The ambition of this project seems to be about scale, but it's not clear to what creative end. Great impression made by the ambiance ultimately gives way to lack of focus, clunky navigation, and cringe-worthy damsel-in-distress story.

I mostly disagree with peter_spy about the mission, but I think that he is right to post what he thinks about it. Also I don't like the course of discussion - which turns into the discussion of the reviewer and not his arguments. It's simply unproductive and feels toxic (actually I can say it also about peter_spy's own comment here, above mine). Overall it is good mission although being a bit rough. From my point the mission also sometimes feels a bit big for the sake of being big, but I was not as annoyed as reviewer by it.

Also I can't say that the main story sucks - first of all because it is typical sandbox and typical story for such type of game (and I don't think it's bad - for such kind of game where gameplay is the king), and secondly - because there are some choices player can make here during playing (both with Marlow and assassin) - which only adds to the immersion and contribute to the plot. What I not appreciate - is that you should carry certain body throughout the huge map, and also some bugs in the assassin's quest (sometimes it didn't tick off even when I did everything required).

Thank you for your constructive input Mike. I wasn't really elaborate on any points here, it's more like these quick reviews on last pages of a magazine or a newspaper. Player will read the positive ones, maybe glance over this one, and try to see what the fuss is about for themselves. It's the variety of the opinions that make people curious, not homogeneity. Emotionally mature people know that once you release something to the public, it's beyond your control. You can state your intentions as an author, but beyond that, you can only see the audience exchanging arguments pro and contra.

I don't want to elaborate too much, but I called the story cringeworthy mostly because of the writing. Marlow letters were a facepalm material to me, even though I'm not an English native. I also think that not only is the story an antiquated trope, it's also at odds with the mission design itself. It's really tacky to go for the damsel in distress trope, where: a) the damsel in question is literally an object with no agency, b) there's another identical female AI like her in the kitchen, c) you'd think that there would be a sense of urgency in rescuing any character, but authors place you at the other end of the map and the game seems to imply that there's no hurry in rescuing anyone here. And no, protagonist scoffing at it in the intro doesn't make it better, as it's still a slog. A couch psychologist would probably say that someone seems to have problems with attitude towards women, but let's just say that in 2020 the story like that is rather silly :)

As for the gameplay being king, I could write another paragraph or two how it's not the case here, but let me just say that TDM has a really good, very fluid movement model, what coders did to Doom 3 base is amazing. None of that is seen here. The way windows and ledges are positioned make it feel clunky. You don't feel like an adept thief moving smoothly through the night, you have to carefully aim before every jump, as you might miss the window base or a ledge (sometimes you miss, sometimes you don't), or hit some sort of invisible wall and land on the streets. And while there are means to move between streets and upper levels, e.g. there's a cart or stage coach somewhere that looks like an easy way down, but you do get falling damage when you land on it (on normal difficulty).

Etc, etc. As you said, the mission feels big for the sake of being big, and that's my impression as well. Regardless of the setting, having fairly clear creative goals, and respecting the time of your audience is what I value most. So I rated mission for what I saw it is: decently decorated, but otherwise mostly unfocused giant maze that is just there.