Turning the Tables

In May 2000, shortly after Thief 2: the Metal Age was released (i.e. March 2000), Daniel Corder, aka Thiefs_Pawn at the TTLG forums, published Turning the Tables, his one and only fan mission for Thief: the Dark Project. The mission itself was to be remembered by Thief fans as one that had pushed the boundaries of technical effects in FMs, much like, just a few months earlier, The Treasury by Bryan Matthews and Rogue’s Honour by Triston Attridge, aka Totality. Just like these last two FMs, Turning the Tables provided the community an experimental FM experience, and has been both acclaimed and criticized for this reason. The author apparently wanted to break free of traditional Thief gameplay conventions. Nine years later, its possible to look back on this FM and understand how it influenced later FM designers. This is mainly why I’ve chosen to review this FM.

Garrett was spending some time at his favourite pub when Skeller, presumably a familiar thief, attempted to assassinate him. Garrett unyieldingly killed his opponent, and discovered with amazement that his victim was carelessly carrying a note from his employer, a certain Lord Bifford. Thanks to this letter, he learned that Lord Bifford had hired Skeller to kill him after he had declined joining his crime ring, much in the same way Lord Ramirez attempted to kill him in one of the original Thief missions. He decides to return the favour by assassinating Lord Bifford himself and placing both his and Skeller’s corpses in Bifford’s treasure room so as to make it look like they killed each other for money. The fact that the main plot elements are so close to the Assassins OM may allow the player place this mission in the Thief timeline continuum: because the player already has lockpicks, and since there are no references to the Pagans, the Mechanists or the Keepers at all, one may assume this mission takes place sometime between Assassins and Garrett’s first encounter with Constantine (unless one assumes that Garrett once had lockpicks before his confrontation with Ramirez but never used them in the OMs). And finally, despite the text briefing justifying Garrett’s killings through legitimate self-defence, one may argue that such aggressiveness is nonetheless unusual, and that perhaps the young Garrett from the earliest days of FMs is more reckless than the more experienced Garrett from T2 and beyond.

The first thing that might strike the player at the outset of this mission is the unusual lack of luminosity; one feels completely surrounded by the menacing, strange, pitch black obscurity of the depth of the night. The atmosphere is definitely darker than any of the original Thief games. In the garden, which is the mission’s starting point, one may even welcome the lantern guards that slowly trudge through the hedgerows. Furthermore, the sense of a cramping obscurity is intensified by Skeller’s corpse which obtrudes the player’s view when carrying him all the way to Bifford’s treasure room. Other aspects of the mission, especially the constraining objectives as well as the unguarded state of Lord Binford and his room, are rather unusual. All of these factors combine to create a sensation of unease and paradox. Yet the mission itself is very well built. The intricate rafters in the attic-like sections of the two wings of the manor in particular are very convincing, and also darken the setting by casting black, gothic shadows. While the garden area includes a straight-forward maze, with only one way out, the manor offers interesting strategic possibilities thanks to its many entrances and constructions. The handful of key characters are more or less well conceived, although some of them – Brother Larson, Captain Bill Tyler, etc. – lack depth and sometimes feel as though they have been placed in the manor just to fill it up. The readables are rather useful, especially regarding the particularities of Bifford’s Hammerite-built alarm system. Also, some of the key readables’ content change from one difficulty to the next, in order to convey the most useful information for the objectives. However, one might feel there could have been more of these useful readables in this mission, especially regarding how to access the treasure room. This is very unfortunate, because the solution is really quite simple, and there is a fair chance the player will feel compelled to frob every nook and cranny in Bifford’s room in a frantic button-hunt. I myself stumbled upon the solution by sheer luck. Fortunately, there is one very excellent conversation, although only present on Hard or Expert difficulty levels.

