What a treat! Starts as a challenging, claustrophobic sneaker before opening up into a well-designed town, and finally a wild ride through a deeply spooky final locale. Wonderful custom audio, mixed with tracks and effects from Deadly Shadows. The town itself is very reminiscent of DS: tall stucco buildings, narrow alleys, Elizabethan thatch, pu...

What an absolute JOY. A total conversion of the Dark Engine into a cell-shaded, animated wonderland, highlighting sharp writing and clever puzzles. This is very much not Thief: no City, no Garrett, no steampunk anything. But that is precisely the point. It’s an experiment to push a narrow engine into new shapes, and it succeeds fabulously. Stron...

After a pair of promising but rough prequels, Rocksbourg really hits its stride here. Ink & Dust is just a far more coherent experience than the first two missions. Again, the author excels at pushing the engine to its limits: spectacular architecture, scripting, custom AI, and perhaps the best and most frightening soundscape in any FM. The read...

A classic horror mission that holds up remarkably well 20 years on. Garrett sets off to investigate an abandoned Hammerite factory in the mountains, and what he finds there was so compelling that Ion Storm hired this mission’s author to work on Deadly Shadows. Playing it even now, one can see why: it showcased what a true auteur could do with th...

Knowing this would be Lady Rowena's final mission makes playing it all the more bittersweet. Her talents were tremendous, and by all accounts she was a beloved member of the community. What I admire most about her work is the depth of feeling she clearly had for her characters,; she never let easy tropes get the best of complexity. Just a short ...

A tremendously weird and challenging mission that almost feels like a fever dream inside the Thief universe, with its own ornate writing style and hallucinogenic geometry. It reminded me of Jedi Knight and other 90's FPS trailblazers, with those massive industrial landscapes full of inexplicable balconies surrounded by bottomless pits. Striking ...

More than any other mission, this captured the uncanny magic of the original game for me: multiple heists, otherworldly sound design, a smart mix of dread and discovery, with great, unobtrusive writing throughout. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the derezzed textures, but I came to love them, partly because they assisted making the familiar new a...

A great, solid slab of Hammerite-themed sneaking. Combines the prisonbreak and spooky crypt genres with satisfying results. Nothing truly groundbreaking, and the story frankly is barely there. But the atmosphere, sound usage, secrets, and general polish are top-notch, especially for a new author's debut mission. Excellent way to pass a cozy hour...

Short, solid, story-driven sneaker. A linear, asymmetrical castle is the setting for hunting a rival thief. The opening area is a bit drab, but once you get into the castle proper, it’s delightful. There's a great little surprise in the form of a cheese-hungry mouse, and a nice mid-level twist that deepens the already strong story. Not much repl...

An FM that predates even TMA's release, yet matches (or eclipses) the quality of many original levels. A tight, claustrophobic haunted prison, with great atmosphere, excellent architecture, and solid writing. You’d never know it was 22 years old. Just make sure to load it without any texture/model replacer options – some very fun scares will be ...

Mission 1

Extraordinary atmosphere. First time I can remember feeling transported into a woodland setting in this engine, which doesn’t lend itself well to organic shapes. Great humor throughout, too (the bookstore’s readable selection, the obliviously bad artist’s gallery). Also particular shout-out to the writers for keeping the readables s...

A fascinating cross-section of the budding FM community at the time of its release - though it does feel dated now. Better to understand what it was in 2000: a group collaboration of some early heroes (Loanstar, Purah), pushing their technical know-how to the limits, and attempting to create a mission that exceeded the polish and complexity of t...