Thief 2 : Othor Games

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:13 pm

Hello everyone. It's still few days before I can buy this game, so I thought to ask few questions about the levels, and no spoilers please

.

Thief 2 The Metal Age is one of my all time favourite games and I have some of my most frightening and nostalgic memories from that game. I really didn't care that much about the story, and I never even finished the game

, but the levels (most of them) were something that I have never seen so far in any game. They were huge mansions, facilities, or route trough city. No other game so far has allowed me to play such a great levels.

Shipping and receiving, Eavesdropping, First city bank and trust, Blackmail, Life of the party. Those are the best missions that I have ever played in any game. What I like to ask is; does Dishonored offer same kind of levels? Levels where you are free to proceed as you like? Levels that have multi story buildings where you can explore every single room in them? Levels that can take more than 3 hours to finnish?

I'm mainly going to buy this game, because I get so strong Thief 2 vibe from it. I also like Deus Ex, and System Shock but games like Bioshock and Half-Life 2 were huge disapointment for me. If you have played Dishonored already or just know lot about it, how do the levels compare to those from Thief 2?

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:09 am

I believe the levels are indeed very large and open-ended with multiple buildings to explore. I have yet to play it, so it would be better for an American or French gamer to tell you. I agree with what you said at first, Thief 2 is one of the best games I've ever played.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:26 pm

The reviewer of Rock Paper Shotgun thought it was the best stealth game since Thief 2. I assume the Dishonored levels are set up a bit differently since the ability to Blink means you have a lot of vertical flexibility, moreso than Thief (even with climbing and the rope arrow). But it sounds like it has the same kind of big levels.

The RPS guys also http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/09/the-rps-verdict-dishonored/, here's a part of it (spoiler free) that might interest you:

Jim: It felt to me like a mature work of a studio that has finally hit its potential, you can see the lineage – Bioshock, Thief, Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, Dark Messiah – in all aspects of it. I think the Smith, Colantonio, Mitton, Antonov production team is sort of a supergroup, and the game is representative of that level of experience. (But yes, it’s basically a superhero game. And certainly better than Spider-Man.)
Alec: Yes, and also of experience of recent accomplishments by the peers. Specifically, it’s a lot more l like what I imagined Bioshock to be before I played Bioshock. I think it’s been made mindfully of how gamers responded to that.
Jim: To Bioshock?
Alec: Yes, to Bioshock – as in, that went too far down the pure shooter route for some, this addresses an evident greater need in many players, but was cognisant that that need existed because Bioshock proved it, whereas without it industry wisdom dictated CODlikes were the only way.
John: I think perhaps the most helpful comparison is – to extend what Alec said – that this is BioShock without the enforced, over-complicated combat. Instead you’ve far more room to use your imagination.
Jim: Yes, that’s a remarkable design victory for Arkane, that Dishonored has a lot of facets to combat, without the combat ever feeling overly complex or laborious. Every fight is acrobatically lethal (or non-lethal). But I think there’s an aspect of something Adam was saying about Hitman recently, which Dishonored does best of all, which was “quiet time”. In fact most of the game is quiet time. It’s only really fireworks and bluster if you mess up.

....

Jim: The reason DXHR kept occurring to me, was because of the environment and architecture – I kept thinking how in DXHR there was always an alternate route, whereas in Dishonored there were just routes, and you discovered them or not – they never felt like “this is the air duct”.
Alec: Yeah, to the point that you got XP for finding Stealth Route in DX. Which meant I was grinding, finding all three routes just for XP’s sake. While Dishonored is about organic discovery.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:39 pm

Yeah, this is a game for Thief fans, no doubt about it. Which is not to say that it's a Thief clone, the stealth works very differently.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:41 pm

Good to hear

There are so many other things reminding me about thief, like the city itself and citywatch, spymaster reminding me of the sheriff, mechanical security devices, abbey of the everyman and their masks reminding me of mechanists and Sokolov reminding of Karras.

Can't wait for this game.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:55 pm

Considering how many gigantic Thief fans there are on the team...

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:20 am

Considering how many gigantic Thief fans there are on the team... :smile:

Those words make me so happy

I find it so strange that there ain't more games with such dedication to levels as Thief had, though Deus Ex Human Revolution did pretty good job recently.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 9:21 am

i've yet to play anything quite on the level of Life of the Party (though just starting Kaldwin's Bridge now i'm gettin vibes) but the level design is absolutely fantastic. it feels very much like Thief in a lot of ways, particularly getting around via rooftops and small outcroppings and ledges.

it took me i think three or maybe even four hours to finish the first actual mission -- like two hours to even get past the wall of light -- because i spent so much time exploring, experimenting and just savoring how good it felt to move. i didn't actually spend much time exploring the objective location itself because i'd been running on no sleep and i couldn't focus properly on stealth, but it felt like a pretty big building - not quite First Bank and Trust or Lord Bafford's Manor, but those were basically the entirety of those missions, whereas in this there's a ton of leadup beforehand and breakdown afterwards.

don't think of them as LEVELS, because i feel like that's doing a disservice to the level design -- these are chunks of a city laid out for you to explore in a linear order but in a non-linear fashion. yeah you have to get from point A to point B eventually, but everything about them feels so natural that you're stumbling across ways forward just by playing with the gameplay mechanics; there's not just an "action route" and a "stealth route" like similar games could be broken down into.

if you're focusing on stealth and checking out everything in the level the missions are [censored] HUGE and can last for ages.

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 2:15 pm

Heyas Smokki

Always nice to meet another Thief series fan!

As someone who's a Thief fan, you would feel right at home with this game (as I do).

» Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:40 pm

I happen to play Thief 2, right now (finished Thief 1 yesterday). Warehouse mission it is. Keeps me warm over night waiting for friday.