Melan created a new topic about Alcazar,
Best abuse of space:
“Strange things lurking underfoot” is the basic idea behind this sequel to last year’s Into the Odd, by the same two-author team. ItO was a rambling masterpiece and a punch to the face difficulty-wise; Alcazar is more player-friendly, and its constraints give it a more precise focus. Staying at a local tavern, you notice something interesting in plain sight beneath a courtyard grating, and set out to find a way to grab whatever may be resting there, almost within reach... This task proves to ..., March 1, 2021, 4:31 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Recipe for Turmoil,
FM mimicry:
At first sight, this is a fan mission whose provenance looks clear: its style is similar to multiple well-known FMs set in dark city districts with a strong vertical element, and using assets which might as well be an author’s signature. However, the signature is false, and the mission isn’t built by the first person you might think of – and there are tell-tale signs which point in this direction. At first sight, this is a fan mission whose provenance looks clear: its style is similar to multiple well-known FMs set in dark city districts with a strong vertical element, and using assets which might as well be an author’s signature. However, the signature is false, and the mission isn’t built by the first person you might think of – and there are tell-tale signs which point in this direction. [Edit: I was half correct, but blew it massively. The FM was built by someone entirely different..., March 1, 2021, 4:30 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about A Midsummer Night's Heist,
Smooth mansion heist - and a homage to a Wille classic:
Welcome back to the Fan Mission Homage Contest! This mission is built in the style of Mystic Gems 2: Heart of Bohn, and is set in the same city instead of the default Thief setting. The mimicry is pulled off flawlessly – this is an original mission, but the assets, brushwork, atmosphere and lore all connect it to its classic predecessor. The result is a very good-looking mansion heist with good gameplay, smooth puzzles, and decent storytelling. It kind of plays it safe, and does not stand out..., March 1, 2021, 4:28 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about The Perdurance,
Excellent horror mission on Mechanist ship:
In the Thief mission ecosystem, Mechanists occupy the same evolutionary niche as Nazis do in film: they build elaborate facilities where something goes wrong, and they mess with forces that are not to be messed with. They are, also, not particularly missed when something inexplicably starts massacring them. This makes Mechanist missions great for survival horror, and survival horror rarely gets better than this small Mechanist-themed mission set on a derelict steamship, which gets everything ..., March 1, 2021, 4:25 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about A Sinister Night,
Survival horror tropefest:
One common survival horror setting is the “basement horror”, where you are trapped in a horrible basement filled with flesh-eating zombies or mutants, and your only equipment is a feeble light source which is as likely to draw the monsters to you as it is to allow you navigate. Themes of hubris and “what have we wrought!” are also frequently involved. Well, this is a mission in this exact vein, and while no major surprises are in store, it does what it says on the tin.

Sinister Night is ma..., March 1, 2021, 4:23 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about The Turning of the Leaves,
Moody forest mission flattened by contest constraints:
Thief is not well suited for building forest missions, and most previous attempts have created what seem to be forest-textured corridors with the odd cylindrical tree stuck in to liven things up. This FM is one of those which come close – but if you look behind the façade, the paths still look like corridors. If you accept this (a fault of the engine, not the level designer), you get an atmospheric mission filled with mist, rain, and the mysteries of a forest environment. It also leans on hig..., March 1, 2021, 4:21 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about The Cinder Notes,
Good Sliptip homage:
In what seems to be an unintended pattern for this contest, this FM is an homage to Sliptip’s Ashen Age: a Mediterranean city at dusk (or dawn), a prominent use of waterways, and a very high-res aesthetic. This mission uses the available space well, seeming larger than it is. There are multiple ways to proceed and accomplish objectives, with sneaking just right – neither terribly easy nor particularly hard. Likewise, the puzzles are logically built, and one of them is fairly original. The mis..., March 1, 2021, 4:18 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Sabotage in Eastport,
Something is missing:
A very vertical city mission centred around a towering Mechanist facility you must infiltrate, surrounded by equally towering high-rises you must plunder. The most successful aspect of the mission is how vertigo-inducing it is – yes, it goes HIGH, and it is a long way down when you slip and fall. And fall you will: navigation can be tricky, and either due to innate issues introduced by the narrow and cramped vertical spaces, or a lack of sufficient playtesting, some of the jumps are fairly fr..., March 1, 2021, 4:17 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Nightwalk,
Newbie mission, off to a good start:
