I hope this mission won't dull the impact other fan missions will have on me, for this is a near-perfect product of sheer ambition. It uses the framework of Thief to create something grander, telling an engrossing story that brings all those ambitions together. It really excels in every aspect.

I would start by telling about the story, because I think this is the connective tissue here. However, reviewing the story on its own would just result in spoiling things. Instead, I will mainly focus on the gameplay and how engaging with it unfolds the story in such an organic manner.

You start without a Blackjack, which makes the mansion you are about to loot a threatening place to begin with. Once you find a replacement, which comes with a simple yet very clever drawback, you largely go about the mansion as usual; knocking out guards and collecting items.

The thing is, that while the stealth is your good old Thief experience, uncovering the mansion works a tad differently. The mansion contains puzzles, and readables contain hints on how to solve them. The layout of the mansion isn't even that complex or groundbreaking with its level design, but the puzzles are so satisfying to figure out. They can be pretty tough, and I did use a walkthrough two times. But only one of these two times, I felt like it was actually too tough to figure out what to do (entering the Captain's quarters). Uncovering the mansion is immensely fun. And while uncovering the mansion, you uncover the story this mission tells. The story begins vague and is pieced together through these readables, but it all ends up making sense in the end. Honestly, this sentence undersells the story immensely.

A better way to sell it, is by saying that this story doesn't simply engage because of it being part of the Thief universe. It engage because it stands on its own, and stands head and shoulders above anything the official missions do, in terms of writing, progression and how it strengthens the atmosphere of the mission.

The atmosphere can be impeccable. It's not just "great setpieces", it's all contextualized. The most atmospheric sections are part of a whole. They work to enhance the story, and the story works to enhance this atmosphere. They both work together to completely upend the player's perception of what this mission is. I won't say any more, it's fucking insane.

This doesn't follow the simple Thief mansion formula people (me among them) have grown to love. Even the parts that are normally considered controversial in the Thief scene are worked out to near-perfection here, being conservative and considerate with its use of enemies and never becoming annoying or tedious like T2X's marble-filled, fire-spamming mausoleum. The finale bests any finale I've seen in Thief. Final missions in Thief 1, Thief 2, T2X or The Black Parade just do not compare.

I can understand that this won't be everyone's cup of tea. Still, I won't lie. That's just a matter of close-mindedness. There's enough Black Parade-esque, open-ended missions with intricate level design and high replay value. This is simply an insane and groundbreaking palette cleanser at worst, and a unique marvel at best. Yes, it has puzzles. Yes, it goes on for ages (took me 4 and a half hours to beat it). But this is what compelled people to play The Black Parade (Mandalore's "It keeps going?" is repeated in TBP reviews multiple times). I loved the length, I loved how hard I had to familiarize myself with this mansion, and I love the story that lay behind it. There is more than enough variety to justify the length. If this was split into two 2 hour missions, nobody would complain.

The fact that this 2003 mission reaches such heights, and is considered tedious or outdated by some, can only mean one of two things for me, someone who hasn't played many fan missions yet (but has played TBP, which is considered a pinnacle by many):
1: Later fan missions somehow go into this direction, but do even better (better pacing? Using years of DromEd experience to make for an even stronger atmosphere? Perfecting this type of storytelling?)
2: There's just not enough eye for taking Thief into new territories, while still making good use of its framework.

That Ominous Bequest isn't perfect goes without saying. As long as writers like Stephen King exist, the story isn't a masterpiece in and of itself. Within Thief, however, this is a masterclass in storytelling. This is how stories ought to be done in games.

Utter masterpiece, 10 for atmosphere, 10 for gameplay and 10 for story.

Ok now all the other classic FMs :-) My tentative suggestions: Rocksbourg series, L'Arséne+Emilie Victor series, Calendra series. and as special bonuses Ruins of Originia, Dark Messiah, Dancing with the Dead & more...