Originally posted by Estacado
So is this any good?
Thinking about tryin it.
Havent played the other Thief games.
Wait for a Steam bundle. If you can stomach the outdated graphics, it's worth playing the earlier games in the series. I can't really say how you'd enjoy the current offering, though. Probably depends on your tastes. The critical reception has been very mixed.
I was not ready for the Asylum. Yeah, such a setting is likely to be inherently creepy. But the way they did it is quite masterful. And for reference, I'm not done with the level. It freaked me out so bad I needed to stop.
Spoilers ahead. If you're planning on playing, don't read.
Spoiler:
So after the approach it starts the damn level with a sh*t-your-pants moment of shock as you peer through a keyhole. Then nothing but emptiness for a good 15 minutes of sneaking. There's a sense of dread, but nothing tangible. Then when you walk through a door at one point, you see another being closed ahead of you.Then the f*cking cafeteria. You see an NPC on the "entertainment" stage with some creepy mannequins. Ok, so you're finally face to face with a patient. But you're hidden in darkness, so she's just chillin'. You loot something, look back, and she's gone. Just the mannequins. And she was hard enough to see earlier that I legitimately questioned whether or not she had been there. At this point I did a gut check, chastised myself for being scared, and promised myself I'd face the fear and go up to the stage, where I was sure nothing would happen. I worked my way up to the stage and looted an item in the back corner. I turn around and there's a manequin directly behind me, its arm lunging for me. They've all circled around me, Weeping Angel style (for Doctor Who fans). The music sent chills up my anus. I f*cking run off stage. My screen goes white. I look back once it clears and the mannequins are back in place, along with the loot I tried to take. I gtfo of the room entirely.
I actually made it through that hellish mindf*ck to the next area. Another person appeared at one point, and I sprinted toward him/her, desperate to engage them instead of letting them play mind games. Turned a corner...nothing. Exactly what they wanted me to do. Ok, I thought, they're going to let creepy sh*t happen. I can't let it phase me. Just keep progressing, loot sh*t, and deal with enemies if they ever actually send a real one at you. I was past the bullsh*t, I thought, and went to pick the next door lock...
...and the door exploded suddenly and violently, throwing me 20 feet back, and I saw a menacing silhouette in the flames as I looked back. F***! Then it all went white and disappeared again. No fire, no explosion, just me where I was. I instinctively stepped backward away from the door, right onto some loud broken glass that caused some rustling around me from behind doors and cells.
NOPE. Ran to a dark corner, did a save in a new save slot, and got the **** out. I didn't need sleep tonight anyway.
It's easily the best sequence of the game so far. Sh*ts all over the comparatively tame dread in the library, and the slightly-forced attempt at creating frantic chaos in the Keep Siege level (and lack of a satisfying final fight after building it up at the safe). In the absence of level design that's truly inspired from an architectural and freedom standpoint, this is the best part of the game by a lot. Since I'm not too far from the final chapter, I don't expect too many more like it, but it's proven to be a disturbingly good time.
Nothing's been bad. But nothing's been great, either. Until this, at least. The smallish levels, overly linear level design and babying are still going to keep the game from actual greatness, ranging from mediocre to good at other times. But it has moments.
Good luck, and have fun. 👆
PC Gamer's review is pretty good, capturing both the positive and negative quite fairly.
http://www.pcgamer.com/review/thief-pc-review/
They disliked the Asylum though. On that, I have my lone point of dissent.
The 2nd half of the game has found its stride a bit more. After the Asylum came the Baron's Mansion, which is as close to a "classic" level from the old games as I've seen. It was refreshing, and for the first time I didn't feel like the level was pushing me down a pre-set path. I actually accidentally got into the house twice, erroneously triggering the "Garrett just got in" monologue from him. A minor hiccup, mitigated by the fact that I had explored so much that I thought a clever, hard-to-find 2nd entrance was a pathway to a new area. It was actually awesome to know that I had veered off course, such was the open-ended level design.
Also, it's apparently a reboot story-wise, which answers some of my lingering questions about ties to the earlier games. It's a bit of a disappointment, made more curious by trips to old Hammerite and Keeper locations in certain levels (there's even the distinct possibility that the Hammerite Cathedral may be the same one from the first two games). So, whatever. The story feels like it belongs, which is important, though I wish they hadn't chucked the older stuff.
Also, any Thief fans should be aware of The Dark Mod, a modding community that has, among other things, remade the entire original game with updated graphics. There are also dozens of extra community-created missions that are available for download.
http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/
Just finished it. About 21 hours of total gameplay, and that was with all side missions and relatively high difficulty on a first playthrough. Knowing what I know now - routes through the city, secret entrances to side mission rooms, areas with no enemies - I could easily shave 5-7 hours or more off of that time. I was worried it would be shorter - technically there's only eight full levels, not including side missions. But it was a decent chunk of gaming. There may be some replay value (it lets you replay old missions, and there are Challenge Modes where you can compare your times/scores to others) but I have no burning need to play more at the moment.
