My Thi4f review

[MetalCraze]

Now now before you'll go "skyway thread" bear with me.
I'll conduct an experiment that can show how predictable shitty console games are. Or not.

Mind you at this moment in time nobody knows how hard Thi4f is dumbed down (apart from developers and mediawhores they pay) but let's see how many of these predictions will come true.

So let's go:


- It will have quest compass leading you to a loot (or loot will be marked by small quest compasses when you'll approach it) or a guy you'll need to assassinate

- There will be assassination tasks

- Killing people will be extremely easy because the main character will be much tougher than the original one and enemies will suffer the opposite effect.

- It will have a health regeneration

- AIs will not try to go far looking for you and calling for help, they will be much much more passive

- Levels will be mostly linear, having two or three corridors at best so you won't get lost even with your quest compass, AIs will also look the opposite way when you will enter the corridor

- Levels will be much brighter and shadows won't be all too important because you will now have a 'Sneak Button' that will make you much more stealthier to an already dumb AI

- Sound will be shit. Why? There's no Eric Brosius. Noise you make won't matter as much either.

- There will be auto-grabbing Ass Creed-style so you won't be falling down while not reaching for an object due to your shitty gamepad precision

- It will have minigames. Worse than that one from DS too and won't have multiple lockpicks as well.


Well this should be it. Maybe there's other stuff I forgot. Now it's Square Enix turn.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Banal. Shit. Boring.

 

[Ermm]

Health regeneration = Pure cinematic flow of the game.

I can already guess that is what they will tell to everyone. I CAN PREDICTZ THE FUTURE.

 

[Suicidal]

Hey skyway, here's a few more:

-There will be lots of combat involving bows, cover and lots of stupid enemies hiding behind said cover

-It will be DARKGRITTYMATURIFIED. What I mean by that is that there will be a lot of blood splatters, awkward sex scenes and a shitty bioware-level romance between the main hero and some other character

 

[Ermm]

Main hero will do Christian Bale imitation (Deus Ex 3), because he is a goddamn Batman

 

[MetalCraze]

I don't think they will go as far as including cover. It will be a melee game and shooting with a bow won't look the same as shooting with a rifle.

However I forgot to include minigames into the list. Done.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y_M_O_U_S_E]

Don't the original Theif games have good and healthy mod support though? I seem to recall that it was active enough to warrant it's own sticky topic, yes? I'm not really into tje series personally, but signs seem to pointing toward Thi4f been irrelevant due to good mod support and the fact that the original Thiefs stealth mechanics were pretty much done properly to begin with. Am I right or am I wrong?

 

[SharkClub]

Don't the original Theif games have good and healthy mod support though? I seem to recall that it was active enough to warrant it's own sticky topic, yes? I'm not really into tje series personally, but signs seem to pointing toward Thi4f been irrelevant due to good mod support and the fact that the original Thiefs stealth mechanics were pretty much done properly to begin with. Am I right or am I wrong?

I think the point is that it's basically a Fallout 3, you get 12 year olds playing it like Assassin's Creed and proclaiming themselves as Thief fans, and they refer to it as "Thief" because they don't know the others exist. Whether or not Thief 1/2 Fan Missions are so much better is irrelevant when they don't have any power over canonicity and how Thief's story and gameplay is/should be presented in a future game.

Just because the older ones will always be there doesn't mean it's ok just to rape a newer instalment for the Xbox 360 crowd.

 

[juggernaut]

what the hell, I'll play too:

-Melee will involve an auto target lock-on of some sort
-Stealth kills will have fancy animations that take control away, in third person of course
-Equipment upgrades, level 1,2,3 sword etc
-But you can't access them until you level up somehow with an XP system
-Magic ninja teleport special move

-Garrett will have a female partner of some type, showing up in levels and/or communicating via magic


yeah, I'm pessimistic about this one

 

[Tycn]

- Map replaced by steampunk (medieval?) GPS

 

[Peter]

-Cover that renders you completely invisible.
-Lock-on a la GTA when shooting arrows.
-Very minimal arrow arc. The arrow will generally go where you're aiming.
-Minimap that shows enemy movement and cone of vision.
-No blackjack. Instead, you hit enemies with the grip of the dagger or something.
-"Press E for silent takedown". Que 'awesome' animation.
-Metal music with a tribal influence.
-Cutscenes mid-level.
-No extra loot requirements. You only need to grab the special loot.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Don't the original Theif games have good and healthy mod support though? I seem to recall that it was active enough to warrant it's own sticky topic, yes?

