I don't think I've ever been so torn in my opinion of an FM.

This could be one of the most visually striking missions I've ever played. The scenery, both interior and exterior, are breathtaking for a Thief mission. The attention to detail by the author shines through in leaps and bounds.

The scripting is excellent, making the entire experience seem completely alive. Once again, the attention to detail is top notch. I saw cut scenes which I didn't even know were possible to pull off in Thief.

The gameplay is where this mission falls short, and I mean way short. I would say that very few players were probably able to finish this without some kind of hint or walkthrough. I played on the medium difficulty, and I estimate that easily 85% of my time was spent trying to figure out what to do next. There are clues, to be sure, but they almost add to the confusion (for example, the solution to one of the "puzzles" completely contradicts the clue you are provided). Many of the rest of the puzzles are unintuitive and you'll look at a walkthrough and ask yourself "how would any player be able to figure that out on his or her own?".

The castle is huge, and the gameplay relies on the player to figure out how to get from one scripted event to the next to progress the story. There is a great auto-map included, but it's possible that the player will complete much of the mission before finding it. Attempting to navigate this castle, even with the map, is quite tedious and you'll find yourself traversing it many times trying to find that next scripted event. At this point, I'm assuming most players will surrender and read a walkthrough.

That being said...I love this mission and hate it all at the same time.