This is an obvious newbie city mission that reminds me of very early 2000s design efforts – the good ones. For all its mistakes and rough edges, it is a good promise, showing imagination and design talent. Sure, the brushwork is blocky and sometimes badly constructed, but there is a willingness to experiment with unusual shapes and shape combinations. There are fun ways to get into buildings and pass through a series of apartments into entirely different places. Gameplay is rudimentary, but t..., March 1, 2021, 4:14 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about My Favorite Year,
Nice Middle-Road Mission:
A fan mission integrating a warehouse complex, the owners’ rich yet obviously bad-taste residence, and a connecting cellar/tunnel system. This is a smooth, entertaining fan mission whose gameplay mostly relies on exploration – sneaking challenges are fairly modest outside a few trickier ghost spots, and the puzzle element is on the easy side. It shines in its look – a dark, smoky kind of appearance, lit minimally to make for plenty of shadows and exciting contrasts. The use of stock and stock..., June 28, 2020, 10:49 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Show Off,
Best Topiary Burrick Award:
A museum heist with a surrounding town. Unlike the author’s mission from last year’s TDP contest, this is missing the creative touches and complex gameplay potential which had characterised The Hunt. There is a city section around the museum, but it serves little role in the mission (and the few places you can break into are largely devoid of interest). The main target is a simple, well-constructed heist, although one with some questionable decisions regarding puzzle design, and gameplay that..., June 28, 2020, 10:48 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Time For Change,
Unpleasant Night With Sir Dicklon:
This is a rather repetitive newbie effort, with blocky and uninteresting architecture, basic AI patrols, and not much of interest except the name of the noble whose house you have to rob, who is called “Sir Dicklon”. We have all played many missions like this. As it is, it is more frustrating than entertaining., June 28, 2020, 10:46 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Where the Unknown Lurks,
A Pleasant Surprise:
This mission is impossible to discuss without spoilers – this one will restrict itself to *light* ones. The FM takes Garrett to a country estate for a routine burglary. Part of the fun here is in the place itself – it has its own identity that is quite different in look and feel from the places we have visited in Thief, and has an odd Finnish/Scandinavian look that’s fresh and interesting. There are interesting ways to approach the FM along multiple routes, too – imperfectly, since the loot g..., June 28, 2020, 10:45 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Troubling Transitions,
Creative in-between mission:
A city/church mission revolving around the rise of the Mechanists, and their split with the Order of the Hammer, in an interesting, atmospheric Winter environment. The architecture of the mission is labyrinthine in a good way – visually creative, and fun to navigate through either the rooftops or the streets. The places you can visit, and the snippets of information you can gather are fun, but the focus of the mission is the church, undergoing refurbishment from old Hammerite roost to antisep..., June 28, 2020, 10:44 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about The Pursuance of An Inscrutable Reciprocity,
GORTTUFF:
Polished, original, and challenging from the king of hard missions (there is a separate GORTTUFF difficulty level – you have been warned). Or is it? This mission can be deceptively simple if you approach it that way, and it is easy to walk away from it with just the slightest feeling something is a miss. Was it supposed to be this simple? No, but you have to look deeper to find it. While giving you a break or handing you a challenge, the mission looks good doing it: like Feast of Pilgrims, it..., June 28, 2020, 10:43 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about The Builder's Paradise,
Expressionist Brass and Steel Nightmare:
A brass and steel nightmare that emerged from Karras’ mind; a catastrophe unaverted; and a desperate bid to rid the world of Karras before Karras can rid the world of, well, everyone else – this is a hell of an alternate reality mission that asks the question “what if Garrett could not win at Soulforge”, and goes from there, taking us to the grandest, biggest, and most terrible skyscraper super-fortress the Mechanists have constructed. Except it is on figurative fire, everyone is (mostly) dea..., June 28, 2020, 10:41 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Ten Little Taffers,
Comfy Agatha Christie Adaptation:
This is an interesting adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little [OH NO! OH NOOOO!] In Christie’s genius story, ten Britons representing a cross-section of society are trapped on an isolated island resort, and start getting killed in macabre ways that seem disturbingly tied to a nursery rhyme. The mission presents the same scenario in three parts, tied to the three difficulty settings. You play as an outsider, as the killer, and as the victim, seeing the story unfold from different perspecti..., June 28, 2020, 10:39 p.m.

Melan created a new topic about Into The Odd,
Transcending Excellence:
There are missions which are competent, there are missions which are excellent, and there are missions which are visionary. The second groups win contests; the third expand on our ideas of what Thief can and should be. This mission, clearly in the third category, is like a blow to the skull. It is, honestly, not well placed in the contest theme, as it properly belongs to the world of Thief 1 – but with a sensibility that pays homage to Sperry’s diabolically hardcore and alienating fan mission..., June 28, 2020, 10:38 p.m.