ToolHead on 28/2/2014 at 15:17
Still in Lockdown, so these are very early impressions.
Man, this is off to a poor start. The lack of freedom of movement is absolutely maddening and is a constant source of frustration. I keep scanning the environments only to be disappointed when it turns out how many places are off-limits to Garrett (master thief and native of the City, no less). There a so many places he SHOULD be able to get to that are arbitrarily inaccessible. So frustrating. And having a separate key for dropping off of things? Why?
I've turned off all HUD elements except for the light gem, since they are all huge, ugly and insanely distracting. A simple transparency slider would have done wonders.
There are some really nice touches body awareness-wise when pilfering stuff, picking locks and the like, but not all of it works. Much has been said about Garrett's hands in crouched position, and they do look rather ridiculous; his shadow especially makes it look as if he's sneaking up on someone not to rob them but to scare them by going 'BOOO!'. That's a pretty big immersion breaker in a game such as this.
With everything turned to max I'm not impressed in the slightest by the visuals. It's all so generic looking, and the way light and darkness is handled is unsatisfactory; the shadows especially are not nearly dark enough.
I had quite low expectations going in, but I'm still floored by the inept implementation of movement and how drastically this hurts immersion.
Oh well, it can only get better.
scumble on 28/2/2014 at 15:40
Quote Posted by Tony_Tarantula
That's still me. I'm still going to wait until either a major price drop or a 75% off steam sale. More than likely I'm going to wait until both are in effect.
Well it was a slight exaggeration for comic effect. Things have become a bit more positive however. I think if the game can be accepted as it is rather than the dream Thief continuation it'll be easier to live with.
Aja on 28/2/2014 at 16:32
Quote Posted by seventyfour
The audio propagation feels like something that'll be fixed by the next patch. It goes from great (hearing guards outside the building walk by a window near the street, and hearing distorted voices through doors) to voice clips playing out of nowhere inside your head. It's really inconsistent at times, but going by how good it is when the system works, I'm sure it'll be sorted out eventually.
Are you sure about that? Whenever I heard distorted voices, they were always coming from windows that you couldn't open; i.e. they were there for atmosphere. I've yet to hear a door or wall actually muffle something.
SubJeff on 28/2/2014 at 16:43
Finally gave it a go.
I've only done the prologue and despite a fair few frustrations and oddities (that I'm sure will get worse) unlike henke it feels pretty Thief to me. The scripts are terrible though. Terrible.
ZylonBane on 28/2/2014 at 17:00
Quote Posted by scumble
It's interesting how everyone's gone from "The game's going to suck I guess I might get it when it's reduced..." to "WHEN WILL IT BE DONE I WANT TO PLAY NOW!"
Sure, if by "everyone" you mean, like, three people.
nicked on 28/2/2014 at 17:34
Yeah, that's people who are posting in this thread. People who are lurking, like me, are just wearily disappointed and not planning to buy it at all.
Wait, I posted. It's a paradox.
seventyfour on 28/2/2014 at 18:11
Quote Posted by Aja
Are you sure about that? Whenever I heard distorted voices, they were always coming from windows that you couldn't open; i.e. they were there for atmosphere. I've yet to hear a door or wall actually muffle something.
Yeah, played it a bit more, and now it's apparent those sounds were baked that way, and not due to the audio system. And now I've encountered the bad volume mixes and looped conversations. Dangit. It really is broken.
henke on 28/2/2014 at 18:44
Yeah the sound is really bad. In Chapter 2 there are cutscenes where I could barely hear what characters were saying over the music and background soundeffects, and then there are things like carried bodies not making any sound when you drop them which makes the sound system feel very flimsy. :erg:
Also, combat is nigh-impossible, at least on Master Thief difficulty. I've only managed to kill 1 guard and that guy I had to put 4 arrows into and then whack him with the blackjack for a good half minute afterwards before he finally went down for good. It feels like they went overboard in making sure that combat is not a viable playstyle.
scumble on 28/2/2014 at 20:55
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Sure, if by "everyone" you mean, like, three people.
Yes, fine. I just thought it was funny to see "It's nearly downloaded!"
Moving on...
So I've started playing now, and I think I am glad I got past the "oh no it's not authentic Thief!". I suppose I accepted that the games we're used to aren't coming back.
I don't like the new Garrett voice, and the initial cutscenes are leaving me a little bemused. I'm not enjoying the dialogue much with all the "frigging" going on.
I can moan about the tutorial bits as well, like Garrett's "that's my way out, but once I go there's no coming back". No shit. However if you haven't spent hours playing thief already, this is no different from the tutorial conventions of a load of other games.
But sod that, I'm enjoying the wandering in, sneaking and stealing stuff. Some of it is disappointing, but the feel so far is very reminiscent of what I liked about the previous games. I feel quite at home searching for shadows and avoiding the guards.
I am really sad that SR isn't the voice. It would have made an enormous difference.
I turned the music down quite fast after the chase with Erin started. Eric Brosius had such a light touch compared to a lot of game scoring these days.
Also, I have to agree with henke that it looks pretty lovely.
