Posted February 24, 2019
Over the last two weeks I decided to play through these old gems. For reference I played the first Thief game back when it came out, but hadn't tried The Metal Age before (beyond the demo of it anyways), because my system at the time didn't have the system requirements to run the sequel. I installed fresh copies of these games with no third party patches or add ons.
So the games were great, I'm not denying that, but there were a lot of irksome problems that time and nostalgia had led me to forget, The gold levels in the first Thief for example, just seemed large but barely populated, the Guild in particular, but also the Mage Tower. I remember playing the original game back in the day and then the add on levels after and remember that I didn't think they added much worthwhile. Is there a way to play Thief without the gold levels? Then there are a bunch of issues with how guards hear sounds. Inching across a tile floor going slow as molasses Guards in another room seem to hear me loud and clear even though I don't actually trip the step sound in audio. Very frustrating. Then there are a bunch of control issues, which I mainly noticed in Thief 2, but some were also present in the first one. Ladders and ropes seemed trick to latch onto. Many times I fell to my doom because I didn't stick to the ladder I was trying to climb down that was right next to me, or I somehow bounced off the wall the rope I wanted to climb was next to. Both frustrating and immersion breaking, and had me saving and reloading more than I would have liked. Then there were obstacles I was trying to climb on top of. They were right in front of me, I could reach them, but it seemed a crap shoot if I could actually get on top without trying it a half dozen times and alerting every guard in the area at the same time. Then you get stuck on the terrain. Sometimes I was in the middle of a tight squeeze and the game just wouldn't let me move, other times it was doors that I just couldn't walk through. In Thief 2 on that level with the submarine I just couldn't exit out of the top door, I would get stuck. Every Time.
Anyways, just wanted to rant a bit before I start Deadly Shadows.
So the games were great, I'm not denying that, but there were a lot of irksome problems that time and nostalgia had led me to forget, The gold levels in the first Thief for example, just seemed large but barely populated, the Guild in particular, but also the Mage Tower. I remember playing the original game back in the day and then the add on levels after and remember that I didn't think they added much worthwhile. Is there a way to play Thief without the gold levels? Then there are a bunch of issues with how guards hear sounds. Inching across a tile floor going slow as molasses Guards in another room seem to hear me loud and clear even though I don't actually trip the step sound in audio. Very frustrating. Then there are a bunch of control issues, which I mainly noticed in Thief 2, but some were also present in the first one. Ladders and ropes seemed trick to latch onto. Many times I fell to my doom because I didn't stick to the ladder I was trying to climb down that was right next to me, or I somehow bounced off the wall the rope I wanted to climb was next to. Both frustrating and immersion breaking, and had me saving and reloading more than I would have liked. Then there were obstacles I was trying to climb on top of. They were right in front of me, I could reach them, but it seemed a crap shoot if I could actually get on top without trying it a half dozen times and alerting every guard in the area at the same time. Then you get stuck on the terrain. Sometimes I was in the middle of a tight squeeze and the game just wouldn't let me move, other times it was doors that I just couldn't walk through. In Thief 2 on that level with the submarine I just couldn't exit out of the top door, I would get stuck. Every Time.
Anyways, just wanted to rant a bit before I start Deadly Shadows.
