Thief 4. I shit you not.

[Paelos]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/24/thief-review

IGN obviously didn't get their check.

[Miasma]

Lakov is the last guy I would expect a positive review from, especially since he implies he's played the previous games.  All I've heard is doom and gloom so I don't know what to expect when I get home and install it now.

I hear you don't actually have to steal any loot throughout the entire game...

[Paelos]

Stealing things is really such an unimportant part of being a thief.

[Sky]

So is this the part where everyone acts butthurt because the game is actually good?

[Sky]

And to further clarify: I think we don't think it's possible to do a quality reboot of old games. But...X-Com's reboot was pretty awesome. I want to believe.

Also: http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/02/11/how-to-play-thief-in-old-school-mode

[Yegolev]

I agree.  I want to complain about New X-COM so hard but I just can't do it.

[Lakov_Sanite]

There are also options to turn off the various visual assists, onscreen hints, and whatnot if you want a more immersive experience. 

I wouldn't know for sure since I only ever started at the hardest difficulty so I'm not getting any visual assists, I don't even have a targeting reticle.  Maybe on easy/normal mode it is less immersive but that's like wanting to watch MMA with everyone wearing football pads and giant hulk hands.  

I got a couple hours in and basically did the first stage after the tutorial and even as thorough as I was only found 84% of the loot, did ghost it first try(this is not to say I didn't die a couple times).  You could nitpick some things but I was able to get into this game immediately because I knew the previous ones and this feels almost exactly the same but evolved with modern stealth games a bit.  

[Yegolev]

I can't remember if you are Italian or not.

[Ironwood]

I agree.  I want to complain about New X-COM so hard but I just can't do it.

Well, there was that bit where it was slightly not as cool as toast before the expansion came out and made it even more cool as toast.

But we'd be reaching.  The New X-Com was HOW to do reboots, to my mind.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I can't remember if you are Italian or not.

I am a damned yankee exiled to the not-so-deep south of Atlanta.

[Yegolev]

I can't remember if you are Italian or not.

I am a damned yankee exiled to the not-so-deep south of Atlanta.

OK, that's good to know.  I guess I have to buy this game.

[rk47]

Garret couldn't save the his girl.
Onii chan why did you let me die?
Nooooooooo Onii chan failed you.
Haunted by guilt, Garret Oniichan will have to seek vengeance.
By stealing....... her killer's lives...



Yeahhhh.

[Miasma]

Patrol Log.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Wow it's getting unfavorable reviews, seems mostly due to all the new modern conveniences. 

The first thing everyone who likes the older games needs to do is pick hardmode and go to options/gameplay and just turn off almost all the ui options.  That's not really an excuse for having a very hand-holding game if played on normal/default options but it's not like you need to jump through any hoops, the options are all right there.

[Sky]

Wait. The footsteps are the same?  

I suppose that's why you're supposed to use focus rather than listen for the guard's footsteps on different surfaces to know where he is? And then play 'hot lava' moving from carpet to carpet to be, you know, stealthy?

That's not nitpicking, that's kind of one of the things that made the old games awesome. That patrol log wasn't talking about modern conveniences.

[Phildo]

What about the original fears about the story?  And the linearity of the story levels?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Footsteps on carpet/stone/roof tiles are very different in sound.  I am unsure if guards react differently because I haven't been in that situation yet since I'm crouched and moving slowly just about everywhere.

[Lakov_Sanite]

What about the original fears about the story?  And the linearity of the story levels?

I haven't gotten far enough into the main story to say.  Once you finish the first level you are put into a sort of open world hub able to do side missions which is what I've been doing.  Most of the side missions are almost like puzzle rooms in that they are short heists in generally small locals though a couple have been whole buildings.  So, I spent a few hours last night just running around thieving, found a secret room with a single chair and candles facing a painting of a nude woman with a goat head, that was...interesting.

[Miasma]

Lots of people have said your footsteps sound the same on carpet, wood and tile.

I'm still trying to finally finish witcher 2 so I didn't try playing any last night.

[Yegolev]

Gaming platform may make a difference.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yeah it could be the platform but there's no question on pc there are different footsteps cause it scared the shit out of me when I first walked on a tiled roof.

