It took me a few days to beat this mission. It's overwhelming, probably the toughest Thief mission I've played as of yet. It's also one of the best missions I've played as of yet.

The Builder's Paradise starts off in a dingy basement. When the elevator takes you to the top of the humongous complex, you really feel like you're being taken to a climactic finale of a level. Inside, horns play part of the melody of "Accingite Vos" (a track made by a German band and used in the credits of the German Thief II - shame it isn't in the English version), combined with an edit of the ambient breathing noises from the "Masks" mission (my favorite track in Thief II). These things combined set the tone even further.

Like I mentioned before, the complex is absolutely massive. Not only that, but there's a load of unique mechanical monsters wandering its halls. The objectives don't really give you any pointer in what to do. They evolve as you explore the building, eventually involving so many steps that additional readables are provided to give you a handout on what to actually do. Along the way, there's much to see. Every area feels unique, has purpose, and provides progression points or story details.

The size, amount of enemies, complex objectives, and somewhat key-hunt nature of the mission make it a really hard one, but it's immensely satisfying to progress through the place. At no point while going through the main objectives - and only twice for the optional one - did I need hints/a guide to get me going. I felt really proud for that.

The story provides a real interesting scenario for our thief to fight his way through, which I won't really spoil. The only gripe I have is that the ending felt somewhat anticlimactic. One of Karras' intercom messages also played when he was already dead? I was thinking he had escaped or something, and that his "body" was a double. Seems it's just a bug?

Overall, this mission is amazing, a very special experience. This was the very first Thief FM I learnt of, and I was excited to play it ever since. The hype paid off! But a word of warning: steel yourself with other big, complicated FMs before entering the Builder's Paradise.