Zero Punctuation: Thief: The Dark Project

[FirmlyUninformative]

Hah. Nice Enigma of the Amigara Fault reference.
Also, I'm pretty sure I have this game somewhere. Sadly the first and last time I tried it was when I was young and stupid and probably didn't have much patience for stealth-'em-ups.

 

[PumpItUp]

Another victim claimed by the "Press X" killer. After the sudden deaths of Ms. M. Edge and Mr. T. Human last year and Mrs. T. Raider last month, the "Press X" killer has become feared by many and has been officially become a serial killer, according to the Sherbet Kingdom Police Dept. They are also keeping an eye on a small group of fanatical worshippers of the "Press X" killer, who have a tendency to become violent if anyone mentions the brutal slaying of Sir Halo III.
If you meet the "Press X" killer, it is advised you either hide in the shadows, or equip yourself with a penis-extension gun and PRESS X TO NOT DIE!

 

[stoosh95]

For a ton of info on this game (as well as how to get it to run on VISTA or XP) I found ttlg.com to be most helpful.

A direct link to their thief forums can be found here:
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=65

 

[stoosh95]

FYI ... thief 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games of all time ... the difficulty settings never actually changed the game (eg ... most games increase the damage or increase the HP of enemies) in thief the difference between easy and hard was usually "don't kill anyone" or "find at least X gold" .

Expert usually added "Remain undetected".

 

[that guy 2000]

I preferred splinter cell.

 

[Sayne]

Thief The Dark Project and Thief II are, in my opinion, two of the very best games ever made for the PC. It ranks among the Sublime Baldur's Gate series and the Half Life series, and in many ways it is better.

It was so immersive and the story telling and voice acting was absolutely fantastic... and in some levels (the Haunted Cathedral, and Return to the Cathedral) downright horrifying. Anyone who's played this game and hasn't about crapped their pants when they encounter a Haunt is made of sterner stuff than most.

As for getting it to work on modern PCs, it seems to work alright on Vista (at least for me) but the engine simply cannot handle multi-core processors. You have to set the program's affinity to only one core in Task Manager every time you run it, else it'll crash about 2 seconds after you start a level. There is a permanent work-around, but I've always been too lazy to use it.

The game is available for cheap on EBay if you don't own it... and there are lots of mods (like improved textures) available at www.ttlg.com as well as an active Fan-made missions community (some of the missions are very, very good).

It's a very rewarding game, and wholeheartedly recommended.

 

[sozomai]

Excellent. Thief TDP is easily in my top 5, and I run through a level about once a month or so. As far as atmosphere goes, I put Thief right under Half-Life 2.

All stealth games owe the Thief series a great debt, and none IMO have come close to replicating the true atmosphere of stealth-gameplay Thief creates.

I have this game, but unfortuntly it always freezes when i come to the first guard. I blame vista.

Thief has an issue with multi-core processors on newer systems.
Quick fix: Start Thief, ctrl+alt+del to task manager, right click "Thief.exe" under processes, 'Set Affinity', and make sure that only 1 CPU is checked. (Doesn't matter which).

 

[Gormers1]

Every time he says something bad about the first halo game I die a little inside ;(

But anyway, great review/retrospect/whatever that further boosted the interest I already had for this game series Ive never experienced.

 

[asiepshtain]

Funny.

 

[Nirin]

I laughed so hard i coughed

 

[Bobble_Hat]

Brilliant stuff. One of the best game series ever, PC or console. It just so happens I had Thief sat on my desk ready to be played after I've played through Deadly Shadows again, and it was a nice surprise seeing it reviewed on here, despite being 11 years old. And although Deadly Shadows is the weakest of the three, it's still better than most other games ever. Bring on Thief 4.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Thief has an issue with multi-core processors on newer systems.

It also has issues with the newer Geforce drivers. Theres not much tecnical support for old dark engine games now unfortunately.

 

[Rodger]

And when they listen to fans they end up in mediocre repetivive bullshit like Nintendo, and LucasArts, thanks but NO thanks. For me it's better when Developers say to fans "fuck you, and eat a bag of dick" and do stuff their own way

Nintendo? LucasArts? Listen to fans? The two companies you mentioned specifically couldn't be any further from that. Nintendo ignores pretty much everything they hear from their fans for better or worse, they listen only to the sound of cash registers opening. Same goes for LucasArts. Its all about the money flow, and so long as it continues then LucasArts will pump out StarWars games that should be shunned and Nintendo will continue to completely ignore existing fanbases and focus on wooing over new ones with the same product plus or minus a new gimmick. Taking fan suggestions is perfectly fine, though, so long as they take a grain of salt with it and think for themselves whether or not it'd help or hurt the franchise. Also, you have quite the vocabulary there...

