has you start in a garden, break into a mansion... and rescue a baby. The mansion has a few rooms, a few guards, a few readables, and a secret switch that isn't all too hard to find, and it has a baby in a crib that is an inventory object that you have to get, and when you enter the room where it is kept you hear baby cries which is probably the weirdest experience I ever had in a Thief FM. Imagine you're taffing about, just minding your business, and suddenly you hear a baby cry. Yeah. It's weird.
And, well... that's all. Author wrote in the readme that it's his first FM, and that's pretty much all this is. Someone's first FM. It's tiny, it has all the basic Thief gameplay we know and love, but there's not much to it at all.
Rated it 5/10 because completely average and unremarkable is what it is. It does everything it does competently enough, doesn't make any major mistakes, but doesn't do anything amazing either. It's literally just a 5 minute coffee break mission.
Bestest FM Series
I tried to play these masterpieces by Sluggs because I thought "hey, why not try this shit out?"
My tip: don't.
These are just like most entries of the Total Crap contest. The first mission is the most entertaining one, actually, since it is the simplest and doesn't take away too much of your time.
You have a bow and 8000 arrows that look like cucumbers and have to kill a bunch of floating people with them. Yeah.
Mission 2 has you on a carnival where you have to find haunts and kill them. Highlight: a ghost train you can ride, and at various intervals it triggers screams from Garret to simulate him being scared by it. I gave up on this FM when I was catapulted up a large tower and the only way to get down again was to hit a faraway button with an arrow.
Mission 3 might be the worst of the bunch. You can pick up a crate that puts 500 crates into your inventory. Apparently you need to use these to kill Mechanists with. But I never made it that far because the mechanists are located so far away it takes you minutes of walking to get there. NOPE
Mission 4 might not even be completeable, as you need to throw people into a swimming pool and get 1600 loot but all the loot items I saw weren't frobbable. The people could all be picked up without knocking them out first (lol), but I also gave up on this FM when I realized there were more than a dozen people in the building and I'd have to carry each and every one of them to the swimming pool to throw them in.
Overall, this is just... yeah. They're pure troll missions, and they certainly are funny, but they're not fun to play in any way. The entertainment value entirely comes from the "oh god how did he come up with this shit" effect. Playing them for 3 minutes to see what's going on, then abandoning the thing before your attempt to seriously completely the mission goals wears you out, is the best way to play these.
Screenshots:
Annihilated
This mission, also by Sluggs, is much more entertaining than the Bestest FM series because it's not only silly and ridiculous, it's also not a chore to play.
Zombies have for some reason invaded your home and killed your wife. Now you must destroy them before they kill you.
In order to do that, you have to ghost for like 10 seconds in order to sneak behind a zombie wielding a glowstick and pick a key from his belt. That key opens the footlocker in your bedroom, where you find several fire arrows.
Then you proceed to blow the zombies to bits, and that's prety much it.
It's short. It's amusing. It's good for 10 minutes of having a laugh.
It also has balloons that are fun to throw around because they float upwards for a while before coming down again. Fun!
Rated it 6/10 because while it's nothing special, it's an entertaining little romp to go through.
And it has zombies with glowsticks. What's not to love?
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DrKubiac
Educated
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2015
- Messages
- 66
Yup that's me.
Collaboration is a big word, he was a rookie author and made a rough mission, I just helped him through the process and added a few things here and there.
Greenbay was the sequel, and was supposed to be a real collab, but he kinda gave up and I finished the mission by myself.
Ah. Too bad that he gave up. Chasse a L'homme wasn't great, but it definitely showed potential. Would've liked to see more from that guy.
H3H3
Novice
Don't know why that made me laugh.
Anyway, you gotta give it to this 'HardBoyz' guy. Without Greenbay, A Better Tomorrow wouldn't exist.
Greenbay, though, is a perfectly decent city mission. Some of the back streets and its canal areas are as good as Thief gets.
H3H3
Novice
Well I wouldn't really know. Haven't played it yet. I should really do that, sometime.
Well, it's out: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147686
4 days of testing only and, to be honest, if skacky, H3H3, and marbleman didn't find major issues other than those that were fixed, then who am I to say anything?
The mission is simple and easy as it gets, but I'm sure those who liked Cragscleft and the Bonehoard from TDP will like this one. Enjoy, and don't rush it.
