So, the new Thief game came out today, has anyone tried it? How is it? The graphics seem great.
Downloading it now, but probably won’t get a chance to play it until Wednesday or Thursday.
I’m torn on picking this up.
I haven’t finished the first three games, which are sitting in my Steam Library. I imagine there will be some kind of recap of the important issues, but I feel like I should deal with it fresh.
Part of the reason I haven’t finished the first game is because I actually think it’s kind of bullshit I have to deal with un-sappable undead. I’ll get around to it.
The reviews are pretty bad so far. I picked it up cheap for Pc from gamefly ($30), and I started the tutorial so far, but Diablo’s new patch is a calling me to hell, so I don’t know when I’ll get back to it.
Which is telling I guess, I’d rather play the new Diablo 3 patch than continue with this game. Still, I’m not in a position to determine how good or bad it is yet. The main complaints appear to be about technical glitches, too many loading screens, specially in the hub world, dumb AI, bad story and characters.
The PC centric media also complains about the lack of a true sandbox like the old thieves where you used your tools (and the jump button!) to make your way through the levels. This new game is too linear and too guided, with discreet paths that the developers wanted you to take. There’s no trail blazing here.
My main issue in the short time I’ve had with it is the controls… Thief is a PC franchise. They should have figured out a competent mouse and keyboard interface and THEN ported it to the gamepad.
They obviously designed this thing with a gamepad in mind and then copy and pasted stuff into the mouse and keyboard interface. I don’t need contextual lean and peak - I’ve got Q and E button you cretins. Why can’t I jump? And man, the lockpicking/latch finding mini games suck on M&K.
Does it work with a controller on the PC? I finally gave in and bought one, since the writing seems to be on the wall. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Don’t get me wrong - I’d rather have real M&K control - but if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em.
Yeah it works fine with a gamepad, but it’s the ultimate insult. You take what’s a beloved PC gaming franchise, strip it of all the elements that made it great and just to kick us when we’re down, make the controls completely subservient to the limitations of a gamepad, even when using a mouse and keyboard.
Specially strange when they went out of their way to include a plethora of graphics and gameplay and UI settings and options available… it’s a like aPC developer worked on the settings menu and a console developer worked on everything else. And I bet you the console dev was all: “Why do we need an FOV slider?”. ARGH!
So yeah, play it with a gamepad.
On the other hand, it may be worth supporting simply for the genius of the difficulty customization options. I really hope more games pick up that kind of design.
Yeah, those tons of options are pretty darn amazing. I just wish they were coupled with a better, more interesting game.
I’ve just played through the first chapter, and I’m liking it okay. It feels really derivative of Dishonored, which is weird, given that this is the older franchise.
Just coming off ACIV, I’m finding the missing jump button less frustrating than the comparative sparsity of interactive climb/jump points. That, with the more constrained level design, makes it feel less like I’m figuring out how to bypass obstacles, and more like I’m pixel hunting for climb spots.
Walking through a rich guys house and stuffing your pockets with loot is as fun as ever, though, and your hideout this time around includes copious display space for your rarer finds. I’m looking forward to filling those up.
I believe the same studio that did Dishonored also did this game.
I’ve gotten the chance to play a bit, finally…
The poor reviews are full of shit. Hell, one of the comments I saw was “PS2-era graphics,” for Pete’s sake!
I don’t think it’s going to be game of the year, but it certainly shouldn’t be getting scores like 4/10. The nostalgia goggles are pretty thick on this one, I guess. Unless the story really falls apart, I’d actually rank it above Bioshock Infinite, which *was *overhyped.
That is incorrect. Dishonored was developed by Arkane Srudios and published by Bethesda Softworks, while Thief was developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square-Enix. Dishonored owes a lot to Thief, but Corvo is a way, way better fighter than Garrett will ever be.
I’m a huge fan of the original game and have been looking forward to this release. The game had seen some poor reviews, but some really positive ones, too. Personally, I am upset that they went with a reboot, and dropped some of the cool stuff from the originals, and cast a new voice actor. Having said that, I actually like the game play footage I’ve seen so far. Sneaking around and stealing and eaves dropping on guards is too much fun to pass up. Steam should finish downloading in a couple hours, and I should be able to play the game myself later tonight.
