Sept. 29, 2020, 4:05 a.m.   (Last edited: 4 years, 3 months ago)

An excellent three-mission pack. As it's a sequel to the earlier FM "Calendra's Cistern," I recommend you play that first along with Purah's first mission, "Autumn in Lampfire Hills." The story here is that Garrett needs to pawn off the artifact he stole in "Calendra's Cistern," which proves to be a lot more complicated than he expected.

The first mission is essentially an intro: Garrett needs to get to the nearby district of Murkbell, which is mysteriously closed off from adjacent Lampfire where he is now. It's a nice little mission, with an autumnal atmosphere that includes some cool weather effects like lighting and rain, and distinctive blue fog. There are several possible routes to your objective, varying in difficulty and reward level, and a fair amount of optional content you could easily miss if you just head straight for the end. It's worth exploring it all, partly to flesh out the story through readables and a couple scripted events, but also to obtain the mission's well-hidden loot, which is important because this is one of those campaigns that implements the shop between missions. This is where the mission gets challenging: while no one will bother with you on the streets, breaking and entering is still illegal and there's a strict ghosting objective so you have to be sneaky. Here the lightning adds an interesting gameplay element, since it can suddenly illuminate a dark area and spoil your evening. There's also a not-so-hidden crypt, which if you can get inside is a pretty involved quest of its own. It doesn't exactly outstay its welcome, but the various traps and puzzles are tricky, deadly, and therefore potentially frustrating, so be sure to keep some backup saves ready.

The next mission takes you the heart of Murkbell: a large, open section of city with a dingy, dirty atmosphere, and a sickly yellowish sky with full moon looming overhead—a striking contrast with the previous mission. After a not too strenuous timed first objective the mission escalates and then escalates again: you think you're in a normal city level until it's swarming with undead! At this point a promising start becomes a thrilling journey as you dodge various kinds of walking corpse (including some custom types) on your way through the city. As in any great city mission there's a choice of routes, including opportunities to climb and crawl, or even swim in the canal that winds throughout the district. A detailed map makes it possible to carefully plan your routes. It's good you have those advantages, because it can be a tough mission, depending on your playstyle; the horde out there is serious. On higher difficulties there are a few objectives to keep you busy, as well as an item hunt that, unlike another hunt in "Calendra's Cistern," is thankfully totally optional.

The final mission is a very different beast. The opening section is a snowy city and is less open-ended and more puzzle-based than most of "Midnight in Murkbell." The streets are patrolled by Hammerites, and there's at least one choke point you'll have to be clever to get past unseen. To keep things interesting, there are plenty of thieves lurking about, who frequently engage in street battles with the Hammerites. Your ultimate goals, though, are underground. (My advice is to hit the thieves den first and then head to the Keepers, otherwise you'll be ill-equipped for the level of grief the Keepers will give you.)

Story-wise, there are enough readables to keep things fleshed out, but the missions rely heavily on scripted events, including in-game scripted dialogue and other interactions between Garrett and NPCs. This is a pretty neat feature, but I've noticed in this and other FMs that it can be pretty buggy, with the bugs ranging from annoying to mission-breaking. My advice is to never reload a save during OR shortly before or after these dialogues/interactions, or something might go wrong. The story itself is nothing mind-blowing, but the way it is communicated is pretty cool. There are a few things I'm not a fan of, though. Mercedes is not a particularly well-written character in my opinion, fulfilling the roll of "sexy (but maybe not entirely trustworthy) lady thief" that Garrett's chasing after and little else, and Lara Croft appearing in Murkbell was just silly. But these are minor issues, really.

All in all three good-to-great missions make a must-play. For my taste, the second mission, "Midnight in Murkbell," is the clear highlight, mostly because I love Thief's undead as well as open-ended city missions. Any mission that combines both is extra sweet to me, and I can't fault any aspect of this one's design or objectives. Whatever your favorite happens to be, each of the Purah/Team Calendra missions deserve the classic status they've achieved in this community.

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