First of all, this game is really good and figuring out the mechanics or where to go next is mostly a really pleasant and rewarding activity. Many of the boss fights were fun, the npc's are great (most are better than the npc's of its predecessor Demon's Souls), the parallel the game makes with depression is beautiful and Firelink Shrine feels like home... It's such a beautifully executed concept. But... I hate to say it but i agree with most people when they say the second half of the game is inferior to the rest of it.
After Duke's Archives the game had worn me down; I was tired and saturated - I just wanted to finish the game as fast as possible at that point. And besides that, this game is not as inventive as people praise it to be, since a substancial part of its core characteristics and mechanics came from Demon's Souls - they are basically a copypaste of it. There are a repetition of some enemies, bosses, areas, npc's and even lore elements; the thing that is completely original about Dark Souls is its "open-world" and interconnectivity, which is pretty cool and helps a lot with the execution of the games themes, but at the same time, it gives me a feeling of a very small world so I wouldn't say it is perfectly executed.
Dark Souls, in my vision, wanted to be a improvement of what Demon's Souls was, and in many ways this was achieved - but this is where the problem lies: in many other ways it wasn't.
Demon's Souls was still way more experimental and inventive with bosses for example - every new boss felt like a puzzle to be solved (which I personally like more)... and once solved it would give you an enormous advantage against that boss - Dark Souls on the other hand standardized boss encounters to a single type of boss fights (Bed of Chaos was a poorly executed exception).

Anyway, sometimes I think that maybe in that final stretch of the game when I started feeling fatigued and tired with the game narrative, areas and bosses - my head was in the wrong place for personal reasons. And maybe I should've taken a break to finish the game some time later. Maybe if I had done that I would've enjoyed the second half way better, so I'll keep that in mind and will complete the game a second time someday in the future. Maybe I'll change my opinion, I don't know...

At long last, this is still a great game, better than most things you can find in the game industry nowadays. It has some unique traits and atmosphere, a very rewarding gameplay style, greatly executed themes and a beautiful message.
To everyone that played the game and may be reading this, whether you agree or not with my opinion, don't you dare go hollow!

b-bounjour... ahem hello. i am a le 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓱 forenginer from a, uh, france, and I have erm moved to japan to learn le culture of a le japanese. for many years i have wished to a lllllearn le way of le japanesse for i have a, how do you say, loved many le 𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓶𝓮. i wish to learn le 𝔀𝓪𝔂 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓾𝓻𝓪𝓲, for you see, everytime i imagine le beautiful samurai man, i seem to breath le less et less breath, 😫 thinking about their bodies and great swords. ah that sight is making gleeful of le anime men i see so much. 𝓸𝓱 𝓶𝓸𝓷 𝓓𝓲𝓮𝓾.. i cannot hold le back, i must... OOOOOUUUUUGHHHHH...!......... yes... it would seem i am very fond of le japanesse 😊

Thief is methodically mapping space from the shadows. Thief is exploring an architecture of absurd, arcane labyrinths. Thief is rotoscoped & roughly layered 90s FMVs scored with industrial beats.

The Black Parade, a fan campaign mod for the now 25 year old Thief: The Dark Project, brings Thief into the present as an act of alternate-history building. Within the tight restrictions of the Dark Engine, this imagines what Thief could be given decades of further contemplation, or in this case, seven years of development led by famed modder Skacky.

The Black Parade echoes iconic levels: here is a mansion, or a sprawling, vertical city, a rain-swept church, a plague stricken derelict district. But everything is now denser, more honeycombed, more varied. At times you’ll be lost, but they’ve paid special attention to every room’s volume, materials, light and colour, so that your mental map is as rich as your potential targets.

Thief separates itself from other Im-Sims by refusing to be an everything-game (Deus-Ex). You are a thief. You can’t fight for shit. You can jump from carpet to carpet and knock someone out if you’re good, but you can’t do much about two guards on your tail. Thief is narrowly designed to do one thing. The Black Parade knows this and is as close to Thief 3 (5?) that we’ll ever get.

I'm not well versed in the Thief modding scene and only played Thief 2X before (guess I'm drawn to full campaigns instead of single missions) but I can confidently say that this is a great Thief mod. I'd be shocked if many fan missions are better than the ones in this 10-Level campaign.

I was constantly blown away by the sheer size and details of pretty much every mission. I unironically whispered "holy shit" numerous times when opening a door and being hit by another huge place I was about to explore.

If you're a fan of the original two Thief games you owe it to yourself to play this. It's at least on par with the main games, if not better.

Huge respect to the modders who must have spent countless hours crafting this amazing campaign.