Slashdot Mirror
Thief Debuts To Mediocre Reviews
The latest title in the stealth game series Thief launched in North America yesterday for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows. Reviews of the game are mixed. Rock, Paper, Shotgun's John Walker says that the story is poor, but "it matters very little, since it's only there as an excuse to link epic, intricate and hugely enjoyable levels together." He also laments the loss of a dedicated "Jump" button, noting that veterans of the series will miss it. "There are far too often obstacles that a toddler could easily scale, but Garrett won't even try, and his refusing to jump certain gaps in order to force a challenge is maddening." Polygon's review says navigating the game's open environments was fun, but "In the latter half of the game, when a glimpse of that openness was dangled in front of me once again, Thief snatched it away with murderous AI and controls that didn't feel up to the challenge." They add, "a new obsession with scripted story sequences and stealth action often leaves Thief feeling like the worst of both worlds." Giant Bomb's review is brutal, saying Thief is "a game that spends an inordinate amount of time making the player do uninteresting things while shoving the more fun stuff so far in the corner you'd be forgiven for missing most of it."
Hardcore fans of the originals don't like the game because there's not enough emphasis on stealth. Reviewers and the ADHD generation hate the game because the combat is poor and there's no "I win button". It's kinda ironic seeing the hardcore fans of the originals then praising those reviews for saying the new thief is bad.
Thank god for Let's plays on Youtube. If I happen to find that the reviewers are right, I don't need to buy it and if I find that I disagree, I can order it after having watched a bit of gameplay. In that case, sure, I have to replay already viewed scenes, but it doesn't top the amount of frustration I get from having spent good money on yet another crappy game...
Let me copy over most of my post(updated with more gameplay) from blues, and yeah if you don't know what bluesnews is, it's one of the first gaming review sites that existed. And we do have a stick up our asses over the quality and content of games.
So yeah guys, my first 3hrs of gameplay? Enjoying it quite a bit. It's more or less true to the game, and there's no shortage of lewts to grab but some of it's tricky. Only playing it on medium atm, do a true playthrough when I'm done the first run. Turning off contextual "help" and prompts makes it more challenging as well. Gameplay is fine, you don't have to use the new focus system if you don't want to. You can make the game even more challenging if you want.
To anyone who doesn't like the game? That's okay, I'm enjoying it. I'll get my $34 out of it without a doubt.
Oh and if you're looking for a x/10 rating? 3hrs in, I'd give it a solid 7.8-8.3/10 give or take. I don't mind the voice acting at all, and find the interaction so far decent.
First major map, the one that people were posting images about earlier? Not really holding true. I've so far found 4 alternate paths compared to the one taken in the video.
Oh and "non-exclusive fullscreen" listed as "exclusive fullscreen" works beautifully in win8.1x64 for alt-tabbing with zero issues, lag, slowdown/crashes or other issues. I'd be interested to hear if the same holds true in win7.
And if anyone wants to see the main map area in chapter 1 here it is.
http://imgur.com/1oN7zx5
And from NKD
I've been playing it a bit tonight and your experience mirrors my own. I just don't see what all the bitching was about. I truly don't. These horrible glaring flaws people talked about in the reviews are orders of magnitude less dire than they led us to believe. They are barely worthy of mention. Maybe if I put more hours in I'll understand, but so far so good. It doesn't even really feel like a franchise reboot, IMHO. It's just another Thief game. You'd have to set it on easiest difficulty and run around being a psycho to not get the Thief experience, and that'd be your own fault.
Looking at some of the reviews again, I feel like most of the reviewers didn't understand the point of a Thief game and they were expecting something more flashy like a Deus Ex.
On the other end of the spectrum you have the die-hard Thief "fans" who have been swearing up and down that the game was going to suck for YEARS. These guys are so invested in their own opinion that they are psychologically incapable of enjoying the game.
If I put a few more hours into the game and everything goes to hell, I'll have to change my view on the game, but like I said, so far so good.
Om, nomnomnom...
