"Second best stealth game after Thief" is actually a pretty good topic for a thread.

[Castanova]

Mark of the Ninja is a great stealth game.

 

[Silva]

So I've only played Pandora Tomorrow, how does it compare to Chaos Theory?

Both Pandora and the original SC are too narrow in its scope. Chaos Theory broadens it by featuring more open-levels that can be approachable by more than 1 way*, beaides letting you ghost it or knockout everybody or killing everybody, and also allowing you to manage detection as you wish (no more "sound the alarm and the mission is over"). Also, the missions design by themselves are fucking good.

In other words: Chaos Theory is the game the original and Pandora wanted to be. Its the ideal Splinter Cell game. (and judging by the Blacklist vids, it will continuing to be)

*its still very far from Hitman´s wide-open levels though

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah I don't know if I would say Chaos Theory has "open levels." It has wider corridors, for sure, but it's nowhere near as open as Thief. If Thief were Crysis, Chaos Theory is Crysis 2, as far as open levels.

Chaos Theory is great in other ways though. The look, voice acting, level design and gadgets are all great. Just little sound design and animation touches showed how much care went into the game. While the levels can feel like fat corridors they do offer choice on how to handle objectives and enemies. There is no alarm and done crap. It's a very good game.

 

[Garm]

With all this talk of second best after Thief, it makes me wonder, what is the best stealth game after Thief? Makes no sense talking about about the 3rd best game when you haven't defined the 2nd.

 

[Silva]

Thief 1/2 best stealth game,
Chaos Theory second place.
Dishonored + DLCs in third.

Yeah I don't know if I would say Chaos Theory has "open levels." It has wider corridors, for sure, but it's nowhere near as open as Thief. If Thief were Crysis, Chaos Theory is Crysis 2, as far as open levels.... Chaos Theory is great in other ways though. The look, voice acting, level design and gadgets are all great. Just little sound design and animation touches showed how much care went into the game. While the levels can feel like fat corridors they do offer choice on how to handle objectives and enemies. There is no alarm and done crap. It's a very good game.

Perfectly put. The "wider corridors" is a good description.

 

[Carrion]

With all this talk of second best after Thief, it makes me wonder, what is the best stealth game after Thief?

The Dark Project or The Metal Age, depending on which one you put as number one.

 

[Silva]

Man, I honestly have my doubts about Thief. I remember playing it and rage quitting after a ZOMBIES stage.

ZOMBIES should never go with stealth games.

 

[index.php]

4 pages in and not a single mention of Commandos (and Desperados)?

 

[Darth Slaughter]

About 1pp or 3pp, one of the greatesy scares I had in gaming was in the keeper's library level in thief 3, where I knew there was a guard in a circular patrol. I was looking for loot on the walls of the circular room, but I was very confient I was invisible sice it was a very dark room. I heard the guard arriving from behind but I didn't care to much, but he just coughed as those guards normally do, but he was so close and it was so loud I thought he just saw me. I jumped from my chair at the moment, eager to flee, only to notice later it was just him passing by, mumbling and coughing. If it was 3rd person, I would see that he didn't change his stance, while in 1st person i misinterpreted the sound. Voice acting in thief was terrific.

What makes thief superior is that in addition to the big levels, they were worth the exploration, every room, basement, installation, even the props were there for a reason, there were stories whithin a level, outside of the objectives. And they were "normal" enviroments, like houses, banks, streets, although in a unique setting.

Chaos theory is fun, and stealth mechanics in splinter cell games, from 1 to 3 are very similar to thief, only they have more linear levels and are in third person. And they have some action shooter sequences now and then. The similarities are that you had the AI behaving somewhat like in thief, and the light/shadow indicator was not binary. Double Agent started the binary system.

I would place dishonored as secont to the thief series, only because it's the most similar thief experience you will ever get in a modern popamole age. It's easier and you have spoilery-powers, but the levels are big, they have style and uniqueness, and you can play it like thief, but the game is designed with a shooter mentality and has no shadow/light system, and sound design is not on thief level (in fact, no game achieved that level of sound awesomeness).

