--MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD--

Rowena's Curse is another FM of the early favourites.

The story is its strongest point as it very quickly gets you hooked and wanting to push and discover more. The characters are intriguing and presented from multiple other characters' point of view. There's more than enough depth not to have any flat or stereotypical good- or bad-guys and you are let to discover the developments piece by piece.

Gameplay-wise, it also starts out quite stong. You begin to find your way around the mansion and its surroundings and it pans out in a classical Thief manner. One thing you notice very quickly is the exorbitant number of guards wandering about. On hard, you can come across as many as FOUR guards simultanoeusly in a single hallway. Wonder if it's even more extreme on expert. Couple this with widespread tiled floors and I imagine how big a challenge it must be to ghost this one. In my experience the enemies are also fairly alert and sneaking around it's a tad more challenging than normal, I liked that.
On the other hand, loot targets are set quite high, while a considerable number of purses and other valuables are simply strewn around in random, illogical places. Other cannot be picked up despite the very same model in another room being valuable. I didn't like that. Some spots have poorly designed lighting, making you more visible than you expect, but it's not a game-breaking issue.

In general it's a very solid 9,5/10 .... until, unfortunately, at halfway mark it stops playing to its strengths and becomes running around doing chores. A big, long and tedious running around doing chores. The story becomes too convoluted and much less focused. Now it's a series of mini-quests for you to do in exchange for a key to the next mini-quest. The instructions and hints are all there, but it will happen that the vital information is in the middle of page 5 in a 12-page diary on the other side of the map, so if you didn't pay attention or forgot about something... well, it's too bad, then. The underground portions stretch way too long, don't look good, and aren't nowhere near as enjoyable as the mansion.

I'll admit, though, despite some drawbacks, it still felt pretty well having finished this after a 3-hour-long playthough. If only the mission went all the way as it does for the first hour, it'd be a 10/10. Now, it's "just" very good.