How's the thief reboot if I take it on it's own terms, and go in with low expectations?
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If you want to play a stealth game, I could recommend almost any other game to play before the thief reboot. Not that it is super bad it just came out around some really good stealth games. If you haven't play mark of the ninja.
Thoroughly mediocre on its own, outright bad when compared to the originals.
The gameplay is functional and the visuals are nice, but beyond that the whole game is a mess not only in regards to the previous Thief titles but on its own as well. The story is nonsense, with the developers having decided to disregard the previous games lore in favour of their own and in so doing replacing one of the coolest elements of the old games with some sort of nonsensical mish-mash of barely coherent ideas that never quite succeed at either being a spiritual successor to the ideals of the original games nor standing on its own thanks to what I can only assume was a very muddled development process.
The visuals are nice enough, but the sound is legit bad (Audio design is genuinely terrible, especially for a stealth game where sounds is so integral to the experience) and the levels themselves are tiny little things with numerous loading screens. Compared to the giant sprawling levels of Thief 1 and 2 or even the clever level design of 3 it's just insulting how bad most of these levels are.
Still the actual act of moving around, knocking out guards and looting stuff is entertaining enough when you shut out all the other niggling negatives. I dislike the 'swoop' mechanic the developers added in as an obvious concession to Dishonored, but otherwise the gameplay stands alright. AI is thoroughly mediocre, neither very good nor horrific.
Frankly if it's a stealth game you're looking for you're better off with a number of other recent titles:
Mark of the Ninja is a fantastic 2D stealth game that's definitely worth playing for a number of reasons. Styx: Master of Shadow is an entertaining 3rd person stealth experience from an unusual perspective. And hell, the aforementioned Dishonored is a better stealth game than the new Thief when played stealthily, plus is just an all-round better game. Funny considering Dishonored was meant as somewhat of a homage to the original Thief games yet here it is serving as a better spiritual successor to the series than the actual successor.
Play those if you haven't, they're better games. The new Thief game is at its best when it's forgotten and ignored.
The gameplay is functional and the visuals are nice, but beyond that the whole game is a mess not only in regards to the previous Thief titles but on its own as well. The story is nonsense, with the developers having decided to disregard the previous games lore in favour of their own and in so doing replacing one of the coolest elements of the old games with some sort of nonsensical mish-mash of barely coherent ideas that never quite succeed at either being a spiritual successor to the ideals of the original games nor standing on its own thanks to what I can only assume was a very muddled development process.
The visuals are nice enough, but the sound is legit bad (Audio design is genuinely terrible, especially for a stealth game where sounds is so integral to the experience) and the levels themselves are tiny little things with numerous loading screens. Compared to the giant sprawling levels of Thief 1 and 2 or even the clever level design of 3 it's just insulting how bad most of these levels are.
Still the actual act of moving around, knocking out guards and looting stuff is entertaining enough when you shut out all the other niggling negatives. I dislike the 'swoop' mechanic the developers added in as an obvious concession to Dishonored, but otherwise the gameplay stands alright. AI is thoroughly mediocre, neither very good nor horrific.
Frankly if it's a stealth game you're looking for you're better off with a number of other recent titles:
Mark of the Ninja is a fantastic 2D stealth game that's definitely worth playing for a number of reasons. Styx: Master of Shadow is an entertaining 3rd person stealth experience from an unusual perspective. And hell, the aforementioned Dishonored is a better stealth game than the new Thief when played stealthily, plus is just an all-round better game. Funny considering Dishonored was meant as somewhat of a homage to the original Thief games yet here it is serving as a better spiritual successor to the series than the actual successor.
Play those if you haven't, they're better games. The new Thief game is at its best when it's forgotten and ignored.
You're better off getting The Dark Mod. A standalone, fan made Thief game in all but name. Solid mechanics and an absolute boat load of user lvvels (of varying quality). Just Google it, you will get their site and the download for the standalone version.
And best of all, it's free.
And best of all, it's free.
On its own terms it's a pretty shallow Dishonored rip off. Which is bad enough because Dishonored was an homage to Thief and yet here we are with Thief ripping it off now...
And as a Thief game it's shameful.
And as a Thief game it's shameful.
On its own terms, it's still not good. It has terrible audio design which undermines the stealth gameplay which was already dull and unfocused. Story wise it is just not worth acknowledging, and in terms of world building it mirrors Dishonoured but without the BioShock-esque art style, colour, intrigue or interactivity.
It manages to be both a lame Dishonoured rip off and a lame Thief rip off, except you don't steal shit most of the time.
It manages to be both a lame Dishonoured rip off and a lame Thief rip off, except you don't steal shit most of the time.
It's a very decent game with some odd design choices, very poor sound design, and a storyline that staggers around for hours before falling off a cliff near the end. The gameplay is overall very good.
There are some people who see the game as some sort of travesty for wearing the Thief name, but they're wrong. It's a good game in the same way Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a good game despite it violating the core design principles of Deus Ex and Deus Ex 2. The same way Hitman: Absolution is a good game despite small level chunks preventing emergent AI behavior.
There are some people who see the game as some sort of travesty for wearing the Thief name, but they're wrong. It's a good game in the same way Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a good game despite it violating the core design principles of Deus Ex and Deus Ex 2. The same way Hitman: Absolution is a good game despite small level chunks preventing emergent AI behavior.
