Decline The new Thiaf game is MASSIVE decline - Eidos Forum Refugee Camp

[DragoFireheart]

Oh, and by the way, I have a simple solution for tester driven decline - just fire the tester(s) who were the slowest on the uptake.

Most places get massive kickbacks from the government for hiring "undesirables" as their QA, at least in Canada: EA notoriously used to staff their Burnaby campus with homeless crackheads, before they outsourced to Volt. Volt is well known for hiring people who are mentally disabled, as well as the homeless, since they can write off a huge portion of their minimum-wage salary as tax deductible.

Made by retards, tested by retards. For retards!

I wonder how many Bethesduh meth heads played through Fallout 3 or whatever. There's lots of drug rehab place there: the job opportunities must be majestic! Get a drug problem, go to a Rockville rehab center, test a Bethesduh game! Would explain the quest compass because they have to make sure the local crack users can get through the levels.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I don't remember the names of any of the bad ones right now except maybe "The Acid Trip"

That's the spirit.

I think that's just the tutorial. As far as I remember, the Thief 1 tutorial did pretty much the same thing (replay the stealth section until the keeper doesn't spot you, etc.).

I believe is a setting in the difficulty options.

As Dalekflay already said, playing on master difficulty or some such apparantly leads to game over if you kill someone, which is just like expert difficulty in the old games. I don't think being spotted is insta game over in the regular missions (though I could be wrong, I haven't played this). But basically none of this is different from Thief 1 and 2.

the difference is that in thief 1 and 2 it was more subtle. It would appear mission failed, and you would actually see what you did wrong. In thiaf, the imediatelly take control out of your hands, with a loud sound, and you don't even see the guard seeing you. it's litterally instantaneos, at least in that video up there.

 

[Azazel]

As Dalekflay already said, playing on master difficulty or some such apparantly leads to game over if you kill someone, which is just like expert difficulty in the old games. I don't think being spotted is insta game over in the regular missions (though I could be wrong, I haven't played this). But basically none of this is different from Thief 1 and 2.

There are several missions in the game which result in an instant death if you are seen once, even on the easiest difficulty. Moira asylum, for example.

 

[DalekFlay]

Okay this game is pretty fucking terrible.

Looks pretty though.

 

[J_C]

As Dalekflay already said, playing on master difficulty or some such apparantly leads to game over if you kill someone, which is just like expert difficulty in the old games. I don't think being spotted is insta game over in the regular missions (though I could be wrong, I haven't played this). But basically none of this is different from Thief 1 and 2.

There was maybe 2 or 3 mission in the 2 games that were like this, and it wasn't because of expert difficulty. It was the nature of the misison, even on easy. Expert difficulty only prohibited killing.

 

[Melan]

Okay this game is pretty fucking terrible.

Looks pretty though.

Ladies and Gentlement, a review from someone who has given a fair attempt to enjoy the game. On its own merits, it is still 'pretty fucking terrible'.

 

[Vibalist]

Expert difficulty only prohibited killing.

I know. That's what I wrote.

 

[J_C]

Expert difficulty only prohibited killing.

I know. That's what I wrote.

Sorry, I read that mission is over if you are seen. My bad.

 

[JarlFrank]

Shoalsgate Station in Thief 2 only had a no knockouts (and no being seen I think too) objective on expert, but you could happily knock out everyone in the other difficulties, so there's one mission in Thief 2 where ghosting is enforced by difficulty level.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Shoalsgate Station in Thief 2 only had a no knockouts (and no being seen I think too) objective on expert, but you could happily knock out everyone in the other difficulties, so there's one mission in Thief 2 where ghosting is enforced by difficulty level.

Two missions.

In Shoalsgate you can't knock out more than x guards even on normal (5 on normal, 2 on hard, 0 on expert), but there's no game over if you are seen.

Casing the Joint, however, autofails if you are spotted.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah but Casing the Joint has ghosting on every difficulty level, it's not an additional objective only on expert.

 

[Melan]

Casing also holds the dubious distinction of being the worst official Thief mission, so it does not have to count so much.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Yeah, especially since it isn't technically complete, the third level is accessible, but empty save for some placeholder items.

 

[SharkClub]

Casing and Masks would have been much better if they were merged into the same mission instead of being almost exactly the same except for a few small points & the third floor.

