S Bodi on 17/5/2009 at 13:56
I been playing TDS again recently and thinking about the things that make it good, and the things that make it bad. I feel that the first two Thief games are really what got me and maybe most of the community here hooked. The third game while a good game with some excellent parts suffered from some poor design, interface and presentation issues. A lot of what I mention here comes from what I am re-experiencing with TDS and the fact that I had to go through and re-implement my previous tweaks to get it the way I want.
I have made a very personal list of what I would like in Thief 4. I've broken it down into what I feel is mandatory, what is important and what would be nice as a bonus. Its basically a long rant in point form. People are free to agree or disagree of course.
Things that are mandatory in the Thief 4 made for me:
- First person gameplay only.
- Stealth gameplay, the best of what we love about Thief.
- The ability to finish entire levels and preferably entire game without hurting anyone or anything or being seen by anyone or anything.
- Large, complex levels with linear objectives but multiple ways of getting there.
- A mature and relevant storyline with the complexity and intrigue we have come to expect.
- A single player campaign of good length, looking at games which are over 5-6 years old as guide for "good length" - many recent games are generally short 4-8 hour affairs in single player campaigns.
- A non-intrusive, minimal HUD.
- Positional sound.
- No unnecessary sound effects (eg loud whirling noise when zooming with eye: if there is a noise it should be subtle).
- No immersion breaking loading zones.
- No immersion breaking "Windows Live Achievement" popups or similar.
- If Garrett is in it: he is to be voiced by Stephen Russell or not voiced at all.
- Proper lean left, right and forward.
- Default walking speed, ability to run, sneak, crouch.
- Easy mantling mechanics.
- No climbing gloves, if the protagonist can climb a wall he or she does not need spiderman suction cups.
- Rope arrows.
- Immersion in water (swimming).
- Good AI and difficult opponents. Make it require significant effort to get behind to blackjack, such that total avoidance becomes a reasonable if not the preferred alternative.
- No crappy ragdolls.
- A solid melee engine: TDS had a very "soft" feeling when blackjacking. Many games have done melee with "crunch" so to speak: see Chronicles of Riddick, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. For Thief something more solid than TDS but more subtle than other action oriented games.
- No loot glint, rather objects which interest the protagonist should interest the gamer too, and hence picked up as loot.
- No arrow trails.
- Continue the tradition of vague maps.
- Immediate or delayed plans to release SDK for fan missions.
Things that are highly important in the Thief 4 made for me:
- Classic pre-mission and inter-mission cutscenes.
- No loading screen tips.
- Thief world sayings and poems/recitals etc to be part of cutscenes as in TDP and TMA.
- A nice, mature, relevant subtitle for the Thief 4 title (ie no "Deadly Shadows" or other insinuation that the protagonist is naturally a killer).
- No "raising the blackjack" when in blackjack range.
- A lockpicking system such as that in TDS but without the HUD (use sound as cue).
- A reasonable melee blade. I always felt the original sword from TDP and TMA was too large for a thief, and that the dagger from TDS was too flimsy. What about a long dagger or shortsword?
- If there is to be an intermission sandbox type area (ie protagonist's lodgings and The City) - can we have the whole area as one big level rather than multiple loads, and that guards don't just run after you on sight: after all you are careful to keep a low profile. They can go after you if you're caught lockpicking/mantling in a window/stealing etc.
- "Body awareness" as far as its truly possible.
- No multiplayer.
Things that would be nice to have in the Thief 4 made for me:
- An option that the game does not pause when reading scrolls or looking at map, and one can continue to move around with the scroll/book/map on screen.
- Limited customisability of the HUD.
- Limited customisability of difficulty level (ie enemy numbers, enemy AI, victory conditions).
