Making a Profit may very well be the most ambitious first mission since Pukey's Morbid Curiosity. Not only are Making a Profit's scale and scope very high, but all the scripting behind the scenes is just mind-boggling.

This mission presents you with a massive cityscape dominated by a mountain with a manor on top. The lady's presence looms over you the entire time since you can see the mountain from most areas in town, which makes for a perfect landmark. The cityscape is quite interesting and open, with many streets that can take you wherever you want. They're overall fairly basic but feel good to traverse. There is also some Roman architecture sprinkled here and there, most notably near the lady's manor. The sheer amount of locations you'll visit is also staggering: a cathedral, a manor, a cemetery and other nice places such as caves, and they're all interesting and well designed.

This mission is overall packed with stuff to do and the scripting is absolutely stellar. The mission has a few light puzzles that are interesting to solve and never overstay their welcome. The cemetery puzzle in particular has no less than four solutions to it, with one of them being very funny and very clever. The story is a bit generic but the way it's conveyed is very good and I had a few good laughs, most notably with the nature of that Anax item you need to steal. One issue I had with the mission is that the loot goal is quite steep, I had a hard time reaching the objective on Expert.

Overall I think Making a Profit is a stellar debut and definitely an incredible mission that everyone needs to play.

(this review was originally written for the TDP 20th Anniversary Contest voting form on TTLG)