I know this game is almost a year old, but having just played and finished it in the last two weeks, I thought it was so good that I would have to write about it.
After having so many 1st person shooters with endless killing, who would have thought it was more fun to sneak up, knock people out, and hide the bodies so others don't find them? It's too easy to get used to Quake or Unreal where you just shoot at anything that moves. This game will give back your fond childhood memories of hiding somewhere and spying on people while they cannot see you. In Thief 2, you come across many people talking, and eavesdrop on their conversations, which are usually humorous, or an important part of the story.
Thief 1 & 2 exist in an odd fantasy world, but I didn't realize it at first. It looks just like a late medieval period, with a little magic thrown in. Shortly after playing it however, I realized that this isn't our world. There is a distinct technological superiority to us with various robots and equipment, although they still have a medieval look to them.
Like the first Thief, this one has a great story. You really feel like you are part of great happenings in your world. The designers actually hired an actual writer to compose a detailed story for the first game, and it carries through here. Sometimes chapters (an appropriate word since this game feels like a novel) take you back to previous locations where things have changed. One episode has you trying to sneak back to your home while all the sheriff's men are searching for you. Later, you come back to the same city streets as you follow a messenger. You even case a house once looking for a specific stairway, and then return to the house in a later chapter to rob it. The really cool factor of this level is that you cannot fight or be seen by any of the guards the first time through. This forced me to change my usual strategy of clearing the area of guards before I do any real exploring. I had to stay on my toes constantly throughout this level.
The feeling of a story is enhanced by various plot twists within your mission. During one mission you are looking to break into the sheriff's house to look for evidence, and as you get near his bedroom the guards cry out that someone has just killed him. Now you are looking for a different sort of evidence, and your job of escaping is made twice as hard with all the guards on alert.
You see specific actions happen, some in the in-between chapter videos, like the female pagan goddess attempting to take on the mechanists herself, and failing. And you see some in the game itself, like the messenger being attacked by soldiers and running for safety while you follow his blood trail. There are even some references to the first game where your prime enemies turned out to be the pagans.
The whole game has a great variety in the individual settings as well. One mission has you running through a forest following a wounded messenger. You run past many pagans murdered by the mechanists, and their burned down homes. Another has you searching a dock warehouse complex. The level that has you trying to sneak back into your own home takes place through city streets full of innocent people just going about their business, but whom have no problem calling out for the guards if they sense you sneaking about. There is even an actual Bank robbery filled with tank-like robot soldiers and human guards. My favorite adventure was the rooftop chapter where you need to break into the mechanists castle. This is truly a 3-dimensional maze where you run through open windows, climb ladders, balance on narrow ledges, make daring jumps between windows across alleys, all trying to reach a massive castle in the distance. And that was only the first half, with the second being the assault on the castle itself.
Just to give you an idea of the story, in the 1st game the Pagan Gods destroyed the Hammer's (technology worshippers) Temple. Now a splinter group has sprang up calling themselves the mechanists. The Pagans are still out there, and so are some of the undead elements. The town's police has been beefed up since the have received many gifts from the mechanists including sentry cameras that make a noise and change color to yellow if they catch you moving giving you only a few seconds to get back into hiding. There are also Sentries, which are metal heads that shoot out arrows, cannonballs, or flying disks. Most fearsome are the large tank-like mech robots. The first time I saw one of these was fortunately from a distance. If I had suddenly had a close encounter, these would certainly have made me jump. Cleverly, the only way to stop them is to shoot a water arrow into a small hole in the back where you can see their furnace working.
And then there are the Keepers, who trained you in the ways of stealth, only to be disheartened when you left the order and used their powers to become a thief. It would be like Kwai Chang Kane leaving and becoming a bare knuckles fighter.
The first game was more varied in execution. Some of it was a thief game, and some was pure fighting. Here they realized what I realized right away, which is that the best part of the first game was the slinking around in the shadows as a thief, rather than the fighting the undead with your sword portions.
The weapons & items are unusual. You have your basic sword and arrows, but also rope arrows, moss arrows, and a scout ball, just to name a few. With the scout ball, the fisheye (with water droplet) view is extremely cool to use, and I just know the designers got inspired to use it based upon webcams! Shooting arrows can be more of a challenge than your average shooter since they have a realistic arc. Even when shooting up or at a downward angle! There are no crosshairs which guarantee a hit. The Rope arrows stick into wood and let you climb up to otherwise unreachable areas. The moss arrows hit the ground and immediately coat a large area with a fungus so that you don't make any noise walking on it. You also have mines, gas bombs that put people to sleep, various potions like speed & invisibility, and even a flash bomb that temporarily blinds anyone, including yourself, if you look at the explosion.
The sound in the game is actually very important. How many games can you say that about? You need to listen to own footsteps to get an idea of how much noise you are making on a particular walking surface. Guards will respond if they hear noise, and will carefully explore an area where they think they heard someone walking. If you fight a guard and he makes a lot of noise, you can be sure more will come running. And, you can listen at doors to hear people talking or moving on the other sides of them.
I tended to play the game thoroughly, but stuck with limited strategies. I almost always just knocked people out. You could lay various mines along their path. Shoot them from a distance, and even fight some with your sword. However, never knowing how large a level was going to end up being, I was fearful of using up much ammunition.
Some Complaints:
One thing I hated in the first one was how you would pick up a mine, and then try to click on another item, but if it wasn't highlighted, you would USE the mine, usually hurting yourself pretty badly. Now there is an option to turn off the auto use, but then you don't know what you just picked up! This was especially frustrating with scrolls.
The graphics and enemy models are good, but there are clipping problems with some characters partially within walls. This was somewhat necessary with the corpses in order to hide them in smaller areas, but it detracted from the realism of the game.
Oddly, I didn't have any instruction while I played this game. I got this game with a soundcard (the Soundblaster Live X-gamer), so I have no idea how much more helpful the instructions would have been. If I hadn't played Thief 1, I don't know if I could have figured it all out without any help.
Also, using a four point surround system there seemed to be a dead 'center' channel for conversations happening right in front of me. I had to turn a little bit to hear them.
Also, as good as all the cinematics were, I found the final movie a little difficult to tell what was going on.
The game said it took me about 22 hours to play, but I figure that translates to around 80 actual hours.
Final Thoughts:
Looking Glass disbanded not long after finishing Deus Ex (which came out two months after Thief 2, and has many similar things, like the hiding in darkness feature), so there isn't going to be a Thief 3.
Final Question? Did anyone actually break through the door with explosive devices that kept Karras in safety in the final level?
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