Thief Would Have Worked Better With a Bigger Sandbox
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I wasn't expecting Thief 1. But I was expecting something better than Thief Deadly Shadows. What makes or breaks the "gameplay" is the environments. The AI intelligence and the sound design and how that factors into the gameplay. On both counts they screwed the pooch. The environments are even more linear than Deadly Shadows, and that seems to only hurt the gameplay. Awareness of your environments takes a backseat, because it honestly doesn't matter how you tackle each "obstacle", the obstacles being the guard paths & lights. Because theres no alternate routes to take to the next level so the element of choice is also thrown out the window, the guard paths are so incredibly short, the guards get distracted by every statue, its just far to easy to sneak past or play it blackjack style because all of that makes them incredibly predictable.
Theres even more contextual buttons prompts than Deadly Shadows, for every single thing you do theres those mini-cutscenes that makes everything look stiff & awkward.
Making the environments more linear than ever before and not putting any emphasis on the AI or the writing (all the humor/wit is gone) does not make for a fun game or a intelligent one. They put to much focus on the graphics and what we got is a poor attempt at trying to appeal to a wider audience while losing mostly of what Thief is about. What do we get really? The focus on non-combat, the 3 light stages, and the noise being a factor to moving are aspects of the core Thief gameplay (allowing us to modify difficulty certainly allows for more immersion). But that ain't enough. I was expecting a middle ground between Thief 2 and Thief Deadly Shadows. Not something worse than Deadly Shadows.
I suppose a sandbox would work, but they didn't even need to do that. Dishonored has more in common with Thief than this title does. Plus you don't need huge levels like Thief 2 (which isn't possible on modern engines without those fast loading screens every couple of 15-20 minutes), more moderate sized levels like in the Dark Mod or Dishonored are proof that you can find something to fit most tastes, a middle ground if you will, without sacrificing the core part of Thief gameplay.
Theres even more contextual buttons prompts than Deadly Shadows, for every single thing you do theres those mini-cutscenes that makes everything look stiff & awkward.
Making the environments more linear than ever before and not putting any emphasis on the AI or the writing (all the humor/wit is gone) does not make for a fun game or a intelligent one. They put to much focus on the graphics and what we got is a poor attempt at trying to appeal to a wider audience while losing mostly of what Thief is about. What do we get really? The focus on non-combat, the 3 light stages, and the noise being a factor to moving are aspects of the core Thief gameplay (allowing us to modify difficulty certainly allows for more immersion). But that ain't enough. I was expecting a middle ground between Thief 2 and Thief Deadly Shadows. Not something worse than Deadly Shadows.
I suppose a sandbox would work, but they didn't even need to do that. Dishonored has more in common with Thief than this title does. Plus you don't need huge levels like Thief 2 (which isn't possible on modern engines without those fast loading screens every couple of 15-20 minutes), more moderate sized levels like in the Dark Mod or Dishonored are proof that you can find something to fit most tastes, a middle ground if you will, without sacrificing the core part of Thief gameplay.
Thanks for the post Yahtzee : ) I agree. I see these cut scenes, roof top navigation aka assassins creed and then when I am in control of the character this never happens. Aside from the core story plot actions, I felt limited for travel paths with occasional nab this and that?
I really, really wanted to like Thief and wanted to dive into the story but I felt such a disconnect the presented character vs how I was allowed to play. He has a code of stealing from the rich but I found myself not in rich quarters (mostly) but in run down houses. I figured the games focus would be on evil rich types so it would be high risk high gain items no need to grab a $4 letter opener right?
Instead I found I had to poke about in mostly poor peoples homes and steal everything they had just so I could build up enough cash flow to purchase the tools that I had hoped would allow for better options - wire cutters and screwdriver for example. Every time I used the rope arrow I would start to get "up" and then had to go right back down again lol. Considering how cramped the buildings are, the guards were always on the ground so line of sight on rooftops had to be poor.
Maybe with expansions that build up to a gold edition, the overall experience will be more rounded out.
One item of note they did do a bang up job on all the optional quite granulated features for tuning the game experience like limited saves, Iron man mode etc.
I really, really wanted to like Thief and wanted to dive into the story but I felt such a disconnect the presented character vs how I was allowed to play. He has a code of stealing from the rich but I found myself not in rich quarters (mostly) but in run down houses. I figured the games focus would be on evil rich types so it would be high risk high gain items no need to grab a $4 letter opener right?
Instead I found I had to poke about in mostly poor peoples homes and steal everything they had just so I could build up enough cash flow to purchase the tools that I had hoped would allow for better options - wire cutters and screwdriver for example. Every time I used the rope arrow I would start to get "up" and then had to go right back down again lol. Considering how cramped the buildings are, the guards were always on the ground so line of sight on rooftops had to be poor.
Maybe with expansions that build up to a gold edition, the overall experience will be more rounded out.
One item of note they did do a bang up job on all the optional quite granulated features for tuning the game experience like limited saves, Iron man mode etc.