June 11, 2022, 8:12 a.m.   (Last edited: 2 years, 5 months ago)

I would not call Rose Garden "the best fan mission for Thief games ever made", but it certainly keeps me hooked during several hours each time I replay it. The main cause I guess is how deceptively impenetrable this mission seems at first look and how unobvious could be the ways of approaching your objectives here. Each time I face with some new content I haven't noticed before. The plot (and some readables) also contributes a lot to the mysterious feeling of the entire thing: Garrett's quest for Golden Books for some mysterious (again) employer seemingly does lead only to numerous new questions, and the ending is still open and leaves me waiting for possible (?) sequel in some future.

Perhaps deceptive linearity (with very well hidden ways to locations), occasional "I'm stuck"-situations, and the plot with open cliffhanger in the end are also the causes of some low ratings that mission received during the contest voting back in the day and is still receiving here. I, on the contrary think that challenge of mission is mostly fair. In order to progress, player should be very attentive to the surroundings and sometimes think "outside the box" to get to the next area. There are (almost) no tiny levers and hatches, and keyhunt is extremely rare thing here, but still, finding way further requires solving of some environmental puzzle. The mission is very vertical (as usual with other Melan's city missions), with numerous loops, secrets, hidden passages and small questlines - it sometimes feels like some city RPG module. The massive and oppressive look of Hightowne also is already noted by other reviewers here. Some quests could lead to some unexpected consiquences and change the gameplay (I don't want to make spoilers).

The strange occasional bug with arrows not shooting (reloading of the mission helps) - is maybe only one technical problem of Rose Garden. Also maybe the loot is too scattered on the big level - or perhaps, it is my own small nitpick? Either way, to sum up, while it is long (usually for 4-5 hours for me), quite tiring (in a good way) mission, and has high entry threshold, it is among the kind of truly memorable experiences I've ever experienced.