Thief Review - The Meh Project

Slycne

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Feb 19, 2006
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Thief Review - The Meh Project

Thief is a mess. It?s disappointing that there?s a genuinely good game hidden under a lot of mediocrity.

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Tahaneira

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Feb 1, 2011
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So, if I'm reading this right, gameplay is more linear than previous titles but still pretty open by modern standards, tools are handy but a pain in the ass to switch between, other than that gameplay is good, and the story is horrendous, yes?

Probably wait for it to get down to below half price before trying it out. About how long do you think it would take to get everything in the game done?
 

luvd1

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Jan 25, 2010
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I'm going to wait for Yahtzee to play it. Coz I like seeing grown adults cry.
 

Mike Fang

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I'm playing the game myself and am a long-time Thief fan. I have to admit these criticisms are pretty dead-on, but I for one feel the game's good points carry a bit more weight. Overall I'd say the game is better than "meh". It's certainly not on the same level as the previous games for their time, but neither would I call it something to be just tossed aside with a dismissive "pff" if you're a fan of stealth. It's definitely a rocky new start (assuming this is the beginning of a new series of Thief games) but I'd say the possibility for later games to get even better isn't out of the question.

Oh, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution? I wouldn't call THAT game "excellent" by any stretch. Hell, I played both the previous Deus Ex games to completion, and I still didn't feel compelled to finish DE:HR. That's certainly something I can say this new Thief has over it.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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So, bottom line, you're better off sticking to the old Thief games... including Deadly Shadows.

In other news, The Dark Mod [http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod] is a free game (formerly Doom 3 mod) that perfectly recaptures the Thief games of yore. You should play that instead of this mess.
 

Hazy

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Jun 29, 2008
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I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."

The key word there being "grimdark" - an environment trying to hard to be oppressive that it make you reel with how desperate it is to make you feel some disgust. It's fine when you play it for what it is: extremely excessive and tongue in cheek (a great example of this being the 40k universe,) but when the game expects you to take it as a straight laced setting, it falls flat on its face.
 

Tahaneira

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Feb 1, 2011
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Hazy said:
I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."
Uh... I'll be the first to admit I haven't played much of the original Thief games, but they don't strike me as being light and cheerful. Hell, this Garrett sounds like he's less of a bastard than the original.
 

Imbechile

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Watching this horrendous rape of a great series get bad scores and underperform on steam really brings a smile on my face.

There is some justice in this world after all.
 

Astalano

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This review is meh. Doesn't tell me anything about the game.

Seriously, every other review on Thief is so ambigious as to why it's 'bad'. If it's such a mess explain why. That's the point of a review.
 

Kolyarut

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Tahaneira said:
Hazy said:
I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."
Uh... I'll be the first to admit I haven't played much of the original Thief games, but they don't strike me as being light and cheerful. Hell, this Garrett sounds like he's less of a bastard than the original.
Yeah, sitting in the same boat here - didn't play the originals but was always vaguely curious, and was interested in this new one - was the original series about sneaking around the shadows, shooting undead and stealing things, REALLY that tonally dissimilar?

Really surprised how many people would rather see the game be bad so they can gloat rather than hoping the game be good so they can enjoy it.
 

Hazy

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Tahaneira said:
Hazy said:
I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."
Uh... I'll be the first to admit I haven't played much of the original Thief games, but they don't strike me as being light and cheerful. Hell, this Garrett sounds like he's less of a bastard than the original.
They tried too hard in this case. Now there's a plague going around, the guards are no longer just guards... now they're these piece of shit scumbags who love mistreating the townspeople, and the new Garret is way too serious. That isn't to say that the old games were a happy go lucky romp, what with the different factions, undead, and monsters and all that, but they didn't have to try so deliberately to set up a moody and oppressive atmosphere - it just came naturally. You didn't need to see generic angry guard #45 beating people over the head to get the idea. A great example of this is the Cragscleft Prison or Shalebridge Cradle levels from the first and third game respectively. I don't want to spoil it, but it'll put you on edge better than this game ever could.

They altered his character too, and not for the better. Old Garret makes these very snide remarks throughout the original games, which makes him an endearing character. He's confident in his abilities as a thief and does so to make ends meet. The first mission of The Dark Project has you breaking into a Lord's manor, upon discovering his throne room, Garret says "A throne room... how pretentious can you get?" The beauty is that he has no ulterior motives, he's just a guy doing what he does best in order to pay the rent.