Some people (like toddler Alex Navarro) don't like the slow pace of these kinds of games. Web reviews are useless anyway. Youtube is a much better place to see if a game is good or not.
TotalBiscuit's review is worth watching if you want to decide for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/
appears all btc sites dealing in usd are going in the virtual toilette at this time?
Slashdot only allows anonymous users to post 1 times per day when it's you
real time intervention in vandalism attacks how astute of the hobbyists?
I'm genuinely surprised by the lukewarm reception it's receiving, but moreso by the reports that it's rather linear and they've flubbed things like the background dialogue, given the developer. Eidos Montreal did the last Deus Ex game, and (farmed out bosses aside) it was genuinely excellent in exactly the sort of areas this game seems to have screwed up.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
There are people who liked Deus Ex: HR but those are exactly the kind of dumbed down console players that would have hated the original Thief and for that matter the original Deus Ex. It is the same people who think Bioshock is a worthy sequel to System Shock.
That doesn't mean the new games are bad, they are just the equivelant of the current Discovery Channel to the one from a decade ago. Dumbed down and simplistic.
You can see this reflected in the universal action key, because you know how hard it is to remember more then one key. Those who love this call it stream lined. I call it dumbed down.
Your choice what you think. But remember when you read reviews of these type of games that changed market, what games the reviewer likes. If you read a review by a scat lover about a turd, you best make sure you share his views before you bite down.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
No jumping? Shooting rope arrows in only approved places? Pure stupidity.
Should review the meaning of the word. A re-release is hardly a "debut".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Go play The Dark Mod instead: http://www.thedarkmod.com/main...
Free, now standalone so despite the name you don't need Doom 3 to play it, plus it's cross-platform. You basically download missions through the in-game downloader, most of them really, really good, and get your proper Thief experience instead of the watered-down bullshit that this new Thief game provides.
Account abandoned. I can't fucking spell for shit and Slashdot doesn't even allow time-limited edits of posts. Plus you'
Right now I'm finding it unplayable, it needs a patch.
The online sign in system just doesn't work. If you go to their website it works just fine, but the game client can't log in. No error message or anything, it just sits there.
Some settings don't seem to be properly persisted between sessions, like invert mouse y and subtitles.
I am going to have to wait for a patch I guess and hope it fixes most of these issues.
Firstly, I haven't played games on PC since ages ago, so I never used Blues for gaming info. I've been a console gamer since the beginning of home consoles and still play on console today.
That said, Blue's was big enough "back then" that in the early 2000's I knew who they were, what they did and of their reputation - good and bad. Blue's predates wiki-based gaming sites by maybe 15 years? Were wikis even a thing in 2000? PC gamers of old (like the ones who played the original Thief) know where to go to get their info.
Also, thank you for making me try your "wiki bluesnews" search - today I learned there's a Blue's Clues wiki ^^
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Yep.
Dove in on Master - and I'm actually going to start over on Custom and turn a bunch of extra hard-stuff on. Feeling right at home.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Candy coated single flavor piece of shit game for mouth breathers.
I love all things Thief and have since the first release of Thief: The Dark Project.
What the new Thief gets right:
- Stealth. Just as good as previous iterations.
- Lock picking. Similar to what we had with Thief: Deadly Shadows.
- Rope Arrows. Only because they are back after disappearing in Deadly Shadows- Lighting & atmosphere. I think they nailed it.
- Difficulty: Oh yes... they nailed this. The Iron Man setting looks great (you die, game over. You have to restart from scratch) as well as may other great tweaks. Like turning off that stupid Focus (see below)
What the new Thief gets wrong:
- Rope Arrows. Yay, they are back, but they can only be shot into special wood beams with rope wrapped around them. The original rope arrows could be shot into almost any type of wood, even walls and many trees, allowing for great exploration.
- Focus. This is Thief, not Dishonored. Fuck off, Focus.
