Now here's an interesting one. A Journey Into the Underdark makes no illusions about what it's trying to be - an old-school dungeon crawl - but the author tries to keep the thief in us happy by providing a loot requirement. They needn't have bothered, because the execution of their vision is more than engaging enough on its own.

Your objectives don't change in the slightest with difficulty; your playstyle does. Warrior, Archer, and Mage are your stand-ins for Normal, Hard and Expert. Not only does the differences in HP fit each class, it still represents how easy this little jaunt through the Underdark is going to be. It vastly changes your loadout, and what you can buy from the shop. The warrior is the only one that gets a sword, the Archer gets a bow and tons of magical arrows (beyond Thief's usual conventions), and the Mage drags an entire library of magical scrolls behind them, that conjure different monsters or hurl fireballs.

I really like the diversity between the classes, and appreciate the effort that's gone in to get them there. Firing a series of arrows that erupt into swarms of spiders, and watching as a very flustered rogue flail at them has produced a childish glee that's pretty much unique within the context of Thief FMs. This is but one example - I could provide more, but I won't. Fucking around and finding out is part of the fun.

... And the frustration. This isn't balanced, at all. I'm sure an attempt was made, but I'm just glad everything works fairly reliably given what's going on, here. You wanna play a mage? You are entirely at the mercy of the AI, both friend and foe, and your stock of fireballs will run out quickly if you rely on them too much. The Warrior ends up a discount Archer because of how many enemies you need to kill. The Archer, shockingly, is SOL if they run out of arrows, and it's a very real prospect if you don't consider how to handle each encounter. Beyond class balance (what a thing to be typing out about a Thief mission), the level geometry is... snug. I mean, it's a mine for 90% of the mission, fair enough, but there could've been a better balance between realism, and me not getting stuck on a piece of terrain every other minute. The wealth of shadows is also realistic, but can be equally annoying for navigating. You have, for ease of explanation, an infinite use flare, but it's not that bright and you have to reselect it in your inventory every time you want to cast a new flare.

In classical fantasy RPG fashion, the story is just a vehicle to get you in there and start killing goblins. It's there, it's fine, it doesn't matter. Some readables provide context clues, but this is a pretty linear mission, so it'll only be a matter of time before you figure out what to do.

It's a fairly short mission, so it doesn't overplay its gimmicks, nor lets its flaws sink in... but I kinda wish it was longer, or there was more like this. This is novel, and I really want to throw more spiders at people. Sue me.