My Favorite Year was the 20th anniversary contest FM I'd been leaving till last and thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. I was, however, surprised. The premise of the mission suggested to me this would be something in the vein of Bafford's Manor or Assassins, but the ultimate result is far more evocative of, specifically, Shipping...and Receiving and (later) The Thieves' Guild.

The mission is short- I completed it on expert in 42 minutes and that was with a great deal of faffing about on my part, so don't expect to get fully lost in it, but the topside environment *feels* quite large, and there are frequent changes in the purpose of spaces you are in. The clash of styles, aesthetics and purposes only really comes together when you can see the whole picture towards the end, but when it does it paints Sindelli as a driven, business-focused new money noble, rather than the stuffy boors you steal from in Bafford's Manor or Masks; and also as something else...

The kind of fun secret details implying a world beyond that peppered much of Thief 2 and many well made FMs are not as numerous or as expertly crafted in My Favorite Year, but they are there to be found- I'd recommend perhaps getting up on some balconies. Much of the atmosphere is initially confusing but, again, comes together once you figure out what is actually going on on the Sindelli estate.

My criticisms are few and slight;
1. There is no map available at any point in the FM whatsoever. Topside this isn't actually too much of a problem, since it's reasonably easy to re-orientate yourself by finding your way outside and then back in again until you figure out the layout, but the basement area of this level can be a ludicrous maze stretching in all directions where even a non-automap image to get a sense of how big it's even supposed to be would help.
2. There is no briefing video, and this FM could really benefit from one because the beginning of the mission bears very little relevance to the player's expectation based on the objectives given. Of course, it is no small thing to make one of these for your FM, especially if you are short on time, and if one can find it on this page or in the readme the mission description does actually lay out why it starts the way it does- just remember the playflow for the contest releases mean this isn't guaranteed to happen!
3. At times, the voice lines that Garrett says don't match the NewDark subtitles' indexes, which shows different subtitle lines to what's actually being said. This isn't a problem for me since Garrett is always loud and clear, but it does imply they've been tampered with. I wonder why?

A solid effort that I don't regret at all closing out my playthrough of the contest with.