[Xilren's Twin]

While the original Thief games were some of my favorites, i am willing to give this latest iteration some breaks b/c it still the only thing even close to the originals.
I'm somewhere in chapter 2 and an enjoying it enough i believe i will finish.  Story is crap, there are too many mini cutscenes and there seem to be real problems with the lip synching.  Plus if you really want to complain about how much they streamlined (read consolized) the stealth parts of the game, you can - hello swoop move and context jumping, im looking at you.
That being said, i actually am enjoying it so far - thankfully they included options to turn off most of the annoyances today's gamers cant seem to live without like flashing loot,and i am not going to play like Garret can actually fight his way out of problems (even though now he actually could) and not using the super easy cheat mode known as focus.
 
I'd probably slot it in the same general vein a the Deus Ex reboot - not perfect compared to the originals, but a decent enough game to be worth a pick up.
Someone who never played the original will probably wonder what all the old people are yelling about...

[Quinton]

Compared to Dishonored, I feel like there are fewer ways to move around, especially in large open areas like the city center.  Obviously I'm not looking for something like the Blink ability which wouldn't fit in this setting, but having climbing, jumping, and rope arrows work only in specific contextual places is frustrating.  Hell, in mission two I ran into an area where a pipe or somesuch was running along the ground, maybe 1' high, and I could only walk over it where there was a little ramp.

I'm having fun, but there are definitely frustrating bits that feel like they didn't have to be frustrating.

[Ingmar]

Context jumping actually makes me more likely to want to play it, but I generally hate platform elements. Honestly, what I'm hearing from actual players rather than reviewers puts this on my 'when it goes on sale' radar. If the story elements were good I'd think about getting it even before that, but those are the one thing that *nobody* likes so far.

[Sky]

Kind of ironic when they're supposedly sacrificing so much gameplay on the altar of story. (We'll just pretend that's true and not mention consoles)

I don't mind a good story in games, even a decently interesting one...but I can maybe count on my hands the amount I've ever seen in all of video gaming worth a shit.

Let's just hope for solid indie gameplay-focused games while AAA millions are wasted pretending to be movies or an art form or whatever the fuck is the reason we have to put up with so much heavy-handed crap storytelling instead of fun games.

[Bzalthek]

The story is pretty damn bad.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Well the first one could hardly have been said to have a story at all.  I'm not defending it mind you but I don't think it affects my enjoyment of thieving things.

[Bzalthek]

Well, true.  But at the very least I want something somewhat coherent.  Going through The Forsaken was a constant stream of "what the fuck is going on?  What the fuck was that?  Why am I doing this again?  How did I do that?"  Probably should have just been a damn cut scene.

[Phildo]

Aw, I liked the original plot when I was a teenager.  The whole thing with Garret's eye was pretty grim.

[Sky]

So many qualifiers for enjoying this game.

[Rendakor]

So many qualifiers for enjoying this game.

It will be worth buying 75% off this summer I'm sure.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I doubt it'll be 75% off by summer, it's not like it's a bad game.  I've said before it's flawed but if there's one reason to buy it, it's because it's fun to play and a more fleshed out sequel could be made.

[Furiously]

I doubt it'll be 75% off by summer, it's not like it's a bad game.  I've said before it's flawed but if there's one reason to buy it, it's because it's fun to play and a more fleshed out sequel could be made.

Tomb Raider went on 50% off like a month or so after release. I'm guessing this will do about the same, if not sooner.

[Miasma]

I've managed to play this some since the weekend and it's what I expected, as much fun as Dishonored, which I liked.  People raging against it must be hardcore oldschool thief fans who would have known better than to buy it.

It is, frankly, too similar to Dishonored.  Uses the exact same cliche of anti-hero against "a strongman in charge during a plague in pseudo-England".

[Khaldun]

Is there any stealth-centered game that isn't heavily built around contextual or prompted action? For some reason, a stealth game where I can't jump a short distance, can't climb a small wall, can't use my rope unless I'm meant to at a particular moment, can't make it through shadows where there should be shadows, etc., really bugs me. But just about every one of them that I can think of does this kind of stuff to a lesser or greater degree.