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Latest Thief Sequel Remains In Light 43

Posted by simoniker from the looking-for-quality-watermarks dept.
Thanks to GameSpot for its updated impressions of PC/Xbox stealth title Thief: Deadly Shadows, looking at the latest in the now Ion Storm-developed Thief franchise in light of some controversy over the developer's other recent PC/Xbox title, Deus Ex: Invisible War. The article explains: "According to Ion Storm studio director Warren Spector, Thief's control scheme and interface translate well to both a PC and a gamepad. This is because of Thief's singular focus on stealth-based gameplay... Garrett doesn't have a huge inventory of weapons and other items because he simply doesn't need them." The franchise's heritage is also being taken into account, since the title, due for release later in 2004, is being developed "...with input from several former designers from Looking Glass Studios, along with voice-over from Stephen Russell, who provided the voice of Garrett in the previous games."
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Latest Thief Sequel Remains In Light More

Latest Thief Sequel Remains In Light

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  • Cant Wait (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Robmonster ( 158873 ) <slashdot.journal2.store@neverbox.com> on Friday February 13, 2004 @08:45AM (#8268329) Journal
    I loved the first 2 Thief games on the PC. They inspired the current generation of Sneak-em-ups.

    I am waiting for the demo!

    RM

  • Use this handy tool to save time here! (Score:5, Funny)

    by superultra ( 670002 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @09:17AM (#8268460) Homepage
    Ok, while the posting is sparse here, allow me to save everyone some precious time. Just adjust the variables and you'll be good to post. I make no promises but I'm customized the options so as for you to, perhaps, score a nice 4 slab of that karma we're all talking about oh yeah. So here goes:

    Did you see [that article, thosescreenshots]?!? Obviously Warrn Spector has lost it. I played and finished [Deus Ex, Thief 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, and Ultima Underworld, all of the above] at least [seven, eight] times the day the game came out, and this is so far from his original vision that he's lost control of his own company. Ok, ok, the graphics are good, but the game runs like ice cream melting in [Alaska, Antarctica] on my [twin processor gold plated 3.2 pentiums, IBM PS/2, Dreamcast running bedian off a burned ISO, Mac]. This whole [transition to third person, revised weapons system, checkpoints, lack of a 255 key controller] just means they are sharing the [pocket protector, pants, mouth] of Bill Gates with an Xbox. Just because [there's more money to be had in consoles, consoles don't have the same customer support issues as PCs, consoles are getting the majority of creative games these days, there's more money to be had in consoles, more people play their consoles for games than PCs, there's more money to be had in consoles] doesn't emean that they should abandon the peeps who got them there.

    I've had it up to [here, here, here]. At least we still have [Half-Life 2, Doom III, Team Fortress 2, Duke Nukem Forever, Tycoon games, Mythica] and they're staying true to the cause. So, screw you [Warren Spector, Ion Storm, $icro$soft]! I'm not even going to buy Thief III, I'll just [pirate it, borrow it from a friend, make my own damn Thief game]. PC [ROXOR, KIXASS] [!!!!!, !!!!, !!!!!!]
    • It's not funny, it's true.
      I know such a fan, and he was genuinly disappointed by deus ex2 look and feel on the pc. He wasnt a ms or console basher until that game but became one immediatly. And when he heard about thief 3 being 3rd person view, the sadness in his eyes!
      It's always hard to be betrayed by those you respect the more.
      Come on, those games are about immersion! You can't have a feeling of immersion following a puppet from above!
      • Well, it's not especially funny, because it merely stokes the hordes of mindless people who froth at the mouth over console games. It's stupid to get wrapped up in a franchise so much that when it goes a different direction, you get enraged.

        Me, I didn't like Deus Ex 1, so I wasn't going to be buying Deus Ex 2 in any case. I have played and enjoyed Thief 1 and 2 a lot (like, two of my favorite games ever), and the previews for Thief 3 haven't yet convinced me to buy it. I may download a demo, but I don't

        • Re:Use this handy tool to save time here! (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AllUsernamesAreGone ( 688381 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @10:40AM (#8268982)
          It's stupid to get wrapped up in a franchise so much that when it goes a different direction, you get enraged.

          I'd agree in general, but Thief is a little.. different. Part of the point behind it was to get the player wrapped up in it: a lot of its atmosphere depended on it. And it worked, it worked so well that when LGS died the community mourned but carried on. Not only are there still a large number of people making missions for it, in many cases of better quality than the original missions, and several immensely ambitious projects are effectively creating new Thief games in the Dark engine. The fans of the game know how it works, what makes it work well and how to improve the game to make the final part of the trilogy the best of the series. These are people who know Thief as well or better than most, if not all, of the team working on T3. If T3 ends up in the same mess as DX2, with dodgy graphics quality, painful framerate, tiny areas, rediculous level mechanics and all the other criticisms that were leveled at Dx2 (and, so far, very little has been released that would seem to suggest it won't) there will be a lot of very angry Thief fans, because that wouldn't be taking the franchise in a different direction, it would be gutting it.