Anyway, as to the actual review, stealth games are fine but any developer that decides he or she should put stealth levels in non-stealth games needs to be fired. Preferably out of a cannon at point blank range into a brick wall. Its perfectly fine in a horror game or an FPS where you're playing as a secret agent. But not in any game thats supposed to focus on action and shooting stuff.

 

[Midnight Voyager]

Thief has an issue with multi-core processors on newer systems.

It also has issues with the newer Geforce drivers. Theres not much tecnical support for old dark engine games now unfortunately.

But there is PLENTY of community support. The community helped me with every problem I had

 

[CaptainPicard]

Yahtzee is preaching, and I am among the choir.

I feel the exact same way about PC gaming in general, as well as Thief 1/2/3. It makes me sad that people have no clue how much better Thief 2 was than 3 because they have never played it. Without knowledge of this game, they don't know how much better 3 could have been. Cradle is good, but it doesn't make up for the many problems Thief 3 has.

At least a lot of people recognize the similar dumbing down that occurred with Deus Ex 1 and 2.

 

[Kanashe]

And when they listen to fans they end up in mediocre repetivive bullshit like Nintendo, and LucasArts, thanks but NO thanks. For me it's better when Developers say to fans "fuck you, and eat a bag of dick" and do stuff their own way

Nintendo? LucasArts? Listen to fans? The two companies you mentioned specifically couldn't be any further from that. Nintendo ignores pretty much everything they hear from their fans for better or worse, they listen only to the sound of cash registers opening. Same goes for LucasArts. Its all about the money flow, and so long as it continues then LucasArts will pump out StarWars games that should be shunned and Nintendo will continue to completely ignore existing fanbases and focus on wooing over new ones with the same product plus or minus a new gimmick. Taking fan suggestions is perfectly fine, though, so long as they take a grain of salt with it and think for themselves whether or not it'd help or hurt the franchise. Also, you have quite the vocabulary there...

Anyway, as to the actual review, stealth games are fine but any developer that decides he or she should put stealth levels in non-stealth games needs to be fired. Preferably out of a cannon at point blank range into a brick wall. Its perfectly fine in a horror game or an FPS where you're playing as a secret agent. But not in any game thats supposed to focus on action and shooting stuff.

Hmmm...Alright, I stand corrected with Nintendo and LA. My bad, I ofcourse do agree, that sometimes the developes should listen to the fans, but well fans aren't help all the time. Sometimes they can be annoying or even act like all knowing ass holes.

 

[DELTA x WOLF]

I like this episode but I was expecting that you where going to review Skate 2

 

[Grampy_bone]

I will be interesting to see if this review causes a sales spike for the Thief games. Also, the studio developing Deus Ex 3 hinted they were also making Thief 4.

 

[willgreg123]

I find it very odd how at least the first two people who post on these Zero Punctuation forum topics always manage to get suspended.

But anyhow, if I was a bigger jerk and a little dumber, I'd probably say something like "OMG, WORLD TRADE CENTER JOKE, MUST GO COMPLAIN NOW" but luckily I was brought up to have a sense of humor. Still, Yahtzee may want to at least try to be careful with his... oh, who the fuck am I kidding, eh? Yahtzee being sensitive would be like a soldier on the battlefield using his gun to fire friendship instead of bullets.

Anyhow, this is a game I've always wanted to check out. I do hope that Yahtzee gets to do more of these kind of reviews. Personally I'm still curious of his measurements of a good adventure game. He did mention Grim Fandango and Monkey Island, but my favorite has always been Sam and Max. Possibly because of all the highbrow humor.

 

[willard3]

FYI ... thief 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games of all time ... the difficulty settings never actually changed the game (eg ... most games increase the damage or increase the HP of enemies) in thief the difference between easy and hard was usually "don't kill anyone" or "find at least X gold" .

Expert usually added "Remain undetected".

Normal was usually "get your main item" with a few directions on how to do so, and occasionally a "get out of the level." Hard added "get out of the level", a miscellaneous loot requirement, possibly a side valuable to pick up, and occasionally a killing or knockout limitation. Expert invariably had everything from Hard, adding "don't kill ANYONE" and a higher loot requirement. Oh, and there were more patrols in Hard and Expert.

Thief 1 was excellent, though the later levels where there were nothing but burricks, ratmen, and the undead got really annoying. Thief 2 was excellent, though I've only played the first maybe 4 levels...definitely back-to-basics with more stealing and human opponents...hell, the second level's premise is that your rent is due and you need to resort to petty theft from dock warehouses.