DarkMax on 12/8/2010 at 22:38
Quote Posted by kabatta
This is Madness!
This is not a madness, this is Sparttaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! (?):p
Dante on 12/8/2010 at 22:56
It's a Victorian society set in a medieval landscape patterned with steampunk elements.
Gimodon@sonic.net on 13/8/2010 at 04:08
Quote Posted by Captain Spandex
The first game looked much more medieval than Thief II and III. I think that's why it's always been associated with it.
The fact that you can't pin down Thief's style to
just medieval or
just steampunk is a testament to the genius of the art designers at Looking Glass and Ion Storm.
well even in Thief 1 they had indoor plumbing, gaslights, and some electricty
Melan on 13/8/2010 at 06:03
Quote Posted by lost_soul
It has always reminded me of medieval with a bit of Quake 1 spliced in. The medieval factor comes from the weapons and guards (especially their armor), and the Quake aspect comes from the textures and the colors used through-out.
Yep, I think that was the influence. Some pretty significant games from that period had that rusty and run-down technology meets fantasy theme, including Quake, Unreal, and even parts of Die by the Sword (which had a fairly similar colour scheme to Thief, too). You don't see the same style that often today.
jtr7 on 13/8/2010 at 06:46
Thief is as Medieval as any modern European city built around Medieval structures still standing and in use today--minus a few decades.
Vantek on 13/8/2010 at 14:42
Swords and arrows = medieval. As well as the clothes and armour. Also, the architecture is dark and massive (might have a lot to do with technical reasons), which is very stronly reminiscent of middle ages. And the hoarse voice acting is in the classic style that's typically associated with medieval brutes. And the hammerite business resembles what religion is often depicted as being like during the middle ages. And the magic style and pagans and trickster (devil) and nymphs in the forest also associate with middle ages.
You're right though, Thief does have a lot of 18.-19. century influences and even maybe early 20. century (lanterns, machinery) and even kinda futuristic sci-fi elements. It's just that for most people (including me), the medieval aspect is the strongest. (Oh and of course actually it's not authentic medieval, just the style how middle ages are typically depicted in popular culture, which is probably very far from what they were actually like.)
Beleg Cúthalion on 13/8/2010 at 20:42
In that way it's very romantic. Or rather dysromantic if we want to point out the dystopical nuance of it.
JonesCrusher on 15/8/2010 at 08:10
its Spamalot!
:D
Platinumoxicity on 15/8/2010 at 14:10
The science in Thief is strange. They have discovered some aethereal means of power production, artificial intelligence and other fantastical stuff, but they have completely missed the discovery of combustion-propelled projectile weaponry (guns.). They have gunpowder, but no guns. They have grenades (those steel balls with a fuse and gunpowder inside) but they haven't invented a cannon that fires those cannonballs using combustion. All the grenade launchers in Thief 2 are slingshots or catapults. And there are no flintlock weapons. They also haven't discovered magnesium-based flash grenades, but the flashbombs actually function using an electric spark.
All these little details make the world wonderful and strange.
Beleg Cúthalion on 15/8/2010 at 15:16
I think the aesthetics are making the game what it is, maybe the hidden or not-yet-understood elements, but IMHO not the obvious lack of logic. This would only be something for e.g. Constantine's mansion weirdness. That's the difference I see there, plus, I don't think the painful consequences of anachronism were the first things to come to a player's mind. Well, maybe the very first, but not after getting into tha game a bit.