It's been around long enough and produced enough awesome content to warrant its own sticky, yes. But the sad truth is that its health is failing rapidly.

Thief 1 and 2 are over 10 years old now, and even the most hardcore modders are getting fed up with the DromEd editor, which I hear is a total bitch to make stuff with. DrK, the guy behind the über-awesome A Night In Rocksbourg series of fan missions, recently declared that he was getting tired and fed up, and will most likely only complete part 4 of his planned 6-part series. Other DromEd modders that are still active are only heard from once in a blue moon.

The Dark Mod is helping keep the fan community alive, but the only real hope is that Thief 4 comes with a good editor. If Eidos even sees a reason to release it, that is.

 

[MetalCraze]

Editor?
In a console game?


What I'm wondering is why they decided to rape Thief series (further) at all. Nobody in their target audience knows that there was a game called Thief - and even 3 of them. Even Eidos themselves don't know how to write its name properly. And yet it isn't even some reboot - it's a 4th installment that will have nothing to do with originals. Why?

@MickeyMouse

Thief 2 has enough good fan missions and even Dark Mod is way better (and probably will even be a proper Thief4 once more content is made) than this incoming piece of shit.

It's just that you know how it will be...

"I played Thiaf and then I understood something. That isn't a letter A in the name - that's number 4. So it looks like it's a whole series! So I decided to try original games like nostalgia fags told me.
And man do they suck. I mean the graphics look like something from early 90s and I don't know what to do in it - what a shitty game! I even try to crouch and enemies still see me! What the fuck? It's all just nostalgia!"

Your childhood/teenage years are raped.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Thief, by modern standards, is a completely primitive game. I don't see how they could even dumb down it more in Thief 4.

What made Thief so great back in the ol' days was the excellent level design and the somewhat good AI.

If they want Thief 4 to be as good and impactful today like Thief 1 was back in 1998, they better make some kind of revolutionary AI, and don't screw up the level design ffs.

If they come up with those tiny TDS maps they can go fuck themselves.

 

[chzr]

"I played Thiaf and then I understood something. That isn't a letter A in the name - that's number 4. So it looks like it's a whole series! So I decided to try original games like nostalgia fags told me.
And man do they suck. I mean the graphics look like something from early 90s and I don't know what to do in it - what a shitty game! I even try to crouch and enemies still see me! What the fuck? It's all just nostalgia!"

 

[baronjohn]

What I'm wondering is why they decided to rape Thief series (further) at all. Nobody in their target audience knows that there was a game called Thief - and even 3 of them. Even Eidos themselves don't know how to write its name properly. And yet it isn't even some reboot - it's a 4th installment that will have nothing to do with originals. Why?

Simple. Sequels to classics are automatically 9.9/10 games. Look at Bioshock - it was a total turd but the reviewers hailed it as the second coming because they read the wikipedia article on SS2. It was everything from the BEST SHOOTER EVER to THE BEGINNING OF ART IN VIDEO GAMES.

Eidos is counting on the same reaction here.

 

[MetalCraze]

Thief, by modern standards, is a completely primitive game. I don't see how they could even dumb down it more in Thief 4.

Are you sure you are not mistaking anything?

Thief had lighting being a part of gameplay from shadows providing variable cover to the ability of disabling light sources - no modern games have anything this advanced

Thief had various surfaces providing various levels of noise - again no games today have anything like this

AI tried to work as a team, it wasn't just a bunch of dumb turrets standing in one place/guarding 10 meters around them

And then completely non-linear levels as you've mentioned.

No game before or after provided stealth gameplay on a par.

If anything that's more advanced than 99% of modern games.
There's a lot to dumb down.

 

[Peter]

Yeah. Every IGN-reading consoletard knows that Thief, System Shock, Deus Ex, X-COM and Fallout are all some of the best games evar. So of course they will buy the sequel! This is what the publishers are counting on and that is why we're getting all of these reboots.

Thief, by modern standards, is a completely primitive game. I don't see how they could even dumb down it more in Thief 4.

What made Thief so great back in the ol' days was the excellent level design and the somewhat good AI.

