My reviews have gotten shorter over time. This isn't because I am getting lazier (despite my worries) It's because the FMs have somewhat fallen into a holding pattern of being obviously terrible, or being competent but mostly dull from a technical standpoint.

Curse of the Ancients however, successfully avoids both of those. It is a good mission, made hilarious by the technical behind the scenes antics.

This mission is about robbing an evil tomb in an abandoned part of the city. Can I just say that the city is a real treat to explore. It feels straight out of the base game, while having enough oddities to feel memorable (Such as the specters with arrows through them.) There is nothing in the entire mission which is supposed to be alive.

There is one oddity in this part of the mission: The temple does not worship the builder, but apparantly Jesus. This causes my inner pedant to be very upset. Particularly as the hammerites are already Proxies for orginized religion. However, I won't make a big thing about it here, as it's a very minor issue, that probably bothers me a lot more than it should.

The tomb itself is a series of puzzles. All fairly straight forward, and fun.

This however, is where I peel back the veil, and reveal that a fairly well made mission is not enough to make me remember it. However, while the design is skillful, there is a technical side to this mission. A technical side that is honestly quite hilarious.

Lighting strikes are represented by dropping a flashbomb in front of the player. A spooky event on the upper floor of the church is triggered by a pressure plate, which rather kills the fear. Within the tomb itself, at least one of the puzzles can be broken by throwing a body into lava. While the design is elegant and smooth, the technicals have the elegance of a hippo on a Unicycle. As a result, the tricks and mechanisms are all done in very primitive ways. Which for me, adds to the charm. Also, here is a little thing that might ruin your playthrough so stop reading this paragraph here if your worried: -- The undead haunts, with black robes? Those ones are actually fully capable of being knocked out. Clearly they were based on the thief models, rather than the haunt models. Either that or the author deliberately allowed them to be knocked out for reasons unknown.

All in all, a fun experience, with problems that only increase the overall charm of the mission. None of it really drags, and the mission flows well. The city at the start is the strongest section, but that is not to say the rest is bad by any means. A very competent and enjoyable experience.