But now, they turned him into this poetic reluctant hero archetype that we've seen so many times before. It's ham-fisted and cheesy, and doesn't do the original character any justice whatsoever.
 

TorchofThanatos

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Hazy said:
I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."
yeah, because them original games weren't dark and gritty at all, the were full of wonderful colors and dancing butterflies. While I do agree that a reboot is not always the right path to take, remaking old game is not a bad thing. Turning into dark and moody when original weren't is annoying, see Tome Raider but there wasn't much to those game to begin with. Everything is subjective however, I liked DMC but apparently not a lot of other people did. Yeah, it may have some massive issues but it was fun. I kinda like the developer so I hope this games does well.
 

Hazy

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TorchofThanatos said:
Hazy said:
I am so happy to see this game getting slammed with mediocre scores. Maybe that will teach developers to stop bastardizing established franchises with "muh gritty grimdark reboot."
yeah, because them original games weren't dark and gritty at all, the were full of wonderful colors and dancing butterflies. While I do agree that a reboot is not always the right path to take, remaking old game is not a bad thing. Turning into dark and moody when original weren't is annoying, see Tome Raider but there wasn't much to those game to begin with. Everything is subjective however, I liked DMC but apparently not a lot of other people did. Yeah, it may have some massive issues but it was fun. I kinda like the developer so I hope this games does well.
I touched on this in the post right above yours. ^

The key word in my original post is "grimdark"
 

synobal

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I've really been enjoying the game. It's stealth mechanics are really solid, the movement and such feels really good. My only complaint so far is context sensitive jumping.

The story is a mess and garret wears a corset, but it's good, a really solid game. Honestly all the reviews for this I've seen remind me of the reviews for Alpha Protocol, and how it was pretty much panned all around but ended up being a cult classic.
 

Imbechile

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Kolyarut said:
Really surprised how many people would rather see the game be bad so they can gloat rather than hoping the game be good so they can enjoy it.
Nobody wants to see the game be bad.

Everyone wanted the new Thief game to be as good or even better that the originals. Or at least close.....

But, if you've been following this game, it's pretty clear from everything we've seen and read the new Thief is a betrayal, a dumbed-down abomination for the masses.

THAT is why people want it to fail.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

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Nov 19, 2009
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man, it's one sucky month for gaming. First Lightning Returns, now this, and LoS2 is turning out to be a flop as well. Criminy, March cannot come quick enough. It seems Dishonored beat Thief to being a Thief reboot.
 

deathbydeath

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Slycne said:
Sadly, whatever stars aligned for Deus Ex didn't quite repeat.
I beg to differ, at least from what I've seen. When I was done playing Human Revolution, my general conclusion was that Eidos Montreal just doesn't understand what makes games work, at least not on a non-superficial level. While HR wasn't a bad game by a long shot, the writing was still on the wall here.

Personally, I think EM should pull an Irrational and stick with making games that are distinctly spiritual successors but nobody these days has the balls to come up with a new IP, so I suppose we're fucked on that front. At least we'll always have Supergiant...
 

tzimize

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Why the fuck are there leaderboards in anything? How can anyone find it rewarding to be #345 of ANYTHING? If I was the best at everything (or at least SOME things) there might be something to it, but honestly...who the fuck wants to know how they do compared to the rest of the world? I want to have FUN when I play. Not play to get statistics to throw in the face of...noone at all since I dont KNOW the rest of the world...

OT: Not a big surprise here.
 

Kolyarut

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Nov 19, 2012
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Imbechile said:
Kolyarut said:
Really surprised how many people would rather see the game be bad so they can gloat rather than hoping the game be good so they can enjoy it.
Nobody wants to see the game be bad.

Everyone wanted the new Thief game to be as good or even better that the originals. Or at least close.....

But, if you've been following this game, it's pretty clear from everything we've seen and read the new Thief is a betrayal, a dumbed-down abomination for the masses.

THAT is why people want it to fail.
That really doesn't sound remotely like the game described in the review, which reads like a genuinely fun game with some tech issues and a somewhat dull story. I'd be really curious to hear how about how it's been "dumbed down" (a phrase that's misapplied in 90% of the cases it's used) or what exactly makes it an "abomination", because that really hasn't been made clear yet.

Mass appeal isn't a bad thing at all. You really expected them to exclusively go after people who'd played the originals, and shut out anyone who didn't pick it up / wasn't born first time round?