The Cradle is a stylistic misfit in the Thief games. I never liked it and this will not change. For the record: I never liked DS much anyway, but this is IMO the worst mission.
Yeah, it was praised for the atmosphere and so on. Not in my book.

At first, it might be scary if you are 10 years old or never watched a horror movie before. But then it isn´t. Cheap jumpscares like knocking from an unknown source...yawn. I swear one of the "scary" sounds is the one that plays when Garrett holds the bow too long.

Then, it just doesn´t fit into the Thief setting. It looks like a modern horror movie. While this might be fine in a game with another setting - not in the Thief world. Psychiatry isn´t a thing of the Thief world and should not be. Spiritual welfare here is a thing of the Hammerites(or maybe other religions they view as heresy, like the pagans), so why have an asylum here like from our world?
Neither the zombies nor the orderlies fit in here. It´s just like having a car in Lord of the Rings.

Then, the layout, looting and all that stuff. It´s also not really interesting.
The Lauryl part is also more annoying than anything else. And now we have time travel and buildings with a memory? Really, give me a break. This doesn´t make sense at all. We are supposed to fake a suicide to make the building "think" we are out. So...what happened after Garrett jumped out of the window? Even if he gets then back in the present, isn´t he supposed to fall a lethal distance anyway?
Ah well, don´t think too much about it.

Mission ending is not so grreat - true. Would be different if TDS kept slowfall potion.
But rest of that mission is masterpiece. First half not having any enemy - first time you play you don't know that and it's scary like hell. But even replayability is great. Plus great reveal in the attic. This mission is culmintating point of whole TDS.
You rated it 1. Seriously? Then how would you rate "Escape!"? I admit that you might not like the Cradle, but rating of 1/10 means it is utter trash.

I don´t see it as masterpiece and don´t like it. Tastes are different. What has Escape to do with that? That´s another story.
Note that opinions can be very different. I don´t care about some kind of consensus or what some gaming magazine once wrote.
It´s my opinion and they can have theirs. And yes, while I wouldn´t use that wording IMO it´s really trash.
Many people don´t like Mage Towers. I like it. To each his own.

Well, UdoKrawallo is right - every mission isn't immune to criticism and Robbing the Cradle is not that hallowed and sacred either. That being said, - I quite like build-up in the beginning of mission and also the game here in any case still remains stealth though you can blow up puppets, distract them, flash-bomb them etc. It remains faithful to the spirit of series and TDS in particular - in that this level is a huge player's sandboxy playground. Perhaps, Lauryl's quests can become a chore after a while, and in general, the mission itself feels a bit derivative from RttC, while being smaller than that one, but I think it's not major issue. Perhaps some forced stealth bits are something not everyone's cup of tea, but they are short. The time-travel thing I think is appropriate in both medieval fantasy and survival horror. It's even feels very original in my humble opinion. I would even say that RttC with its zombies is more trivial comparing to Cradle (though it has much more interesting layout). Perhaps Cradle is precursor to that time-travel mission in Dishonored 2 (which also is very gimmicky mission). On modern engine, Cradle would be phenomenal. Stll, while it is not the best level in TDS I still had great fun playing it. It has quite original ideas and still is well-made stealth sandbox.

In any case after great carnage and mass destruction I inflicted (and still do so every playthrough of T1) upon poor haunts and zombies in main hall of Haunted Cathedral, I really can't object over puppets and giant living house (that has some primitive consciousness) here.

Yeah, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just feel that ranking a functioning and well-made mission that you happen to dislike stylistically the same as a buggy two-room DromEd test devalues the whole rating system.

I stand with the given 1 points, because for me it´s legit.
Atmosphere: It´s not "Thiefy" at all, and a bunch of silly noises aren´t automatically creepy.
Story: Like said, it doesn´t fit in the Thief universe, and there are more interesting stories than the usual asylum stuff.
Gameplay: Also not that challenging. The enemies can be easily dealt with and this running around with "oh, there is this and that object to collect/dispose" is not exciting.

Robbing the Cradle, the most controversial mission of TDS!

Finally someone said it. Also, it seems like the level designers forgot that electricity is transmitted wirelessly in the City, so the asylum suddenly has modern electrical wiring. Wow, such an atmosphere!

I don't agree with Udo about the rating, but honestly, this is the kind of review I like to read here: a different opinion.
At this point I'm kinda bored to hear again and again, how much this mission is a masterpiece. Giving a rating of 1 is a bit cruel (I think it's a relatively decent mission with lots of interesting aspects), but yeah, definitely not the masterpiece most say. Has some serious pacing and game design problems.