          • Re:Use this handy tool to save time here! (Score:4, Interesting)

            by analog_line ( 465182 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @11:52AM (#8269809)
            I don't argue any of that. I'm EXTREMELY dubious about the new Thief, and frankly, I have been ever since Looking Glass went away, but I can still keep playing the old stuff and just not bother with Thief 3. Voting with my wallet.

            I still play Thief 1 and 2 pretty regularly, and if people just make more missions for it, I don't see, in the end, a real problem. Sure I'd like to have a better graphicsed version of 1 and 2, but I'll still take what I have with people making new stuff for it. Hell, I've played Half Life mods for as long as I've played Thief. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I'll be angry if the new one sucks, but angry isn't near the kind of bile that people lately seem to be heaping on stuff lately. They didn't slit your brother's throat, they made a crappy sequel.
            • The person I talk about is nowhere a mindless person. His speech is really very close to yours.
              It's just that it's not its favorite game. It's his favorite genre, the last game of this genre and the creator of the best games of the genre, all going to the toilets together, because one has to design his games for the console first, now, period.
              And on top of that, he has to listen to this designer telling him, like "straight in the eyes", that no, the console gameplay doesnt impact on the game, it works well.
              • I dunno, I kind of look at it like Highlander fans tend to look at Highlander 2 and 3. If you hate the story, just ignore it. No one says you have to buy it or even acknowledge it exists. The console gaming market didn't turn Deus Ex 2 into a steaming crapfest. The people who decided that it should be for console primarily did.

                Microsoft I have no problem hating. I'm sure they're part of the problem here. I was furious at Microsoft for buying off Sega to screw over Dreamcast owners on the US release o
                • I dunno, I hated highlander 1. :)

                  The people who decided that it should be for console primarily did.
                  Yes, that's the problem. The console market is so huge, this dumbass is listened to. When someone figures out that the port don't sell well because they're designed for console and suck in front of regular pc games, and if they can make more selling a pc version than it cost to have it adapted, then we wont see such fiasco again. Otherwise, they will continue to release those hmmm things.
                  Dreamcast... best
              • It's his favorite genre, the last game of this genre and the creator of the best games of the genre, all going to the toilets together, because one has to design his games for the console first, now, period.

                I see this same attitude with *my* favourite series (see sig), and I still don't understand it.

                How is a game designed for a PC instead of a console allegedly superior? Is it the ton of unnecessary control options? The ability to play with a keyboard and mouse? The possibility of bragging to your frien
                • How is a game designed for a PC instead of a console allegedly superior?
                  A good console game design can be wasted when ported to the pc by bad design decision.
                  The size and the feel of the deus ex II interface comes immediatly to my mind. The size, the ergonomy, what a waste of pixels in a game where you expect to be completly taken by and into the surroundings of the action aka the universe, and not by and against the interface.

                  A good pc game that rely on the pc particularities, like you said the keyboard
          • several immensely ambitious projects are effectively creating new Thief games in the Dark...

            Wow! That IS ambitious! I'd have a hard time creating a game with the lights on!
      • It truly is much easier to get immersed with a 10-15 degreviewing angle.

        Especially in a game about awareness of your surrounding.

        cutting out the extra 90 degrees I see in real life by unconciously glancing left and right truly ups the immersion level a ton.

    • Did you see those screenshots?!? Obviously Warrn Spector has lost it. I played and finished Deus Ex, Thief 1 & 2, System Shock 1 & 2, and Ultima Underworld at least seven times the day the game came out, and this is so far from his original vision that he's lost control of his own company. Ok, ok, the graphics are good, but the game runs like ice cream melting in Alaska on my Dreamcast running bedian off a burned ISO. This whole transition to third person just means they are sharing the pants off Bi

  • Warren Spector claimed DXIW would translate well (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think this is just damage control, as Thief III was in development before the DXIW hit the fan, as it were.

    I guarantee Thief III has Xbox-sized maps in the PC version, and just like DXIW I guarantee that it will ruin the game.

  • Not me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BadmanX ( 30579 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @10:42AM (#8268994) Homepage
    They got me with DX:IW - I bought it at full price even after playing the demo and seeing the drastic changes they made to the game, in the hopes that there would still be something there. Ten hours later, I finished the game, watched all the endings, and uninstalled it. The experience was thoroughly mediocre. The odds are very good I'll never play that game again.

    Thief: Deadly Shadows is using the exact same engine and was designed in the exact same way - as an Xbox game first. It's going to suffer from the same problems DX:IW did - small areas, limited interaction, difficult to use interface. And what the hell was wrong with the name Thief III?

