richardhamer_00 on 27/3/2003 at 11:49

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Hi, I played Thief 1 and Thief 2 for ages and enjoyed them both. When I finally got around to exploring all the forums and sites of the nice Thief community, I was shocked to find that almost everyone seems to think the First game was better then the second.

While, of course, everyone is entitled to thier own opinion, this seems ridiculous. The second games looked better, played better, had a better plot (in my eyes) and has some truly amazing levels.

The first game, by comparison, had awful overuse of the undead, including the absoultey dreadful bonehoard level (which, unbelievably, everyone here seems to love!). I mean, RTC was an excelent level, but the undead were far to overused to be fun. I felt Thief 1, with its overuse of undead and pagan monsters, detracted from the feeling of being a Thief, and got ridiculous when you realise that only about 5 levels of Thief 1 actually have human beings in them! I didn't feel like a Thief in the original, the settings didn't invoke that feeling of a criminal. It just seemed all silly and far fetched.

While, admittedly, the first game has that excelent cut scene where your eye gets torn out, the second game is better in every other way, and I was just wondering why everyone thinks different?

Lyrnnan on 27/3/2003 at 12:02

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As you said in your post, "everyone is entitled to their own opinions". Thief 1 and Thief 2 are quite different games, Thief 2 emphasizes more on burglary, thefts, and so on rather than exploring catacombs or slaying undeads. One could object that there are far too much machines in the Metal Age (but since it is the name of the game. ;)) though for instance or they may prefer Thief 1 may also miss the creatures or the particular ambiance of the first episode.

SlyFoxx on 27/3/2003 at 13:46

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Why more seem to prefer TDP/TG to T2....Well this why I liked TDP more. As to the point .....it seems to me I hear this a lot. I think some forget just who Garrett really is. He's more or less a Keeper. The "rogue" Keeper if you will. This puts him on different path than your average cutpurse. Thus his varied adventures with which we are all so familar. (Ahh Bonehoard)



The list is in no particular order.
1) The story was better. How it was paced kept the tension building in a very good way.
2) It was first. It set the standard.
3) Kangaroo jumping.
4) The levels were varied and very scary. T2 had very few good frights. T1 had enough suspence and shock to scare me into wacking the Esc key more than a few times.
5) The cut scenes in TDP were better. The "Gold" and T2 cuts lacked that brooding, dark quality.
6) Some of the T2 guards really do look like stupid little pottery figures. T2 had more detail and that's great...but the way most guards in T2 were done left me mystified. A guard is supposed to look kinda tough. A pottery boy with a sword just does not intimidate the Garrett I play.

There are more reasons but...........

All that said T2 is still the 2nd best game ever.:)
:sly:

zacharias on 27/3/2003 at 14:31

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I'll bite (yet again..!)

Next to saying 'Thief 1 is better' most here would probably concede that the last few levels of it are nothing special (personally, i quite liked the Maw, but everything from Escape to the Maw is pretty average imo)..however, missions like Cragscleft are bona fide classics of level design. T2 has these too (eg. Life of the Party) but it also has some pretty bland stuff (Masks) and some, frankly, not-so-believable environments (e.g. the Bank).

Here are a couple of old-but-good posts from the archives wherein a couple of Taffers who didn't love T2 quite as much as they could have done, explain why:

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36557) The reason why thief II levels feel bland

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29655) Thief 2: Dissecting the Flaws

Brian T on 27/3/2003 at 15:13

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I certainly don't believe that Thief 1 is better than Thief 2 because it was the first. Using that logic the Wright brothers airplane is the greatest airplane ever built. I just like the overall atmosphere in the original game more. It was more medieval. Stone corridors, candles, manors, guards in chainmail. I liked it more than the "mechanism" based Thief 2. I enjoyed Thief 2 a lot too though. The graphics were better and the missions required more stealth. But often the missions got bogged down in boring "plots" which I often had trouble following, and I wasn't really interested in. Who cares if Lt Mosley is a Pagan sympathiser? (Maybe that's just me though)

Thief 1 was more varied as has been pointed out. Maybe it's true that there are a bit too many zombies/ monsters sometimes, but I found that Bonehoard was a welcome change of pace and style after Baffords.

And the music in Thief was generally better. Just think of Lord Bafford's, or the Horn of Quintus. It suited the setting perfectly. Sometimes in Thief 2 the music seemed a bit halfhearted.

What do you mean by "pottery guards" by the way?