I cannot know what has been going in the mind of Lord Taffer throughout these years, since the release of his previous fm, Time For Change, but it seems he took all the critiques very seriously. Time For Change was a perfectly okay beginner's attempt (not great not terrible) with a couple of decent secrets, but admittedly the level geometry, texture work, and overall atmosphere were somewhat dull. Well... with Mysteries of Tolham, Lord Taffer has turned up all those aspects to the maximum - and probably even beyond that.

First and foremost, I'd like to emphasize that a creator listening to critiques with an open mind is a really cool thing - I cannot help though, but feel like we may witness some overcompensation here. I might be corrected about this later on, admittedly it's just something that my intuition tells me, and it can be wrong sometimes. Maybe Lord Taffer just felt this mission had to be his magnum opus and categorically went for that.

But anyway, about the mission: it's an interesting map with lots of fun (but often trial-and-error heavy) vertical platforming, cool optional/hidden areas and insane amount of loot (mostly scattered around) to collect. The atmosphere is pretty unique, the mission is set in another city, named Tolham, which is "a blend of towering buildings, intricate machinery, and much older structures of possibly antique origin". Mission design wise it's a mixed bag though: while the map is pretty open, and the different objectives can be completed in any order, I was somewhat surprised by how strict the map could be in terms of how you can enter some of its sections. This made me scratching my head especially at the museum, since there was only one possible entry point, even though another one seemed completely logical.

In fact, this duality is always present in the mission: the imaginative level geometry and texture work is pretty amazing at first - but slowly turn into a blend of visual noise and sometimes completely incoherent spaces. The attention on details and polished work tell us about a talented and dedicated author very familiar with DromEd - but the map often fails to be an actual space and ends up seeming like an over-complicated video game level generated by an AI trying to capture the essence of some popular Thief fan missions. I can't tell if the concept of Tolham was a vision from day one, or an afterthought, but overall it feels like a strained effort to avoid the criques targeting the author's previous fan mission.

Not sure how harsh my review may seem at this point, but I gotta say: overall I had a good time with Mysteries of Tolham, and definitely looking forward to play Lord Taffer's future fan missions. The good effort is undeniably there, it's just he needs to develop more confidence and focus(!) as a mission designer. Mysteries of Tolham is an amazing work, but tries to go too wild with almost zero subtlety - and therefore sometimes ends up being an overhwelming and unfocused mess.

If you feel this was too hard for you, maybe try smaller city missions. Im sure if you play more than a few dozen missions you would start to recognize differences between vanilla expectations and when people try to do something bigger and more difficult.
What is obvious is that you didnt understand this one, which is sad, but maybe with some additional experiences in a few years you will, keep playing!

(See how dumb that sounded? Thats how you sound, relax and dont take someone's creative work you get for free as something to dissect and insult the author. Try and be supportive instead and you'll be a better person at the end of the day)

What the hell are you talking about? Seriously.
Look man, I'm really sorry if you cannot sleep at night, because I said something about this mission you cannot process mentally (for whatever reasons I'm not even sure I wanna know). But going this deep into nonsene is not necessary. You are one click away from finding out I've rated more than 100 missions on the website and my ratings are usually positive. Not even mentioning how many times I've supported beginner authors first attempt in my reviews.

Please, don't try harder with the stupid, and accept the fact that while Tolham is a really solid mission, some people may not fully love it like you do.

Thanks in advance.