I'm a massive Stealth Game fan and I couldn't bring myself to finish it. It's level design was small, its controls were restrictive (you can't even jump!), you can only jump and climb on things the developers made climbable so theirs effectively no room for exploration beyond the set routes, the game was full of obtrusive loading screens which you need to mash E to get past. Theirs also that awful hub world, which is such a pain to navigate between missions, especially if you're playing ghost and don't knock anyone out.
Honestly theirs alot of better Stealth games out there, Dishonored and Deus Ex Human Revolution are much better and their probably also on sale now too. If you've played either of those games, Thief 2014 will be a huge letdown.
I can see how more 'casual' stealth players could enjoy it, but if you're into the genre and have played games like Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored and Thief: The Metal Age then you'll probably be let down.
Honestly theirs alot of better Stealth games out there, Dishonored and Deus Ex Human Revolution are much better and their probably also on sale now too. If you've played either of those games, Thief 2014 will be a huge letdown.
I can see how more 'casual' stealth players could enjoy it, but if you're into the genre and have played games like Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored and Thief: The Metal Age then you'll probably be let down.
You could, or you could play Thief 2 or 3 again and enjoy a significantly better gaming experience. I couldn't play the reboot past chapter 2, it's awful. If you enjoy button tapping and QTEs, terrible dialogue and a copy/paste of Dishonored's world, play it.
It's competent but not spectacular and easily overshadowed by a lot of games that are a lot more fun. If you haven't played Dishonored yet I would recommend that first. It's not bad but it's really not great...I would recommend it if you can find it at a discount.
Their offerings in the options menu are superb, as is the difficulty range, you can adjust so many things. For sure the best game for options 2014, whoever worked on that really earned his pay.
Rest of the team however were faffing about making worse versions of everyone else's game features and barely finished with something presentable. The list of lazy, clumsy and poorly made parts has no end, the whole thing smells of a student who barely makes it through class.
Rest of the team however were faffing about making worse versions of everyone else's game features and barely finished with something presentable. The list of lazy, clumsy and poorly made parts has no end, the whole thing smells of a student who barely makes it through class.
Taking it on it's own terms, it's still not very good. I admit I have trouble separating it from the original series, because, well, it's a reboot. But there are some damn annoying glitches in that game that I experienced. Not to mention the mechanics are very annoying.
My list of problems.
1. Annoying glitches: There was one section of town, where the audio was replicated over and over on itself. Take a random conversation between 2 guards, and have them start the conversation over, while the original conversation was taking place. Also, have another cluster of guards, having the same conversation, within earshot of your hiding spot. So you end up in this insane echo chamber of guard chatter, while you are slowly moving through this area, which means you hear it a LOT.
2. Also, I ran into a spinning guard glitch, where one of the patrolling guards got stuck in place, and starting rotating in place at blurring speeds. This made him impossible to sneak by, because it directly effected his cone of observation.
3. Not getting the lighting/stealth system right This one is terrible. You will be standing in an obvious bit of lighting, but you are hidden. Or, contrarily, you are clearly hidden in the blackest void of blacky blackness, and yet your visibility gem is bright as day. It makes it unreliable to where you can actually move safely. And in a game that is built on light/shadow for it's primary game mechanic, this is a deal breaker.
4. Not being able to jump when I damn well want to was annoying as hell. You could only mantle over specific things, which severely limits your methods of exploring and traversing the map.
5. Not being able to stick rope arrows wherever I damn well want to was also annoying. The game limits your rope arrows to very specific points, basically railroading you down specific paths, with no options on how you wish to proceed. Do you want to try and string several rope arrows across a ceiling, and leap from one to the other? Sorry, not going to happen. You can stick it in that one spot, and that's it.
Honestly, I would suggest you play Dishonored instead. It's got a better story, and better mechanics, and the Thief reboot was desperately trying to capture the lightning that was Dishonored, and failed miserably. At being a Dishonored clone, and at being a Thief reboot.
Don't get it.
My list of problems.
1. Annoying glitches: There was one section of town, where the audio was replicated over and over on itself. Take a random conversation between 2 guards, and have them start the conversation over, while the original conversation was taking place. Also, have another cluster of guards, having the same conversation, within earshot of your hiding spot. So you end up in this insane echo chamber of guard chatter, while you are slowly moving through this area, which means you hear it a LOT.
2. Also, I ran into a spinning guard glitch, where one of the patrolling guards got stuck in place, and starting rotating in place at blurring speeds. This made him impossible to sneak by, because it directly effected his cone of observation.
3. Not getting the lighting/stealth system right This one is terrible. You will be standing in an obvious bit of lighting, but you are hidden. Or, contrarily, you are clearly hidden in the blackest void of blacky blackness, and yet your visibility gem is bright as day. It makes it unreliable to where you can actually move safely. And in a game that is built on light/shadow for it's primary game mechanic, this is a deal breaker.
4. Not being able to jump when I damn well want to was annoying as hell. You could only mantle over specific things, which severely limits your methods of exploring and traversing the map.
5. Not being able to stick rope arrows wherever I damn well want to was also annoying. The game limits your rope arrows to very specific points, basically railroading you down specific paths, with no options on how you wish to proceed. Do you want to try and string several rope arrows across a ceiling, and leap from one to the other? Sorry, not going to happen. You can stick it in that one spot, and that's it.
Honestly, I would suggest you play Dishonored instead. It's got a better story, and better mechanics, and the Thief reboot was desperately trying to capture the lightning that was Dishonored, and failed miserably. At being a Dishonored clone, and at being a Thief reboot.
Don't get it.
