The author has a knack for creating challenge. This mission is a sequel to Mages Area, which is among the most challenging missions in the early days of FMs. This one isn't an exception. Yet it's significantly superior to the previous work.

Really great beginning of the mission, where you're ambushed by a haunt. You have multiple ways of dealing with it and it's interactive storytelling at it's finest. Then exploration begins...

The city area is immersive and sprawling. With a lot of well hidden secrets, loot and passages. Maybe a bit too well hidden. It feels like the author wanted players to work on every find. Which makes exploration rewarding and fun. The evil mage area is more like a boss area, where you need to fight your way through with the items that you accumulated in the city part. You will get a number of new objectives and some of them have nothing to do with the main story, but they're still fun to do.

At the same time, with the challenge comes frustration. Sometimes things are hidden so well, they feel like secrets. I was unable to solve one scripted sequence and had to look for a guide. Yet, even despite these, the mission feels great. It's a nice improvement over Mages Area and certainly a highlight from 2000.

Worth playing.