[insert title] 2-11-12
By ArcBorealis 8 Comments
It was tough having to skip last week’s entry, since the games I wanted to write about I didn't get around to. Instead, I've been playing a different game, one that I've wanted to play for a long time. And now I have it, and have been playing a ton of it, so now let me tell you about it.
GAMES!!!!
For a while I’ve had a very large interest in the games created by Looking Glass Studios. They created games that have had a huge influence on the industry today, and the simulation aspect of their games is what makes them most fascinating. Thief is one of the most well remembered games created by Looking Glass, and now that game is available for download on Good Old Games for $9.99. Seeing that I could now buy the game without looking for a physical copy made me ecstatic, and I wasted no time buying it. After spending a week and a half playing through it, I was glad to see that my desire to play this game was not wasted. It may be nearly 15 years old, but Thief might just be the best stealth game ever created (unless of course Thief 2 is better, which is now on GOG as well, just a week after Thief Gold). Down to the core systems and even the little nuances you would not have noticed unless you sought them, Thief is goddamn brilliant.
The thing that makes this game really amazing compared to other stealth games that have been influenced by it is the excellent use of lighting and sound. As I said in the previous paragraph, one of the charming things about Looking Glass Studios’ games is the simulation aspect, and in that regard Thief is indeed a stealth simulator. After all, the name of the game is a profession, so it’s simulating what that kind of profession is about. So yeah, hiding in the shadows and minimizing sound doesn’t sound that spectacular nowadays since that’s something any stealth game should have anyway.
However, what these mechanics do for the game is it shows that having a complete map of the area and enemy vision cones isn’t necessary to minimize trial and error in your stealth game. The game’s HUD is very minimal, only displaying your health along the bottom left of the screen, as well as a gem in the bottom center that lights up or darkens to tell you whether or not you can be seen. Also, some missions you get a full map, a map with barely any details, or no actual map at all. With so little resources at your disposal to complete your objectives you would think you’d be constantly quick saving and quick loading at the tiniest screw up (not to say I still didn’t use quick saves). Not in Thief. The advantages of hiding in the shadow do more than enough to make you feel comfortable with your actions, and the sound design is also good in that regard with figuring out when it’s safe to move across tile floor or how far away a patrolling guard is (and supposedly, leaning up against a door or wall lets you hear things on the other side more clearly). Eventually I got to a point in the game where most of the time I could look at a shadow and gauge whether or not it will conceal me completely or not without having to constantly rely on the gem on your HUD.
There’s also one tinier thing about the gameplay that I found way more interesting than I would have expected. Deus Ex Human Revolution had a cover system which solved a trial and error problem of getting seen by an enemy when you’re trying to take a peak. In Thief, you can lean while standing in a shadow and still be completely concealed. Now take that lean function one step further by going up to the edge of a door frame, still concealed in darkness, then lean to the side, and use the mouse to turn your view towards the frame. Instead of some weird clipping or cancelling the lean, your view actually wraps around the frame or wall, allowing you to see more of what’s outside the room you’re in without stepping out of the shadows. In a way, it solved the question I had of how do you know when there isn’t an enemy looking in the direction of where you’re trying to go. Just the act of doing it felt organic and showed that a cover system isn’t necessary.
I realized I’ve spent a whole lot of time talking about the systems behind Thief as a simulation, but what about the game part? How are the missions and story and so on? The missions are varied. From here on there’s gonna be some spoiler talk so skip if you want.
I figured I would do a quick critique on the levels and what I thought of them. The first mission is straightforward, steal a scepter from Lord Bafford’s manor. After that mission, you are introduced to the undead in Cragscleft and the Bonehord. Cragscleft has Garret breaking into a prison to free one of your fences, Cutty, and the Bonehord has him plundering an ancient tomb for the Horn of Quintis. So, steal from the rich, prison break, and grave robbing. Pretty varied goals for the first three missions, and are all connected by a thin thread. After that follows an assassination attempt on Garret, and breaking into Ramirez’ palace to show him not to mess with the master thief. And as a part of Thief Gold, one of the bonus missions, the Thieves Guild, has you stealing a vase that the two leaders of the guild are arguing about over who should be allowed to fence it. This level was particularly long compared to everything else before it, but I kind of admired the sheer size of it all. If this level was made in a modern game, the tavern, the sewers, and the two mansions would have been separated by loading screens.
After those first several missions the real story kicks in when Garret is hired by a woman named Viktoria to break into the home of Constantine and steal his sword. Sounds simple, except for the fact that Constantine must be related to Lewis Carroll or some postmodern architect, as the layout inside is rather interesting. Stuff like the twisting corridor, or exclusive to Thief Gold the “little big world” are the two pieces I think stand out the most in this level. Some wonderfully weird level design in that mission. After the job is complete, Garret is hired by Constantine himself to steal “the Eye” from the abandoned Hammerite cathedral, which is filled with the undead. After Garret makes a brief visit to the cathedral, there’s an extra few tasks he must go through in order to get his prize: recover the four talismans used by the Keepers to seal the cathedral doors.
