The premise seemed reasonable: find out why the locals are being rousted out of the area and clean out a bank vault while you're at it. Fair enough. I was dropped into a city environment that was frankly, on the whole, unimpressive. After a couple of minutes, I found myself pinned down in an apartment with one entrance/exit after the barest glimpse from one of the guards that drew four of them down on me. After ten real-time minutes of them swarming around in the front room, I wrote it off as a bad start. Tried again, took a different tack, and somehow attracted the attention of a guard I never even saw until he bird-dogged me blind down several floors onto a porch. I ducked into some local darkness, and waited another several real time minutes watching the guard circle and taunt before it shouted a battle cry and rushed back out the door for absolutely no apparent reason. Mmkay. That's when I cashed out. Others have said this one gets better, but between the half-assed environment and irrational, endlessly-aggro'd guards I've put up with so far, I have zero interest. It's hardly the worst effort I've ever seen, but 8.94 really? *Really?* Just not feeling it. Not even close.

No downvotes from me - everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I play some missions (won't name them here) that have rave reviews that I uninstall within 15 minutes of starting,

This one (for me) was a weird one where I thought the beginning rooftop zone was very basic but somehow I got into it. I don't ghost so maybe that was a factor in me eventually liking it.

Ghosting in general seems like a frustrating affair that just locks you out of half the game experience. I will never understand people forcing themselves to not engage with all the ways the game can go.

There's a couple of things that go into this.

First, getting through a whole level undetected and unsuspected provides a real sense of satisfaction.

Second, blackjacking guards throughout a mission makes it easier as you progress. So you have this weird inversion where the difficulty ramps down instead of up over the course of the mission, and finishing it feels anticlimactic.

Third, you're not supposed to get spotted. It's kind of the point. If you alert guards, sure, you can go on playing if you like but for me it feels like playing through a failure state.

Funny how ghosters just enjoy the game and don't look down on anyone but some non-ghosters can't help but constantly tell them they're playing the game wrong. Someone needs to work through some issues...

@marbleman: That is just not true. I can't count the amount of times people who like to ghost told people who knockout guards that they're doing it wrong, and the skilled way to play is ghosting.

Even FM authors: Why implement useless non-KO objectives? It makes no sense at all.

Let the player decide how he plays. That's the big plus with most immersive sims. No need to decapitate that, by forcing a certain play style onto the player.

That said, I don't really understand the discussion on this mission. As far as I remember it, there was no forced ghosting. And, I also remember it as as a great FM, so, yeah, I think giving it a 5/10 rating doesn't quite cut it, but, everyone is entitled to his opinion, of course. And, I think downvoting someone for his rating or his opinion is also totally stupid.

Fair point, it would be more accurate to say that none of the ghosters I know have a superiority complex, but I don't actually interact with that many ghosters despite being one. Maybe it's just a perspective thing. Still, I don't get this compulsion to tell people they're not having fun the right way.

Yeah, that was my point, and, why I think the best missions, and best games let you play the way you want.

And, if I recall this mission correctly (it's been a while), it doesn't really force you to any specific play style. Otherwise I wouldn't have liked it, I guess. ;)

>"Even FM authors: Why implement useless non-KO objectives? It makes no sense at all."

Yeah, this is something I've changed in how I build my own fan missions. I no longer include no-KO or no-kill objectives unless they're specifically story related (don't kill the guy you're trying to kidnap, don't let the watch captain know about the breakin, that sort of thing).

I also won't force combat or blackjacking; there'll always be a way to ghost it.

I played a campaign recently but can't think which one it was.
One of the missions in the campaign required you to ghost as that was part of the story (maybe looking for a cosh or sword, the usual thing...). I had no problem with that as it seemed to fit that particular mission.