Thief: The Dark Project turns 25

[Lemming42]

Cragscleft Prison is one of the best levels ever in a game, can't believe how good it is. So many heartstopping moments during the vaunted no-saving, no-kills, no-blackjacking run.

 

[arepo]

The most ridiculous thing about The Cradle is that the designers apparently couldn't decide between cliché A, the haunted orphanage, and cliché B, the haunted asylum, so they made the cradle both, simultaneously, although that makes the place and its story look even more illogical and out of place.

 

[__scribbles__]

Cragscleft Prison is one of the best levels ever in a game, can't believe how good it is. So many heartstopping moments during the vaunted no-saving, no-kills, no-blackjacking run.

Fantastic how the second real mission in the game is crawling your way through a zombie-infested mine to break into a prison ran by a group of technocratic cultists.

Cragscleft was when I realised that Thief was going to be something else. A masterpiece if ever there was one.

 

[NecroLord]

Cragscleft Prison is one of the best levels ever in a game, can't believe how good it is. So many heartstopping moments during the vaunted no-saving, no-kills, no-blackjacking run.

Cragscleft can be a seriously nasty mission on Expert, especially if played for the first time.
There is little room for error, as the Hammerites patrol near constantly and there are alarms that can be triggered by them and make the whole damn prison go nuts.
I like the Bonehoard better though. A great and atmospheric dungeon crawling experience.

 

[jaekl]

I've been playing thief since I was a small child, I remember it had a big pyramid box which caught my eye at the game store. Probably played through the first 2 games about 20 times each. My favorite move is opening a door, chucking landmines in and closing it. Popping out around corners and shooting rocket arrows like medieval Rambo rules as well. Oh and finding a spot where the guards can't hit you and pelting them to death with broadheads... torturing the doofus guards never gets old.

My favorite level is the one where you wear a disguise in the hammerite compound. No idea how it's supposed to go because I always get caught pretty much immediately and it becomes a hectic sword/bow/gadget battle with hordes of fanatics. Then I strut out the front door with a bag of holy loot, passing an enormous pile of neatly stacked hammerite corpses. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Gahbreeil]

Actually, since the poster above mentioned what makes Thief good for the aforementioned poster...

I dig the snatching of an item, the theft. It's just so good. I wish Assassin's Creed was a Thief game with a choice of going FPP/TPP whenever you want to.

 

[std::namespace]

never played this sitting simulator... is it any good as game? or is it just like the other running simulators?

 

[luj1]

Thief 1 or 2 Jarlo what you say?

 

[Latro]

Thief 1 is a masterpiece. Thief 2 demonstrated why the horror/tomb raiding was necessary to break the monotony of plain stealth in the original. Thief 2 still has Trail of Blood which I think is an amazing level tho

 

[Beastro]

Found it one a disc of demos and fell in love with it. Played the hell out of that first level until I wound up playing it just for the combat and trying to survive with every guard in the level aggroed on me.

Only complaint was, between the family comp being in the living room backlit by the kitchen and how old our CRT was even with max lighting, it was rough to see around.

 

[JarlFrank]

My goodness, I LOVE THIS SERIES!! Some of the ALL TIME great computer games! So much joy for so many years! Looking Glass will always hold a special place in my heart.

Maybe it's time to sneak across the rooftops once more...

View attachment 44151

Brother, have you heard about FMs?

Black Parade just dropped and it's GOTY 2023

 

[JarlFrank]

Thief 1 or 2 Jarlo what you say?

I used to prefer Thief 2 but grew to prefer Thief 1. My huge amount of played FMs probably contributed to that somewhat.

Thief 2 is more consistent in quality and style. Most missions are heists, and decently executed. There are some worse missions towards the end but I don't hate them as much as T1's worst missions. The problem is that some of the missions will start feeling samey, and they lack the unique character of T1. There are plenty of fan missions that perfected the mansion heist and city rooftops, so T2's vanilla missions are eclipsed by what the community made.

Thief 1 has higher highs and lower lows, but everything is memorable. It never becomes samey, unlike T2. Its most iconic missions are so unique that fan missions can never surpass, only imitate them. How do you surpass something as unique as The Sword? Cragscleft and Bonehoard are my favorite missions in the official games, just pure excellence. Sadly the last couple missions - Escape and Strange Bedfellows - weren't fun to me at all.

