Thief fan missions and campaigns

[catfood]

Second mission is done. This one went much better than the last one, surprisingly enough. Really good mission. I still have no idea how I managed to complete all the objectives tho lol.

 

[JarlFrank]

The texture work is great, though I don't understand why they opted to use so many low-res textures when there are higher resources available. Likewise, think it silly that they used old models from the original game, which are extremely low poly, when the Thief 2 models look so much nicer.

Deliberate choice, the authors love the original low res Thief 1 vibe.

 

[Eirinjas]

The texture work is great, though I don't understand why they opted to use so many low-res textures when there are higher resources available. Likewise, think it silly that they used old models from the original game, which are extremely low poly, when the Thief 2 models look so much nicer.

Deliberate choice, the authors love the original low res Thief 1 vibe.

Yes, but there are original hi-res textures in the FM as well, which makes for odd juxtapositions at times. And the engine itself is doing things that the original Dark engine could not do, allowing for the greater complexity of levels and higher number of world objects than would originally have been possible. This makes the use of the low-poly models particularly baffling. This isn't a complaint, btw. It's just an observation.

 

[JarlFrank]

Best readable in The Black Parade btw

 

[Eirinjas]

Shit seen in-game - minor spoilers

This dude didn't acknowledge me. I think its because he can't see me due to being stuck in the world object. You can deduce how he died by looking around the room, but I feel like there is more meant to happen. Otherwise, he didn't need to be standing there at all.

This keeper learned to fly. I watched him shoot up when he reached the section of wall with the banner. He can't see me even though he hears me.

The building is farting.

I never figured out how to open this weird door.

Can you feel the love tonight?

This dude is one with nature.

He can hear me, but he can't see me.

There is a ghost playing hide and seek under the bed.

This dude is one with technology.

'member?

Just some giant blunts.

It's good to see these guys take a load off now and then.

These guys are cool.

The blue face demon is a mystery to me.

One of the many unique enemies. This one spawns after you do a thing.

Hey! Fancy meeting you her... oh God!

Lovecraftian horrors.

Celebration time! Come on! Let's all celebrate and have a good time.

This just looks cool.

I am The Bat!

I don't know how much of this is related to the new motion animations, but I saw a number of instances where unconscious AI would do weird shit:

 

[JarlFrank]

Just finished mission 8, and holy shit, that was a wild ride.

First time in Thief's history that elemental-themed areas were done well.

 

[Eirinjas]

Just finished mission 8, and holy shit, that was a wild ride.

First time in Thief's history that elemental-themed areas were done well.

Mission 8 was my favorite mission. There was much more tension to it.

 

[JarlFrank]

There was so much creativity to it. It constantly kept throwing new creatures and environments at you. Insanely varied.

 

[cowking]

I don't understand why they opted to use so many low-res textures when there are higher resources available.

Your problem is you're using texture filtering which blurs the textures. The lowres textures of thief can look fantastic with filtering disabled (in cam_ext.cfg, change the value of tex_filter_mode to 0).

These are actually very lowres pics (I played this level @ 640x480) with some NIS sharpening and tex filtering disabled.

 

[Eirinjas]

 

[catfood]

Seems like I'm starting to get the hang of this again. Then again, these types of missions with more symmetrical layouts are usually easier than the underground ones. Looks like I'm up for some tomb raiding next.

 

[DemonKing]

Wow - after hearing of this I ponied up $1.39 to GOG for Thief Gold and installed the mod. Just spent an hour or so in the first level tonight - really loving the design so far plus some of the old guard dialog still makes me laugh ("When are they going to bring me my dinner.? Grrrr....")

 

[Taim]

Stephen Russell slays all the 50 different people he plays in these games. The man is a god.

It was only after a decade of playing thief that I realized he did about half of the voices in the game.

 

[catfood]

Aaaand another one down. Phew! What a level! I'm surprised I managed to find even that amount of loot. If you can find all the loot on this level on the first try you are a bot.

The short genre shift at the end was very interesting to say the least. Also I don't recall, but would it have been possible to return to the surface using the same entrance from where you came?

The next mission doesn't look any easier. And by the looks of things I'm going to need another spare of pants for this one too lmao.

Spoiler

That scene after you get the sapphire necklace with the fast zombie almost gave me a heart attack I swear!

 

[Biscotti]

Also I don't recall, but would it have been possible to return to the surface using the same entrance from where you came?

Yep, easily.

 

[catfood]

Also I don't recall, but would it have been possible to return to the surface using the same entrance from where you came?

Yep, easily.

That's cool that the level has two possible exit points. Really well thought out mission.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I don't really have the time to do an in-depth review of "The Black Parade" these days, at least in the manner that I'd like to and that it deserves.

