henke on 22/2/2011 at 18:18

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Ah, the Thief forums. I don't think I've made a thread here since 2002 or so. Back in the days of the "please read this post!!!" threads.

Meeemoriiiieees....

But enough reminiscing, on to the actual topic of this thread.

If any of you visit RPS regularly you may have seen the post about (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/22/blind-gamer-completes-abe%E2%80%99s-exoddus/) the blind guy who played though Oddworld: Abe's Exodus using only audioclues as a guide to navigating the levels. Well obviously this got me thinking of Thief and whether it would be possible to play through it blind. So I reinstalled Thief 2, started it up, configured the controls, donned headphones, loaded the first level and turned off my monitor. The experiment begins.

Obviously I've played though T2 a few times so I know more or less where everything is and this should make things easier for me. I start walking towards the corner where the stairs lead down to the door. After a few steps I realize I'm going to need a way to know when I've reached the wall so I pull out my sword and start swinging it in front of me like a blind man's cane. After a few whacks I strike something woody-sounding. A tree? The bush? I continue spinning around a swinging and pretty soon I come to the conclusion that I'm completely lost. So I turn the monitor back on and have a look. I am nowhere near the corner yet. I've been whacking at the bush which I sadly discover does not make a sound whether struck with sword nor blackjack. I turn the monitor back off and make my way towards corner. Pretty soon I hear woodboards under my feet. I've made to to the stairs! Yes!! :D

I continue downwards and start swinging my sword around but it doesn't make any sound. The wood is still clearly bellow my feet so I should be striking the stone of the walls around the stairs now. I turn the monitor back on and discover, sadly, that striking the walls doesn't produce a sound. I enter the building and hit the walls inside, no sound from them either. This is going to be difficult. I turn off the montor again and stumble around trying to pick up the coins from the table. The tables and chairs do produce distinct sounds but I still can't find the coins. Somehow I manage to make my way into the next room instead and, against all odds, pick up the doorkey and open the locked door to the basement. I move onwards, hear the male and female guards talking. I creep slowly trying to hear the sound of a torch burning. I hear nothing. So I allow myself to cheat one last time. Monitor on, shoot torch out with waterarrow, and monitor off again. I walk down the hallway. Garrett says, to himself, that there's a guard up ahead. I creep on slowly. I hear a guard mutter something. I open a door and move forward. Now the guard, or guards, defenitely know something's up. I hear a bow creaking as an arrow is pulled back. Shit! This is when I pull my sword out and start running forward swinging madly. Arrows whiz by my head. As I hear the arrows being pulled back one after one and I rotate trying to center the sound so I hear it evenly in my left and right ears, while making my way forward. The sound keeps getting louder which each arrow, I am closing in. :ebil: Suddenly one of my mad swings connect, there's a squishy sound followed by the grunt from a guard. I keep swinging and pretty soon the sound stops. Next comes the old familiar sound of the Mission Failed cutscene. Now I remember, I'm not supposed to kill anyone in this mission am I? Damn.

Results of the experiment: Is it possible to play Thief blind? Not really, no. The walls would need to produce a sound when struck, or better yet if there was some sort of "prod" function which gave audio feedback of what's in front of you. When you walk into a wall your footsteps stop but it's still hard to tell whether you've walking into a wall or some object in the room. Also there would need to be amplified sounds of burning torches and humming electrical lights, so you could aurally tell when you're in the shadows.

So, yeah. Anyone else wanna give this a shot and see if they're more successful than I was? A tip: remember what key "Center View" is on. If you get into a swordfight you might just end up swing around in the air or at the ground otherwise.

henke on 22/2/2011 at 18:29

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Haha, did you get the same idea from the article? :D

jtr7 on 22/2/2011 at 19:40

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If the OMs could be patched to have the sword and blackjack strike more terrain surfaces--because there are editor settings for it--one would still have to contend with alerting every AI in the mission and dying/mission-failing hundreds of times, and the player will have to quicksave/load a hell of a lot. The player will also need a way to tell a drop-off from a step-off/step-down, etc. There's no physical feedback so one could step up or down stairs and never know it. Good luck with using rope arrows well, or firing at targets (the Elemental Portal in the Maw, the Keeper Sentinel). The Bonehoard... If he player had a seeing-eye friend to talk him/her through, it would be more possible.

Sperry on 24/2/2011 at 09:15

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I saw this video also. I posted something in the editor's guild about it before finding your topic. This is incredible.

PeeperStorm on 25/2/2011 at 02:23

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I like the buzzing light gem idea. For walls, maybe some sort of provision for force feedback would help so you could feel when you bump into them.