I liked The Mages Area, but this one is on another level, really. Now bear with me, it's been ages since I played FMs and I decided to binge it all, skipping former versions in favor of remakes or reiterations, so this one is the second "big" one I play this time around, the first one being "Gathering at the Bar" (and yeah, of course I can't wait for Calendra's, I translated the darn thing ages ago).

Still, it's the first time I play Events in Highrock, and boy oh boy. Let's get the ugly stuff out of the way: find a guide (not that hard) and keep it in the background, resort to it at your leisure.

There. That's very much it. Highrock can be convoluted, cryptic even (I have to WHAT the beggar in the clocktower???). That spoil being the only time I had to really use said guide, but I can see a couple more places where you'd need it.

Apart from that, it's funny that Mad God left a note almost apologizing for the lack of detail when this is one of, if not the, best city mission of the early days (at least so far). It's labyrinthine without being convoluted or disorienting, full of neat details (that sometimes get in the way when windows aren't super obvious - maybe I'm dumb, but I got kind of stuck because I didn't realize I had a glass window in front of me once. Hit myself on the head for it, but still). There are so many ins and outs throughout the whole thing that the Compass came in handy a few times, but I really, really had a blast throughout the whole thing. Unlike Sweet Harlot, it also manages to be consistent in quality from beginning to end (maybe I should put an asterisk here because of the tunnels, but there's not much you can do with those). Even the mage's castle, while not very detailed, didn't feel out of place.

The writing is good enough that it doesn't hamper the enjoyment, even though it's objectively hard to read. I can't blame Mad God for doing their best, and there wasn't much I didn't understand immediately.

There's a lot - a LOT - to do, a lot to explore, and numerous bonus objectives to be found and completed during Highrock, all of them nice surprises. That's easy bonus points from me too, because it keeps the player engaged effortlessly, and helps in not having the mission overstay its welcome, even more so as they usually don't take too long to do.

While there's not a lot of verticality, what's there is put to good use and well designed (again, unlike Sweet Harlot), and what little crates I had to use didn't feel so tedious.

I feel bad now for not playing it sooner. It's one of those. You know, the ones that you had so much fun with you put them in a separate folder just to play them again one of these days? Yeah. It probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, what with the cryptic stuff, the overabundance of hidden things and all. But as far as I'm concerned, it really is a must-play.