4 days of testing only and, to be honest, if skacky, H3H3, and marbleman didn't find major issues other than those that were fixed, then who am I to say anything?
The mission is simple and easy as it gets, but I'm sure those who liked Cragscleft and the Bonehoard from TDP will like this one. Enjoy, and don't rush it.
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,587
That was an unexpected detour, indeed.
My only gripe? The octagonal section looks and feels too much like the Bonehoard. The mines had a feel of their own, but the "Bonehoard" section was too similar.
Beyond that it's a flawless T1-themed FM. Simple but fitting architecture. Even the readables are fine. On point, to the point and just enough of them.
I was actually creeped out by the mine part. Clearly something happened, but it's never even explained.
Ended up with 85% of the total loot.
Easily a 8/10 FM, 9/10 for the Thief 1 purists.
It goes without saying that having the proper gamma settings is key to Thief, but here it's even more so.
EDIT: Typo.
My only gripe? The octagonal section looks and feels too much like the Bonehoard. The mines had a feel of their own, but the "Bonehoard" section was too similar.
Beyond that it's a flawless T1-themed FM. Simple but fitting architecture. Even the readables are fine. On point, to the point and just enough of them.
I was actually creeped out by the mine part. Clearly something happened, but it's never even explained.
Ended up with 85% of the total loot.
Easily a 8/10 FM, 9/10 for the Thief 1 purists.
It goes without saying that having the proper gamma settings is key to Thief, but here it's even more so.
EDIT: Typo.
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So I just finished Fate of the Art, an old contest mission that I started playing yesterday, and now that this is over with I can go into Unexpected Detour!
But first, my impressions of Fate of the Art:
It's a charming little mansion mission that has you break into an artist's place in order to steal back a Hammerite artifact this artist somehow got into his hands. The mission is rather fun, but it suffers from some problems.
- The mansion looks nice, mostly because of the very nice new wallpaper textures which I liked. Hey, if you use some pretty textures you've already got my approval. Take note, FM authors. The actual layout isn't bad, either.
- The main issue is the keyhunt. Some keys are easy enough to find, others require some searching, and that's all fine. But one key... one key that is REQUIRED to find one of the objectives is hidden on top of a bookshelf within a secret area. Yes. You have to find a secret room first, AND THEN you have to look on top of a very tall bookshelf to get a vital key required for progress. Essentially it means: check a walkthrough so you know where it is, then jump up and frob blindly to get they key because it's at a position where you can't possible get it into your vision.
- The loot goal is also rather ridiculous. A lot of loot items are hidden quite well, like small rings somewhere on the floor below an object. And you know how much loot you need to get on Expert? 5600 of 5679. I consulted a lootlist in the end because seriously.
- But it's not all bad. If you disregard these frustrating design decisions, you have a solid mansion mission which should even be ghostable in theory (I'm the knockout-player, but the amount and placement of guards is just right to allow for a ghost attempt, I'd say). There are two watchers that can be deactivated by a switch in a secret room, and there are some light switches at strategic places to give you some additional shadows in strategic places.
- I love the custom textures, makes the place look really nice. The custom paintings, however, look really silly as hell, at least most of them do. But there's a story reason for that. Let's just say that it appears like the author of this mission really doesn't like modern artists (but, funnily enough, the art displayed in this mansion is infinitely better than anything modern abstract art has ever brought forth).
Overall, I rated it 7/10 because I like the textures and the charming atmosphere of the place, as well as the unique story. I wanted to rate it 7.5 but in the end I dropped the .5 because the loot hunt was utterly, utterly ridiculous and a mission that requires you to find all of its secrets in order to complete your objectives deserves to have half a point substracted by principle.
Screenshots:
But first, my impressions of Fate of the Art:
It's a charming little mansion mission that has you break into an artist's place in order to steal back a Hammerite artifact this artist somehow got into his hands. The mission is rather fun, but it suffers from some problems.
- The mansion looks nice, mostly because of the very nice new wallpaper textures which I liked. Hey, if you use some pretty textures you've already got my approval. Take note, FM authors. The actual layout isn't bad, either.