You’re right, the game I was thinking of was Deus Ex Human Revolution.
I do like the swooping animation that happens when you click on an object to steal it, and when moving from shadow to shadow.
I’m being hard on the game, but I haven’t played enough to know for sure and I’m only going by my initial impressions and the reviews. Who knows, I might end up praising it after I’m a little deeper inOH MY GOD! I don’t have my belt! I’m at work without my BELT! I might as well be waiving my weiner in front of everyone! Do I go home? What do I do? THE HUMANITY!
The first three Thief games immersed me a way that no other games have. I wasn’t encouraged by the promos for this one, though, and the mostly negative reviews are bolstering that pessimism.
Oh well. They won’t be snatching my coin purse anytime soon.
I’m through chapter 2, and I mostly endorse this game. It gets the important stuff right. The stealth mechanic is as solid as ever. They’ve introduced a number of new mechanics that makes the game feel more thiefy, such as jimmying open windows, rifling through drawers, and searching for catches to open secret doors. Lots of good environmental touches, too: broken glass and scattered papers as noise-generating environmental hazards, vases that can be knocked over if you brush against them, stuff like that.
The level design is much more linear than the older games in this series. They’re much more about “Get from Point A to Point B,” instead of, “Here’s an environment, try to find X in it.” This is disappointing, as that has always been one of the charms of the series. That said, the level design is still very good, with lots of interesting environments, and lots of unique features that tie directly into core gameplay mechanics. (One of my favorites so far is a furnace operated by several guards. You have to sneak through the room by timing your movements to the shadows cast by the opening and closing of the furnace’s door.)
I’m not as bothered by the controls as Kinthalis*. They are more limited than in the older games, but not to the extent that it compromises the experience. The lockpick minigame is fairly pedestrian, but not the worst of its kind. The lack of a jump button is a mixed blessing. The jump function was never all that well implemented in these games, and I’m just as happy not having to spend five minutes awkwardly stacking crates to attempt a jump I’m not 100% sure is physically possible. On the other hand, as I mentioned above, they need more climb spots in the game if they’re going to go with the environmental prompt model - right now, it feels too sparse.
The writing isn’t bad, at least by video game standards - but the writing in the first two games was some of the best of its era, so it suffers in comparison. The cutscenes are all in-game animations, with none of the atmospheric (and often poetic) animated cutscenes that defined the series look to this point. Also, the cutscenes sometimes interrupt game play, which is really annoying - but so far, seems to mostly only occur in the tutorial level. I’m also a little sad that the setting is so Victorian now. The original games were more medieval steampunk, which gave the setting a unique feel.
The one area where this game surpasses its predecessors is in the stealing itself. The aforementioned swoop animation looks cool, gives you a good look at what your stealing, and also works with the stealth system - you can’t hide in shadows and steal something in bright light without being caught anymore. There’s a good variety of loot, in a good mix of plain sight and cunningly hidden, plus special prestige loot that you get to display in your hideout. It really scratches that “collect 'em all” itch. The customizable difficulty and level-specific challenges are really nice touches, too.
The most serious problems with the game are some very bad audio and memory bugs. On entering a new level, or loading a saved game, the game chugs hard for about a minute, before settling down and running smooth as butter until I hit the next load zone. I’m also getting a problem with audio files being played on top of each other. During one cutscene, that was establishing the goal of the next mission, I had two or three lines of dialogue playing at the same time, making the conversation impossible to follow. In missions, guards will sometimes echo themselves, playing the same line of dialogue twice with a half-second offset.
Just noticed something. One of the achievements is “Predatory Drive.” You unlock it by finishing the game in more than fifteen hours.
That’s right, it’s an achievement if you can get more than fifteen hours of gameplay out of this.
:smack:
Not all “achievements” are supposed to be difficult to get. It’d probably take most people that long to find the 4th collectible in ch1 without a guide.