The story in House of the Architect is minimal: all you need is to simply rob another manor. There's only one difference from the same jobs - the manor belongs to architector of Bafford's and Constantine's mansions.

Therefore, the mission was clearly meant as mix of Thief 1's opening level and The Sword. But it feels like either overgrown Shadow Play or throwback to era of earlier Thief 1 fan-missions - like Order of the Vine or Mystery Man. The mansion consists of several GIGANTIC floors, full of tile floor, loot, huge rooms and halls and passages between them - obvious and non-obvious. Several exits to mansion. Ways from one floor to another, hidden in plain sight. The mission easily puts tension on the player who should carefully manage attention to marble floor and to guards walking around.

The mission clearly feels like beginner's effort. Sometimes it's too gigantic, and some areas (especially outdoors) are clearly underused and are empty. Some bugs are present - with the disappearance of certain item near the end of mission. There are almost no readables in the mission (I don't think of it as disadvantage though). In general, I think that Intertheft, its NewDark contest competitor is slightly more elegant and polished. But still, this mission is very good, and I hope to see some new creative input from DataElemental.

Hmmm, I'm not 100% sure about the "beginner's effort" part, but I can definitely see what you mean by that. In terms of quality the mission isn't too consistent (also there are a few parts which kinda have an unfinished/abandoned vibe), but I think some areas were really well built in terms of annention on details, asset placement, usage of textures, etc. (not to mention the wild ideas of the second part)