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Thief | Review thread

gribbles

Banned
From what I played, 6/10 is exactly what I'd give it.

There are a few moments of genuine brilliance in the game that hark back to the original series (Chapter 5 in particular), but for the most part the game is hamstrung by awful design decisions ranging from linear, constrained levels, to uninspired, laughably bad storytelling and braindead AI. It's just incredibly mediocre and an insult to fans of the original series.

Dishonored is far superior to this in every way imaginable, despite not being an actual Thief game.
 

jimi_dini

Member
in Thief a blackjacked guard is knocked out forever.

Oh no.

I'm just disappointed with the overall scope of the level design and game systems, and the challenge these two together combined, as well as some of the rougher points of Thief like the dumb story and the impact that has on the way some levels (or parts of levels) have been designed (a criticism that can be levied at Dishonored and especially Deus Ex: Human Revolution too).

10pounds sale it is. Or maybe not even that. Thanks.
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
The issue with expecting a Thief reboot to "live up" to the original trilogy is due to both developer talent and goals concerned with these projects as well as marketing and the current industry consensus on what the "gamer wants".

It's almost like expecting a company like Activision or Besthesda to properly respect and modernize a game like Ultima Underworld, companies like Origin or Black Isle at their peak aren't here anymore. Thief is unfortunately the best "reboot" we could have hoped for in this climate. Sad to say.
 
I really wish I could get into Dishonored. I just felt it was fighting or at least discouraging me whenever I tried to actually play stealthily, and I ended up quitting after about five hours.
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
This sounds like the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Low expectations are becoming more and more the centerpiece of "AAA games" than the contrary. Particularly when it comes to "reboots" of loved classic old-school games.

What would be your wager on a faithful and modern reboot of say, Bushido Blade or Planescape Torment or Earthworm Jim? Particularly from a brand new developer quote unquote "AAA developer", my expectations wouldn't be too high.

Even more modern examples like Ninja Gaiden, Deus Ex: HR, Call of Duty, Halo (to a degree), and quite possibly, imo Dark Souls 2 lose their edge when they lose their core head/s that created them. The only developer in recent memory that was a brand new team that totally and completely blew the roof off and made a installment to a treasured franchise the best ever was Retro Studios with Metroid Prime. Since then, nothing of that caliber of a reboot of a old-school game has come close to that high point.
 
It's almost like expecting a company like Activision or Besthesda to properly respect and modernize a game like Ultima Underworld, companies like Origin or Black Isle at their peak aren't here anymore. Thief is unfortunately the best "reboot" we could have hoped for in this climate. Sad to say.

Deus Ex:HR, from the same developer, managed to stay fairly close in spirit to the original.
 

zeorhymer

Member
I was expecting these scores when they showed an alpha build where the devs were showing points when they scored head shots.
 

-MD-

Member
Big fan of stealth games but I've never dabbled in this series (I know I know), really a shame this turned out to be a mediocre game, would have served as a great entry point for me but I think I'll just skip it entirely and play my copies of 1/2 I have on steam instead.
 

ArynCrinn

Banned
Deus Ex:HR, from the same developer, managed to stay fairly close in spirit to the original.

Warren Spector had nothing to do with Deus Ex: HR, that's a pretty enormous distinction. And no, go play Deus Ex 1 again, and tell me HR had the depth, complexity and player agency of the first. It didn't.

Fact is, gamers with their irrational and idiotic obsession with "graphics and specs" have fallen into the "graphics trap" as I call it. And naturally, business saw this as a opportunity to pounce and release games for high prices, plus now DLC/subs, as well as release consoles that cost a fortune to the average person, in order to take more money from you while focusing more and more on that aspect of "visual fidelity" that fundamentally has little to do with the "quality of the gameplay" involved. So thus, the excuse nowadays from developers is, they spend so much money focusing on improving and optimizing that graphical fidelity that all forward momentum in new ideas of gameplay, pacing, innovation in mechanics big and small get pushed to the back burner, it's about creating "great visuals and worlds and atmosphere first", rather than building the gameplay and it's concepts to fit that, regardless of how much the visuals WOW or not. Narrative and story and VA spending is another example of this trap, where they become the focus and simply copy/paste viable existing gameplay methodology (Naughty Dog) to fit their agenda. And we hoot and holler about it being a "GOTY contender", this industry and even the gamers themselves have been bought off and propagandized to believe and seriously consider a sticking point these things, when before what mattered most of all was just the gameplay.

This is not to say a game can't have great visuals, story, meaingful well written narrative AND have amazing gameplay. The point is, the gameplay should always be the foremost priority of any project worth considering. And it's the complete reversal of that instance in most cases, hence the skyrocketing development costs and risk aversion that comes with it.
 

