Having played the original version of Calendra's Cistern almost two decades ago, I had very vague memories of the mission. I remembered the annoying Brother Adrius body parts puzzle, the titular cistern and... that was pretty much it -- I forgot almost everything else. So playing this Newdark Update version was an essentially new experience for me. And it is honestly amazing how great this twenty-year-old mission holds up.

Many aspects of Calendra's Cistern you can't call anything but ambitious even if they were part of a modern-day mission, having those in a two decades old one is nothing but amazing. There are new intro and outro movies, pretty damn decent voice acting, some marvellous scripted sequences. A dark, gothic -- and a well-developed! -- story of cults and secret societies that don't feel out of place in Thief universe. A character of Mercedes, another former Keeper acolyte, Garret's employer and love interest.

Another aspect of Calendra's Cistern that I completely forgot about is that despite taking place in a rather big city block, the mission is actually pretty linear. There's only one way forward, and the illusion of open exploration is achieved through smart use of faux branching paths that are but dead ends. Detalisation is also a bit on a simpler side, but feels stronger thanks to the great ambience. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the use of romantic fantasy artworks in the style of Boris Vallejo or Hildebrandt brothers as paintings.

Totally agree (well maybe I would be more lenient about the rating). I also played Calendra's Cistern 20 years ago and replayed it again. The City is massive and quite nicely designed. Just like you, I was surprised with a linear walkthrough requiring you to unlock further parts of map. This approach feels quite strange now, especially after I played FMs from Skacky, Nicked or Korthak. But again, their stuff is made a decade later.