[Fan Mission: Blackgrove Manor by ddaazzaa (2021/03/14)]

Interesting, I was not aware of this review section.

However I am unsure. Are the reviews meant for people trying to decide which mission to play? I feel like my review contains so many spoilers that after reading it, there is little point in playing this mission. Most of its quality comes from the unknown, once you know that you can freely walk around everywhere without fearing any enemies for most of the mission, it is quite dull to play it.

[Fan Mission: Blackgrove Manor by ddaazzaa (2021/03/14)]

After some years I just reinstalled TDM again and this was the first map I played.

I had fun. The map is a good example of many of the core gameplay strength of the Thief series.

Detailed review:

Spoiler

I appreciate the existence of the intro, though the voice acting is terrible. At no part does the narrator seem to actually mean what he is saying, it sounds like somebody trying to read a text that he does not understand himself. There is just zero transport of emotion here. Luckily, this is by far the worst part of the mission.

I love maps, where initially everything is vague and through exploration and gameplay progression the story advances. What I appreciated most was the way how story and gameplay are intertwined, you have to explore and understand the story in order to know what to do. This is exactly the gameplay I want to see.

Then, I really like the non-linearity. There are multiple ways across the wall (at least 2) and also multiple ones to get into the house (2 for sure, but I think there is maybe even a third or even a fourth one?). I have to solve a riddle that has no clues, but since there are multiple ways of doing so, I had not to wait for too long to stumble upon some solution and I felt smart doing so, since there were no clues. This is exactly what I want.

There is no clue what is to be expected inside the house, but horror is strongly suggested by the premise. Everything was very dark, I walked around slowly and anxiously; great atmosphere. Something bad is about to happen, you just don't know where and when, but there is already no escape from it anymore. Yet, having played to many games, I was not fully immersed, since I figured that I would be reasonably save until the point I trigger a major story point, at which time I expected the horror to start. Consequently I explored everything in darkness and left all the interesting rooms (crypt, chapel, attic and observatory) until I explored and investigated everything else. And sure enough, once the light was switched on, the Zombie awoke.

Now, there is a lot to collect here. For me, the difficulty was spot on, I found all important items and never was annoyed by the searching. I particularly liked getting into the study. I found out, that Arthur should have the key, but not knowing which room is his, my only clue was, that he obviously is some type of servant and looking at the map revealed that the butlers sleeping room is the only one where the key could be. And of course it was there. No explicit clues and yet I figured everything out without frustration. Very good.

 

Now, overall the first half was the stronger one. The suspension of not knowing what to expect was thoroughly enjoyed by me. Slowly piecing together the story was great, too.

Though at the end, everything was a bit disappointing. There is very little conclusion to the story, it kind of just ends awkwardly. The daughters grave is a very good example of this, at first I did not find it (I was looking for some special tree, it turned out to be a super generic one, so that was lame), and then there was zero reward. Nothing to interact, no comment, no additional story piece, just nothing. One feels cheated for the effort of searching it.

Also whatever fucked up thing happened in the chapel is never touched again. It would have been so great to have some sort of story here, ideally something that translates directly into some additional gameplay tasks. It was a great moment to enter the chapel (though performance is really poor in that room), and my intuition was right, that there is something really significant about this room (or perhaps this was just clever subtle hints ), but then that is just it. What did the father do? Where are the others? Why is the previous thief suddenly a Zombie, who are the undead? What are the consequences of steeling the artifact? Any way to stop the evil? A lot could have been done with this, both in terms of gameplay and story.

I also was making sure, that I unlock all doors leading outside the mansion. I almost expected something bad to happen so I would be trapped inside and would have to find my way out again. Having to search for that switch in the last room and finally finding it was rewarding, but then you just somehow run off and everything is over. Not returning to the boat was disappointing. In the end, there is very little in the mansion to be afraid of, just 3 monsters that you can easily sneak by. No climax towards the end.

 

On the technical side, I have no complains. The map looks nice, there are a few minor things, but I don't even care enough to list them here. Biggest thing was perhaps that you can follow the ventilation shaft in the basement for a very long time until you end up in a room seemingly below the stairs next to the chapel. That room did just not make any sense at all, I expected it almost to be the exit when leaving the chapel later on, but no. Just a super weird room that would never exist in any remotely real house.

Maybe the outside could have used a bit more details, it is somehow just an awkwardly large rectangle with a few keypoints, rather than a proper garden. On the other hand, the many white statues inside had great effect, as I said I played mostly in the dark and having them slowly appear from complete darkness was always spooky. The jump scares work much better in the beginning, towards the end I almost expected something in every room, so I did not care so much anymore. But since it is supposed to be a haunted house, I am ok with a couple "cheap" tricks gameplay wise, they kind of fit and definitely did add something to the atmosphere.

 

But yeah, all in all I had about 2 hours first class gameplay. The end was the most disappointing part, but since it was then quickly over, it did not matter much. I probably wont play this mission again any time soon, it very much lives of the suspense and the not knowing what to expect; the actual sneaking was pretty simple and you basically have no use for any of your equipment except the lockpicks and the lamp. But that first-time exploration gameplay was absolutely prime, I felt intrigued, smart and not frustrated. No guidance yet I always had a clear idea what to do next in an open level. Astonishing quality for a free-time fun project map, and the addition to the official TDM maps is more than deserved.