- The main issue is the keyhunt. Some keys are easy enough to find, others require some searching, and that's all fine. But one key... one key that is REQUIRED to find one of the objectives is hidden on top of a bookshelf within a secret area. Yes. You have to find a secret room first, AND THEN you have to look on top of a very tall bookshelf to get a vital key required for progress. Essentially it means: check a walkthrough so you know where it is, then jump up and frob blindly to get they key because it's at a position where you can't possible get it into your vision.
- The loot goal is also rather ridiculous. A lot of loot items are hidden quite well, like small rings somewhere on the floor below an object. And you know how much loot you need to get on Expert? 5600 of 5679. I consulted a lootlist in the end because seriously.
- But it's not all bad. If you disregard these frustrating design decisions, you have a solid mansion mission which should even be ghostable in theory (I'm the knockout-player, but the amount and placement of guards is just right to allow for a ghost attempt, I'd say). There are two watchers that can be deactivated by a switch in a secret room, and there are some light switches at strategic places to give you some additional shadows in strategic places.
- I love the custom textures, makes the place look really nice. The custom paintings, however, look really silly as hell, at least most of them do. But there's a story reason for that. Let's just say that it appears like the author of this mission really doesn't like modern artists (but, funnily enough, the art displayed in this mansion is infinitely better than anything modern abstract art has ever brought forth).
Overall, I rated it 7/10 because I like the textures and the charming atmosphere of the place, as well as the unique story. I wanted to rate it 7.5 but in the end I dropped the .5 because the loot hunt was utterly, utterly ridiculous and a mission that requires you to find all of its secrets in order to complete your objectives deserves to have half a point substracted by principle.
Screenshots:
So, Unexpected Detour. I'll say right away that I rated it 8/10, that it feels like the marriage of Cragscleft and Bonehoard, manages to perfectly capture the Thief Gold atmosphere despite running on Thief 2 (I think most of the lighting is white, which is the main difference between T1 and T2 atmosphere-wise), and actually creeped me out twice even though I'm so familiar with the Thief engine barely any FM manages to do that these days (unless it's a straight horror FM, but this isn't one of those).
Be aware that this has some mild spoilers so if you want to be surprised by the elements that surprised me, don't read the following bullet-point review.
- When I said it's a marriage between Cragscleft and Bonehoard, I mean it. You start out in the daylight (and despite the simplicity of the architecture and textures, this area looks really damn beautiful), go down into a cave that leads into mines, then go down further until you reach an ancient crypt. At times it even feels almost clone-like: the mines have a small ruined Hammer chapel where you find a flask of holy water, the crypt has a layout that will give you many Bonehoard deja-vus.
- There's a new enemy type that managed to scare me a bit the first time I saw it. Or more like, the first time I didn't see it. It's essentially a haunt that is entirely black. And by black, I don't mean nigger-black, I mean almost the same color as the shadows. The first of these I encountered was in the mines, in deep shadows, where the walls were coal-black, and it wasn't dark outside yet so I got a tiny bit of light on my PC screen which made things harder to see. I didn't see the creature until it stepped into a lit area. Everyone, take note: this is how you make a scary and dangerous enemy without cheesing. Make it so it's hard to see in the shadows and the player won't feel safe whenever he hears the thing's footsteps. (Note: it became less creepy and dangerous later on when the sun was down and my room totally darkened, cause then I managed to spot them even in the shadows, so hey!)
- The writing is pretty much perfect for this type of mission. Readables tell you that the miners found access to some strange places and found ancient artifacts which they have been studying. But now everyone is either dead or undead, so obviously something happened. But it's never fully explained, giving it a sense of mystery, which is great. Readables are all "we found XY and are trying to decipher it" or "I'm trapped here and now wait for my death, fuck" and stay vague enough to keep the player guessing as to what actually went on there.
- The atmosphere, especially in the crypt, is superbly thick. It really feels like another Bonehoard, it captures the atmosphere of that perfectly.
- The architecture is often labyrinthine and confusing. I got lost several times, but that only adds to the feeling of being lost in a dangerous place where you shouldn't be. While confusing, it still manages to stay reasonably navigable since each area is visually distinct enough to give you clues to your location. Still, I would've appreciated a map at least for the mine area, which is also the area that would benefit from it the most.
