Sennz0r said:
I understand that people seem to dislike Thief: Deadly Shadows, or at least seem to be having a strong preference for its predecessors. Could anyone explain to me why that is exactly?
I'm not saying DS was actually better but seeing as I tried to play Dark Project and Metal Age but for some reason they wouldn't run on my PC (enemies would be invisible, colours would be messed up etc.) I couldn't find that one out for myself.
Well, your second bit there, apparently the games don't work on new machines. Something about a conflict with the dual processor. I don't know the whole story as I still have an old machine, so I haven't bothered to try and put the older Thief games on my laptop.
Anyway, I said earlier that I was disappointed with Thief 3, but I won't say I specifically hate it, or even don't like it. I just prefer the originals. Here's why.
First of all, pretty much any time a story uses time travel, it looses a some credibility to me. This is an incredibly over-used plot device and I just plain don't like it. That said, not a game-breaker, just kind of an eye-roller for me.
Second, a lot of little details just got to me. Like seeing wanted posters with Garret's face on them. Sorry, I don't buy that. Garret always struck me as the kind of guy who stayed out of the public eye. There were a lot of little moments like that which just didn't feel in tune with the feel of the Thief world to me.
Finally, I didn't get where it was going thematically. The first game was about the forces of Nature trying to pull the world back into the way things were and ended with a note suggesting that a "Metal Age" was coming. The second game was about the forces of technology trying to destroy the forces of nature to make the world perfect and it ended on a note that there were prophecies of something big coming. The third thief game was about . . . what? A boogeyman using magical artifacts to screw things up. Sorry, I don't see any thematic significance to the plot.
That said, I think TDS is a good game. I like the open city exploration the story is compelling and the ending of the game brought things full circle in a way that I really appreciated. It's good, I just think the originals were better.
I'm a bit worried about Thief 4, though, because I don't see where the series should go at this point. It seems like a shameless and totally needless sequel that won't add anything meaningful to the series, especially considering how well Thief 3 closed the circle. I mean, I don't think it will be outright bad, especially if they've got a good team working on it, but I don't see that it will even be as good as Thief 3.
Could be wrong though. I'll wait and see.
