This mission is quite rough on your first time around. It's once again a face off against the main villain, so there's no loot to get and your objectives are focused on taking Karras down. The story takes the front seat and you're treated to some amazing plot beats and cutscenes. But gameplay wise it's a departure from the regular Thief formula. But...it's a lot better than the first game's finale.

The stealth boss battle approach is once again the correct one. Instead of there being just one linear gauntlet to reach the boss, here you have two sets of objectives to do in any order you wish, giving some much needed open ended objective design. All objectives are unique and interesting and the plan to defeat Karras is a lot more intricate and satisfying to pull off than with the Trickster. Soulforge is absolutely massive...a bit too massive in some instances. And if areas are extremely massive it's somewhat hard to make them detailed. But the design very much makes up for that, with nearly every area having multiple entrances and ways to approach it. The crafting element is especially interesting to fiddle around with.

It's ultimately another final challenging gauntlet the game throws at you, but this one is a lot more varied and unique. I feel like the final missions in any stealth game aren't going to be the highlights of it, but this one's certainly better than most in its execution. I'm not exactly looking forward to playing this mission on my replays, but I don't mind it either and find it an enjoyable time. But every time I finish it...I feel saddened that we never got Thief 2 Gold.