- Swearing and sex. I'm not a prude, but I would have liked hearing more "Taffer" and "Benny's drunk"-type talk over "fuck fuck fuck fuck" and the hot sexness in the brothel. Some of us play these games with our kids.
- Scripted actions. Escape-type scenes. Very new Tomb Raider. Maybe it's part of 'reimagining' games that these scenes seem necessary.
I'm in to the third part of the story (the brothel) and while I am loving the new Thief as a die-hard fan, there are some serious shortcomings.
Trolling is a art,
It's like a cross between Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite. It does have some scripted sequences that remind me of Call of Duty 2, but you're not completely locked in. It's still mostly free roam.
We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion.
and I hope they can at least get some of roads rights at least they seemed (at least in the prom videos) have a the weather channels local on the 8's looking like it's in the right area.
It's another one new high-tech game with amazing graphics (especially lighting effects) that require an high-end machine to play, with nice animations and level geometry details. Unfortunately, it bring nothing new worth mentioning that is surprising to see. The gameplay play just like Dishonored and DeusEx (nothing wrong with it). Most reviewers are just stupid though and it's "in" to bash new games for no reason these days saying that their nostalgic titles were better, when it's clearly not the case.
Bluesnews is huge and has been around for a very long time, you ignorant little faggot.
I have played Thief 1/2/3 and over a hundred Thief 1/2 add on missions. Thief's 1/2 Magic Ingredients were....
There was sophisticated programing for Thief 1/2. Light and sound mattered to the AI. There were locks, puzzles, contraptions, levers. Garret could use the rope arrow on any wood. Garrett could swim.
Thief 1/2 were made in New England, where Thief 1/2 was made, has a marked Autumn season. Notice how many leaves are strewn about in Thief 1. As someone from New England who now lives in Northern California, I will state that it's hard to imagine how creepy it is to be in a graveyard at night around Halloween, when you are a child. In Thief 1, that graveyard, is in the middle of a haunted town that you will have to make it back through, and yes, but you still have to go under it.
There were quite a few women working at Looking Glass Studio on Thief 1/2. It wasn't made in an all-male cloistered monoculture. Women make add-on missions. Women even cos-play Garret. If you want women to buy video games, hire women.
The biggest problem with the Thief reboot is the console game culture, where games cannot require skill to play. Ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... You cannot move like a "Master Thief" unless you can control a character.
Sadly, Looking Glass Studio failed. Thief 1/2's (as well as SS2) biggest problem was it's graphics were very polygonal even for their time. Thief was never a breathtaking game visually, but once you got over that it didn't need to be, and that is why there will be many more missions for Thief than there will be for most newer games.
I might check out the new Thief, but for missions, I'm not expecting a mission as excellent as Ominous Bequest, or The Seven Sisters, or a story as good as Saturio Returns Home or The Bathory Campaign. I'm not expecting the care and devotion shown in Thief 2x or The Dark Mod.
Still, I hope there is enough in the reboot Thief, to go admit their faults and go on to get everything right.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
You have your credibility backwards. Blue's News predates Wikipedia by five years. It's not as big a deal as it used to be, but it's still a good news aggregator for video games. It's got useful information in a lightweight, text-focused design that doesn't arbitrarily change every 18 months.
Visit the
Really helpful thank you! The game actually looks pretty much like I expected. Still hate the voice, but you can turn it off. The amount of options is staggering.
This is a pretty fun game, actually, but it does have a scripted element that can be jarring when it draws so many comparisons to Assassin's Creed and Dishonored. I've never been one for the older Thief games (found out about them too late to care) so I can see how this edition might irritate those who have played what came before, but the game's not half as bad as I expected from the internet fervor.
It's Standalone now and magnificent, downloadable maps form inside the game, and lots of content.
I know Thief:DS isn't the greatest of the series, but I can say that the Shalebridge Cradle will forever be burned into my mind. Having to sneak through that terrifying place was absolutely unnerving. One of the creepiest levels in any game I've ever played.
What happens when you make a FPS, but you remove all the 'S' (shooting). Stealth games have a real problem.
