r/Thief

I discovered Thief rather recently. I am staggered by the game (and its sequel).

It staggers me that the arguable blueprint for the stealth genre might well still be its apex.

Do you agree? If so, which games do you think have come closest to Thief?

Thanks so much!

I really don't enjoy Kidnap. It's the Lost City again but they made it annoying with all the Mechanists and cameras. It isn't enjoyable to explore and doesn't have the atmosphere of The Lost City.

As I understand it came put in 2023, why was this Fan Mission not built on top of Thief 2?

Hi. First post here. Not sure if anyone will be able to help with this, but I've recently installed the original Thief games on my retro PC with Windows 98. So completely vanilla. However, they're not without their problems. I just wanted to get some insight into a few things, to find out if or what patches/mods might be required.

I did install their latest updates, so 1.33 and 1.18 respectively. Initially, the games acted weird by saying I needed to insert the CDs. I'm using CD images created from my original discs mounted with a virtual drive, and all the correct drive letters and directory paths are in check. The second game definitely complains about the CD until I install the patch. Though I have to install the patch for the Premiere edition of Thief 2 for it to work properly.

There are two things I've noticed though, which don't seem to be a problem with the first game. Firstly, the audio is ridiculously quiet! Is this a common problem with the original Thief 2? All the volume sliders are at full and it's the same problem whether I use my Yamaha OPL3 ISA sound card or my PCI Sound Blaster Live Value. Audio sounds fine in Windows. I've yet to test it without the patch, so I will be doing that, providing I can get around the 'insert CD' problem.

The other issue is that performance is much worse. At least, in the very first mission. I'm using a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 AGP. I've not tested much of the original yet, but performance is fairly solid from what I have sampled. Which leads me to the question - do any mods out there address performance and audio issues, such as NewDark? And if so, are any compatible with Windows 98?

I'm currently going through the original Resident Evil games and I know mods for that are only designed for modern systems, which is understandable, but was just curious how backwards compatible the mods are for the Thief games.

Thanks

Thief 1 and Thief 2 and their fan mission series (Thief 2x, The Black Parade, ...) are just much more fun to play than for example Thief 4.
I thought about it, modern games focus a lot on graphics (and it's nice to have cool graphics), but the game play is more important.
In addition, with Thief 1/2 the menu isn't cluttered, Load/Save are very fast, graphics is not the best, but it's not bad either. The excitement comes from the story, mistery and levels.

What do you think?

I've been playing Thief 1 for years and recently started tinkering with spatial sound settings as I heard it makes the game feel a lot more immersive.

OpenAL, OpenAL Soft, DSOAL, HRTF profiles... there are many different guides and ways to do it. What they all have in common, to me, is that they don't actually make the game feel better.

I appreciate the reverb in some areas. The echo of voices in the basement. The sound of my footsteps bouncing off the walls as I run across a big room.

But all too often I find areas where the sound doesn't seem quite right, or somehow lower quality or lacking the clarity I had with those settings off. In the end, it feels intrusive, like I'm playing with a distracting filter.

Is it fair enough to just say that people hear things in different ways, and for some of us, EAX just isn't agreeable? Or am I uncultured and still missing something huge?

Hey taffers! I'm a longtime fan of the first two games, and through the years I've noticed several dominant opinions being repeated over and over that I just can't understand. I'm wondering if someone said something two decades ago and their ripples are still being felt to this day. I like the vibe of this subreddit, so I figured you would take my hot takes in good faith. I need to know if there are any other taffers who share my seemingly unpopular opinions.

Hot Take #1: Let's come out swinging. Thieves' Guild is a *solid* mission. It's literally everything the loudest voices in the fandom said they wanted from Thief. You like mansion burglaries? Well, this mission has TWO. Hell, I'll go as far as to say that one of those mansions is the best in the game (except for The Sword, obviously). You want only human enemies? With the exception of a spider or two, that's all there is! Thieves' Guild is basically a Thief 2 level. Just a generous level of pure thievery.

I've heard people say it's a confusing level. I agree to an extent. But it's nowhere near the worst offender. The Haunted Cathedral seems largely liked, and I find it borderline impossible to navigate in comparison. The Bonehoard was also much more confusing. Escape comes to mind too. I'll go as far as to say that even the Cragscleft mines were more confusing.

