Thief

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,188
Yup, it's one of these super cheap game extension mechanics, check every single room for a spoon to get 8 gold. But it makes no sense, the city is under the "gloom" it's poor people living in slums, how is stealing a golden spoon even becoming money, you don't sell it, and there is no explanation of how it's turning in to money and doesn't feel right in the particular game setting? All while ignoring potentially valuable things like paintings and some jewellery as it's "collectibles" because every ******* game must have collectibles.

Worse still is in this game the mechanic of unlabelled windows, which are indistinguishable in a map that is fairly confusing with a crap minimap(and full map) which really gives no indication you've been in that window before. IE, you end up going through this painfully long entering house/room sequence with the windows, completely with quick time style mash button event...... and it could easily be a room you've accidentally gone in 3 times before.

It's stupidity, on top of lameness, with added frustration with zero god damned point.

You can replay levels to pick up items to get more money, which I haven't done and won't bother with.

One thing I do like and was done well is walking around the city you can be outside a window and overhear people inside talking, only broken by the crappy glass and no inside of building rendering, IE you can't look into the nearest window when you hear this and see two people through that window talking. But there were tidbits like "I heard there is a valuable item in guy X's house", or "did you see the new watch, Barry had on down the pub".

Which could have been a great mechanic but the majority of them weren't real, I'm fairly sure one or two were actually useful. LIke I think I heard someone say along the lines of "did you know he apparently has a secret room in the library", which made me go and check for a secret entrance, it's a bit rubbish with the focus mechanic letting you highlight a room and find the button all too easily. The entrance should be your classic book on a book shelf pulled or a candle stick on the wall turned, but that you have to find not press F and it highlights everything in the room.

But a lot of the conversations seemed unlinked to anything close buy or just a bit random, which add's to atmosphere in that sense but felt like unfinished clues left in the game.

It's kind of a half game, where if they removed the generic crap, added more items you overhear about and actually make it a challenge to find them. It would take just as long to do so, probably require more interiors(in the map overall very few houses can be entered and most are very very basic.

I think there a few things like the overheard sounds that hint at more depth and difficulty, but so many other things that feel bodged or unfinished. Maybe they ran out of time, did the classic massive over stretching and half the stuff didn't work so had to redo lots of simpler stuff that could be added quickly. I don't know. There is some excellent music and a couple excellently designed levels like the ones I mentioned before that hint at the real level of quality they were maybe aiming at, which makes this an even bigger let down really.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2005
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2,750
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Edinburgh
32-bit vs 64-bit Visual Quality

There is a useful (unofficial) tweaking guide available on the Eidos forums.

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=141887

Like many others it recommends running the 32-bit version to improve performance. However it also says:

The 32bit version has some features disabled that reduce memory usage, and as such can improve performance.

Has anyone noticed any difference in the visuals between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions?
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jul 2005
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Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
Yup, it's one of these super cheap game extension mechanics, check every single room for a spoon to get 8 gold.
..
One thing I do like and was done well is walking around the city you can be outside a window and overhear people inside talking, only broken by the crappy glass and no inside of building rendering, IE you can't look into the nearest window when you hear this and see two people through that window talking. But there were tidbits like "I heard there is a valuable item in guy X's house", or "did you see the new watch, Barry had on down the pub".

Which could have been a great mechanic but the majority of them weren't real, I'm fairly sure one or two were actually useful. LIke I think I heard someone say along the lines of "did you know he apparently has a secret room in the library", which made me go and check for a secret entrance, it's a bit rubbish with the focus mechanic letting you highlight a room and find the button all too easily. The entrance should be your classic book on a book shelf pulled or a candle stick on the wall turned, but that you have to find not press F and it highlights everything in the room.

But a lot of the conversations seemed unlinked to anything close buy or just a bit random, which add's to atmosphere in that sense but felt like unfinished clues left in the game.

It's kind of a half game, where if they removed the generic crap, added more items you overhear about and actually make it a challenge to find them. It would take just as long to do so, probably require more interiors(in the map overall very few houses can be entered and most are very very basic.

I think there a few things like the overheard sounds that hint at more depth and difficulty, but so many other things that feel bodged or unfinished. Maybe they ran out of time..

Nice review DM, I think I will still pick it up for a cheap price as I want to see how this TrueAudio pans out. Hopefully more patches and mods will make it claw some points back.

I think with every title now it's like a windows release.. need to buy it after a few months to get the beta feel ironed out. :rolleyes:
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Dec 2011
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Belfast
I hate the fact that you are meant to be a master thief, yet most of the stuff you steal is trinkets.

Seriously, you end up searching drawers and cabinets for spoons, hairbrushes, pens and inkpots. Then it all magically turns into money without you have to fence it. How about a gameplay mechanic where you have to sell the stuff you stole to a fence to get money.

I even got to the point where I became very annoyed just seeing how entire drawers are taken up with nothing but a simple trinket. Open a drawer and it has a pen and nothing else. Next drawer has an inkpot and nothing else. It would have been nice to have a drawer with some stuff in it other than trinkets. Where do people keep their clothes in this town. :)

I got to chapter 3 and couldn't face it anymore. A seriously dull game IMHO.
 
Soldato
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Swindon UK
I've now finished Chapter 3 but think that is it for now. There were a few interesting bits in that level but plagiarised from other sources.

The library with moveable stairs smacked of Harry Potter or the Name Of The Rose and the symbol aligning on the key straight out of Skyrim.

