June 19, 2023, 11:43 p.m.   (Last edited: 1 year ago)

This is a difficult one. It may well be the ultimate and the last dinosaur of the "mansion with huge skeletons in the closet underneath" subspecies at a time when they were already and decidedly out of fashion in the same way as undead invasions in which it also dabbles a bit and, to add insult to the injury, in its final woes it shamelessly becomes an fps of the rpg sort with huge flaming swords (no pun intended, the finale is so hillariously bad-taste in the vein of 80s-metal-band iconology that it must have been an intentional poke by the author), so requires definitely a genre-tolerant player. But the actual strength and phenomenal achievement of this mission lies of course in-between all the genre confusion, in its middle part (the palace is nice&huge but relatively forgettable save for the glasshouse). There you get yourself in a situation (I intentionally say you and not Garrett) where you suddenly have to find a way out of the deepest underground, on a route of unknown length and difficulty that quickly becomes a life or death struggle, with dwindling resources and faced with two mechanics that complete the dread to perfection - there was an older mission called Shadows of Eidolon that invented the first one, total darkness as a gameplay device, but did not explore or advance it much. Here it gets due treatment added by another device of doom, which is your lantern as your only source of light and progress but which comes at the same time, and quite naturally, with but two catches: it only lights a certain, quite small perimeter with abrupt fall into total darkness on its edges, and it MAKES YOU VISIBLE FROM FAR BEYOND that perimeter of light. These two ingredients, without disclosing more, make for one of the most effective, intense and terrifying horror experiences ever in Thief. (PS Please do NOT play it on hard or normal. Be a mann). Everyone should try it except women, children and the faint of heart. Enjoy.