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    Thief: The Dark Project

    Game » consists of 10 releases. Released Dec 03, 1998

    Thief is a first person sneaker made by the now defunct Looking Glass Studios. Unlike most first person shooters, Thief emphasizes being stealthy and tactically creeping past your opponents rather than plowing through them in combat.

    I offend you by playing old games (Thief: The Dark Project)

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    ArbitraryWater

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    Edited By ArbitraryWater

    Alrighty. I have sent off my Xbox for repair, and have wired myself with a delicious Mtn Dew Game Fuel (TM). It's time once again for me to give my vaguely uninformed impressions of an old game that some people fondly remember. Today we are doing Thief 1, which I purchased for about $2+S&H. I didn't get the gold version (which has 3 more levels.) because then I would have had to shell out around $30. But whatever.

    Thief is a stealth game that came out in 1998 for the PC; the same year as Metal Gear Solid. However, unlike MGS, which is about as much fun to play as cutting my toes off (Alright, so I have only played 3 and the Twin Snakes, but they all kind of play the same until 4), I really enjoy Thief's brand of First Person Sneaking. You play as Garett: a thief who will be more than willing to give his sociopathic and witty commentary on the sights around him. Throughout the game, you will go to many different environments, but the best levels are the open-ended freeform ones where your job is to get an object, get some lewtz, and get out without being seen (also with actual human guards as opposed to zombies and monsters). The ones that aren't these kind are sort of bland in comparison, and although I haven't finished the game yet, there are thankfully not that many of these.

    But what about the actual stealth? It's good. There is a small gem at the bottom of the screen that tells you how visible (and therefore vulnerable) you really are. Moving quickly or being in a well lit area will probably end in being detected, but unlike some other stealth games, Thief isn't totally trial and error (although it still sort of is). You can usually kill or knock out a single guard before he raises the alarm, and then hide his body in the darkness. It makes me feel smart and like an actual stealthy dude. Even though the AI is very good at pretending its smarter than it actually is. But this game is old, what do you expect? Whereas, in Metal Gear Solid (sorry to keep making the comparison, but it's the only other pure stealth game series I have played extensively) once I set off the Alarm it's almost always over, and I'm never quite sure if a Guard can see me or not. But whatever, this blog isn't about how much I dislike MGS (because I do like it. I Just don't like the actual gameplay part).

    I'm going to keep this one short. In conclusion, Thief is a pretty awesome game and I should probably finish it. The stealth is certainly unique and convincing enough that I will probably get Thief 2, and the game has a wider margin for error than other games of its type (that doesn't mean that I don't have to reload a save every now and again.). And it is also very atmospheric. Here are some videos of the first mission that were not actually done by me, but I think they will give you a good idea of how it plays. EDIT: Sorry for the video embed Jankiness. They aren't totally in order.


    Next up: Heroes of Might and Magic (the entire series)
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    ArbitraryWater

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    #1  Edited By ArbitraryWater

    Alrighty. I have sent off my Xbox for repair, and have wired myself with a delicious Mtn Dew Game Fuel (TM). It's time once again for me to give my vaguely uninformed impressions of an old game that some people fondly remember. Today we are doing Thief 1, which I purchased for about $2+S&H. I didn't get the gold version (which has 3 more levels.) because then I would have had to shell out around $30. But whatever.

    Thief is a stealth game that came out in 1998 for the PC; the same year as Metal Gear Solid. However, unlike MGS, which is about as much fun to play as cutting my toes off (Alright, so I have only played 3 and the Twin Snakes, but they all kind of play the same until 4), I really enjoy Thief's brand of First Person Sneaking. You play as Garett: a thief who will be more than willing to give his sociopathic and witty commentary on the sights around him. Throughout the game, you will go to many different environments, but the best levels are the open-ended freeform ones where your job is to get an object, get some lewtz, and get out without being seen (also with actual human guards as opposed to zombies and monsters). The ones that aren't these kind are sort of bland in comparison, and although I haven't finished the game yet, there are thankfully not that many of these.

    But what about the actual stealth? It's good. There is a small gem at the bottom of the screen that tells you how visible (and therefore vulnerable) you really are. Moving quickly or being in a well lit area will probably end in being detected, but unlike some other stealth games, Thief isn't totally trial and error (although it still sort of is). You can usually kill or knock out a single guard before he raises the alarm, and then hide his body in the darkness. It makes me feel smart and like an actual stealthy dude. Even though the AI is very good at pretending its smarter than it actually is. But this game is old, what do you expect? Whereas, in Metal Gear Solid (sorry to keep making the comparison, but it's the only other pure stealth game series I have played extensively) once I set off the Alarm it's almost always over, and I'm never quite sure if a Guard can see me or not. But whatever, this blog isn't about how much I dislike MGS (because I do like it. I Just don't like the actual gameplay part).

    I'm going to keep this one short. In conclusion, Thief is a pretty awesome game and I should probably finish it. The stealth is certainly unique and convincing enough that I will probably get Thief 2, and the game has a wider margin for error than other games of its type (that doesn't mean that I don't have to reload a save every now and again.). And it is also very atmospheric. Here are some videos of the first mission that were not actually done by me, but I think they will give you a good idea of how it plays. EDIT: Sorry for the video embed Jankiness. They aren't totally in order.


    Next up: Heroes of Might and Magic (the entire series)
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    trophyhunter

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    #2  Edited By trophyhunter

    you don't offend me I was playing quest for glory 3 yesterday

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    BigBoss1911

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    #3  Edited By BigBoss1911

    Iv been playing alot of starcraft lately.

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    c1337us

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    #4  Edited By c1337us

    I kept reading until Metal Gear Solid is as much fun as cutting my toes off. I was so offended my mind literally blew. Its disgusting, now I have a mess to clean up.

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    ArbitraryWater

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    #5  Edited By ArbitraryWater
    Sorry for the messed up embedding guys, but I really don't feel like trying to fix it anymore.
    @c1337us
    said:
    " I kept reading until Metal Gear Solid is as much fun as cutting my toes off. I was so offended my mind literally blew. Its disgusting, now I have a mess to clean up. "
    I'm sorry. I just really don't like playing those games. I would watch the cutscenes on Youtube, but I have too much pride to actually do that. So I continue on, stopping to shoot a dude in the head with a tranq gun and then shoot his buddy. And then Psycho Mantis tells me that I suck at the game (which is true) and that I like Super Mario Sunshine (which is not true)
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    ahoodedfigure

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    #6  Edited By ahoodedfigure
    @ArbitraryWater: You could probably just have a word of text in between each video and it might format properly.
     
    Thief is one of my favorite games, hands down.  I really haven't played many stealth genre games, but after having played through all three Thief games I can pretty much say that the first two are the kind of stealth I like, where you don't have to reset all the time.  Multiple paths are what it's about, and I've been able to salvage just about any game in Thief through some smart changes in tactics.  Much better than having to give up.  Shows you Looking Glass was a good group of folks. 
     
    That, I think the setting and story are just great.

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