As others have noted, doors remain firmly sealed and those places you can get into have nothing worth lifting - less than the value of the arrows or other items you use to get there.

On the verge of uninstalling it now.
 
Associate
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So where?
I'm finding this iteration of thief as original as the next big thing boyband. Thank god my friend gifted it to me, so not hurting as much.

Kept comparing it to Dishonoured and what could have been.
Hell, even just one level with atmosphere like in 'the cradle' would save it.
It feels...vacant as a game. ( same as above, got to chapter 2 then resigned to genuine disinterest)
Fired up Enemy Within, to make me happy again.

Bloody shame
 
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Soldato
Joined
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Swindon UK
Fired up Enemy Within, to make me happy again.

Command & Conquer First Decade here, which to my amazement still installed and runs under Win 7 64 (albeit with distorted FMV and jerky mouse scrolling in the first game). Now that's when they used to make decent games...
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,188
I'm finding this iteration of thief as original as the next big thing boyband. Thank god my friend gifted it to me, so not hurting as much.

Kept comparing it to Dishonoured and what could have been.
Hell, even just one level with atmosphere like in 'the cradle' would save it.
It feels...vacant as a game. ( same as above, got to chapter 2 then resigned to genuine disinterest)
Fired up Enemy Within, to make me happy again.

Bloody shame

Yeah, there is really one, maybe two chapters with that atmosphere, I think chapter 5 is worth playing but pretty much everything up to it is garbage.

Chapter 5 makes me think, that is where they started, and they ran out of time/money or everything else they made broke so they shipped half done, simplified stealing, threw in basic items over the world and changed the game entirely.

i'd pretty much say don't buy till it's £4 on a steam sale, then download a save game around chapter 4 maybe and play from then on.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
33,188
Command & Conquer First Decade here, which to my amazement still installed and runs under Win 7 64 (albeit with distorted FMV and jerky mouse scrolling in the first game). Now that's when they used to make decent games...

If they somehow messed up the FMV in the old games... I would refuse to play them :p the FMV in the early games was epic, they got worse but with hotter chicks as time went on. The music in the first game is still soooo awesome. I almost want to buy it on steam(origin apparently) just to play through the first game with the awesome music.
 
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Soldato
Joined
10 Jun 2003
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4,615
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New Zealand
So far I've quite enjoyed it in small bursts. It has plenty of flaws and I agree that spending 70% of your time stealing spoons isn't what Thief should be but there is still some good stuff in there. It's not the Thief game I wanted but judged as a separate game it's still worth 10-15 quid.
 
Associate
Joined
26 Sep 2005
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Tonbridge, Kent
Sound issues

Any of you guys been experiencing almost non-existent sound?

All I can hear is footsteps, water running, bow sounds and the guard alert.

No music, no atmospheric effects, no guard talk, a snatch of cut-scene sound maybe.

I've messed around with the Audio settings in all combinations. 90% of the game is the atmosphere.

I can't see how it's an issue with my setup as I've seen people moaning about it on a PS3 forum.

I have a 2.1 speaker system with a Xonar DX2 sound card.

It's almost as if the game is stuck in 5.1 and no matter what I do I can't get it to change.
 
Soldato
Joined
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12,812
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Surrey
It's just the audio in the game mate, it's pants. The cut scenes, the surrounding ambience. Practically non existant at times. Which is a shame because on occasions the music and ambience within levels is spot on, just not all the time.

Chapter 5 has me bricking it :D
 
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Associate
Joined
10 Mar 2014
Posts
13
Hi all my first post :)

I am loving this so far.. Playing on the hardest setting with a few custom options turned on. My playing style is total none combat, I have just made it to chapter three but have taken my time looking around doing all side missions etc..

Not had any issues so far and hope to complete this this week.
 
Soldato
Joined
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5,066
Hi all my first post :)

I am loving this so far.. Playing on the hardest setting with a few custom options turned on. My playing style is total none combat, I have just made it to chapter three but have taken my time looking around doing all side missions etc..

Not had any issues so far and hope to complete this this week.

What this game was meant for. Kudos, my friend
 
Associate
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Tonbridge, Kent
Lol just found this http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Thief_%282014%29#Audio_settings

"Missing Voices, Subtitles, Music, and Some Sound Effects

Fix Install game to an internal drive.[4] • Link
If the game is on an external drive, voices, subtitles, music, and some sound effects like lightning may not play during the game. This can easily be observed in the prologue cutscene, where Garret should be speaking. If you installed the game on an external drive, try moving it to an internal drive (it does not have to be the C drive)."

Giving this a try now, let you all know if this works.

Edit:

Dammit, made no difference. I'm getting virtually no sound and I'm on Chapter 4 now.
 
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Associate
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9 Oct 2013
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2,232
I have played it a bit and think it's good but stopped as I waiting for the mantle patch as want to see what it will be like and then play it all the way through. Could be interesting if a few mods were released as well, should have a lot of potential.
 
Associate
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Wait it does work!!!!!!!! OMG FINALLY.

I moved Thief to the C: drive and then removed it and reinstalled it in Steam. All Steam does is verify that all the code is there, booted it up and: Lighting, guard talk, music. YES!

Remember you have to remove the version on an external drive as well otherwise it won't work.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Sep 2011
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12,812
Location
Surrey
Wow, missing audio? Seriously? Thanks for the link!

Mines installed on an internal raid volume, but isn't my C drive so not sure if I'm having issues. I can hear characters just fine and guards, but it just seems like there's ambiance missing sometimes.
 
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