As I mentioned earlier, it found its legs in the 2nd half. It never reached true greatness, but I was in the "Thief flow" for lack of a better term for 3-4 missions at the end, so it was a decent time. I'm left wanting something more or better - it didn't quite sate my Thief craving with a game I expected - but I was genuinely concerned during the game's first half, which is lackluster.
....
The Dark Mod stuff (linked above) is something I was vaguely aware of, but never got into. It seems to run off of modified Thief 2 code, which looks pretty darn good for its age. The Thief fan community has always been superb. There was an unofficial Thief 2 spin-off called Thief 2: Shadows of the Metal Age (http://www.thief2x.com/) that was as close to a true sequel as legally possible, and it was all fan-created. Never got around to playing it, but I might now. This new Thief wasn't bad, but it really made me want to replay the older stuff. Since the fan-generated games and individual levels are brand new to me, I might as well do that.
I got caught in a brutal glitch. I keep beating the 7th level (about 5 times), env it starts me from the beginning of the level after the boss fight at the end every time. An entire game spent on almost the dead hardest custom difficulty possible, and it wont allow me to start the last level. This absolutely sucks. 🙁
Originally posted by Digi
Also, any Thief fans should be aware of The Dark Mod, a modding community that has, among other things, remade the entire original game with updated graphics. There are also dozens of extra community-created missions that are available for download.
http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/
Originally posted by Digi
The Dark Mod stuff (linked above) is something I was vaguely aware of, but never got into. It seems to run off of modified Thief 2 code, which looks pretty darn good for its age. The Thief fan community has always been superb. There was an unofficial Thief 2 spin-off called Thief 2: Shadows of the Metal Age (http://www.thief2x.com/) that was as close to a true sequel as legally possible, and it was all fan-created. Never got around to playing it, but I might now. This new Thief wasn't bad, but it really made me want to replay the older stuff. Since the fan-generated games and individual levels are brand new to me, I might as well do that.
These two items bear repeating for Thief fans. Though I misspoke slightly on them.
Thief II: Shadows of the Metal Age (aka T2X), is the unofficial expansion to T2. 13 full missions, and free to download from the website. The lone hiccup is, it requires T2 to work, and I'm not sure if a Steam copy will suffice. It may need the actual, physical disc. You also have to patch it to V1.8, but that's publicly available. I still have my old T2 disc, so it wasn't an issue for me, but it may be for others.
I'm 3 missions in, and it's very well-done. The story and voice acting are NOT good, though from a free, community-created product, I suppose the bar can only be set so high (the story was apparently created by the community as a whole, as opposed to a single writer/director, so it's oddly paced and ridden with cliches). But the gameplay itself is everything good from T1 and T2, which is what the games are really about. And for fans of the series and the lore, they pack the levels with interesting subplots and references to the main games that deepen your understanding of the world. Even in the intro level, I reached a point where I thought "what the hell do I do now?" and had no clear marker to guide me. Then I smiled. It was the type of DIY freedom T4 never allowed, and it felt great to have it back.
There are no compatibility issues with The Dark Mod, and no disc required, but I erred in saying they had redone the original games. They haven't. What they did was create an intuitive portal through which you can upload and play fan-made missions. It has a modified version of, I think, the Doom 3 graphics engine that seems to hold up well. And while I've only played the training mission, the whole enterprise has gotten rave reviews. And there are dozens of fully fleshed out missions, each with online descriptions and reviews.
Unfortunately, these also highlight what T4 did wrong. Everything T4 aced - the sound, animation, graphics, ambiance, etc. (which, ironically, are T2X's weaknesses) - only served to mitigate T4's flaws. I still maintain it was a decent game. I don't regret my purchase. But a trip back to the Thief gameplay that made the series great is a reminder that it fell short. Two missions into T2X - in the middle of a perfectly predictable but well-executed museum heist - and it was like seeing an old friend for the first time in years.
T2X is buggy as f*ck. Well, not buggy in-game. Nothing in-game has caused me to scoff. But it crashes a ton. Suppose it's partially to be expected from a fan-made game that's every bit as ambitious as the original. But still, distracting. Fortunately, some levels seem much less prone to this. After dozens of crashes in a level, for example, I experienced none in the next.
Some elaborate zombie mechanics as well. They did a great job with the animation, and the ability to decapitate them (which rarely kills them permanently).
I take back some of what I said about Thief 4. A 5-year-old fan-made game with a 10-year-old engine is blowing it out of the water (even with the bugs, which have subsided but not disappeared entirely), as I near completion on T2X. And hearing the original Garrett voice actor again in the earlier games...well, I had forgotten what we were missing. The new guy just doesn't cut it.
I don't know...
And yeah, they do give a good amount of options on how you cater the UI. I think all games should do that and it should commended.
It's all nice for hardcore peeps to get the game super hard for them but it's also nice for peeps who just want to play the game get to add things as well.