How Nightingale from the Thieves Guild escaped from Skyrim into mediocre fantasy. [Review of “Thief” 2014]
I think it’s not worth mentioning the fact that I didn’t play the previous games in the series, for the simple reason that I was still in kindergarten at that time. Therefore, I became acquainted with the series from the 2014 relaunch, which we will now discuss.
Thief is actually a very controversial game. On the one hand, it simply causes the wildest discomfort at first, but on the other, after the player gets used to it, it suddenly begins to give pleasant sensations. And this is best seen in the game design of locations and levels.
The streets in Thief are labyrinths of paths and piles of boxes, rubbish and garbage, where it is quite difficult to navigate at first.
The problem with Thief’s design is that it doesn’t allow you to play in a relaxed manner. The city in which the events take place is an extremely confusing labyrinth of streets, rooftops, basements and the like, which is very difficult and tedious to navigate due to the extremely complex orientation. You can get to some places only after minutes of running back and forth, looking for a suitable passage. And at first it seemed to me that this was a very noticeable problem with the game, but then it dawned on me: but this only makes the game more interesting! The game encourages you to explore and find convenient passages. You’re not following a well-trodden and easy-to-find path, no. You search long and hard for an opportunity to get through to where you need to go this way and that. And this saves the game from being random, giving the player the euphoria of finding a convenient route in such confusing locations.
Of course, there were some real problems here too. And I’m talking about those damn windows and beams. The fact is that the city is divided into several parts-levels, between which you have to move using windows, which our main character constantly studies closely and then begins to open, and by squeezing through all sorts of rubble, in the middle of which there is always a beam that will need to be pushed aside in order to squeeze through. And it would seem – a trifle, no big deal. But damn it, hitting the E key every time to open another window, of which you will need to open at least 2 or 3 in order to cross the city, is terribly annoying. Plus, the player never knows which window he is opening. A window that will take him to another location with a loading screen, or a window that just leads to another room. Moreover, salt is rubbed into the wound by the fact that the game also contains normal transitions through locations, where you just need to go to the door and confirm the change of location. Why didn’t the creators make transitions through windows to other locations in the same style… An unanswered question.
And if we talk https://all-wins.co.uk/withdrawal/ about visual design, then everything is quite vague with it. The world in which the events of the game take place is some kind of alternative late Middle Ages, in which there is a place for magic, some semblance of robots, complex mechanisms with elements of gigantism and… surveillance cameras that work on candles. Yes, sometimes this world raises more questions than it can answer. However, this does not change the fact that visually it all looks quite stylish, quirky and interesting in a good way. And evokes constant associations with the world of Dishonored. Despite the fact that Dishonored takes place in the world of victorious steampunk, the games have many common features. Here you have the Plague from Dishonored, which echoes the “Darkness” of the world of Thief, and the design of some characters, such as the Queen of Beggars, who really reminds me of Old Rags from Dishonored, and in general the structure of the world in which everyone is squabbling for power over the agonizing city, which only makes the residents suffer more.
And although in general the design is quite gloomy and monotonous, sometimes the game can still surprise you with quite interesting missions and locations. For example, the chapter in the Asylum, which is very much in contrast with the entire game, is a real horror, and even manages to really scare you in a couple of moments, as well as an interesting level in a brothel, which was also once in Dishonored, but in the context of the world of Thief, it looks even more stylish, gloomy and even disgusting. In addition to all this, the game has a couple of “chase levels”, when our Thief must run away in a given straight line from guards or fire. And these fragments look very stylish and are etched in the memory after passing. What can’t be said about most regular stealth locations?.
The city in the world of Thief is a very dark, dangerous, but still terribly stylish place that is interesting to study with your eyes.
