Thief 3 is fun stealth game for the first 20 hours or so.
Then you hit the Shalebridge Cradle levels, and out of nowhere, you are in the midst of the greatest mindf**k ever committed to videogame code. After hours of stumbling through a freak-infested, burnt-out asylum-cum-orphanage, and a detour into a ghostly past -- I was emotionally drained. No other game has come close to doing that.
This is coming from someone who finds the Silent Hills and Resident Evils of the world to be utterly ineffective at conveying any real scare/horror value.
Ive been trying to put my finger on what makes Thief so effective at screwing with your mind. It boils down to this:
(1) The S/H levels in Thief are a tour-de-force of sound design and engineering. The superbly rich and twisted sound effects, the cacophony of rising and falling voices that engulfs you in a 5.1 embrace, all wonderfully executed.
(2) The lighting effects, particularly the flickering white light piercing through the dark shadows, perfectly complement the wonderfully twisted, melancholy set designs.
(3) The way the creatures will creep up on you in utter silence -- with the only warning you get being a shadow suddenly projecting out from behind you.
(4) Maybe most importantly: the fact that the Halo-style controls (and the perfect user-controllable camera in third-person mode) produce a feeling of total immersion. The illusion of being one with the on-screen character is critical to being able to produce genuine dread and fear. And that illusion is entirely absent in SH/RE games, because of you are constantly struggling with crappy controls and jarring camera angle changes, wondering when the next cut-scene is going to come along. The great engine and interface in Thief eliminate the disconnect you are right there in the game.
The Konamis and Capcoms would do well to take note, when and if they decide to quit clinging to the same tired design conventions.
Then you hit the Shalebridge Cradle levels, and out of nowhere, you are in the midst of the greatest mindf**k ever committed to videogame code. After hours of stumbling through a freak-infested, burnt-out asylum-cum-orphanage, and a detour into a ghostly past -- I was emotionally drained. No other game has come close to doing that.
This is coming from someone who finds the Silent Hills and Resident Evils of the world to be utterly ineffective at conveying any real scare/horror value.
Ive been trying to put my finger on what makes Thief so effective at screwing with your mind. It boils down to this:
(1) The S/H levels in Thief are a tour-de-force of sound design and engineering. The superbly rich and twisted sound effects, the cacophony of rising and falling voices that engulfs you in a 5.1 embrace, all wonderfully executed.
(2) The lighting effects, particularly the flickering white light piercing through the dark shadows, perfectly complement the wonderfully twisted, melancholy set designs.
(3) The way the creatures will creep up on you in utter silence -- with the only warning you get being a shadow suddenly projecting out from behind you.
(4) Maybe most importantly: the fact that the Halo-style controls (and the perfect user-controllable camera in third-person mode) produce a feeling of total immersion. The illusion of being one with the on-screen character is critical to being able to produce genuine dread and fear. And that illusion is entirely absent in SH/RE games, because of you are constantly struggling with crappy controls and jarring camera angle changes, wondering when the next cut-scene is going to come along. The great engine and interface in Thief eliminate the disconnect you are right there in the game.
The Konamis and Capcoms would do well to take note, when and if they decide to quit clinging to the same tired design conventions.