The *only* criticism I've heard that makes sense to me is that it's ugly. But, surely it's not ugly enough to be considered the single worst mission in the franchise? It's not like Thief is a particularly good looking game in the first place.

Hot Take #2: With the exceptions of The Sword and Blackmail, mansion burglary missions are some of the least interesting in either game. Not bad by any means, but largely forgettable and samey. Once you've done one, you've kinda done them all (or most). And I'm including Song of the Caverns and First City Bank and Trust as mansion missions.

I distinctly recall how the game instantly became less interesting to me when I reached the building in Life of the Party and now had to infiltrate samey floors after the marvelous variety of the rooftops. I'd like to reiterate that I do think the mansion levels are good. However, I don't think they're particularly interesting, and certainly not Thief at its best.

Hot Take #3: Maybe an extension of #2, but I don't understand the love Assassins gets. Many consider it the best Thief 1 mission or at least the plutonic ideal of a Thief level. But to me, the tailing just feels like a waste of time (and of level design; the whole city block is wasted). Ramirez's mansion is not particularly interesting from a design or visual point of view.

The whole mission takes like a half hour on expert and just feels half-baked to me. I distinctly recall the moment I was leaving the mission. I jumped into the pool, swam through the floodgate, and... mission completed? On one hand kudos to providing an alternative exit, but I literally just skipped the last part of the mission.

Hot Take #4: Sabotage at Soulforge is one of the greatest missions in the series, up there with The Sword and Life of the Party. Honestly, it might be the most satisfying mission to complete in the series. It's the antithesis of The Maw of Chaos and embodies all the lessons that the designers have learned from Thief 1.

It's also probably the best example of what a final level of a game should be, in my opinion. It's a final exam that goes through everything you've learned through the games. Don't know what to do? Keep pushing ahead and exploring, and you'll find the answers. Can't sneak past a specific patrol? Take it out with water or frogs, but keep in mind that what you use now will not be available later. Have a Thief 1-esque incomplete map? Map it out in your mind.

While I don't like the robots (and especially the cameras) very much, giving the player way fewer water arrows than there are robots was brilliant. It's the best of both worlds of allowing the players to choose when to take out a patrol while at the same time preserving the pressure by ensuring that most robots will remain.

It's also the longest level from the first 2 games, and it really feels like they wanted to give you as much as they could. I thought doing all the crafting while there are active patrols around was exhilarating. Finding the antennae was great too, as it gradually dawned on you what and where they are.

Hot Take #5: Despite what I just said about Soulforge, I also think The Maw of Chaos is great. I think this mission doesn't get enough credit for its inventiveness and storytelling through level design. It's one of the best environments in either Thief game, and usually a treat to play through (though I understand where the criticism comes from).

Thanks reading! Just a reminder that I'm posting this to see if anyone agrees with me and/or wants to start some discussions. I'm not trolling or trying to start fights about games we all love.

Thanks for reading!

Don't know if this post is allowed here but seriously, you need to support this one. Had a blast playing it.

Will replay it in order to get better scores and stuff in the future.

Hi there! I only really got into Thief relatively recently and the series has blown me away. I don't need to tell you folks!

One of the features that really set Thief apart was the light gem. It's an incredible feature that makes darkness so much more palpable.

And I miss it! Sure, I have seen a similar device in the Splinter Cell series. But in Dishonored, for example, you really need to either use powers to show the conical vision of enemies.

The light gem is a superior stealth tool, I say, and it all started with Thief. Do you agree - and which games still retain it?

Since Trickster wanted to return to the primordial and destroy civilization, would he keep his own castle or would he destroy it too, letting it become part of the wilderness?

Im in End of the Bloodline and i have no water arrows left. Is there a way to get more?

The Black Parade and Lost Among the Forsaken have missions taking place in the sealed off section of the City.

What other FMs are similarly set there?

Thanks!

Hi.

I'd love to record footage for my upcoming music mix album, and I want to record "spectatorlike" footage from Thief 1 and 2. Is there any easier options to go that I can achive this? I saw there is a way using cheat engine and other prerequisits, but I wonder if someone have experience doing it a simpler way?

Thank you for any information