- There was one spot I found genuinely creepy for some reason. There's a warning on the wall that says something along the lines of "Those who try to steal from the pit of infidels will have the Lady's eyes upon them". I thought okay yeah, that probably means I'll trigger some trap if I pick up loot there. No, it doesn't. There's just a creepy mask-face at the bottom of the pit that stares up at you, and I'm not entirely sure if I just imagined it or there was some dromed magic behind it, but it seemed like the face came closer whenever I climbed down from one platform to the next. That unnerved me because vague warnings and creepy stuff that doesn't actually do anything is exactly the kind of thing that creeps me out the most.
- There's one puzzle at the end that I thought I had figured out, but then I got it wrong because derp. Protip: read the hint you found next to someone's corpse very carefully. The amount of lines is just as important as what is written there.
- The architecture is actually rather simple, but it still looks beautiful and impressive, mostly thanks to the verticality in the crypt section which makes everything look monumental. It looks so similar to the Bonehoard you might think it's just another section of it (this would fit in seamlessly with the Bonehoard if you added it as, say, the Alarus Extension), but it still keeps its own character due to the darker textures, new enemies and consistent theme: the crypt has been built by some ancient culture with a specific faith and customs, and while it's never fully explained, everything in the design contributes to the feeling of this place belonging to a specific culture/civilization.
- There might be two secret doors that I didn't find a way to open. I got frustrated at some point cause I didn't manage to find my way forward and kept knocking my blackjack against the things that are textures in some places, and door objects in others. I found two in the Bonehoard-like section that gave me the clang of an object, but weren't frobbable. Can they be opened? I dunno. Max_b5 might be able to answer that.
- Objective-wise, it's as simple as it gets: find the required amount of loot, then find the exit. That's it. This simplicity is actually quite refreshing in this day and age where most new FMs have a dozen optional objectives in them. It's a very purist "explore place, get loot" experience.
So yeah. 8/10, very good mission, atmospheric as fuck, and if you liked the Bonehoard you will like this. Worth playing.
Screenshots:
It's a head! This mission is filled with random severed body parts everywhere. Too bad you can't pick them up and throw them around.
Is that a reference to the old Gold Box RPG?
THIS FUCKING FACE KEEPS LOOKING AT YOU AND FOR SOME REASON IT SEEMS LIKE IT COMES CLOSER WHENEVER I USE A LADDER
The final puzzle. It's actually pretty logical and easy to solve when you have the hint, but there's one misleading thing about it!
Be aware that this has some mild spoilers so if you want to be surprised by the elements that surprised me, don't read the following bullet-point review.
- When I said it's a marriage between Cragscleft and Bonehoard, I mean it. You start out in the daylight (and despite the simplicity of the architecture and textures, this area looks really damn beautiful), go down into a cave that leads into mines, then go down further until you reach an ancient crypt. At times it even feels almost clone-like: the mines have a small ruined Hammer chapel where you find a flask of holy water, the crypt has a layout that will give you many Bonehoard deja-vus.
- There's a new enemy type that managed to scare me a bit the first time I saw it. Or more like, the first time I didn't see it. It's essentially a haunt that is entirely black. And by black, I don't mean nigger-black, I mean almost the same color as the shadows. The first of these I encountered was in the mines, in deep shadows, where the walls were coal-black, and it wasn't dark outside yet so I got a tiny bit of light on my PC screen which made things harder to see. I didn't see the creature until it stepped into a lit area. Everyone, take note: this is how you make a scary and dangerous enemy without cheesing. Make it so it's hard to see in the shadows and the player won't feel safe whenever he hears the thing's footsteps. (Note: it became less creepy and dangerous later on when the sun was down and my room totally darkened, cause then I managed to spot them even in the shadows, so hey!)
- The writing is pretty much perfect for this type of mission. Readables tell you that the miners found access to some strange places and found ancient artifacts which they have been studying. But now everyone is either dead or undead, so obviously something happened. But it's never fully explained, giving it a sense of mystery, which is great. Readables are all "we found XY and are trying to decipher it" or "I'm trapped here and now wait for my death, fuck" and stay vague enough to keep the player guessing as to what actually went on there.
- The atmosphere, especially in the crypt, is superbly thick. It really feels like another Bonehoard, it captures the atmosphere of that perfectly.
