Unkillable Cat
LEST WE FORGET
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 27,239
I was originally planning on making a "proper" review of Thiaf, something worthy of being published as a review somewhere. After finally completing the game, I decided against that. Instead you get a mix of a review and a "stream of consciousness" insight into my playthrough of the game.
We all know Thiaf is a shit game. Many of us could see it coming a mile away, which prompted someone to post this image a few days before its release back in the day:
It's rare when such a scribble conveys so much truth, and it was posted because some slammed and judged the game for what it is without having played it. Myself, for one. But even as I did so, there was always this tiny thought at the back of my head: "Just how bad is it really? Would anyone mind if I took a proper look and formed a better opinion of the game?" And like any good rubbernecker, I felt the growing urge to witness this accident first-hand. Almost 3 years later, after having pointed accusatory fingers at those that spent money on Thiaf, I bought a copy for a mere $1.25.
And now, after having played through the game and done the best I could to explore every corner of it, I can safely say that many of the negative reviews and opinions on Thiaf are only loosely based on facts and research, to the point that they (and my old opinion) can be considered erroneous and should be dismissed.
The truth is that Thiaf is so much worse than I could ever have imagined.
We all know Thiaf is a shit game. Many of us could see it coming a mile away, which prompted someone to post this image a few days before its release back in the day:
It's rare when such a scribble conveys so much truth, and it was posted because some slammed and judged the game for what it is without having played it. Myself, for one. But even as I did so, there was always this tiny thought at the back of my head: "Just how bad is it really? Would anyone mind if I took a proper look and formed a better opinion of the game?" And like any good rubbernecker, I felt the growing urge to witness this accident first-hand. Almost 3 years later, after having pointed accusatory fingers at those that spent money on Thiaf, I bought a copy for a mere $1.25.
And now, after having played through the game and done the best I could to explore every corner of it, I can safely say that many of the negative reviews and opinions on Thiaf are only loosely based on facts and research, to the point that they (and my old opinion) can be considered erroneous and should be dismissed.
The truth is that Thiaf is so much worse than I could ever have imagined.
The game opens with a gloomy title screen and a musical piece that wouldn't seem out of place in Heroes of Might & Magic 3. As I continued playing the game the soundtrack would constantly pester me with its existence. Not that it's a bad soundtrack, but more because none of the prior Thief games had an in-game soundtrack. Their approach was to have sound cues: Small sound bytes that are played at proper times, of which some may have music. This is a much more organic method of adding aural atmosphere, and except for UI-related sounds none of it is permanently bound to any activity. While Thiaf also has sound cues, it doesn't use them properly, it constantly plays the same music in regards to certain activities. Knock someone out and a short ditty plays. A critter has raised its awareness level and you'll hear the music change to reflect this... even though you're two stories up, on the other side of the map. The worst offender though is that annoying sound that plays when a critter's awareness level is changing. Yes you read that right, you get a clear audio cue when a critter "sees" you. Thief did this so much better 15+ years ago, and they couldn't duplicate that?
There are two parts of the Game Options that are worth mentioning: HUD options and the adjustable difficulty level. Many aspects of the HUD can be disabled/enabled at any time, but after fiddling with them to try to get a Thief-like experience, I quickly saw a need to go back and turn most of them back on... because without them I fell prey to the "one button does everything"-aspect of the controls, which would lead to me often performing the wrong action at the wrong time. The adjustable difficulty level is a checklist you can set at the start of a playthrough and can't be altered afterwards. After I had started playing with takedowns disabled, I soon found myself in a hopeless situation in-game which forced me to restart... this time with takedowns allowed. (More on that later.) I also disabled Focus and jacked up the price of equipment. I tried the best I could to find all the loot and avoid killing critters. This approach lasted for about 3 chapters until I just gave up and freely dealt with anyone in my way. Playing Thiaf in a proper Thief-like manner therefore takes herculean amounts of patience - which I simply don't have and the game doesn't deserve.
The gameplay is divided into 9 story-driven Chapters (tutorial included) as well as freestyle-taffing in the large hub map of "The City". Alongside this are small optional areas that can be unlocked in The City map (disguised as jobs from Basso) and a series of mini-chapters called "Client Jobs", eight in total. Overall I got the most enjoyment out of these sidetracks as their size ranges from a single room up to a small T1/T2 Fan Mission at the most. You start by playing the mandatory tutorial which slowly unlocks each game element, while being forced to endure one of the most annoying characters in video gaming history - Erin, Garrett's "partner-in-crime", though their relationship is never explained beyond the obvious meaning.
I'm just gonna take a brief pause here to point out Shamus Young's half-completed autopsy of Thiaf as it covers many things I'd otherwise be pointing out. Consider it side-reading to my rambling text.
The game is on-rails until both the tutorial and Chapter 1 are completed, after which you end up in Garrett's hideout and have access to The City map... or at least one part of it. Another part unlocks once Chapter 2 is completed, and the final part after Chapter 6. As much as players would want to immediately get taffing in The City, I advise against that until after completing Chapter 2, as vital tools needed for exploring The City won't be available until then. It was at this point that I noticed just how bad the UI is. It's all white outlines and white menu trees in a crisp, readable font. No attempt is made to add color (except for the Health and Focus bars), visual style or even to make it practical and easy-to-use. The game actually has two Options screens - one for game-related stuff like loading/saving, and another for handling in-game stuff like documents, game stats and objective markers. These two are mutually exclusive - no jumping in-between is allowed. This UI looks and feels like a placeholder, but somewhere along the way someone decided there was no reason to change it, so we're stuck with it.
