Posted November 23, 2014
Adokat: Lord Alan's Basement was indeed only average, but the Factory is...well there's no other level like it. It's by far the largest level you'll ever play, and it's vertically oriented, too. It's really daunting at first, but as I worked away at it and pushed past the initial confusion, I began to make sense of the design of the place and suddenly it all clicked into place.
Resonance is a recent map, and beautifully designed. Heist Society is kinda hazy in my memory to be honest, but it was a fun little mission.
Finally got around to playing LA's Factory and Fortress, Fortress was cool, big improvement over Basement considering it was released just a year later. Made good use of space and the circular design with towers was very intuitive. Took the risk of playing on the limited KOs difficulty and enjoyed the stealth part of a Thief FM for the first time in ages- knowing the engine tricks has prevented me from enjoying anything but the exploration and atmosphere in Thief missions these days. Honestly I wish more missions made this an option, and I liked it when Art of Thievery and Framed did it. The stealth encounters, supernatural areas and puzzles were really well designed (this author seems to love her number puzzles) and the music choices were great, with organ music proving surprisingly fitting for Thief. 9/10 Resonance is a recent map, and beautifully designed. Heist Society is kinda hazy in my memory to be honest, but it was a fun little mission.
As for Factory, well, HO LEE SHEET you were right about the size. Maybe not as big as Being Thief 2, but it made better use of the space. Perhaps it was a bit too big in areas and was a chore to run around with all those metal floors (I KO'd everyone), but the huge factory machines and areas were amazing (felt so puny and insignificant). It wasn't Thiefy at all, more Dystopian Industrial Horror, I'd say- the whole thing was very implausible in the Thief universe. It was very dark in tone (even the ending cutscene!), and the music choices reflected that- sounding a bit like something from Half Life. The plot and monsters later on were just awesome though and once I knew my way around and was accomplishing the main objective in the various machine rooms with that soundtrack, my blood was pumping. Also TNT arrows are pretty. Anyway, 11/10 for being one of the most unique and impressive missions I've ever played, despite its flaws.
Now onto resonance and Heist Society! Thanks again for the recommendations.