Kazerei

Banned
I'm pretty desperate for any stealth game, so I'll still pick this up ... at a lower price.

I have a question though. I like to silently kill everyone in stealth games without being detected. Am I going to have a hard time? It sounds like a no-kill run is more rewarding, which is fine, but I don't want to feel like I'm being punished for ganking everyone.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
I do, but if you list 6/10 first, people might think, "man, they didn't even give them 7?". They use a 5 point scale (pretty sure rev3games doesn't use decimals.)


I used the scientific calculator function of Windows 7 to convert the 3/5 star ratings into a 6/10 score and double-checked the outcome. I'm pretty sure the conversion is sound and my mathematics are correct. I also enlisted Derrick01 to help me do the math, he's running the numbers later tonight after he's done speedrunning Dishonored.


But seriously though, just because you or anyone else perceives 3/5 stars as more positive than a 6/10 rating because it has some kind of magical "nuance" doesn't mean my conversion is wrong.

I even put the star ratings in brackets behind be numeric rating score as a courtesy and of course hyperlinked the reviews in case people want to know more.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I have a question though. I like to silently kill everyone in stealth games without being detected. Am I going to have a hard time? It sounds like a no-kill run is more rewarding, which is fine, but I don't want to feel like I'm being punished for ganking everyone.

I had maybe two kills throughout the entire game, but tons of knockouts. Easily doable. No kills or knockouts will be harder, but far from impossible.
 

megalowho

Member
I used the scientific calculator function of Windows 7 to convert the 3/5 star ratings into a 6/10 score and double-checked the outcome. I'm pretty sure the conversion is sound and my mathematics are correct. I also enlisted Derrick01 to help me do the math, he's running the numbers later tonight after he's done speedrunning Dishonored.


But seriously though, just because you or anyone else perceives 3/5 stars as more positive than a 6/10 rating because it has some kind of magical "nuance" doesn't mean my conversion is wrong.

I even put the star ratings in brackets behind be numeric rating score as a courtesy and of course hyperlinked the reviews in case people want to know more.
This is all silly. Leave the ratings the sites award a game as is and let their respective guidelines for said ratings speak for themselves.
 

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
I used the scientific calculator function of Windows 7 to convert the 3/5 star ratings into a 6/10 score and double-checked the outcome. I'm pretty sure the conversion is sound and my mathematics are correct. I also enlisted Derrick01 to help me do the math, he's running the numbers later tonight after he's done speedrunning Dishonored.


But seriously though, just because you or anyone else perceives 3/5 stars as more positive than a 6/10 rating because it has some kind of magical "nuance" doesn't mean my conversion is wrong.

I even put the star ratings in brackets behind be numeric rating score as a courtesy and of course hyperlinked the reviews in case people want to know more.

That's kind of unnecessary. Different outlets use different point systems. Write what they used and stick to that. Don't forcibly change everything to a 10-scale system.
 

Ogimachi

Member
I find it rather interesting that the veeeeeery negative EGM review (3.5/10) was written by a guy who played Thief Gold for the first time a month ago.
It is, in a positive way. Most of the press probably doesn't know the first thing about the original games, this guy seems honest and reasonable.
Full quote:

Hi, Robert. I played Thief: Gold for the first time about a month ago (to prepare for this review), and I actually loved it.

I'd say that the combat in the original Thief was way better than this reboot, because it understood what it was supposed to do. Dark Project gave you options and depth but made it hard to rely on, because an enemy might run to an alarm and draw nearby guards. Any situation with more than one person felt impossibly overwhelming, but I didn't feel like the combat itself was shoddily designed. It discouraged me by teaching me that, even if I did as well as the mechanics allowed of me, it was still a dumb idea.

New Thief has the exact opposite approach. They attempted to discourage you by making the combat unfun, but it's also much easier, faster, and more successful than stealth, even when there are five or six guards around. No one ever calls in reinforcements. Sometimes you can be in open combat about 30 yards away from other guards and they won't notice. If you're overwhelmed, you can run off around a corner and they'll usually get hung up and come in single-file, making it easier to take them down one-by-one.

And everything in stealth feels very prescribed. You're not navigating sandbox levels, you're selecting between a handful of designed paths, some of which are stupidly easy to stealth through because there's almost no one there. It's the sort of game where stealth feels "solvable," and once you know the answer there's no tension. I frown upon that sort of level design in a stealth game. I like being forced to engage the AI dynamically.

I'm not saying you're wrong, or that you have to agree with me, I just want you to understand where I'm coming from. I'm a big fan of stealth franchises, OG Thief included. I don't believe I'm a poor match for this game at all.
 