Truth be told, I played Thief for the first time just a couple of years ago and was very impressed with it, my only other encounter with stealth games being Splinter Cell at that point (which is a great series too, apart from Consoleviction, imo). I was very impressed with the excellent atmosphere, story and level design, and the AI hasn't really evolved much in stealth games. The game holds up extremely well. The only thing that has aged are the graphics.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I don't really mind the bad graphics.

Btw I wanna play through Thief 1 again, and while the game itself runs perfectly, the cutscnenes won't. Now I have searched on TTLG for fixes but none of them work. Any clues how to run the cutscenes on Win7 again? I have installed that Indeo Codec but no luck so far.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Sigh. I'm currently in the 2/3 of my latest Thief marathon (Now sabotaging the Soul Forge), and fuck, I can't play this game. I just can't. Not because I suddenly started sucking at it, not because graphics bother me, not because I already played through it like 5 times.

I keep playing it and weep, thinking about how retardedly sucky Thi4f will be, how everything will hail it as a 'bombastic and epic stealth game worthy of its legacy', the legions of dumbfucks hailing it as the best stealth game ever ("Oh, but you know, I never played the prequels, but I guess they're worse 'cause they're older"), and the general rape of the setting, gameplay and everything connected.

And yeah, we know nothing about this yet. We only have a couple of blurry screenshots. But fuck me. This is not going to be a good Thief game, I have no illusions about that. A good Thief game simply wouldn't have a chance of success among today's casual gamer scene, and that's the only thing that matters. 'Success'. And 'Success' as in '$$$$$$$$'. Releasing a piece of art (yes, you fucking faggots, that's what the Thief series is - pure fucking art in the form a video game) that will be remembered for years to come (but slightly less popular) is completely unneeded, when you can just kick out a flavour of the month shit that will sell well, but nobody's gonna talk about it after half a year at best. But IGN and Gamespot will still compete at who is going to drop the line 'revolutionary' more times. The Emperor's new clothes is such seasonable attire in-fucking-deed.


Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live...

 

[sgc_meltdown]

Thief had various surfaces providing various levels of noise - again no games today have anything like this

The first Splinter Cell has this. Not going to talk about the rest of the game, but it has this.

 

[SCO]

Sigh. I'm currently in the 2/3 of my latest Thief marathon (Now sabotaging the Soul Forge), and fuck, I can't play this game. I just can't. Not because I suddenly started sucking at it, not because graphics bother me, not because I already played through it like 5 times.

I keep playing it and weep, thinking about how retardedly sucky Thi4f will be, how everything will hail it as a 'bombastic and epic stealth game worthy of its legacy', the legions of dumbfucks hailing it as the best stealth game ever ("Oh, but you know, I never played the prequels, but I guess they're worse 'cause they're older"), and the general rape of the setting, gameplay and everything connected.

And yeah, we know nothing about this yet. We only have a couple of blurry screenshots. But fuck me. This is not going to be a good Thief game, I have no illusions about that. A good Thief game simply wouldn't have a chance of success among today's casual gamer scene, and that's the only thing that matters. 'Success'. And 'Success' as in '$$$$$$$$'. Releasing a piece of art (yes, you fucking faggots, that's what the Thief series is - pure fucking art in the form a video game) that will be remembered for years to come (but slightly less popular) is completely unneeded, when you can just kick out a flavour of the month shit that will sell well, but nobody's gonna talk about it after half a year at best. But IGN and Gamespot will still compete at who is going to drop the line 'revolutionary' more times. The Emperor's new clothes is such seasonable attire in-fucking-deed.


Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since I began to live...

Play the dark mod goddammit.

I recommend Glenham tower.

 

[Grunker]

Not that I disagree with Skyway's predictions in any way, but here's my own prediction:

- If any of Skyway's claims turn out to be false, he will still claim the opposite

 

[MetalCraze]

The first Splinter Cell has this. Not going to talk about the rest of the game, but it has this.

When Splinter Cell series appeared Thief was a modern game.

Not that I disagree with Skyway's predictions in any way, but here's my own prediction:

- If any of Skyway's claims turn out to be false, he will still claim the opposite

Actually I'm counting on at least half of them being true.
See - I'm very optimistic.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

When Splinter Cell series appeared Thief was a modern game.

Not quite sure what you mean here. In any case the difference is 4 years, splinter cell in 2002. If any of the later games have that too then you'll have to reconfigure your worldview I guess.