It's also quite clear that I need to replay it, as I missed out on numerous things that would affect the final rating.

But I can say this: Despite its flaws, when "T2X" came out it was both being an homage to Thief 2 and trying to do its own thing, to be original. On that front I'd say it succeeded.

But The Black Parade, the Thief 1-equivalent to T2X, doesn't feel original at all. Worse than that, it feels like a Greatest Hits-tour of everything the Fan Mission-community has created since DromEd was released. (I'm not making any accusations of plagiarism here, I'm describing the feeling.) I know that is not what Feuillade Industries were aiming for, but here we are. In almost every single mission of TBP I was feeling deja vu. "I have been here before." The exceptions were "Jaws of Darkness" and "Arcane Sanctum" (Missions 8 and 9, respectively) as they truly managed to establish themselves as something fresh and different. The final mission deserves a mention as it gave me a sense of deja vu playing Xen in Half-Life, instead of the final mission from Thief!

As a result I cannot give a final rating now, but I can give a temporary one: 8.5/10. Yes, it's a well-designed and thought out FM. Yes, it's definetly worth playing. No, it's not the pinnacle of Thief Fan Missions. No, I think the rating is quite fair because it's based on what I've seen so far.

More on this later.

 

[Icewater]

I'd probably give it a lower score, but for basically the same reasons. It's an incredible accomplishment for the sheer length and amount of content and, despite the low-fi look, it's quite beautiful.

In terms of quality of content though, there's a lot of FMs out there that I enjoyed more even if they didn't last as long.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

With my now recent completion of "Builder's Paradise" I have finished the Thief 2 20th Anniversary Contest map submissions. While some of these levels were outstanding, ie "Feast of Pilgrims" and "Into The Odd," I would have to rank this contest as whole lower than the Thief 1 20th Anniversary Contest. That contest had some truly awful maps, "Lord G" and "An Enigmatic Treasure With A Recondite Discovery" coming to mind, I can still more than heavily recommend over half of those submisisons. On the other hand the Thief 2 contest had less than half the submissions of the first contest yet only I can feel compelled to recommend four of the eleven maps. I won't even bring up how some levels barely have anything to do with Thief 2 as that opens a whole can of worms I cannot contain once opened.

 

[JarlFrank]

But The Black Parade, the Thief 1-equivalent to T2X, doesn't feel original at all. Worse than that, it feels like a Greatest Hits-tour of everything the Fan Mission-community has created since DromEd was released. (I'm not making any accusations of plagiarism here, I'm describing the feeling.) I know that is not what Feuillade Industries were aiming for, but here we are. In almost every single mission of TBP I was feeling deja vu. "I have been here before." The exceptions were "Jaws of Darkness" and "Arcane Sanctum" (Missions 8 and 9, respectively) as they truly managed to establish themselves as something fresh and different.

I'm still playing through it (on M9 now) and enjoying it immensely, but yes, many of the missions feel like a tribute not just to popular FM styles but also the OMs.
We get Constantine's manor, but with a slower buildup.
We get a mashup of Bonehoard and Thieves Guild's casino part.
We get probably the best Hammerite abbey in FMs yet (although we've seen many similar ones before).
We get a Victorian mansion that feels more T2 than T1.

They're all excellent, and my ratings for individual missions are consistently between 8 and 10. But it was the Hammerite mission in particular that felt very familiar because we've seen so many Hammerite places throughout the years. It's much grander in scope than most Hammer churches, though - it feels like the team wanted to make THE Hammerite mission. Similarly, the tombs mission feels like it wants to be THE tomb mission (it's really good, I gave it a rare 10/10).

The homage to the original game and to popular FM themes is stronger here than it was in T2X, for sure, but the story and the level complexity (along with how most levels have a few surprises) ensure it has an identity of its own despite that.

 

[Eirinjas]

The style of missions, at least early on, definitely mirrored the OMs. A nice homage, I think. I didn't particularly feel deja vu in relation to other FMs, only the OMs.

The undead burrick surprised me the shit out of me. lol

I really like how they manage to reflect the passage of time in the Jaws of Darkness and Arcane Sanctum missions.

 

[Mechs Delight]

Sorry, I've been away. I just didn't feel like posting much anymore, and right now, I have an abdominal infection I'm trying to get over.

