Thief
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:32 pm
With the release of Thief 4 just around the corner, I decided that I wanted to see more people talking about the game and the series as a whole.
The first two games were made by Looking Glass Studios in the 90s, which was also the studio that worked on System Shock and Ultima Underworld (the company sadly went out of business in 2000 due to a financial crisis related to their publisher, Eidos Interactive). Thief is considered one of the grandfathers of the stealth genre of gaming. Your protagonist is a cynical man named Garrett who calls himself a master thief. The series has three games currently: Dark Project/Gold (Gold is an extended version of Dark Project), Metal Age, and Deadly Shadows.
Thief was considered very innovative when it was released! The game mechanics made players pay attention to their surroundings. Garrett could hide in the shadows to stay unseen, and the AI was capable of hearing the noises you made and on higher difficulties they could even notice when something in their patrol route was different (such as a door left open or a torch extinguished). Players had to be mindful of how they moved, or else they could walk across a metal grate and alert every guard within a mile of their presence.
The game had held a small fanbase over the years due to a large number of ways the game can be played. One of the most popular set of self-imposed rules is called Ghosting, in which your goal is to finish all of your objectives without leaving any traces of your presence. An 'official' set of rules can be found here, at the Eidos forums (this forum is ancient, yo, but it's still alive). Another play style that is popular is called Ironman, where you have to get through the level without saving or dying. A lot of Ghost players rely on save scumming to finish levels, so Ironman provides a different type of challenge. Some people put the two play styles together and try to ghost while playing Ironman.
Anyway, enough exposition--this thread is for discussion about the games. Talk about levels, factions, characters, story, you name it!
The first two games were made by Looking Glass Studios in the 90s, which was also the studio that worked on System Shock and Ultima Underworld (the company sadly went out of business in 2000 due to a financial crisis related to their publisher, Eidos Interactive). Thief is considered one of the grandfathers of the stealth genre of gaming. Your protagonist is a cynical man named Garrett who calls himself a master thief. The series has three games currently: Dark Project/Gold (Gold is an extended version of Dark Project), Metal Age, and Deadly Shadows.
Thief was considered very innovative when it was released! The game mechanics made players pay attention to their surroundings. Garrett could hide in the shadows to stay unseen, and the AI was capable of hearing the noises you made and on higher difficulties they could even notice when something in their patrol route was different (such as a door left open or a torch extinguished). Players had to be mindful of how they moved, or else they could walk across a metal grate and alert every guard within a mile of their presence.
The game had held a small fanbase over the years due to a large number of ways the game can be played. One of the most popular set of self-imposed rules is called Ghosting, in which your goal is to finish all of your objectives without leaving any traces of your presence. An 'official' set of rules can be found here, at the Eidos forums (this forum is ancient, yo, but it's still alive). Another play style that is popular is called Ironman, where you have to get through the level without saving or dying. A lot of Ghost players rely on save scumming to finish levels, so Ironman provides a different type of challenge. Some people put the two play styles together and try to ghost while playing Ironman.
Anyway, enough exposition--this thread is for discussion about the games. Talk about levels, factions, characters, story, you name it!