Speaking of stealth. And in fact, everything is wrong with him… Ambiguous again. On the one hand, the guards react quite realistically to changes in the situation. For example, a guard will pay close attention if a door suddenly opens in front of him or the lights go out. But at the same time, the guards remain as blind as possible if the main character retreats into the “shadow”, in which they sometimes don’t even see him closely. Although if we talk about AI in general, nothing but sad sighs will come out. Sometimes the guards notice the player in a split second, even if he is still in the saving shadow, and sometimes they lose sight of the player if the player only stands a little in the shadow, even in front of his eyes(!) at the guards. And sometimes this randomness causes wild dissonance. Although for the most part this does not interfere with the passage, but only introduces some discomfort in places.
Sometimes it’s enough just to move out of the shadows, and the enemy standing at such a distance from the player suddenly loses sight of the player.
Gameplay mechanics usually do not cause any complaints besides the slightly extended “timing”. I don’t know if this was originally intended, or if this is just a small flaw of the developers, but for the simple reason that we play as a thief, we will have to constantly and regularly open and search all sorts of drawers, cabinets, chests and other furniture in search of something worthwhile. And in most cases, the player will search empty boxes, which are quite difficult to pass by, because you never know what you will find in them. Sometimes, of course, it is very nice to find somewhere a combination to a safe or pull-out panels on a bookcase, behind which wealth is hidden, but still often the player does not receive due satisfaction after this, because the reward rarely comes across something truly valuable – the so-called “valuable trophies”. For the most part, unfortunately, the player will find there another bottle of perfume, a flask or a handful of coins. And not searching all this at all is dangerous for further progress, because for the money that the player helps out by stealing everything valuable, then he will have to buy various improvements for the hero, tools and consumables, which in some locations will be difficult to do without. The player will be armed with a club in order to cut down guards and unwanted people, as well as a bow with a large selection of arrows for various tasks. Here you have water arrows to extinguish torches and… those same cameras, and combat arrows, and distracting arrows, and rope arrows. And different playing styles require different tools. Although, of course, our main character will not be as effective in destroying everyone on the level as in Dishonored, because our thief prefers to stay in the shadows.
Keeps in the shadows.
Bringing up the topic of the musical component – everything is again quite controversial. It seems like the music sounds just wonderful, I want to take it and immediately add it to my audio recordings, they are so good-looking. But at the same time, often the musical tracks are so out of touch with either the situation or the overall setting of the game that the already difficult-to-immerse world remains inaccessible to the player, pushing him further away from himself and leaving him in prostration.
And then, perhaps, the reader reading this will ask, what about the plot?? And I’ll answer that the plot in the game is so chaotic and in places dotted that it doesn’t really arouse any interest in itself, or in the main character, or in other characters. The main character, whose name, by the way, is Garrett, is trying with all his might to make the player fall in love with him for his charisma, sense of humor and the cynicism inherent in a real thief in matters of saving the world. However… Ultimately, he turns into an ordinary hero who once again saves the world. And the plot itself, as a result, simply breaks off and leaves the player with the question: “what happened now?”?». And even the message about that, that women are to blame for everything that it is impossible to develop technological progress faster than spiritual progress in the end… It is not revealed in any way and is somewhere out there, on the periphery, in notes and books that there is no real interest in reading.
He moved the plot and you don’t even know his name.
And of course, as a bonus, it’s worth pointing out that the game sometimes doesn’t skimp on visual, sound and other bugs. Here you have the looping of audio tracks, which has not been fixed since 2014, and NPCs that get stuck in textures or cannot go somewhere, and textures that simply take a very long time to load. However, it is worth noting that this generally does not interfere with normal play, but only sometimes introduces a fly in the ointment.
Ultimately, I would like to say that in order to get maximum pleasure from the game, most players will simply need to come to terms with the difficulties in orientation at first, just forget about the plot, developing the world and characters, and just enjoy an interesting stealth action game, which is performed at a fairly high level, and even in beautiful scenery.
And with this I will end my story and, at the same time, my first review for the Stopgame blogs. I hope that I will see a lot of constructive criticism in the comments and that this review will not be the last. Thank you all for your attention and for reading.