sNeaksieGarrett on 26/7/2009 at 00:29

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Ah, a fantastic topic to discuss. Interesting to read each experience. Sadly, I don't have much of an interesting story. (At least, I can't tell it well.)

My father purchased a new sound card, and in those days, sound cards came with some free games inside. The card came with (I think all of these) Descent 3, Need For Speed High Stakes, Thief: The Dark Project, Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds.... I may be remembering them wrong, and there could be more. I know for sure that the sound card came with thief and need for speed.
Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what year it was, it was either 1998 or 1999. That would make me around 10 or 11 years old. :o I thought I would give the game a try (the CD art caught my eye), since my dad let me play games on his computer. Unfortunately, I can't recall what my exact reaction was the first time I booted up the game. What I can tell ya'll is that I wasn't much of a gamer, but somehow the gameplay style just clicked with me. I may have initially had the same reaction as everyone else (that is, killing guards) but I caught on fast because I knew that strait on fighting was a bad idea. I know that my initial reaction was pure excitement and curiosity. I think I really enjoyed Bafford's, and that led me to continue the game. However, Break From Cragscleft Prison I'm sure creeped me out with the zombies. After all, i was a young kid. I recall either being too frightened and/or unable to beat the level (or was it bonehoard?) because it was too hard, and so I think I cheated and skipped the level. I learned how to skip levels (I think the ctrl alt shift end keys) and I recall playing Assassins. That level wasn't scary at all. What I know is that I got hooked on the game, and I got a friend of mine into it (he got the game too) :) The rest is history. Back then those blasted haunts scared the crap out of me.:eek: They were always so creepy. At the time I didn't know what they were called, so my friend and I named them "skull warriors.":laff: (Which, is not too bad of a name, I must say.) Well I think I said enough....

Oh, one detail I didn't mention. Thief was medievalish, and for some reason I was really digging that. (I really do love the medieval period.)

sparhawk on 27/7/2009 at 14:11

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What I still remember from the first moments was: I absolutely loved it, because of the medieval theme. And I was scared to death when I came to Cragscleft. :)
And I was constantly worried about the guards, because they behaved so impressively real. So I was often enough hiding in some corner and praying that they will miss me when the searched close by. And then didn't dare to come out again, because I feared they might decide to check back a second time. :eww:

kamyk on 5/8/2009 at 20:37

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My first impressions...

Well I hadn't heard of Thief before TDS, so that was the one I started with. I was looking for good horror, and someone I knew recommended "The Cradle" to me, so I went out and got it.

I had just come fresh from Half-Life Platinum Pack, and Doom3, and I always prefer to play sniper in FPS, so I was already used to the idea of hiding, and peeking around corners. With Thief, I mostly "got it" right off the bat. Heresy perhaps, but I consider the training mission from TDS superior in most ways to the one from TDP/TG, as it does a great job of helping one understand the play style.

I was sucked right in from the training mission on. I do have to admit I played assassin my first time through - As I said I generally play sniper style and assassin was the closest equivalent in TDS. God, Stonemarket by the church was a nightmare late in the game thanks to all the bloodstains I left laying around. Despite that I totally fell in love with the play style, and "The Cradle" was everything promised, and then some.

Eventually I found my way here somehow or other. That's when the REAL fun began. When I found out there were two previous games, and a certain level called RTTC, I went high and low to find them.

First impressions of TG...
I will be honest that Bafford's bored me, I didn't understand where my dagger had gone, and the sword was clumsy in comparison. I think it took me a month and several restarts to get through it. Finally towards the end of my last playthrough of Bafford's I came to grips with my dear friend the blackjack. Added to that I got to Cragscleft, and everything changed.

Cragscleft sucked me in completely. It was the first level where I "got it" totally - figured out I didn't have to kill, and developed my current playstyle. It was also my first "real" hammerite mission (I don't count the clocktower mission from TDS as I still didn't truly understand when I played that one). The layout, the undead, the ambients, sneaking around the prison area. Everything in Cragscleft just sucked me right in. I even tried ghosting for the first time. It was the level that immersed me deeply into TG. I played through TG mostly nonstop from that point, and I've been playing ever since.

Xenith on 6/8/2009 at 15:41

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For what it's worth, Thief 2 was the first real 3d game in the sense that it needed d3d drivers, something which I didn't have a the time and of which I had no idea what the heck they were. So I was seeing neon lines everywhere and everything looked off. I tried playing through it like that and since I had no idea that a visibility gem exists or how the hud is supposed to look I struggled to understand each portion of the first level. Of course I gave up after a couple of tries returning to simple software running based games. Time passed and I learned more about how computers work, buying myself a new pc (with an FX5200 vid card), but I had forgotten about the Thief 2 cds while at the same time remembering what the salesman had told me when I bought them: "Thief is boring". So one day I decided to install the Thief 1 demo from an old cd that came with a computer stuff magazine because the comments that were attached to the demo read something like "Intriguing gameplay, storyline and atmosphere". I went passed the demo reloading a couple of times, but each time liking the idea more and more. Finishing the demo it struck me I had Thief 2 somewhere, so I hastily installed it and fired it up. The only I could say for the couple of days was "...wow...", because I couldn't comment on it in any other way I would comment for other things I played as a young lad (like racing games such as Speed Boat, Need For Speed 2 and a couple of 2d doohickeys).

So the first impression? Wow...

I never got to like Thief 1 though, not as much as 2, but that's probably because by the time I started laying Thief 1 a big bunch of years after finishing 2 and the charm of it wasn't as big. The way I knew the main character from the beginning was different now (having played Thief 3 also).

Just my two cents.

Edit: Also, stop friggin calling it "Thiaf" or "Thi4f" if you ultimately don't want the damn games name to be spelled like that everywhere.

Queue on 7/8/2009 at 01:41

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I've found myself doing that as well, judging other games against Thief--as Thief was just that good.