Oh, about the shadow drop question, thief 1 and 2 engines were made in a age when models weren't able to cast shadows, so the AI wouldn't notice something even we wouldn't see due to graphical limitations. thief thre came with stencil shadowing, and the game was advertised as having an AI capable of detecting garrett's shadows if he was in front of a torch. I never really bother to test it or notice if the AI detected the shadow or the fact that to cast a shadow, I had to be completely lit. But I thought the stencil shadows was one nice improvement in thief 3, and one thing i noticed is that you could hide in a shadow cast by the AI.

 

[skacky]

Man, I honestly have my doubts about Thief. I remember playing it and rage quitting after a ZOMBIES stage.

ZOMBIES should never go with stealth games.

You can sneak past them the same you sneak past humans.

 

[DalekFlay]

Thief 1/2 best stealth game,
Chaos Theory second place.
Dishonored + DLCs in third.

Yeah probably. It's not like there's a ton of other games that apply unless you stretch the genre to include Hitman and Deus Ex.

I like Thief 3 though, console irritations be damned. Velvet Assassin is actually a decent little game, linear as fuck but with a nice look and interesting levels. I enjoyed my time with it until the last level, which forces combat on you for no reason. What else is there?

 

[DefJam101]

Third-person perspective also allows you to see around corners with no risk of exposing yourself, which kind of completely sucks in a stealth game.

That is actually pretty damn vital for a stealth game to not be shit.

uh

 

[Ninjerk]

Third-person perspective also allows you to see around corners with no risk of exposing yourself, which kind of completely sucks in a stealth game.

That is actually pretty damn vital for a stealth game to not be shit.

uh

Don't wait around, it's not going to make sense any time soon.

 

[Silva]

Blacklist is pre-loading on steam.

 

[dunno lah]

Oh, about the shadow drop question, thief 1 and 2 engines were made in a age when models weren't able to cast shadows, so the AI wouldn't notice something even we wouldn't see due to graphical limitations. thief thre came with stencil shadowing, and the game was advertised as having an AI capable of detecting garrett's shadows if he was in front of a torch. I never really bother to test it or notice if the AI detected the shadow or the fact that to cast a shadow, I had to be completely lit. But I thought the stencil shadows was one nice improvement in thief 3, and one thing i noticed is that you could hide in a shadow cast by the AI.

 

[Multidirectional]

Man, I honestly have my doubts about Thief. I remember playing it and rage quitting after a ZOMBIES stage.

So, you quit at second mission? Way to go.

 

[Silva]

Actually, no. I endured, and in enduring grew strong.

(then I quit in the following mission )

 

[JarlFrank]

If you don't like the zombie missions, play Thief 2 first. Then play Thief again and realize how retarded you were for not liking these missions, because ANYTHING in Thief is awesome and if you don't like either of the first two Thief games, you have no taste. No taste at all.

 

[Silva]

Ok, I will get Thief 2.

Any nice mods that make the game look a little bit better than this ?

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

Ok, I will get Thief 2.

Any nice mods that make the game look a little bit better than this ?

Spoiler

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/infinitrons-thief-series-fan-patch-guide.74267/

 

[AlexOfSpades]

Thief 2 makes some references to the first game's story so i'd recommend playing the first first. There are very few "zombie stages" in the game, although there are some stages ahead that are "monster only" with certain.. abominations as enemies. Just stealth past them or backstab with the sword - you should feel like a D&D-ish Rogue, ambushing monsters in dungeons.

But if you really really cant play it, well. Thief 2 is the best in the series anyways (in my opinion)

 

[DeepOcean]

I don't know why people hate the undead levels in thief so much, haunts and ghost behave like normal guards but more powerful and zombies are slow and dumb but not so common and you can avoid all of them as easy as any guard.

 

[Silva]

I hate fantasy. The game is already medieval. THen its zombies. WHats next, elfs and gnomes ?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/infinitrons-thief-series-fan-patch-guide.74267/

Thanks!

 

[Infinitron]

I hate fantasy. The game is already medieval. THen its zombies. WHats next, elfs and gnomes ?

Zombies are a fantasy creature now? There are much more fantastic things than the zombies, in both games.

 

[skacky]

Still, Thief is very much low fantasy. You won't see dragons and orcs and shit.