[CrimsonFox]

To tell tales of my sortee into the guild...

getting into the guild and wiping out the casino was the easy part really. However as mentioned there is now a combination of light sources. Some torch, some fireplace, some lantern. Only the first two can be extinguished.

Maybe this level was too easy with torches. BUt it's really hard without.

There is a long wall dividing the main floor of the casino. ON either side is a long bar (like a drinking bar). And these bars are patrolled by 2-3 guys. Outside the bars are the casino tables which face watchrooms with 2 guards each. Usually one with a bow. So if any guard sees you, ALL the guard in the place come running. If any patron sees you, they shout out to the guards.

So yes this can be a challenge. But getting into the center is the key. Take out the outside torches behind the bar and you can then position yourself to take out the patrols easily. You can sneak into darker areas and knock out the patrons pretty easily. Getting the watchroom guys takes quite a bit of work especially getting through the doors. I think one area allows you into the hallway behind and from there picking locks and headbashing is easy.

There are then 2 entrances down into the sewers. One through a secret door entered by the roulette table and the other behind one of the guard rooms. Behind that is a series of rooms carved in stone and gravel with small beds and fire lit for hideous living conditions of the thieves. The other way has two guards having a converstaion about a vase that the 2 warring master thieves have stolen and are fighting over....thus begins your quest.

Steal the key from one thief to open the safe from the other.


But this area is full of brick passageways and guarded large rooms with guards everywhere. YOu also have to make your way into rooms that open sewer gates that lead to other areas. So many of the passages look alike or double back to areas you have been. In 3d or 2.5 d or something this would be easier. But 1st person it is maddening. Especially getting past the large room with the pool in the middle but two levels of ramps on the outside where guards patrol and one guy at the head of the room with a bow. There are about 3 areas that look like this.

So getting to Donal HQ and/or Reuben's is tricky...and your map is really not much help at all. Just sketches of things...areas....labels...South basement, lower sewer, upper sewre, north basement, with arrows saying which direction to go for each thief. Granted I did say it was more fun not having exact instructions sometimes...until it becomes monotonous and adds nothing to the game. Perhaps that is why this level was thrown out originally. The lost world level set in like mayan or incan looking burnt city with lava flows....got a similar treatment. It was so empty and confusing and boring...that in the gold release they added more guard ghosts....and also more of these dinosaurs called "burricks"...oh how cute these burricks are. They were first appeared in the Bonehoard underground level. And they spit poison gas at you.

So it is easy to see why I stopped playing this altogether. And frequently consulted with visual walkthrus to determine just where the hell i was supposed to go....the answer of course is always the same....through ONE doorway...and if you miss that ONE doorway...you won't get there.

I went to DOnal's HQ first and cleared it out. The place is actually well to do and pretty, with soft (quiet ) rugs and stained glass and golden banisters and marble bathtub....and I always feel obligated to jump straight into the bathwater in my dirty clothes just so the fatcats have to waste all that water.

IT's funny that I always find a bottle of wine and /or candlesticks right by the tub. Both are goods worth something.

Of course I missed a guard or two that ended up chasing me. I was kind of sloppy in this area...as well as when I finally got to reuben's. Probably because I was impatient to finish. I used quiet a few healing potions indeed as they hit me a LOT. Reuben's place is mostly stonemade and he keeps a lot of cells locked. SOme had storage, some had bones of people...one had a gigantics fricking spider....which ran out and immediately attacked me again and again....damnit the cheek and snarkiness of these designers. THey got me.

But I potioned up again and got the key. Getting back to Donal's was an equal farce as I AGAIN lost my way. Kept going back through the SAME guards again and again and ending back at ruebens. Finally i took the right underground sewer passed the white dead spider then the Y then the other dead spider and since I cleared out the whole place earlier it was all I need was to bounce on the bed a couple times, steal the vase and head for one of the outdoor areas to win.

And this was all on normal. I figured I needed normal for this level. Expert won't let you kill anyone and only gives you 10 hit points...

I needed 20 for this plus I wanted to kill people....and kill I did. The most frequent targets were Reubens guards who would all follow me through the sewers into one of the big rooms. IT was a matter of climbing a ladder and shooting them from above, then chasing them when they run away. Then they fall when I meet them later with one sword swipe.


Next level: The Sword....one of the best and trippiest created in the first game. A Mad lord creates a torsyturvy fun house with upsidedown rooms and hallways, a cavern of space, a sword hanging in the middle of a chamber which you have to steal. It's quite cool. And gets back to basic thieving.

I think this is the first encounter with scissorhands monster.