This mission from nicked brings you to a mage keep and academy on a sabotage job that you’re supposed to pull off with the help of an associate. Naturally, things get complicated, and there are a couple of twists in store to spice things up.

Visually it’s what you’d expect from a nicked mission. It’s very clean and polished. There are plenty of eye-pleasing sights as you get to witness the grandiosity of the keep from numerous vantage points. In addition to most enemies having new models, small details such as equipping guards’ outfits or banners with new insignia are always welcome and appreciated.

I have very few reservations about the gameplay. My playthrough was smooth and enjoyable. There is, indeed, some confusion about which new assets are loot and which are junk (for example, a silver tray that’s a junk item in the original game and most FMs, but here it’s valuable). However, these instances are rare enough not to be a major issue. The new opponents are one of the creepiest things you’ll encounter in an FM. Their presence also fits the narrative of the mission really well and you may even find some associations with a very well-known novel. I absolutely loved how disturbing and inhuman they come across.

That said, you can get a feeling that something’s missing – maybe just one more brilliant idea to elevate a very good FM into something spectacular (the new opponents come close, though). Some more varied ambient music would also be great. A distorted OM theme looping for an hour just doesn’t quite cut it.

All in all, it’s a very well-done FM that brings a lot of classic Thief enjoyment. it’s a solid experience overall, with maybe just a few minor things that could’ve been done differently. Good for about 90 minutes on expert. Probably 2 hours+ if you like to play completionist.