TDM FM Review: Let Sleeping Thieves Lie

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Sir Taffsalot, Bikerdude
Version: 1.0
Date released: 10-20-2011
Theme: City/Haunted
Download FM here

This FM was never going to be a magnum opus of any sort. The main reason why is the fact that it’s by a relatively unknown author, even though he had help from Bikerdude – one of the more seasoned FM creators.

You start off on the streets and it’s fairly straight forward. You have to enter the sewers to reach the hideout of one Jack Blackthorn - a man who some say is the devil himself. He’s wanted you dead for some time seeing as you refused to join the Unseen Thieves guild. Whispers around town say that he’s back from the dead, even though you assassinated him a little while back by putting an arrow through his heart. Now he wants you dead more than ever.

It’s best to go straight for the sewer. There’s plenty of time and motive to explore the rest of the city later on. The key is easy to find seeing as it’s hanging on the one patrolling citywatchman’s belt. Down here in the sewer, I was greeted by some ugly textures and level design. What else would you expect to find in a sewer, anyway? The water for instance didn’t look right – it wasn’t the same pretty, fluid liquid I’d seen in other FMs. And the reflection of items on said water surface just wasn’t done right.

 

Hover mouse over pictures for captions, if available.

There were some nice additions, such as mushrooms decorating the entrance to the Unseen Thieves’ lair and water dripping from the pipes above. The lair itself has one eye-catching room with plenty going on, and without spoiling much, it’s the last room, and there’s a huge haul here – enough to fulfil your loot objective. There’s some other grisly things to see here, too.

Then after this it’s back to street level, and here you can rope arrow up to several rooms above you. Doing this will eventually lead you on the path to the crypts below the cemetery. This is probably the scariest, most atmospheric place in this FM, and there’s some good loot to be had here. After ascending to ground level it’s off to the church through the misty cemetery, where you’ll notice the empty grave – the one that was meant for Jack.

All in all this mission is too easy. There could have been more challenge in areas like the cemetery and church. But there’s these large, empty, unpopulated areas punctuated with some small interesting areas that have something going on. I see Bikerdude’s name when this FM loads, and in the credits – but this isn’t a Bikerdude mission. It’s not a bad first attempt by a new mapper. I have played worse, for sure.

I initially thought that this mission was an entry in the Halloween Speed Build Contest of 2011 – but it turns out that it isn’t. This FM has been a long time in the making, apparently. I was going to say that I’ve played moodier missions that weren’t submissions for this competition; that overall the theme was quite understated. But none of this matters seeing as it isn’t a submission for the contest, it turns out.

This counts against the map’s overall score, seeing as I could have overlooked most of its flaws if it were a speed build, but it isn’t. If that much time had been spent on it, I think more effort could have been spent on making it look and play a bit better, personally.

Pros:

+ The author gave it a good try.

+ One or two good moments to be had.

Cons:

- Ugly texturing.

- Clipping issues.

- Uninspired design.

FM score: 6.5/10