What makes Thief great?

njcl on 18/5/2005 at 22:34

i agree with the last post............. :)

Bronze Griffin on 19/5/2005 at 11:56

I disagree with the post before last.

Garrett OneEye on 20/7/2005 at 02:00

Hmph....better late than never, I guess...

SneaksieDave said it best, but didn't quite finish the thought: all of those attributes add up to: Immersion.
I had never played a game before (and don't expect that I ever will again) that pulled me in so thoroughly and made me 'zone out' of Real Life so much, as Thief TDP did. It is truely a whole greater than the sum of it's parts.

What constitutes a masterpiece? How do you define WHY the Mona Lisa is such a great work of art? Impossible.

Thief TDP is truely a work of art.

Try and find a marketing hotshot that can write up a project plan to describe that.

Kovitlac on 28/2/2006 at 02:39

I like Thief III more than any of the others (although they were all good, too). Visiting the City between missions is what I love the most.

~s:a:n:i:t:y~ on 13/6/2006 at 08:23

Quote Posted by Bronze Griffin

Wgat makes Thief great?

Our crew :cheeky:

Seriously, I like it for the great choice of ingame strategies. You are most recomended to sneak, however, you can turn the game into a shooter. (I never chosen that kind of strategy, but the option does exsist). You can choose between 1st and 3rd person view. You can choose different paths, etc, etc, etc... Other games rarely have that kind of freedom. If you're able to skip fighting once, you're most probably bount to fight some other time - and that's what I dislike most, fighting....

Mostly, I was striken by cozy shadows that could make me feel at home wherever I follow :) Standing in hiding, watching the guard pass right by my face and not seeing me made me lough and I knew then that this was my kind of a game.

Thief-anewnickname on 14/4/2009 at 17:05

Quote Posted by Fallen+Keeper

I judge each game in base of three points:

1) Atmosphere
2) Story
3) Gameplay

These are not listed randomly; that is I care more of the atmosphere than of the gameplay. Of course, the gameplay cannot suck, right?

I don't care about graphics nor sound taken as a single vital element, althought they make part of Atmosphere.

I loved Thief 1 for having covered all those points. In my book, Thief 2 falls short on the first one. Thief 3 falls short on the third one. While T1 was perfect because of the pseudo-medieval dark world, great story and unique gameplay, T2 lost its "soul" because of the sudden and illogical change of the setting, annoying me as hell by the way. The creepiness was gone. Period.
Thief 3 returned to that setting, thank God, but the gameplay limitations crippled it on its way to the Hall of Masterpieces.

I'm not talking about Garrett's new toy movements, but the limitations that ZylonBane has already mentioned. And those Enforcers. Damn, what a joke.

Although its faults, I prefer T3 than T2. Actually, I love T3 for its atmosphere :) T2 is just a passage between T1 and T3 for me.

I know I'm going to be flamed for this, so let's add some wood to the pile: I hate Life of the Party. I don't like that level one bit. Why? Well, it's well designed but it features something I cannot stand: the Mechanists. The same for any other Mechanist mission.

I will back you up completely. These are my thoughts exactly.

Thor on 14/4/2009 at 17:47

Hmm, an old thread by the looks of it.
I'd just like to say that imho the 3 things which made me like Thief with that special feeling is:
Atmosphere
Story
Immersion
+ my brother actually liked it (his not into games), long time ago though. :D

Kin on 14/4/2009 at 17:54

First person stealth gameplay is something i never found in any other game. Are there any other FPSneakers? No there aren't

Petike the Taffer on 17/4/2009 at 10:23

- The stealth
- The atmosphere
- The gritty (and somewhat bitter) realism of it's fantasy setting
- The artsy animation in the cutscenes
- The voice-acting of all the various NPCs (especially the humourous quard quotes)
- Memorable characters and pretty well executed storylines, that often nicely subvert some of the typical clichés of the fantasy genre as a whole (I especially love all the subtle references to real world history and mythology and the way the game's mythology has a certain amount of believable explenations behind it)
- Fan-made content, add-ons and mods

Hard to list all the pros... ;)

CEEtheDinoman on 17/4/2009 at 23:14

Quote Posted by Garrett OneEye

I completely agree. The number one factor that I judge games on is immersion. This can either be Thief-esque, where the atmosphere and smooth gameplay literally places you in the world. This can also be Starcraft-esque, where the controls are awesome and the gameplay intense. This can also be Myst-esque, where the story is riveting and the images beautiful.

Thief Gold utterly killed in the immersion category and the first time I played Bonehoard I literally screamed while running from zombies on the bottom of the Halls of Echoing Repose. The story was well-written and the AI was great for the time.

TMA, although having a less smooth story had some great missions and great sound (including two of the three most famous conversations). Also, I am partial to the new equipment, although the AI could have been updated. Also, as has been stated, it had a more psychological horror vibe, where you just got really creeped out instead of blatantly scared.

I just finished TDS, and here's my opinion: it was my least favourite. The City ruined immersion from me, because I pictured Garrett as a "get-a-map-and-make-a-plan" kind of big-time master thief. Having him crawl through streets avoiding guards, pickpocketing poor dock-people and robbing his own building just ruined the feel that I'm a master thief and now just a petty mugger. Also, althiough the body-based camera provided some nice bounces while running, it distracted from the world when you would turn and your body wouldn't follow completely, making an awkward pause. Finally, gampelay mechanics (we all know of loot glint and arrow trails) such as no swimming (and the pathetic deaths when falling into water), the massively over-powered wall-hugging (especially when the hag's head goes through yours) and finally the faction interactions (I found some laughable, especially when guards did nothing); all of these took away from immersion and although by most games it's still epic, to me it's the worst of the series.

I can only hope T4 redeems itself and brings back the old qualities (Burricks, perhaps?)