Dec. 26, 2021, 1:55 a.m.   (Last edited: 2 years, 12 months ago)

The premise of "The Black Mage" is simple: our "Man With No Name"-type anti-hero is hired by local peasant to infiltrate the castle of local lord Davenport, find out what happened to peasant's son named Robert and (if there would be need) rescue him from the castle. But as soon as our thief begins investigation, things complicate more and more, with Black Magic being involved.

"The Black Mage" was originally made by Grayman, who sadly passed away earlier this year and so the work was continued by other TDM FM creators, led by JackFarmer. The ending result, the mission itself is not big, but packed with some well-hidden loot (including set of artifacts which are disquised as mundane tableware), several optional tasks, and main quest, which keep you busy for 2-3 hours. The loot goal or artifact-related goal are hard to achieve, but remain optional. If there is anything to nitpick - it is the hunt for several specific books with information important for one certain plot-related puzzle. Otherwise it is competently made mission, remarkable for variety of places where player will find him/herself, also including mausoleum-like structure, and caverns, full of lava - with some clever challenges in them. While been released on Christmas, the mission has strong Halloween vibes. Also nice touch is the final tribute to the original mission creator - which is quite touching. Overall, well worth playing.