The next four missions (two if you aren’t playing Thief Gold) involve Garret searching for the four talismans. First in the mages guild, than a ruined city buried underneath the current one, breaking into an opera house, and finally infiltrating a Hammerite temple. One thing I will be quick to say is that the Lost City was my least favorite of this set of four missions, and possibly the entire game. The abundance of fire elementals was too much for me. The Song of the Caverns was good, but wasn’t anything special beyond the fact that opera and concert sound effects were used. The Mages Guild, like the Thieves Guild mission, took me roughly the same amount of time to complete (about an hour and a half). Undercover was one of my favorites in the whole game, because as Garret says before the mission starts, “they say the best place to hide a letter is on the mantelpiece.” Hiding in plain sight as you try and find the last talisman was a great mission idea. After all four talismans are retrieved it’s time for Garret to return to the cathedral.
Return to the Cathedral is often said to be the scariest mission in Thief, but in all honesty, it didn’t bother me too much. The ambient sound effects used inside the cathedral are indeed creepy, but I already had no problem dealing with zombies, and the Haunts can’t see you any better than a living person when you’re hiding in the shadows. One backstab is all you need to put them down easily. And once you get outside of the cathedral and start doing Brother Murus’ requests, the creepy ambient effects kind of stop.
The last three missions that follow, well, not really as good as everything before it. The eye plucking scene was pretty amazing and well done, but everything after that was an abundance of ratmen, bug beasts, and spiders. The former two can be dealt with easily like any human enemy, but spiders are more of a pain, and Escape isn’t particularly fun starting out when you’re lacking equipment and only at 5 points of health. After escaping Constantine’s House, the next level has Garret seeking the Hammerites for assistance, but they’ve been hit hard by the Trickster’s monsters. Once again, lots of sneaking and fighting ratmen, bug beasts, and spiders. The Maw of Chaos has Garret stealing the Eye and replacing it with a replica in order to disrupt the Trickster’s ritual. The mission is filled with the same kind of enemies but level design is weird, but not exactly in the same way that made the Sword awesome. There is an upside down water fall and river that goes through the ceiling so that’s interesting. The whole level is just a straight path filled with ice surfaces, gravity defying water, and tones of lava pits and ledges. Not really the greatest level to end the game on, but it wasn’t horrible.
So yeah, I’ve run down through the game’s missions, giving a quick evaluation on what I thought of each. To sum it up, the levels that had me going up against human enemies and not monsters and undead were my favorites. Also, the things about the game that people seem to find scary about it did not scare me at all. And fire elementals are assholes.
I have finished the game, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with it. I’ve only gone through the game on Normal, so I might give Hard and Expert a try, and even try some fan missions people have made. Already installed Garretloader and been looking at different missions to try out. Not surprisingly, the majority of fan missions are for Thief II. And now that game is available on GOG, so I’ll probably get it sometime soon. Overall, I really enjoyed Thief. Things about the gameplay surprised me in ways I didn't realize were extremely genius, and overall quality of the missions were very good. Based on what I've heard, Thief II might be better for me since the missions in that focus on actual stealing from people in the city instead of all the monsters and undead. And hopefully GOG continues to find a way to get the rest of Looking Glass Studios’ games up on their service. Especially System Shock 2. Want to try it so bad, even though I’m not a big fan of horror.
And the Rest
Shin Megami Tensei Persona
So I mentioned in my last entry that I was looking to borrow a PSP from a friend with a copy of Shin Megami Tensei Persona. I’ve only messed around with it for a few hours, but I plan to spend most of today digging deep into it. It’s definitely different from what modern Persona games are like, but I find it to be still rather interesting.
Things Other Than Games
First half of the week was busy for me school-wise, with plenty of quizzes and tests. Homecoming is next week, and like any school event I don’t care about it. Thursday I did what I felt was a very good thing and donated $15 dollars to the Double Fine Adventure. I was originally just going to watch the whole thing grow, but after seeing how fast Double Fine received the initial amount they set, I felt motivated to give them my portion as well. You could be cynical and say it’s me preordering a game that may or may not be good, but the idea behind this kickstarter is terrific, especially for a studio like Double Fine. Can’t wait until the game starts getting worked on and the documentary gets produced. Again, I feel very proud for doing something like this.
Last weekend I visited the friend that lent me the PSP and SMT Persona. We hung out for a few hours, showed me some Final Fantasy XIII-2, which I didn’t play but can say that I would probably enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed Star Ocean the Last Hope (meaning fun to play, but dumb as hell story and characters). He also gave me some new recommendation for anime, introducing me to the brilliance that is Go Nagai, creator Mazinger and Cutie Honey. Specifically he showed me some clips of a 3 episode OVA series called Mazinkaiser SKL, and not only do I want to watch the whole thing on blu-ray (not the streaming websites I’ve used to watch anime in the past), but I now have a new idea for a character I want to create in Saints Row the Third (the main characters in Mazinkaiser SKL are total psychopaths). Speaking of Saints Row, I can finally play the game again properly because my friend also gave me a new USB cable to connect my PS3 controller to my computer, since the old cable was busted for a while now.
In Conclusion
Well this was a very long blog entry, but I suppose it makes up for my lack of an entry last week. Fun random fact, the word count of this entry is close to 2400. Not that many of you would really care that much and would probably skim a lot of it. Whatever, the point is, someone will have read something from this, and that counts.
Peace.