Sept. 30, 2020, 7:11 a.m.   (Last edited: 4 years, 2 months ago)

If you've played the previous Rocksbourg missions, you'll remember the brief otherworldly sections that tear you out of the city and to place you in someplace else entirely. It all culminates in "Ink and Dust". After pulling off an exceedingly dark and moody city theme, DrK creates a brand new and fully realized variation of the Keeper theme.

You enter through a libary whose shelves, like the Keepers', reach the ceiling, but the structure is built out of dark, corrugated stone and illuminated by moody purple lights in the form of smoky lamps and floating spirits in addition to the usual torches. The members of the strange Order this library belongs to range from scholars muttering obsessively over their readings, to brainwashed guards with empty eyes and even more chilling creatures that look like humans subjected to some warped magical procedure. You really feel like you've stumbled into a forbidden world, totally distinctive yet totally at home in Thief's strange universe.

But why are you here? After nearly dying at the hands of undead, Garrett was apparently plucked from the sewers from a high-ranking member of the Order who noticed you stealing a relic from them in the previous mission. Instead of simply killing you, your benefactor has decided... to task you with stealing two more relics which will apparently be useful in stopping the distaster that threatens Rocksbourg and the world.

The Order's domain is divided into two main sections. The South Star compound is where you start. Much like the first area of the second Rocksbourg mission, it's a safe zone at least at the start. There's a bit of what seems like busy work of the go-find-this-person-or-thing variety near the beginning, but it's a actually not a bad design decision, as it introduces you to the world while also making you explore the compund a little, allowing you to find some items that will be useful later and also familiarizing you with the layout for reasons you'll find out later.

The North Star is where things get really interesting. Whereas the South Star consists of familiar architectural shapes, the North Star is a more twisting and otherworldly structure, with irregularly-shaped chambers and corridors that communicate in less predictable ways. There is actually a logic to the structure, but it's not really obvious at the start and it takes some exploration to piece together. Meanwhile, the threat level from patrols is enough to keep things tense.

Compared to the previous Rocksbourg missions, "Ink and Dust" doesn't have the same problems with devilishly hidden keys or switches, but there is a massive item hunt. The items are tied to riddles, and while it's only necessary to solve two of them to complete the mission, the others unlock cool areas. The items are thankfully not particularly hard to find but can be found anywhere in either of the two compounds. The riddles themselves range from the obvious to the highly cryptic, so it's good idea to grab anything you see even if you only plan on hitting the areas tied to your objectives.

What do make a reappearance are the Silent Hill horror sections, culminating in a prolonged excursion into the so-called Dark Zone. I'll say little except that if you've played Silent Hill you know what you're in for, and if you haven't played Silent Hill then you should play Silent Hill. The gameplay in this section is maybe a little basic, but in terms of atmosphere it boldly steals from the best and that's all it needs to do.

"Ink and Dust" is all I could have wanted from the finale to a generally excellent Thief campaign, with probably the best overall gameplay of the series and on top of that a whole new theme fleshed out and polished to near perfection.