It is, in a positive way. Most of the press probably doesn't know the first thing about the original games, this guy seems honest and reasonable.
Full quote:

This may hurt the egos of the "rose-tinted nostalgia" supporters. They just cannot fathom having a new, modern player appreciating the mechanics of the old games when comparing to the new. I am one of such "modern" player that appreciate old games because that was the only time where gameplay actually had progression in game design; now regressed into simplified mechanics in favor of AAA-blockbuster visuals.
 

Eusis

Member
OP don't do this. They rate games out of 5 stars, keep it that way.
This. Save that crap for Metacritic, at least they're trying to fit everyone into one common system, but when you're treating them individually without aggregating there's no need for it.

EDIT: And dammit now Jeremy Parish's review makes me want to try a stealth game with the Occulus Rift, that really could be a game changer.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
It is, in a positive way. Most of the press probably doesn't know the first thing about the original games, this guy seems honest and reasonable.
Full quote:

That's awesome. Always good seeing people discover classics.

Graphics ain't everything folks.
 

Eusis

Member
Eh, actually reading that review most of the way through makes me feel I'd probably want to play it at a discount at some point. I liked what I played of Thief Gold (And would've gotten further if I weren't a wimp about zombies... nevermind zombies are a dumb fucking idea in a stealth game period) and I really liked Dishonored, so even if it doesn't live up to either of those as long as it's not outright awful it'll be good at $20 or $10.
 
Eh, actually reading that review most of the way through makes me feel I'd probably want to play it at a discount at some point. I liked what I played of Thief Gold (And would've gotten further if I weren't a wimp about zombies... nevermind zombies are a dumb fucking idea in a stealth game period) and I really liked Dishonored, so even if it doesn't live up to either of those as long as it's not outright awful it'll be good at $20 or $10.

Thief 2 does away with that dumb stuff.
 

Eusis

Member
Thief 2 does away with that dumb stuff.
I may not have had a PC capable of running a lot of PC games to my liking then (though in hindsight I think Thief 1 actually ran pretty well in the demo...) but I did follow reviews and this is one of the things I saw noted. Also why I went ahead and started a bit on Thief 2, though I didn't get far in that either. Second stage starting is all.
 

Creaking

He touched the black heart of a mod
Thats because the people that made Dishonored made Dark Messiah. You know, the game that allowed you to use a rope arrows anywhere you want to.

Well, they had to hit wood to work. But yeah, just that little bit of player agency is nice.
 

Wiktor

Member
Shame. I enjoyed the couple first levels during event, but I was hoping it would open up later on. But it seems it stays the same through the whole game. Shame.

Oh well, there;s always DarkMod :)
 

LNBL

Member
Makes me shake my head when I see a "big" Dutch gaming magazine give this game a 9/10.

Kanye-West-Shaking-Head-No.gif
 

Nordicus

Member
Thats because the people that made Dishonored made Dark Messiah. You know, the game that allowed you to use a rope arrows anywhere you want to.
There were a few times when I used the rope arrow to reach locations that didn't serve any purpose at all in Dark messiah. I often pulled some stupid overly complicated stunts, but it gave a small feeling of satisfaction regardless
 

Deadbeat

Banned
There were a few times when I used the rope arrow to reach locations that didn't serve any purpose at all in Dark messiah. I often pulled some stupid overly complicated stunts, but it gave a small feeling of satisfaction regardless
Sometimes there would be magic mushrooms to make it a special moment. That game had great secrets with the rope bow.
whats that mean? like a schill review?
Its probably just someone trolling more likely than not, but it could be like when a Bioware employee was caught giving Witcher 2 a 0/10 and then Dragon Age 2 a 10/10.
 

codhand

Member
Sometimes there would be magic mushrooms to make it a special moment. That game had great secrets with the rope bow.

Its probably just someone trolling more likely than not, but it could be like with a Bioware employee giving Witcher 2 a 0/10 and then Dragon Age 2 a 10/10.

yeah, i dunno, from what i've seen i can at least see how someone who really likes stealth games could give a 9/10, not a perfect score tho, seems like 6-7 /10 is accurate for this one.
 

Deadbeat

Banned
yeah, i dunno, from what i've seen i can at least see how someone who really likes stealth games could give a 9/10, not a perfect score tho, seems like 6-7 /10 is accurate for this one.
But they gave that 10/10 score on all 5 platforms. Are you telling me the person bought the game on all 5 platforms and gave a review of the experience on all those 5 platforms?
 

Special C

Member
Looks like I'll still be playing stuff on my 360 until Titanfall comes out. I was hoping this game could hold me over for 2 weeks.
 
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