But I have been attempting to play through Black Parade, and so far, aside from the second mission ("Where Old Faces Fade"), I'm not overly impressed. "Faces" has such a highly detailed, rich atmosphere that I can't help but feel impressed, despite the lack of originality at its core. In fact, atmosphere and readables are probably the best reasons to recommend these missions so far. On the other hand, I did not care for "Death's Dominion" at all; to me, it felt like a contrived, stale slog and a bit of a mess to boot (though not as much of one as that highly-overrated Thief 2 Contest "Into the Odd"). And "Trial of Iron," though it tries to be the ultimate Hammer mission, feels standard for these missions, just more drawn-out. And I will say I have yet to really see any mission beyond "Death's Dominion," so I haven't seen the later "mage" missions that many people here are raving about.

But yeah, T2X (and several other missions) set such a high bar for originality in fan missions, and BP just isn't living up to that standard (although I much prefer Hume to the annoying Zaya and her infamous knockout hammer). I'll probably complete the campaign eventually, but at this point, I'm not in any real hurry to do so.

 

[Beastro]

I'm on the second mission and enjoying myself, but some stuff throws me off.

I was happily surprised to see that I got only above half the loot in the first mission despite covering as much as I thought could be done (I kept in mind the greater emphasis on verticality and was happy to find my odd risks rewarded with tucked away stuff).

The main thing I'm enjoying as someone who's largely ignored FMs is not knowing what to expect and those occasional moments of "shoot an arrow at something not knowing if it's a waiting enemy or just an object". I really enjoy those low key scary moments made effective by the absence of things or not knowing wtf something is as you sit and study it in the dark rather than just encounter a series of jump scares.

Nonetheless, I have quibbles so far and I'll have to see if they persist:

Spoilage

First thing that annoys me is the excessive use of written documents to go through. I liked Thief's original ratio where it set the mood and setting while burying plot points and hints well. In TBP, there's so many I'm often lost telling which are hints and which aren't (beyond the obvious ones, like the hidden noisemaker in the first game). Despite this, I appreciate that they balance out the more thinly spread out loot by giving you something else to hunt for, since if it was only the loot it would get tedious at times with the dry spells you'd run into.

Secondly, tied to the letters, is the seeming overuse of made up swear words and slang. Taff worked because it was in isolate - it is THE Thief word, but the more and more letters I read the more odd words crop up which I'm pretty damn sure aren't archaic English slang being reused but a bunch of blatant would-be taffs. They're too many and it comes off as try hard.

Thirdly, I feel the second mission being a Constantine mansion is too much weird too soon. The first mission does a wonderful job of building up hints of what's to come in the slow burning, mundane realism of vanilla Thief's style, but then the second mission just smacks you too hard. It really made me wish that some lines for the mansion's guards were added when they'd think that they hear something hearing you then brushing it off as variations of "Nothing... or is it?... ugh! I'm sick of seeing and hearing messed up stuff working here! What kind of person makes a house like this?!... it all gives me the creeps... grumble, grumble..."

Finally, I loved the scary moment hidden in the first mission with the statue, only it was undercut when I revisited it. Originally, I went in, noticed the blood, got my sword out and prepared for something, then left and paused peeking around the corner seeing the statue standing there, which then became my first "Let's see what a broadhead arrow does here..." moment. After that, I reloaded to make sure the statue wasn't there originally only to notice it peeking around the corner and slipping away as I entered. That moment didn't need that tell. The door, the noises behind it, and blood was enough to set the mood for the statue to appear and get you questioning, especially with how vividly lined it is that makes it stand out even more as odd. Thanks to it, ever since then I've been giving a suspicious eye to every statue I come across expecting a Weeping Angel enemy to eventually appear. None could be in the game, but I don't know, so that one bit has done so much to add to my anticipation and anxieties.

Had that tell not been there, it would leave me guessing even more if that's foreshadowing or not, but it's something straight from a game like Garten of Banban.

All that said, I'm loving this and recognize how well made it is. No other game can be like playing Thief where taking your time and slowly enjoying creeping around each empty room in each mission is half the fun rather than blowing through content to get to more content as is so often the case in gaming now.

 

[JarlFrank]

First thing that annoys me is the excessive use of written documents to go through. I liked Thief's original ratio where it set the mood and setting while burying plot points and hints well. In TBP, there's so many I'm often lost telling which are hints and which aren't (beyond the obvious ones, like the hidden noisemaker in the first game).

That one is easy: if it goes into your inventory, it's a hint. If it doesn't, it's just fluff.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Playing TBP right now. Just started the 3rd mission. Expert difficulty. Really really like it so far. No handholding, nice but not spectacular visuals at 4K (especially on a 65" OLED display), very polished and pro-quality up to now. I use the controller scheme mentioned in a previous post (if anyone wants it shout out) but with analog movement enabled so it plays like a dream and feels fully modern and smooth in that area; this is necessary because I play from a couch. It's great to be fighting the games's enemies and puzzles and not be fighting the interface like I was with KB/mouse only.