Thief: TDP. Some Thoughts... (short review of game)

wekes878 on 21/10/2006 at 02:21

I own many games that were released years ago that I'm just getting around to playing now, and one of them was Thief: The Dark Project. After playing it on and off (mostly off) for over a year, I just finished it tonight.

Honestly, I was expecting a bit more from the end game after the death of Constantine (I played it on easy since it's my first time through - I understand if the outcome is more satisfying on a higher difficulty level) and more from the last cutscene (which had interesting dialogue between Garrett and the keeper but seemed mre like a setup for The Metal Age than anything else). The final level could have been a little more difficult as well (although quite an interesting map they put together for that one).

Through the course of playing the game, I went from subtlely interested to obsessed fan to somewhat disappointed. The world they created, the medieval/19th century hybrid with a modern-speaking main character, was really intriguing, and drew me in with the passing of each level.

The monsters in the last quarter though were really disapponting. I was willing to go there with the zombies (who, although slow, gave me the creeps when I sneaking around them in Bonehoard), the burricks (kind of the nasty sewer rats of the city), and the evil Hammerite spirits (the chain dragging sound of the Hammer Haunts was pretty creepy). Then came Escape, and what I thought would be a frightening dash through Constantine's mansion turned out to be anticlimactic, to say the least. The apebeasts (I was calling them the Angry Sword Monkeys before I went on to the Thief websites) could have been alot more effective if they had taken the human elements out of them and made them more akin to a savage animal. They walked upright, they handled a sword, and they spoke english. Three strikes against making a monster scary, IMHO. Then came Mr.Praying Mantis. I have to admit, I caught myself rolling my eyes at that one. Oh, and then there's Crabman, with his angry (it sure looked happy) dance once they saw you. This made the last three levels of the game quite a bit weaker than they should have been.

Constantine wasn't too effective in that department either. He was a slow, lumbering version of a demon, standing in the middle of a blood-red pentagram, that I've seen way too many times in games and movies. With the whole Pagan/nature motif that they had surrounding him, I thought it would be a spooky showdown deep in a thick, expansive forest where you could climb trees and make continuous sneak attacks on a fast, dangerous opponent. Instead, he meanders towards me and then I'm seemingly "attacked" by the invisible man and lose hit points regardless of where I stand. Challenging? Possibly. Disappointing? Oh yeah.

I don't want to diminish what is a really cool game with my thoughts on the last quarter, because the maps and objectives set up in the game were really innovative and fun to play.

Anyhow, I could go on forever with a detailed review, but I'll just end with what I thought were the best and most challenging levels of the game.

Top 5 most challenging levels:

5) Into The Maw Of Chaos
4) Break From Cragscleft Prison
3) The Sword
2) Return To The Haunted Cathedral
1) The Lost City (Those damn fire elementals were drivin' me nuts!)

My 5 favourite levels from the game:

5) Into The Maw Of Chaos
4) Undercover
3) Escape From Cragscleft Prison
2) The Sword
1) Return To The Haunted Cathedral

Aja on 23/10/2006 at 00:35

Play it on expert (skip normal). Entire sections of levels are blocked off on Easy and Normal; the game is meant to be played at that difficulty. The end boss is the same, but the game is far tenser, and the expanded levels add quite a few challenges.

And if you haven't already, explore the Sword thoroughly.

Kaiseto on 23/10/2006 at 04:35

I found that the game goes downhill after The Sword for me, mostly because it begins to focus on the supernatural levels. I know I can't be the only one who found mansions more fun to sneak around. That's why I found Thief II to be more appealing in the long run.

I am playing through The Dark Project on expert on a second runthrough now though. Seeing if I can ghost The Sword, and it's not proving to be easy :p

wekes878 on 26/10/2006 at 02:19

Hey, back again.

I can't believe I didn't mention this the first time:
I have to say that the briefings in Thief: TDP were friggin' brilliant. Everything: the cool sound collages they used, the way Garrett explained the mission, the setups and backrounds for the Keepers, Hammerites and Woodsie gang at the beginnings.......kick ass.
If they weren't in the game, Thief:TDP would still be a great, innovative game (seeing as how there weren't really any first-person sneakers around at the time), but the briefings made me actually become an obsessed fan of the story and characters. Then the "monsters" came in the last quarter, and that brought my excitement for the game down a touch.

th|3f on 26/10/2006 at 02:25

Quote Posted by Kaiseto

For me though, mansions and such (Assasssins, for example--levels where you're dealing with regular humans, keys, servants, etc.) are almost pathetically easy after you get good at the Baron level. Play one you've almost played them all, save some details.

nident on 26/10/2006 at 17:22

I usually enjoy mansions and such the most since it's usually easy to tell where there are big areas that you haven't explored yet and then I think it's great fun to try to find the right key or switch to access such an area when I know how big the "reward" (i.e. the unexplored area) is once I find the right key or switch. IMHO "The Sword" is the worst mission ever - I played T2 first and because I really enjoyed that, I wanted to try its predecessor as well and then found The Sword so boring that I almost decided not to finish the game. I probably wouldn't have unless I had played T2 first and thus knew that there could be better missions later on. The good thing with Thief Gold was that RTC made me like undead missions as well since in T2 I considered the zombies mostly a nuisance but in RTC the undead were scary and I felt the same excitement as when trying to avoid guards in T2 (probably even more) but the feeling was also different and the variation very welcome.

june gloom on 26/10/2006 at 20:45

Quote Posted by nident

IMHO "The Sword" is the worst mission ever

i used to agree with you. thief gold was my first thief game and up 'til that point the game had a sense of reality to it (yes, even bonehoard.) the sword was just this weird upside down thing that didn't make any sense, and i had a sense of some of the really bad duke nukem 3d maps i've played in the past.

however, in subsequent playthroughs i've grown to like the mission. it's just flatout crazy, but there is a method to its madness.

still hate escape! though. pain in the ass.

nident on 26/10/2006 at 21:00

Interesting. The first time I played it through I googled for a walkthrough for Escape when I realized that it was the same damn place that I hated and managed to get out pretty quickly and I remember that the walkthrough started something like "most people hate this mission" and then there were two alternatives given - either the fastest way to complete the objectives (which is obviously what I chose to do) or a way to visit every place and so on. The second time, I actually was somewhat interested in exploring places in Escape (possibly because I hadn't visited them at all the first time) but I still think The Sword really sucks (and Escape sucks almost as much even though I explored it on my second visit).

th|3f on 26/10/2006 at 21:34

I think the reason most people hate it is the outlook of "Why can't I just run through this crapola and be done with it? Let the losers just chase me all they want, I don't really care." At least, that was the way it was for me. Same with the escape part from Assassins.