Both are excellent games, but Thief 1 has more pure, raw soul.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I played the heck out of Thief 1 back in the day, got into fan missions for awhile, and then just stopped and lost interest. I think the last few times I tried to play it I gave up sometime during the Ancient city mission or the Cathedral. No maps always bugged me.

Thief 2 was the sequel we thought we wanted but really didn't. I recall being bothered by the no-kill requirements (on harder difficulties), robots are annoying, levels were overly gigantic. Soulforge was a cool final level though.

 

[Melcar]

I still got my original Thief CD and manual, but I mostly just replay Thief Gold and TDM. The first Thief is among my favorite all time games. Nothing after that came close in the genre. I like blackjacking people and throwing them down sewers.

 

[JarlFrank]

I recall being bothered by the no-kill requirements (on harder difficulties)

Those were already in Thief 1.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

My favorite level is the one where you wear a disguise in the hammerite compound. No idea how it's supposed to go because I always get caught pretty much immediately and it becomes a hectic sword/bow/gadget battle with hordes of fanatics. Then I strut out the front door with a bag of holy loot, passing an enormous pile of neatly stacked hammerite corpses. Wouldn't have it any other way.

The last time I played through that mission, I learned that the critter AI is coded to scan its environment for missing (loot) items as it moves about its patrol route. If it finds something missing, it would run and raise the alarm. (This may be accomplished in a different manner than I describe, but the end result is the same.)

The thing is, that particular mission is the only instance in Thief 1 and 2 where it's used. Even the Fan Missions seem to steer clear of it for some reason.

It is possible that this happened during that playthrough I was testing an 'advanced AI'-mod where everything and everyone got super sensitive, which would explain a great many things.

In general though, the best way to clear this mission is to secretly knock out all the Hammerites before touching any loot. That way there isn't anyone around to sound the alarm...

 

[NecroLord]

In general though, the best way to clear this mission is to secretly knock out all the Hammerites before touching any loot. That way there isn't anyone around to sound the alarm...

It's what I always do.
There's way too many Hammerites as it is and they all will be after your blood after you steal the Air Talisman and the alarm triggers.

 

[octavius]

Thief 2 was the sequel we thought we wanted but really didn't. I recall being bothered by the no-kill requirements (on harder difficulties), robots are annoying, levels were overly gigantic. Soulforge was a cool final level though.

The problem with T2 is that the robots are more cute than scary. Can't say that about the Zombies and Haunts in T1.

 

[duskvile]

Black Parade just dropped and it's GOTY 2023

Black Parade should win at gameawards 2023.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I know I‘m preaching to the choir here, but I think it‘s worth emphasizing just how good the story, world-building and writing is in Thief, additionally to the the great gameplay. The cutscenes are some of my favorite in any game. The one where Constantine reveals himself as the Trickster and takes Garrett‘s eye still creeps me out every time i watch it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's one of the few games i'd rate 10/10.

 

[Nano]

Thieves' Guild is underrated. You won't actually get lost in there if you just pay attention to the dialogue.

And the soundtrack is pretty badass too. https://youtu.be/2w-d0UJD3o8?t=78

 

[NecroLord]

Personally, I prefer The Haunted Cathedral/Return to the Cathedral over Robbing the Cradle, but maybe that's just me.
The ghost of Brother Murus having you pick up items for him never bothered me all that much.

 

[Nano]

Personally, I prefer The Haunted Cathedral/Return to the Cathedral over Robbing the Cradle, but maybe that's just me.
The ghost of Brother Murus having you pick up items for him never bothered me all that much.

The thing is that up to that point, the mission design and atmosphere in this game was so immaculate. And then out of nowhere Casper the Retarded Ghost comes out and gives you the most generic and banal of fetch quests in the middle of what's supposed to be an atmospheric horror level. It just feels like the designers are taking the piss out of me.

I'd legitimately prefer playing Escape or even Strange Bedfellows, at least those quests don't feel like they're making an effort to waste my time.

 

[Lemming42]

I think the problem with a couple of the supernatural/horror levels is that they sort of start to guide you away from stealth. You can stealth Haunted Cathedral but after a certain amount of backtracking and searching around it becomes way too tempting to just kill most of the enemies*, which is fairly easy and after which the tension (which, at the start of the level, is superb) dissolves entirely. Escape! is probably the worst for it, I don't even think they really intended you to sneak through that one.

*or worse, do what many players end up doing and just bunnyhopping past them, turning the game into a farce