BrendaEM on 16/9/2006 at 07:05

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By the time I had enough video card to run Thief DS, the Minimalist Project mod was out. Here are my thoughts, filled with spoilers, so be careful from here on in the text.

I liked the Minimalist Project mod because it kept me from having to deal with console-inspired HUDs. With in-game HUDs, less is more. The Minimalist Project solves fixes almost everything that was wrong with the game's HUD, and made the game more like the first two. Oh, what a difference.

I have only one critique: I spend too much time crawling, and not enough standing walking. I think the slow walking is not quiet enough. I want to enjoy the architecture for a human view. The player does not need to crawl as much in Thief 1 and 2 as they do in in Thief DS with the Minimalist Mod, otherwise, the changes that the Minimalist Project Mod makes are wonderful. Thank you.

If you have a modern video card, the textures made by John P. are a must have. There are hundreds of new textures, keeping the inspiration of the original flavor of the game. There is a saying in furniture refinishing that the best restoration goes unnoticed, and the new high resolution textures fit very well with the original, but just look sharper, better. I found one block texture that I thought looked a little too uniform, [SPOILER] as seen in the museum[/SPOILER] but that one texture is perhaps .5% of the entire package. The new textures now can be installed all at once with a nice installer. Thank you.

I also tweaked the mouse settings, as found in TTLG's Tweak Guide, making the mouse less sensitive. Thank You.

I played though the game on a Athalon 3000+ with a Geforce6600GT and 512MB RAM. I would think that the 6600GT is a minimal card for the game. It's capable of running it at well fair framerates at 1280x1024 with 2xQ antialiasing. I also have just a bit of the overclock on my card. If you can afford it, I would go with a faster card. The base machine should be enough.

Thief DS saves it's games in the "My Documents" folder, I have heard stories about crashed gamesave folders, so I recommend backing it up occasionally, and not keeping too many saves. They can be deleted from inside the game. Sadly, doing many gameloads, perhaps more than ten, may crash Thief DS.

On to the game, and here is the funny part, are you ready? I really liked this game. Really.

The graphics are pretty good. Once again, the textures, tweaked by John P. look great. The game's bump mapping makes the geometry go a long way.

The player shadows add so much to the game. The Garret self-player shadow shows the architecture well, and adds an ere of creepiness to the game. They visibility gem could have been eliminated, or taken off the screen and worn into a ring for Garret's finger. While I played, I never noticed the weapon HUD. When I forget what I have, I look in my hand.

The player models are good, and have facial expressions, but the animations are a bit jerky. The facial expressions add to those little moments when you are being run through with a sward. The ladder animations are outstanding.

The sounds are good, but I still think the sounds were richer in content in T1 and T2. [SPOILER]I missed the demonic child-like apparition noises, and the foot scuffs from T1 and T2. [/SPOILER]

The dialogue was good. Garret, the character is quite Garret-like throughout Thief DS, cynical, detached, trying not to be caring--but is.

[SPOILER]Benny and who I believe to be the captain of the guards make a return. The Captain was great. My favorite line from him was, "This better not be one of them jokes. If there is one thing I cannot abide, it's jokes." He plays a great heavy, and a hilarious drunk. There are one other identifiable guard voice, but I could have gone for a few more non-identifiable ones.

Some of the old-English seemed to have faded from the NPC's in the game. That needs to return.

Thems Pagan's bes well-played and written, so well that I bes readers words from them game files to looksie at them.[/SPOILER]

[SPOILER]I also liked the Widow Minora. As I climbed the stairs of her mansion, listening to her rants made a chill run up my spine. The woman is eerie, disturbed.[/SPOILER]

[SPOILER]The Female NPC's do not seem to have period hairstyles, and while they aren't sexually exploited, are regressed from T2, but I am guessing that Looking Glass had more women employees than the new studio.

I liked the little details, and I was impressed when a townsperson caught me picking his lock. I found the story of the Kirshok very sad, almost pathetic. I almost found myself not wanting to steal anything from them.[/SPOILER]

The missions are comparable to T1 and T2, but they are split into small sections. The towns serve as hubs. The buildings are nice, and plentiful, but I wanted more little side jobs. The roads in town are too small and narrow, making the player feel inside. It's all quality stuff, but it's just too close together.

[SPOILER]Then I got to the Hammer Cathedral. Wow! Why couldn't the towns have been scaled to these proportions.

The Pagan areas were some of my favorite as well. I thought it was a nice extension from T2.

The Keepers place was...in keeping with T1.

The clock tower was wonderful. I stood there taking screenshots.

And the Cradle, Shalebridge Cradle. Is it scary, yes, but in a different way than the “Return to the Cathedral” from T1.

The Cradle is an exquisitely terrible place to be in. I couldn't ever image wanting to be in the structure. I don't know where the puppets are right now, but if one finds me-I'LL SCREAM!

When I walk into the Cathedral in Thief 1, I see ruins. Then I see things, ghosts, haunts, dead priests I shouldn't be seeing. From the top floor ledge, I can look at all at a safe distance, objectively, knowing that I am so scared, I better go pee in the bathroom before I play any more.[/SPOILER]

From Thief 1 onward, the period in time the game takes place seems to have been diluted. One of the things that made Thief 1 scary for me, is get this...the houses, the period wall paper, the furniture, the wainscotting, the tappistries and other details all accurately depicted an era of which all the inhabitants are all dead and buried. Thief 1 was scary because your mind tells you that the living characters that you see in the game are long past, and the apparitions just aren't right. If you walk though Cambridge MA in fall, looking down at the dead leaves, that remind you of your own mortality. That's why I was glad to see leaves in the Pagan areas in Theif DS.

The Cradle in Thief DS did something that the Return of the Cathedral did not. [SPOILER]I made it out of the Cradle. Everything is okay, everything is back to normal. I am back in town, I am safe, then why am chasing a child ghost into a haunted Hammerite building, running past Hammer haunts, that I am going to have to pass on the way out. The Hammer haunts were underutilized in the game, and excellent opportunity for modders.[/SPOILER]

As an idea, I liked the Alignment system in Thief DS, I think it could have been used more. [SPOILER]But it was nice to walk by a Hammerite, and all was well.[/SPOILER]

[SPOILER]Being chased by the Keeper Enforcers added another dimension to the gameplay. I did not care for their Ninja-like weapons, but hearing their thoughts was an interesting twist. It was scary to be chased by them. They killed everyone they contacted. After they killed a City Watch, I found myself not liking them enough to take a few out with broadheads.

After the clock-tower came down, all the factions stared warring. It was hard to walk down the streets without seeing something awful, or being drawn into it. It was chaos.

The story of the Old Hag was well sold throughout the game. She was powerful, but the model could have been scarier, as scary as the cut scene.

The walking statues were a nice touch.[/SPOILER]

I feel lucky that I was able to play Thief DS with both add-ons. I think I had a different experience than someone who played the stock game. I like all three games, yes three.

BrendaEM on 21/9/2006 at 00:32

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I like the 1600's -1800s motif in the earlier games.