Sept. 16, 2020, 8:49 p.m.   (Last edited: 4 years, 3 months ago)

When I started "Now and Then", I thought it would be small city/museum mission. Our hero goes to the local museum trying to steal the famous painting "Now and Then" which depicts painter in her different ages - when she was young and when she was mature and adult. But things are getting more and more complicated as plot thickens - including some travelling between times (!).

It also can be said about mission layout as well. Seemingly small and empty at first sight, "Now and Then" surprisingly unfolds, and appears to be very densely packed: you actually can enter almost every building you can see. Sometimes ways into some secluded rooms are very hard to notice. Also the mission features some simple but cleverly made adventure elements - like playing with switches in seemingly (again!) empty room near the museum or performing several hidden simple optional objectives. The stories of different inhabitants often are interwoven, sometimes in unpredictable ways, but always logical. It also fun to see (spoiler alert!) the same mansion - which would be your next mandatory stop while moving along the plot - in two different years (why do you think this mission was named "Now and Then"?) - when it was the house of local noble inventor in the past and when it becomes the den of thieves in present. The contrast is striking, even if layout is mostly the same. Sometimes the mission is very non-linear, for example you have several (and sometimes un-obvious) ways to get inside the aforementioned museum.

This mission while clearly not being as vertical (in fact, it is mostly "flat"), reminded me a bit of "Whistling of the Gears" and "Zealot's Hollow" (but not as cramped): deceptively smallish and empty at first, then it becomes a true joy of exploration as it uses space (and time!) very effectively. My small nitpicks initially were a bit too much relying on keyhunt and steep loot objective, but the last one is optional. Also some time travel aspects are not convincing and are a bit underdeveloped. Aside this, it is another marvellous city small big mission which will keep you busy for several hours for sure.