Keeper Jonas on 2/12/2008 at 08:13
Of the various levels throughout the franchise that are abodes of the undead, which one got the mood just right for you and why?
Do you have a favorite story about this level?
Do you play the level a lot or do you avoid it?
Nightmares?
Unhealthy fixations?
If you feel there's an FM that is more Undead than anything seen in the three games, by all means say so.
My choice would have to be TDP's Down in the Bonehoard.
Molock on 2/12/2008 at 10:46
As far as I can remember back when I was playing Thief DP I was 9, it took me a week to finish ''down to the bonehoard'' because I was scared about the zombies, it took me two weeks to finish '' the lost cathedreal'' but it took ma half a year to touch ''return to the haunted cathedral'' again after playing 3 minutes of it and getting demolished by a haunt and three zombies at once which caught me from behind. :joke:
Hey I was 9 when I was playing it, and I always played it at night around 12'o clock! :p
Today the undead lost most of their horror, but I still think return to the cathedral is the most fearsome mission.
It featured just everything, haunts, ghosts and zombies. Anything else, sir?
R Soul on 2/12/2008 at 13:13
Like a lot of people I voted for Return to the Cathedral. The bonehoard may have more undead things, but I think RTC is better at capturing the feeling.
nicked on 2/12/2008 at 13:27
I voted Haunted Cathedral (not Return). I think Return had a better atmosphere, but the ruined city section got the zombie infestation mood nailed imo
Infernalis on 2/12/2008 at 14:23
Out of all thief missions including mod's, I'm going to go with The Inverted Manse. It still scares the crap out of me.:wot:
Silencium18 on 2/12/2008 at 16:39
I voted for "return to the cathedral". Everytime I play this mission, it kinda reminds me of standing in front of a ghost train: You hear the zombies, haunts and ghost screaming and mouning without seeing them, especially when you go through the first doors and still can´t see them, but their voices are so clear to hear, it´s like they´ve already spotted and try to catch you. :o
Boy, was I pissed when I finally got the "eye" and then just realised that the doors where locked and I have to find another, longer way out:wot: :joke:
baeuchlein on 2/12/2008 at 19:06
From the original missions, I would place Robbing the Cradle on top, followed by Return to the Cathedral and The Haunted Cathedral. The Cradle scared me a bit more than the other two missions, which is remarkable if you remember that the outside and the first rooms of the Shalebridge Cradle were totally empty - but I did not know that when I entered the place. Furthermore, we were renovating our house at the time of playing, and two rooms near mine were filled with dust and the wallpaper was partially torn off the walls - felt just like the Cradle. Especially when one heard little animals move inside the walls, which is possible with this house and its outer walls.
I like undead missions if they take place in an abandoned location, therefore these three have gained a place in my mind. The Abysmal Gale mission of Thief 3 was situated in a few very cramped rooms where you had to constantly evade the undead. I do not remember much else of that mission - somehow it failed to be interesting for me.
Concerning fan missions, my favourites usually include abandoned places as well.
Insurrection is one of the best I played, being an undead mission at least near the beginning, when the player arrives in a more or less walled up section of the city, much like the section we see in The Haunted Cathedral. And there' s plenty of room to move in and a lot to explore, and enough undead to make you watch your steps on the one hand, but don't force you to sneak all the time on the other.
One of the last missions of T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, where the player has to travel through an abandoned city section with an ancient and rotten, ghost-filled hospital inside, is almost as good as Insurrection, but it does not change into a "mansion-type" mission like Insurrection somewhere in the middle. I think that one is called The Cure.
The other undead mission of T2X, Down Among Dead Men, feels different than the standard undead missions because the undead are not the standard kind. They vomit at you and you can really hack them into pieces, and if such a partially dismembered... thing... follows me, devoid of some body parts, that gives me the creeps.
A Brawl in the Tombs is another undead mission. Here, the player is in a large underground cemetary of some sort, but it's not really abandoned. I was especially interested in leading hostile groups into battles with each other, and this mission provided me with a lot of suitable situations. I would have liked it a bit less if it was not set in a cemetary-like area, but the main fun was derived from watching other people slaughter each other.:ebil: Boy, does it feel good to be bad here...
Mission two of Gregorius' Dancing with the Dead campaign is another mission featuring the undead. Once again, the Hammers badly screwed up, and the result is just another undead invasion. The feeling of having to travel through a severely damaged and undead-infested Hammerite installation kept my wicked spirits up all the time.
Yandros' Dance with the Dead is a bit special. Although it was important for me that this took place in a large underground tomb area, the undead in the first rooms somehow did not feel like scary horrible things, but rather like some ordinary but powerful foes. Happens to me all the time when someone uses these large skeleton enemies. This changed when I approached the Bone King's throne chamber with all his "friends" there - those induced a bit of fear due to their appearance again, adding to the atmosphere. So, it was the setting in an environment with no living things around that made me like this mission, not the standard undead types which I encountered here.
Then there is this fan mission where Garrett enters the Herman manor, supposed to be haunted, with no weapons due to a lost bet. I don't remember the name of the mission right now, but this one had some atmosphere as well, especially in the beginning, where one wanders around on the manor's grounds and can see little in the fog surrounding the place.
Well, these are the undead missions that come to mind right now. Most of the time, scary undead in an abandoned and partially ruined setting have a good chance of satisfying me.
Andarthiel on 3/12/2008 at 05:25
Call me a noob but I never liked either Return to the Cathedral or Down in the Bonehoard(T1 being my least faovrite of the three games) Down in the Bonehoard felt a bit like a zombie holocaust, it was overdone and I always end up killing everything in sight with fire because I can't stealth the mission.
The one that did it right was The Cradle, it has all the suspense, background, story, music and a creepy child's voice:laff: that makes a good horror experience.
When I first played, I was expecting to see an enemy right at the start and the atmospheric sound effects made me jump at every turn and when I actually got into the Inner Cradle I was too afraid to even kill one of those puppets when it started moving and making breathing noises. I stayed in the shadows for at least 5 minutes gathering up my courage and wits. Hehe, probably the best scare for me was the time when I fire arrowed a puppet and thought he/she/it was dead and walked over it's body only to see it spring up in my face and start clawing at me:eek: . I didn't sleep that night,hehe:laff:
Suffice to say that flickering lights and weird electrical noises scare the living daylights out of me:eek: .
Keeper Jonas on 3/12/2008 at 07:28
I cannot verify exactly where but I seem to recall reading about Robbing the Cradle on another gaming site. The author counted the Cradle among the scariest simulated environments ever created.
For me, however undead the Cradle is or isn't, it is clearly the most $%^&ed level in the whole of Thiefdom. No doubt. The Bonehoard just has an aesthetic about it. Also I've always imagined throwing a torch down into the black abyss of on of the octagonal vaults and having it illuminate thousands of tons of human bones...
