I am interested in how many of you who are enjoying this game played through the original Thief games.
Another long-time appreciator of the predecessors here.
The first two games are literally my favorite games of all time. Out of the thousands and thousands of games I've played, they are my favorites. The third game still has a lot of the old Thief magic, even if it's somewhat uneven compared to the first two.
There's no comparison to the first two games, but I can't see the argument that this new Thief is worse than Deadly Shadows. If anything, they've improved on a lot of the aspects of the previous game (art direction, hub activities, etc.)
I'm just not feeling this new game. It seems to have been made by people checking boxes on the old Thief games, without really understanding what made those games special.
What made the game special varies from person to person, but I think there's still some of that magic here if you're willing to look. For me, manipulating guard activity to grab loot while being unseen and exploring to discover a level's secrets define a Thief game, and I feel the new entry delivers on that essence.
The level design is truly awful. I've played far better Thief fan made levels.
Did you play the House of the Widow Moira and The Sunken Citadel missions in DS? That game had much worse linearity and more cramped levels than what I've seen from this game so far.
There is too much loot. Shit is everywhere. There is no excitement in finding it like in the old games.
I think the two-tiered loot (collectibles and cash loot) works; the excitement is in locating the collectibles, and the cash hoovering is more for completionists (which I include myself in).
The new voice actor for Garrett isn't great. That was another box checked - "We need to have kinda the same sounding guy. Gravelly." There's no nuance in his performance at all.
I wish they brought back Stephen Russell too, but I don't think his replacement did a bad job with his dialog (even though I can't get over how vaguely French Canadian he sounds).
The mechanics of the game are overwrought and don't work particularly well. I could write an entire essay on why it's simply not that much fun to play.
The contextual lean is a big annoyance, but I haven't run into any issues with the other controls, and actually even like the addition of the swoop. Moving just feels better than in the past games.
What happened to the universe and aesthetic of the old games? It feels like I am playing a very, very poor ripoff. Would it have killed the developers to put in some referential jokes, preferably using the word "Taffer"? The Builders? The game and the universe are just lifeless. Nothing about this has any personality whatsoever.
No argument here, the lack of narrative continuity is a big disappointment. But that doesn't have to negate one's appreciation of the atmosphere and the vignettes independent of the overarching story.
Anyway, I'm glad some of you are enjoying it. I hope it sells well enough that we get a sequel, preferably made by a developer with some talent. Personally, I am going to erase it and forget it existed.
Maybe like a dead wife, one needs to grieve for one's expectations in such a way. But I think you're doing yourself a disservice by writing off what is actually a fun stealth game because of what it happens to be titled and the associations it brings.
