Thief II Fan-Mission: "The Inverted Manse", by "Sledge"

-“The Inverted Manse”, by “Sledge”

-Released April 1^st, 2001

            “The Inverted Manse” is one of the early Thief II fan missions, and was one of the first I played. It demonstrated, to me and many others, that fan missions can indeed be as great as the official missions in the two Thief releases. It's a great undead and horror mission and a great labyrinth; definitely some prime Thief-y goodness.

            This is another mission by TTLG user “Sledge”, who authored “Cult of the Resurrection”, covered here previously. This mission is the sequel to “Cult” and shares a design principle with it: very different experiences for each difficulty level.

            The premise is that Garrett is going to investigate the origins of the ‘Spirit Stone’ that he stole from the Cult of the Resurrection. As Garrett relays in the briefing (TTLG user “Loanstar” doing a great Garrett voice), the Spirit Stone was found in a Pagan manse that had been discovered beneath a Hammerite factory complex. Soon after the discovering of this manse, the factory fell to evil spirits and the undead, and is now haunted. That being said, “Inverted Manse” is a great horror mission in the style of Bonehoard, though there’s some more ‘human’ element to it as well. The Hammerite factory complex has a ‘post-disaster’ theme running through it, and players pick up on the final hours of the factory through journal entries and spectral appearances and voices of the former occupants.
          (Not all fan missions have briefing videos; most don't. But it is a nice surprise when ones do. It's even nicer when they're really well done, such as this one for "Inverted Manse." Note that Sledge opted for a Thief I style briefing with the way the text at the start is relayed, though this is a mission built for Thief II. And, again, that's "Loanstar" doing the voice of Garrett; he also voiced Garrett in "Calendra's Cistern.")

            Uncovering the story of the factory’s fall is part of the greatness in “Manse”. At first, there were just rumors in the factory of some caves discovered by builders in the lower levels who were working on the building’s expansion. But gradually, more and more wild rumors spread—and then the whole place eventually succumbed to the evil that had been residing in those tunnels. In those tunnels is a Pagan manse, and players it reach after making their way through the factory. This mission has a great ‘dungeon’ or ‘labyrinth’ vibe to it. Gradually descending the factory and then the tunnels and Pagan manse is a satisfying adventure. There is a lot of suspense here, too. I got anxious about finally seeing the underground tunnels and manse that had been the source of the factory’s ruin.

(Below are screenshots for each difficulty level)

            The size of the Pagan manse depends on the difficulty setting players chose. On ‘Cutpurse’ difficulty, it’s smaller. Players pass through an initial tunnel area, come out into a large cavern, with a very large spider pacing about, and come upon a small temple. In here, players nab a Pagan tome, one of the objects Garrett is going after, and then can head back up to the factory and leave. But on the highest difficulty, ‘Warrior’, it isn’t so simple. There’s a much larger area that can be entered from the back of the small Pagan temple, and in here three more gem stones the player needs to get. There’s also a weapon players must find, and, optionally, players can aid a spirit of a departed Hammerite. I first played this mission on ‘Cutpurse’, back in the day; years later I came back to it, chose ‘Warrior’, and was amazed at how much I hadn’t remembered. But, of course, I was remembering correctly—it’s just that so much of what I explored hadn’t been in ‘Cutpurse’. For Thief fans who had run out of missions to play, ‘Sledge’ provided plenty of replay value in this mission.

            The story, the atmosphere, and the replayability are all excellently done in “Inverted Manse”. It’s one of the best fan missions and one of my top favorites. It also is a case study of a ‘disaster narrative’ done within Thief’s design parameters. In other words, the story of a place that once was normal but that has gone horribly wrong.

            In the videos, I include the beginning of the mission on each difficulty setting, as the start areas differ slightly. I also include the underground Pagan temple on both ‘Cutpurse’ and ‘Warrior’, to demonstrate how much more there is on ‘Warrior.’ Most of the gameplay videos otherwise come from the ‘Warrior’ difficulty.

            As a sidenote, this mission was so well-made that the developers at Ion Storm-Austin hired “Sledge” to work on Thief III, which was in development at the time of this mission’s release.

-See a thread on “The Inverted Manse” at TTLG