The architecture of this mission is definitely one of its strong-points, not so much because of its aesthetics, but because of how creative it is and how it increases the potential variety of strategic gameplay. The most impressive structures are probably the rafters already mentioned, and the manor itself, especially its multiple entrances, large rooms and massive rooftops; in each case, the player has almost complete freedom to wander about and use these structures as tools in order to complete the mission. Also, there are some great opportunities to use rope arrows in this mission. All of this increases overall replay value. The claustrophobic garden maze, on the other hand, might displease some players; this is unfortunate because its unavoidable and at the very beginning of the mission. Overall, the level of architectural detail of this mission subtly surpasses that of the OMs, and it has a very unique style throughout. The lightmaps (static lighting) are simple, but rather effective. One might have wished for a bit more variety, but then again the chosen obscurity also sets the mood, if one can get used to the darkness. The room brushing (sound propagation) is good, without being exceptional. There are a few rare areas where AI can hear the player through the walls and especially the roofs; but this is more or less compensated by the fact that they have rather low hearing abilities. The mission has both map and automap features, which is a very nice touch, but the maps themselves are unfortunately not very pleasing to look at.

The dynamic aspects of the mission are probably the most interesting and the most debatable. First of all, as already mentioned, this mission introduced ground-breaking technical effects: it is one of the first T:DP FMs ever to use “dynamic” lighting capable of affecting the player’s visibility (via the on-screen light indicator); hence the lantern guards can spot the player even in complete obscurity. Secondly, Lord Bifford’s manor is endowed with a special electrical power system which can be switched on or off in an electricity control room. All electric lights in the manor, in theory at least, are linked to these controls, except for the ones in Lord Bifford’s treasure room. The alarm system is also connected to the electrical power system, so the anticipating player can actually disable the entire alarm system if needed, which can tremendously change the gameplay experience for this mission. This is very fortunate, since the mission becomes impossibly difficult – and even quite ugly – if the alarm is triggered due to the amount of hostile AIs and the almost exaggerated amount of alarm lights. One can only regret that the AI is not more reactive if the player disables the power; the one guard responsible for the electricity control room does not budge at all when the player flips the switch. More generally, AI placement is also rather unusual, as the player might feel there are often too little or too many opponents; but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in itself, as it makes the mission less predictable. Furthermore, one may find that the objectives pertaining to each difficulty level are not very well balanced. For example, the player is actually only required to bring both corpses to the treasure room on Normal difficulty; on Hard and Expert difficulties, a special event occurs which ultimately rids the player of the “corpses in the treasure room” objective. One of the objectives on Hard and Expert, which has been lively criticized by Thief fans, forbids the player to steal any loot from the manor. This unusual objective – which is justified by the fact that Garrett seeks to carry out his mission completely unnoticed in order to clean his slate – has obviously been well thought-out by Corder, since the player will find absolutely no loot hidden inside containers, footlockers and such, in order to avoid picking loot up by accident. Yet the sheer unorthodoxy of this challenging objective might be enough to displease some of the less open-minded Thief fans. There is also a “no blackjack/no killing/don’t be seen” objective on Hard and Expert that may discourage some. Finally, the mission is only truly ghost-friendly on Normal difficulty level, due to an unforeseeable special event – on Hard and Expert difficulty levels. This being said, the AI placement and large rooms generally give the player enough slack to be able to find a way out of more than a few tough situations. Yet this event, despite having the merits of being well executed and rare enough in FMs, has the potential to confuse the player, who might not know at this point what to do and especially when to do it. Perhaps more indications should have been provided to guide the player through this new type of situation – for example, by having Garrett comment to himself something like “I’ve got to get out of here”.

Overall, Daniel Corder’s Turning the Tables presents a very unique Thief: the Dark Project experience, with many technical oddities and a very innovative design. The mission has some very unpredictable elements, too. There are some really good things here. Thief fans, especially those interested in older experimental missions, will want to give this one a try.

Pros: A very original FM, with a good setting, unusual objectives and interactive architecture. A working automap feature. Good replay value too. Some large, complex areas to explore and to use to carry out the mission. Many opportunities to use rope arrows. Very dynamic, with good technical effects for the time and changing objectives. Lord Bifford’s voice is very well recorded and very convincing. Good replay value.

Cons: Too dark at times. Somewhat lacking character development. Some players might not like the objectives. There is no alternative to the garden maze puzzle. Some puzzles lack clarity, such as how to access the treasure room; this one in particular can potentially become a frustrating button-hunt. A special event on Hard and Expert difficulty levels may confuse the player. No multi-language support. No custom AI skins. AI are not very reactive to the player’s crucial actions. The maps are not very pleasing to the eye.

Bottom Line: A surprising and experimental FM, with many very original gameplay elements, but somewhat lacking depth.