After having a bit of fun with undead we're back in the world of living. Though not all of them will stay that way tonight.

The mission starts with a scripted action sequence, where a merchant takes (unwillingly) an arrow for you. Then you have to follow assassins through city streets while staying hidden the whole time. I think, their route ...

One of my absolute favorites from The Dark Project. From the creepy Trickster song in the briefing to the first view in the beginning, it sets the vibe immediately. And even the map, which among the sketchiest, tells you that you know nothing about the place, outside a few general things and you will have to explore it mostly on your own.

The...

One of my favorite things about the first game is that every mission introduces something new to overcome. The first mission had spiders, human guards and help, marble floors. In the second mission we're introduced to supernatural elements of the world. The religious order, undead, metal surfaces. And new tools as well, like moss arrows and holy...

The mission where you're introduced to a lot of things and where you get a chance to apply the skills you got in the training mission. Infamous "taffer" and "bear pits" were born here. As well as Lord Bafford and his scepter (I'm sure it will return in some FMs later). While solid gameplay-wise with ever changing, slightly boxy environments, it'...

This mission is genius.

First, it's optional, experienced players can skip it and move onto the game.
Second, it teaches you what you need to know about gameplay and exploration, but leaves enough to experiment on your own.
Third, it's integrated into the story and the lore, so it's not just about mechanics.

It's so good, that the same t...

This time with foes from T2. It's actually quite fun. Hammerites and Mechanists chasing a small mouse for a few minutes straight.

First yuu need to pick up a sword on a nearby table. Then there's an arena with two levers - they open cages and release You, a bunch of spiders, a thief, a haunt, a guard and a beastman. They gang the haunt and then turn onto you. Apparently, thieves, guards, spiders and beastmen have a lot of common in their war against Garrett.

Temple - empty Greek temple with a statue that isn't Athene.
Domus - a bunch of empty rooms and a pool, in, what looks like, an Ancient Greece mansion. Empty chests and food scattered around.

Small demo, that features a few bizarre encounters and some slaying of undead. But it's mostly about assets like a moving bell, the platform etc.

Or Dark Engine's version of it. You navigate a cramped and boxy dungeon, where you collect loot, hunt keys and kill haunts as well as green bearded fellas. There's also a boss in the end. I didn't try different classes and went with a swordsman. But, tbh, not much to see here.

Too primitive even for 2000. It's built well, but it's just unremarkable. Samey rooms and corridors, no challenge. Switch hunt is easy. It probably was an OK mission 25 years ago, but it aged poorly. There's nothing going for it today. Skip.

Being a true natural-born maestro, I played on the Maestro difficulty, obviously.

No blackjack means you need to sneak past everything in this marble paradise. Which slows your pace considerably. Granted, not everything is marble and it's done rather tastefully with various less loud surfaces mixed in. The mask was in such an uneventful place...

Between this reimagining of Thieves' Guild and Rogue's Lair, I prefer this one. It makes more sense for thieves to live in tunnels and sewers below the city for quick navigation instead of a giant Khazad-Dum-like necropolis with an access via 100 m dive in a well with water. Though, obviously, Rogue's Lair is far more imaginative and beautiful t...

It's bigger than I anticipated and you will be navigating roofs, windows and even a chimney like a proper Santa, while unleashing good deeds on everyone. The mission is beautiful, with a lot of festive details, but it comes at a price of major slowdowns. There are a lot of custom objects, videos, voices. Authors went all in.

I was quite hooke...

The author has a good eye for Thief aesthetic. A lot of stuff looked beautiful, with excellent use of light and composition. And while I prefer more claustrophobic missions, this one overdid it a bit. You constantly get stuck in things, in corners, hallways, doors etc. Majority of the time there's only one person that can go through a passage an...

This mission's ambition lies more in locations and environments, than moment to moment gameplay. It's busy crafting the lore, expanding the areas that we navigated 25 years ago for the first time, but it leads to a lot of unused spaces, that sometimes feel incomplete. Some rooms are just there because of lore instead of game design purposes. Gam...