    Fool me twice, shame on me.

    • Re:Not me... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mahdi13 ( 660205 ) <icarus.lnx@gmail.com> on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:48PM (#8271989) Journal
      DX:IW wasn't a terrible game, but it was not nearly as good as it could of been. There were times that were edge of the seat tension, but most if it was pretty laid back.

      The frame rate sucked. But it didn't kill the game
      The Levels were tiny, very clausterphobic inducing, but it didn't kill the game
      Interface was very awkward, but it didn't kill the game
      What did kill the game was that it took a total of 10 hours to complete and was very easy (in terms of puzzle solving...were there any?)

      I'm hoping that with Thief III, they can optimize the engine, make larger maps and make better use of the engine in general.

      And Liberty Island at the end of DXIW was a joke, 4 seperate maps for what a 5 year old engine did with one map

      • Re:Not me... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:32PM (#8272526)
        it played fine on my xbox. not to troll, but it isn't the console market's fault if the developer shows preference. rail at the game, that's fine - but when people try to take the argument to the philosophical side (consoles suck, they shouldn't have released for the consoles, etc, etc) they just end up sounding like loons..

        the complaint that translates from console to PC equally is the tiny tiny 'maps'. If there were too many interactive objects in each map - then for chrissakes just make some boxes or pews static, drop some polygons, lower particle count - something.

        aside from the maps i thought it was pretty standard Spector-type stuff. *Although if they plan on railroading all the possible story 'branches' back to the same core events, maybe they should just remove them? If there's no functional difference between choices, they are false choices.

        You'd think a company who defined the terminology [cdis.org] for exactly such a behavior would recognize it.
    • difficult to use interface.

      I am not really a Deus Ex fan, but I played the demo and I thought the interface was nicely done. What didn't people like about it?
    • You know this 10 hour thing baffles me.

      I think I spent about 2 or 3 hours on the demo alone. That's just one level.

      Maybe people should stop playing every game like Quake Done Quick and enjoy the sights a bit more.

  • title (Score:1, Insightful)

    by mwheeler01 ( 625017 )
    Jeez, the title of the post makes it sound like a really hard game.

    Guard:"Hey look I see him"
    Theif to himself: "Must hide! but where? there's just too much light!"

    I'm sorry, just had to be said.

  • worried - PC and Xbox games suffer (Score:3, Interesting)

    by osejw ( 752226 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @02:31PM (#8271777)
    Really liked Thief 1 and 2 and DeusEx. I heard all these good things about the Xbox Halo, tried it for the first time on PC and it was mediocre at best. Poor graphics and poor frame rate. The same textures over and over again, the same rooms over and over again. I am not hearing good things about DeusExIW ... but I have not tried it yet. XBox+PC games seem to inherit the problems of each platform and lack any benefits one could releaize if the game was developed for a single platform. Just some thoughts ... I really hope Thief III is a great game but I will likely wait for the reviews.

  • Life of the Party (Score:4, Informative)

    by happyhippy ( 526970 ) on Friday February 13, 2004 @03:54PM (#8272795)
    If the levels are smaller (no loads needed) than Thief 2's brilliant level 'Life of the Party' the game is going to suck shit. Fuck you and your load mist.

  • Whaaaaa? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Black Hitler ( 687112 )
    We watched as Garrett carefully avoided the gate guards and downed one of them with an arrow to the head; then he finished off the others.
    What the hell? Does Garrett have super-powers now? Finishing off one guard out of a group was hard enough in parts 1 and 2, never mind taking out the whole bunch at once.

    • Re:Whaaaaa? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Lathan ( 610213 )
      It's not all that impossible. One arrow takes the first guard, but the rest get suspicious. Then it's about three more arrows per guard since they're looking. If you're out of the way (preferably vertically) enough, they won't be able to get you. In Thief 2, I evaded a bunch of guards by climbing up a rope and just hanging there right above their heads. They never looked up.

      • Re:Whaaaaa? (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        So what you're saying is, Thief 3 will have shitty AI.

        • Re:Whaaaaa? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by happyhippy ( 526970 )
          They never follow you up ropes. They do see you and they do stand at the bottom going 'Come down Taffer!' and shake their fists.
          Its not shitty AI, its prob the shitty graphics that prevents them from climbing ropes.
          • What they mean is that any decent AI would treat the death of a colleage via an arrow through the head to be slightly more than suspicious.

            Guard 1:- Hey wheres Bob?
            Guard 2:- He's lying on the floor over there with an arrow through his head.
            Guard 1:- How did that happen then?
            Guard 2:- Not really sure. There was a whoooshing noise, then he keeled over.
            Guard 1:- Think we should look around?
            Guard 2:- Nah, I'm not quite suspicious enough. I'll wait until you get taken out, then I'll look around a bit

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