During my exploration of The City I came across one of the biggest crimes of Thiaf - The City map resets itself if exited. All snuffed light sources are re-lit, all unlocked doors are relocked, all unscrewed grates are screwed shut again, anyone downed is resurrected and returned to their posts, along with any loot stolen from them. Everything else remains as it was, though. This goes a long way towards killing any possible enjoyment that can be gained from The City, knowing that much of your efforts will be undone if you as much as play a (mini-)chapter or pop into a Safe Space. Oh yeah, Thiaf has safe spaces. The clocktower, the two pubs and the graveyard are such areas, and you can't use weapons in there - meaning you can't injure or rob anyone inside - like Basso or the equipment seller or that guy pissing while holding nothing in his hands.
In his Thiaf review Yahtzee pointed out that the sound in the game is bad, and one such reason is that it's hard to hear clearly some of the chatter going on. I figured I'd fix this by turning on the subtitles... big mistake. During the Chapter 1 cutscene the subtitles are WAY out of alignment with the text, and during normal gameplay I was picking up subtitles for short conversations taking place *somewhere* - and most of it repeated ad nauseum. Subtitles from two different conversations even blend over one another, leading to extra laughs and confusion. And at no point was there any effort made to make the sound come from a credible source - you could be skulking along a rooftop and two disembodied voices in your head suddenly started blabbering about heading to the pub.
Finally I think it's best to mention that a sizable chunk of the game (and how it's balanced) is tied into the Focus system, which is Bat-Vision for Garrett. Since I played the game without it, I'm not gonna comment further on it save to say that having it enabled really speeds things up - be it takedowns, stealing, picking locks, discovering secrets, whatever.
There are two parts of the Game Options that are worth mentioning: HUD options and the adjustable difficulty level. Many aspects of the HUD can be disabled/enabled at any time, but after fiddling with them to try to get a Thief-like experience, I quickly saw a need to go back and turn most of them back on... because without them I fell prey to the "one button does everything"-aspect of the controls, which would lead to me often performing the wrong action at the wrong time. The adjustable difficulty level is a checklist you can set at the start of a playthrough and can't be altered afterwards. After I had started playing with takedowns disabled, I soon found myself in a hopeless situation in-game which forced me to restart... this time with takedowns allowed. (More on that later.) I also disabled Focus and jacked up the price of equipment. I tried the best I could to find all the loot and avoid killing critters. This approach lasted for about 3 chapters until I just gave up and freely dealt with anyone in my way. Playing Thiaf in a proper Thief-like manner therefore takes herculean amounts of patience - which I simply don't have and the game doesn't deserve.
The gameplay is divided into 9 story-driven Chapters (tutorial included) as well as freestyle-taffing in the large hub map of "The City". Alongside this are small optional areas that can be unlocked in The City map (disguised as jobs from Basso) and a series of mini-chapters called "Client Jobs", eight in total. Overall I got the most enjoyment out of these sidetracks as their size ranges from a single room up to a small T1/T2 Fan Mission at the most. You start by playing the mandatory tutorial which slowly unlocks each game element, while being forced to endure one of the most annoying characters in video gaming history - Erin, Garrett's "partner-in-crime", though their relationship is never explained beyond the obvious meaning.
I'm just gonna take a brief pause here to point out Shamus Young's half-completed autopsy of Thiaf as it covers many things I'd otherwise be pointing out. Consider it side-reading to my rambling text.
The game is on-rails until both the tutorial and Chapter 1 are completed, after which you end up in Garrett's hideout and have access to The City map... or at least one part of it. Another part unlocks once Chapter 2 is completed, and the final part after Chapter 6. As much as players would want to immediately get taffing in The City, I advise against that until after completing Chapter 2, as vital tools needed for exploring The City won't be available until then. It was at this point that I noticed just how bad the UI is. It's all white outlines and white menu trees in a crisp, readable font. No attempt is made to add color (except for the Health and Focus bars), visual style or even to make it practical and easy-to-use. The game actually has two Options screens - one for game-related stuff like loading/saving, and another for handling in-game stuff like documents, game stats and objective markers. These two are mutually exclusive - no jumping in-between is allowed. This UI looks and feels like a placeholder, but somewhere along the way someone decided there was no reason to change it, so we're stuck with it.
During my exploration of The City I came across one of the biggest crimes of Thiaf - The City map resets itself if exited. All snuffed light sources are re-lit, all unlocked doors are relocked, all unscrewed grates are screwed shut again, anyone downed is resurrected and returned to their posts, along with any loot stolen from them. Everything else remains as it was, though. This goes a long way towards killing any possible enjoyment that can be gained from The City, knowing that much of your efforts will be undone if you as much as play a (mini-)chapter or pop into a Safe Space. Oh yeah, Thiaf has safe spaces. The clocktower, the two pubs and the graveyard are such areas, and you can't use weapons in there - meaning you can't injure or rob anyone inside - like Basso or the equipment seller or that guy pissing while holding nothing in his hands.
In his Thiaf review Yahtzee pointed out that the sound in the game is bad, and one such reason is that it's hard to hear clearly some of the chatter going on. I figured I'd fix this by turning on the subtitles... big mistake. During the Chapter 1 cutscene the subtitles are WAY out of alignment with the text, and during normal gameplay I was picking up subtitles for short conversations taking place *somewhere* - and most of it repeated ad nauseum. Subtitles from two different conversations even blend over one another, leading to extra laughs and confusion. And at no point was there any effort made to make the sound come from a credible source - you could be skulking along a rooftop and two disembodied voices in your head suddenly started blabbering about heading to the pub.
Finally I think it's best to mention that a sizable chunk of the game (and how it's balanced) is tied into the Focus system, which is Bat-Vision for Garrett. Since I played the game without it, I'm not gonna comment further on it save to say that having it enabled really speeds things up - be it takedowns, stealing, picking locks, discovering secrets, whatever.
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