Playing a Thief fan mission that tries to do something different is always at least somewhat exciting, I think. Even though the chance of the attempt ending up not so succesfull is always there, I usually mind that less than playing a technically better mission doing the exact same things every other fan mission has ever done. A Journey Into the Underdark is basically a short action/adventure RPG, but collecting loot is still mandatory to finish the mission. It's a shame there are quite a lot of clunkiness here that make the experience anything, but flawless...

While the mission does an interesting move and instead of the usual difficulty settings, it offers three classes straight from the RPG genre (Warrior, Archer, Mage) the player can experiment with, I found only the Archer class actually playable. The difficulty is all over the place, and the fact that anything intensive combat related in Thief is automatically maximum clunk, makes it even less bearable. Also, while I usually prefer the tighter level designs, need to mention that here, it often just complicates the gameplay. Unfortunately, enemies way too often end up awkwardly stuck in the geometry. Another aspect that may bother some players (for a good reason) is the darkness in the cave areas. You've got an item that can generate some brightness, but instead of creating an interesting atmosphere, I found that rather cumbersome.

After all these critical aspects I need to say this mission is still pretty fascinating and worth to explore. It's one of the more unique fan missions, I'm not even sure I've ever stumbled upon anything similar. A Journey Into the Underdark has a great atmosphere and it's just fascinating to play a Thief fan mission, that instead of the usual thievery, focuses on the dark fantasy setting.