 

[Sonus]

Other than drawing the map as you went, any Casing-specific stuff would've been rendered pointless, then, and most of the lore thrown out from both. Another approach by the devs altogether, and something in-between if two missions remained, would've been necessary to improve it.

 

[SharkClub]

Thief 2 Gold was planned to have a ton of missions towards the end/inbetween Casing & Masks. It's just a shame that in T2 they just line up right next to eachother. Maybe opening a shortcut to the third floor before ending Casing so that you can use it when you enter again in Masks would have helped.

 

[argan]

I've been giving it a try, too. While it's not as excruciatingly painful to play as I thought it would be, it's still a pretty bad game. Atrocius writing, clumsy movement, broken sound systems, small levels, a cluttered and completely useless hub, no possibility to blackjack people without using the "takedown" command, useless keyboard-mashing just to go through a window, "cinematic" parts...I have to say that the voice actor for Garrett is doing a fairly decent job though, even if he's trying to replicate Stephen Russell. Doesn't excuse the horrendous dialogue, though.

 

[Sonus]

In all the Thief 2 Gold discussions, with the files, dev summaries, and Emil's journal notes on hand, I never heard anything anywhere along the lines that there would be "a ton of missions towards the end/inbetween Casing & Masks".

 

[skacky]

Two later missions were planned, afaik: a museum between Casing and Masks and then a disused Hammer cathedral/complex between Masks and Soulforge.

 

[JarlFrank]

http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Thief_II_Gold

Two between Casing and Masks, and one between Masks and Soulforge.

 

[Gentle Player]

Casing and Masks would have been much better if they were merged into the same mission instead of being almost exactly the same except for a few small points & the third floor.

This is why Thief II Gold was desperately needed. When I first played Casing I explored every inch, including the unfinished second floor, and collected all of the loot that I could find (despite the narrative hinting at a later return), as I always do so for every mission. When Masks came up, I was fully expecting another "Assassins!" whereby the objectives and location would completely change after a sudden event. I was so disappointed.

 

[argan]

Wow, the level design in Thiaf is so fucking bad. It's really...amazing how they managed to create such small, linear and levels and yet managed to fill them up with all this bullshit. It's like a clogged toilet, the shit just fills it up.

 

[DraQ]

It's like a clogged toilet, the shit just fills it up.

Should be one of those quotes they put on the backs of the game boxes.

 

[SharkClub]

I was fully expecting another "Assassins!" whereby the objectives and location would completely change after a sudden event. I was so disappointed.

That would have been a lot better, just have some plot twist which ends up with the masks being carted off somewhere else entirely. My main issue with Casing & Masks is exactly as you put it, they are 90% the same thing and after I finished exploring every inch of it in Casing, having to go back right after and do it all over again + getting the actual masks was a huge bore to me. Certainly not a strong point of Thief 2, it felt lazy & rushed and it made it seem like the planned Thief 2 Gold missions were more required to fill the gap in-between than just supplement the game, but T2Gold getting axed just let the game down. The pacing and lack of polish of T2 is probably one of the reasons I like T1 way more, despite the addition of the unsavoury Thieves' Guild.

Man, I would fucking kill to play what Thief 2 Gold could have been. It also would have been nice if the modders who wanted to fan-make Thief 2 Gold didn't give up almost immediately because they were chumps in the T2 mapping community (from how I understand it this is how it went down), but now ever since that fell on its ass no other T2 modders/mappers has thought of touching the idea of T2 Gold. I think one of the guys involved in that T2Gold fan project released 1 map inspired by the T2Gold material (it was either the college one or the museum one), but this was already way after the project had officially died and he only finished what he had started on that one map because he felt obligated to. Such a shame in any case.

 

[argan]

As a Thief game, this is a complete disaster, but to be honest, as a game on it's own it's not the worst I've ever played. It's just....completely devoid of anything. I spent a couple of hours in the game, played the bank heist, some side missions and story missions, but I came to the conclusion that I was thinking about other things as I was playing. There's just no appeal to the game whatsoever, even if it had not been a Thief game. If you look up the word mediocrity in a dictionary, chances are you will find Thiaf there.

Time to go play T2X and TDM instead.