Mirror's Edge
Hitman
Thief
Games that APPEAR to have the same aesthetic as first-person (or third person) shooters, but do NOT want the player relying on gunplay, or even significant melee activity. The truth is that most reviewers are frustrated by a game that 'looks' like a shooter, but punishes the player with providing no gameplay satisfaction if the (intentionally) poorly implemented systems of overt violence are relied on to progress the game's aims.
It is notable that the positive reviews of 'Thief 2014' come from reviewers who firstly use the extensive options to switch off the dumbed down game assists (like FOCUS and WAYPOINTS), and activate the "killing = fail" mode.
The very fact that games run on computers means that games can have near infinite options to alter gameplay experience based on the needs of the player. How is such a game to be reviewed, when (laughably named) 'professional' reviewers don't play for fun, but simply to get through the game. What reviewer isn't going to select the very worst options that allow the game to be completed as quickly as possible, so they do as little work as possible for their pay?
BUT, if 'Thief 2014' had totally excluded killing and game simplifying mechanisms, the publishers feared the game itself would have become too 'niche'. Running around shooting everyone in Hitman, for instance, completes the level, ruins the whole point of the game, but allows the cretins who can only play games this way to feel happy.
On the other hand, 'Dishonored', the game Thief 2014 badly rips off (yes, the original Thief came first, BUT the new Thief is far closer to Dishonored), managed to 'square the circle', and include some satisfying combat amongst the stealth. Indeed, popular films that have a 'stealth' character as hero (Bond, Mission Impossible etc), also allow the hero to have frequent meaty action sequences with high violence content.
Anyway, the biggest sin of Thief 2014 seems to be the god-awful plot/story, created by the very untalented daughter of Terry Pratchett. Reviewers can forgive a lot in a game if they are enjoying the story, and modern AAA games dedicate gigs of storage to cut-scenes. Eidos/Square-Enix would be better off employing talented writers, NOT trendy/politically correct ones whose family just happens to have the right kinds of social connections in London.
So what? Buddha predates Wikipedia by 2500 years, and he still has got wiki page. bluesnews has its reputation for the reason.
bluesnews has its reputation for the reason.
You mean as a site where major game develops have and still do come by to post their opinions, comments, and ideas to the community? Where you can find people from every major game developer posting there? Or that we're some of the first folks to get a "heads up" on discounts from said developers because they value the discussions and talk there. We're good without a page for a reason, it keeps the trolls and anonymous cowards at bay.
Om, nomnomnom...
thing is, you know he's right too.
no shortage of lewts to grab
"lewts?" Yes, that's some darn good gaming journalism there. Nothing like spelling a word incorrectly and adding Internet lols unnecessary plurals to really drive home the point. Sorry, "bluesnews," but that's an immediate turn off and I won't be visiting your site ever.
PC gaming WAS better when the games on it were made for it. Just an irrifutable simple fact. Back in the day, you had to be a geek to even know how to keep your PC running, so the games were actually designed with smart people in mind. Now everything is multiplatform not because that type of gaming is better but simply because now the SUITS are in control of the gaming companies instead of the DEVELOPERS and we all know the SUITS don't give a damn about depth and intelligent design, only DOLLARS. So, they force the devs to dumb down the games so that all of the chimps out there can randomly mash a couple of buttons and get their pretty graphics. All of the chimps playing games that back in the old days called us smart people geeks or nerds for playing games.
Leave the PC alone... I would rather have fewer games but have the ones that do come out for it designed strictly for it than see a single new multi-platform piece of trash ever come out for it. Besides, true PC games can be MODDED. When this new thief turned out to be garbage, (as I expected) I just installed newdark and tf1.18 and the gold HD texture mod for the original thief and am replaying it all over again and its textures at least actually look BETTER than the new games. Try doing THAT on a console! Want to view the potential of an actuall PC only titele? Look up Star Citizen! Look at it and DROOOOOOL console slaves! You will..... NEVER.... play it!