May 17, 2023, 4:28 a.m.   (Last edited: 1 year, 7 months ago)

Others have already pointed out several idiosyncracies of this mission - highly atmospheric w great sense for detail, layout, use of textures and sound ambiance but the initial highly professional impression sadly does not last mainly due to gameplay design issues. It seems the author worked rather from an initial overall concept with less regard for (or experience with) technical gameplay and engine possibilities, manifesting in many places in the player being able to circumvent (knowingly or unknowingly) the apparent confines designated for them in clearly unintended ways (easily climbing out of sound brushes and visual covers of edges of the world and doing "silent" roof shortcuts) or elsewhere bumping into invisible barriers and struggling with unreliable and unpredictable item hitboxes, but the key "bad gameplay design" issue to me would be a morally wrong and grossly out-of-character choice imposed on Garrett halfway through the mission that he would never accept given everything he learns of the situation by then (he saved the world once or twice, right?) simply by way of technical level design - you have no other option as otherwise the mission cannot be finished, and the author surely made damn sure that precisely in this you have no other physical alternative. One could argue that specifically this mission would outright lend itself to a much more interesting dichotomic good/bad ending (you could try the bad one just for the "evil coolness" of the visual effects and fun of it but still have the better option). Another if less striking (also mentioned by others) point is that later progress in the game is mainly contingent on an obligatory sequence of keys and can become overall rather tedious.

But all that does not mean this is a bad mission - the atmosphere can be spectacular even if many visual and architectural "sets" and choices and some assets are strongly reminiscent of the likes of Greenbay/A Better Tomorrow/Rocksbourg series (Ink&Dust specifically)/Tears and Sorrow from Black Frog and at one point I seriously (unknowingly) suspected DrK as author, and there is at least one memorable "chamber of horror" of the highest caliber. Overall just that one or two notches below the consistently even top efforts.