- The architecture is often labyrinthine and confusing. I got lost several times, but that only adds to the feeling of being lost in a dangerous place where you shouldn't be. While confusing, it still manages to stay reasonably navigable since each area is visually distinct enough to give you clues to your location. Still, I would've appreciated a map at least for the mine area, which is also the area that would benefit from it the most.
- There was one spot I found genuinely creepy for some reason. There's a warning on the wall that says something along the lines of "Those who try to steal from the pit of infidels will have the Lady's eyes upon them". I thought okay yeah, that probably means I'll trigger some trap if I pick up loot there. No, it doesn't. There's just a creepy mask-face at the bottom of the pit that stares up at you, and I'm not entirely sure if I just imagined it or there was some dromed magic behind it, but it seemed like the face came closer whenever I climbed down from one platform to the next. That unnerved me because vague warnings and creepy stuff that doesn't actually do anything is exactly the kind of thing that creeps me out the most.
- There's one puzzle at the end that I thought I had figured out, but then I got it wrong because derp. Protip: read the hint you found next to someone's corpse very carefully. The amount of lines is just as important as what is written there.
- The architecture is actually rather simple, but it still looks beautiful and impressive, mostly thanks to the verticality in the crypt section which makes everything look monumental. It looks so similar to the Bonehoard you might think it's just another section of it (this would fit in seamlessly with the Bonehoard if you added it as, say, the Alarus Extension), but it still keeps its own character due to the darker textures, new enemies and consistent theme: the crypt has been built by some ancient culture with a specific faith and customs, and while it's never fully explained, everything in the design contributes to the feeling of this place belonging to a specific culture/civilization.
- There might be two secret doors that I didn't find a way to open. I got frustrated at some point cause I didn't manage to find my way forward and kept knocking my blackjack against the things that are textures in some places, and door objects in others. I found two in the Bonehoard-like section that gave me the clang of an object, but weren't frobbable. Can they be opened? I dunno. Max_b5 might be able to answer that.
- Objective-wise, it's as simple as it gets: find the required amount of loot, then find the exit. That's it. This simplicity is actually quite refreshing in this day and age where most new FMs have a dozen optional objectives in them. It's a very purist "explore place, get loot" experience.
So yeah. 8/10, very good mission, atmospheric as fuck, and if you liked the Bonehoard you will like this. Worth playing.
Screenshots:
It's a head! This mission is filled with random severed body parts everywhere. Too bad you can't pick them up and throw them around.
Is that a reference to the old Gold Box RPG?
THIS FUCKING FACE KEEPS LOOKING AT YOU AND FOR SOME REASON IT SEEMS LIKE IT COMES CLOSER WHENEVER I USE A LADDER
The final puzzle. It's actually pretty logical and easy to solve when you have the hint, but there's one misleading thing about it!
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
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# Yes, that face came closer after I had climbed up and then climbed down again. No, I didn't stick around to find out what more would happen.
# An even better creep-out is not far from there: After descending from the mines into the area with that face, there's a bit of tunnel that leads to the face and another that leads to a dead end. I kept hearing slow footsteps in that dead end section until I realized that they were coming from below the floor, and that there are small cracks in it. I don't think there's a critter down there, but just the steps alone put me on edge.
# One lulzy moment was when I ducked behind a counter expecting to find some loot, only to find a severed head on a stool staring back at me.
# An even better creep-out is not far from there: After descending from the mines into the area with that face, there's a bit of tunnel that leads to the face and another that leads to a dead end. I kept hearing slow footsteps in that dead end section until I realized that they were coming from below the floor, and that there are small cracks in it. I don't think there's a critter down there, but just the steps alone put me on edge.
# One lulzy moment was when I ducked behind a counter expecting to find some loot, only to find a severed head on a stool staring back at me.
- Yes, the mission uses 100% white lighting and Thief Gold textures. I thought it was a good chance of giving some love to the 'Basement' texture family that was mostly scrapped in the original game.
- 'Pool of Radiance' is a reference to a similar place found in Sepulchre of the Sinistral, which is, no surprise, a pool that does nothing.
- The two secret doors in the octagonal vaults can be opened. The switches are found fairly close from each of them.
- 'Pool of Radiance' is a reference to a similar place found in Sepulchre of the Sinistral, which is, no surprise, a pool that does nothing.
- The two secret doors in the octagonal vaults can be opened. The switches are found fairly close from each of them.
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