That's the thing with making the missions much harder than the original missions were.

I'm pretty positive it's exactly what the level designers wanted it to be. 😉

One of my least favorite missions of the original campaign as well. This, and The Sword. I just don't like them. The architecture of Constantine's mansion, lots of noisy surfaces, hard enemies, which are placed almost unfairly in some places, and the fact that it's not a typical loot mission. Not my cup of tea.

Not that I really dislike any of the mission of the original campaign, but, this is surely the one I least like. 4/10 or 5/10, probably.

To be fair, a lot of fan missions introduce marble floorings for enhanced difficulty though.

And, this is one of them.

Good to see you're still doing your mission marathon, and also play the original missions. 🙂

And, I agree, this is one of my absolute favorites in Thief Gold, aside of the Bonehoard and Cragscleft Prison missions.

I play quite a few fan missions at the moment (I'm addicted really), but, also looking forward to play the original campaigns soon for the 4th or 5th time as well.

I can only echo what you wrote. This is a great mission, but, it sorely lacks a map (not just because the Hammerite fortress is pretty difficult to navigate, but, especially because you will probably take the armory key pretty early from a guard, and then you stumble around the fortress without knowing where the armory actually is. In my case, I probably explored 90% of the fortress, until I finally managed to find the armory, and had to backtrack to places where banners or high beams were, w...

It's not easy to navigate, but, it somehow grew on me, over the years.

Actually, now, I'm always surpised that, even though it's confusing, you will find your way in the end.

I somehow don't trust you.

One of the finest of the original missions.

And, yes, I understand your objections about the spike in difficulty. It's also something most FM authors don't understand. That many of their missions are MUCH more difficult than the original missions, thus hard for casual players.

Is that really what's "behind those doors", or the FM authors imagination what could be behind those doors?

This mission is definitely one of the best of the original missions, and, all in all, one of the best Thief missions. Really creative and interesting. And creepy as hell.

Thank you.

"There are two misconceptions that plague the fm scene, one is inability to see anything = scary/atmospheric, the second is bigger = better."

I couldn't agree more. Especially in the last 5 years or so, there has been a trend to bigger and bigger missions, and not an emphasis on making the missions fun to explore and play. Yes, bigger missions can be fun to play, but, they also can be a chore to explore and to finish. The most prominent mission which has this issue is Rosegarden by Melan ...

I voted it a 10 out of 10 as well. A masterpiece.