Holy shit, what an incredible mod.
I still haven't played too many fan campaigns as of now, but for me, this was easily better then T2X in terms of both having better writing and presentation, and also the levels just leaving a much bigger impression on me.
The Black Parade is basically everything Thief as a game excels at, distilled and polished to an absolute sheen while also pushing the engine to limits I didn't even think possible. From the first level alone to the very end, even the mod's lowest points are not enough to bring down what I honest to god feel outclasses even T2's base levels in some aspects.
My biggest worry going into this was this being a Thief 1 mod. From my experience with other games (namely classic DOOM), most people stick to the sequel just for all the stuff it added. It seemed kind of backwards to make a campaign mod for the first game without all the stuff T2 added, and my biggest worry was that this was gonna have all the stuff I hated about T1 but on a larger scale. Not the case at all.
It's got the similar mission variety T1 has (with thieving levels on the level T2 had and then some), but just with much, MUCH better level design. Sure, the map doesn't tell you EXACTLY where you are like in T2, but everything is so distinct and well-designed that it's not hard to figure out just WHERE you are by taking a quick glance of your map and compass for cross-referencing. I barely got lost at all in this campaign, and even when I did it didn't take more then a minute to get back on track. Honestly playing this has made me realize that the missions I hate the most in T1 are the ones with just no map, or the ones that have barely any detail to them and then just expect you to figure it out (looking at you, Constantine's Mansion and Cragscleft). When you aren't given a map in this mod, your path is made more linear to compensate, which I think works really well. Honestly the fact I had to figure out where I was more often just felt really satisfying and made me feel more immersed in the game.
If there's any real complaints I guess It'd be that the last level was kinda eh personally? It's not even that hard but it feels really big and in turn more confusing then it should be for no real reason, where when you really think about it it's kind of just a streight shot to the end once you pick up a few items. Again, not a huge deal though. The other missions are consistently great that it doesn't matter.
If you somehow are in the Thief community and haven't played this yet, please, play this. It's as perfect as a campaign can get for this game I feel. If Skacky's contributions to this are any indication of Arkane Lyon's future projects in terms of level quality, then fuck me we might be in for something good.
I still haven't played too many fan campaigns as of now, but for me, this was easily better then T2X in terms of both having better writing and presentation, and also the levels just leaving a much bigger impression on me.
The Black Parade is basically everything Thief as a game excels at, distilled and polished to an absolute sheen while also pushing the engine to limits I didn't even think possible. From the first level alone to the very end, even the mod's lowest points are not enough to bring down what I honest to god feel outclasses even T2's base levels in some aspects.
My biggest worry going into this was this being a Thief 1 mod. From my experience with other games (namely classic DOOM), most people stick to the sequel just for all the stuff it added. It seemed kind of backwards to make a campaign mod for the first game without all the stuff T2 added, and my biggest worry was that this was gonna have all the stuff I hated about T1 but on a larger scale. Not the case at all.
It's got the similar mission variety T1 has (with thieving levels on the level T2 had and then some), but just with much, MUCH better level design. Sure, the map doesn't tell you EXACTLY where you are like in T2, but everything is so distinct and well-designed that it's not hard to figure out just WHERE you are by taking a quick glance of your map and compass for cross-referencing. I barely got lost at all in this campaign, and even when I did it didn't take more then a minute to get back on track. Honestly playing this has made me realize that the missions I hate the most in T1 are the ones with just no map, or the ones that have barely any detail to them and then just expect you to figure it out (looking at you, Constantine's Mansion and Cragscleft). When you aren't given a map in this mod, your path is made more linear to compensate, which I think works really well. Honestly the fact I had to figure out where I was more often just felt really satisfying and made me feel more immersed in the game.
If there's any real complaints I guess It'd be that the last level was kinda eh personally? It's not even that hard but it feels really big and in turn more confusing then it should be for no real reason, where when you really think about it it's kind of just a streight shot to the end once you pick up a few items. Again, not a huge deal though. The other missions are consistently great that it doesn't matter.
If you somehow are in the Thief community and haven't played this yet, please, play this. It's as perfect as a campaign can get for this game I feel. If Skacky's contributions to this are any indication of Arkane Lyon's future projects in terms of level quality, then fuck me we might be in for something good.