Category Archives: Thief – The Dark Project

Thief : The Dark Project – Day 3

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I managed to get a decent session in on Saturday although I made less progress than I might have expected. Thief is proving to be quite a difficult game even on normal settings.

Navigating through a tomb sounds like a zombie level and sure enough I come across my first zombie in no time. Hacking them is as ineffective as before so I stick to running past. They are so slow this is actually a safe tactic.

I find some holy water in the tombs which changes all my water arrows into holy arrows. A couple of hits from these takes down a zombie for good. The snag is that my arrows appear to corrupt the holy water and turn back into normal water arrows after 30 seconds. 30 seconds doesn’t get me far in levels this size so it doesn’t help much.

Other than the zombies the tombs have a few traps of their own, such as shooting arrows when I open a chest or dropping a boulder on me when I step on a pressure plate. None of these are especially dangerous and I can easily avoid them.

I was expecting this level to be tombs all the way but I end up in a strange red rocked area which isn’t on my map.

This area is infested with overgrown lizards which fire gas clouds at me if I get too close. I can take one of these down with my sword without too much trouble but I don’t fancy taking on a whole group like this much and run through the room instead.

The caverns are confusing to navigate and I end up wandering around for quite a while before I blunder into the exit and find myself in the tomb I was looking for.

The body of Felix is in here. Luckily for me didn’t manage to get the horn himself.

A note on his body tells me that the horn is near but doesn’t give any solid advice as to where.

A lot more wandering later and I find a large hexagonal room which I can climb up through a series of ladders. Getting here wasn’t especially easy as these tombs are crawling with zombies.

The horn I’m looking for is at the top and grabbing it instantly ends the level. I can’t say I’ve done a lot of sneaking on this level. I guess I could have attempted to sneak past the lizards or zombies but running through as quick as possible seemed to be the safest option every time. This sort of level doesn’t play to the games strengths and its much better when I’m tiptoeing around guards.

After the mission I go and buy some new tools with some of the money. This is going to open up harder targets and the mission starts out with me heading for the local hammer temple to relieve them of excess wealth.

Before I can leave the shop at the start of the mission, the shopkeeper is assassinated in an attack meant for me. I can overhear the attackers outside and my mission is changed before it got started. I now have to trail the assassins without being spotted to find out who sent them.

Tracking these guys, trying to keep my distance and stay hidden is without doubt the best bit of the game so far. It’s a long trek through the town with limited cover and the assassins keep checking behind them forcing me to be careful.

In the end I track them back to base and discover they were sent by Ramirez, an old client who would prefer that I worked exclusively for him. My mission now becomes to take revenge on him by stealing everything he’s got. With my newly acquired lockpicks I can get through the side door easily. I have two types of lockpick. I have to stand near a door holding down use while the handle slowly turns. I have to make sure I’m using the right sort of pick and sometimes have to swap types several times for the same lock. This is all simple enough but adds a bit of extra depth as I’m trying to quickly pick a lock while I hear a guard approaching in the distance.

The rest of the mission is fairly uneventful. I overhear that Ramirez is down in the basement counting his money so I head down there, steal the pouch off his belt and that ends the mission. This level was clearly about the initial section following the assassins.

As well as guilds of smiths, this world has guilds of thieves (which I’ve decided not to join). Two of them are arguing about rights to a sapphire chalice and I’m going to settle this argument by taking the chalice for myself.

I have to make my way into an illegal gambling den and into the thieves guild. Getting into the front building through a back entrance is simple enough.

Finding where to go next is less simple. I find this shaft in the floor and shoot a rope arrow into the ceiling above it allowing me to climb down.

This gets me into the casino. My stealth fails me at this point and I end up hacking my way through.

From the casino I soon find my way into the guild. This place is a maze by any definition and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where to go.

I find a note which gives me a bit of a clue about going through the sewers. I’ve already found gate 47 but have no idea how to open it.

I do manage to find another route through the sewers which takes me to one of the guild leaders houses. After exploring the whole place all I find of significance is a safe key which I’ll need to use in the other leaders house. This means going all the way back through the sewers to the guild and getting gate 47 open.

I find a bit of water to dive into that I hadn’t tried before and swim through a couple of tunnels and at long last get to the gate 47 controls.

This gets me to the other house and using the safe key, I grab the chalice. I still have to exit to the streets to finish but I got the house key and can exit through the front door.

I’ve given the next mission by a contact whose name I’ve managed to forget since playing the game a couple of days ago… The mission, at any rate, is to steal a dagger.

That final mission today took me a long time to play through, maybe 3 hours. I was lost most of the time and trying to figure out where to go next. Apart from that it was another good level though and a lot of the time it took was simply due to the level being enormous. I’m clearly enjoying the zombie free levels a lot more. I’m maybe a third of the way through the game now and getting more of a feel for it. The gameplay stands out as being very unusual, I’ve not played anything else that has emphasised stealth to this extent. Because of this it is still holding up well, graphics are not all that important when you are trying to spend as much time as possible in the dark.

I wouldn’t say that I’m enjoying it quite as much as System Shock 2 but thats not exactly criticism. Before I started this I was thinking I might just play the first Thief game in this blog but this has been good enough so far that I’ll probably keep going with the series and play the other games.

Something I would like to see is an overall plot. The missions are linked in minor ways but I’ve no end goal yet. I expect it won’t be long coming.

Thief : The Dark Project – Day 2

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Level 2 is a mine and starts off with me swimming through a flooded passage to get in.

It doesn’t take long to find the first corpse. This one doesn’t get up at attack me but I’m sure its only a matter of time before one does. The flies on the other hand do actually hurt so I have to be careful to walk around.

Sure enough the next corpse gets up and attacks me. I hack it a bit with my sword and it goes down only to get up again a moment later. I seem to be wasting my time here so I just run off.

I run out of places to go and jump down into a pit. The drop hurts quite a bit and I’m also attacked by a spider. I can at least take the spider down with a few hits but I’m left playing the rest of the level with very little health.  What I didn’t realise was that there are buttons to operate a lift down to here. This lift also takes me up a level or two.

This gets me to the occupied levels and its back to sneaking again.

This level is a factory. In all honesty this standard of 3D graphics struggles to create a believable workshop but molten metal is being poured. Sneaking through here isn’t easy as there are plenty of guards. I end up jumping off an overhead balcony just behind a guard and then legging it.

There appear to be four prison blocks and I don’t know which to go to first. I thought I overheard some guards saying my fence was in block 2 so I try that but it turns out to be wrong. The cell blocks are all similar and require a bit of advanced sneaking. I can stay through the shadows here then work my way upstairs to reach the guard.

I then make a bit of noise and draw him out of his locked room. I sneak in behind him when he gives up looking for me and blackjack him.

His room has a prisoner list + a load of levers to open the cells. After a few of these cell blocks I find my man in #4.

He’s in bad shape when I get there and about to die on me.

He does have time to tell me about a map that the Hammerites got from another thief called Felix and I now have to go and find it.

There is only one area I haven’t explored yet, the barracks + officers quarters which sounds like the place to look. I pass through a church area on the way complete with stealable candlesticks.

The safe with the map takes very little finding and I grab everything in it to end the level.

I still need some money so I go after this horn straight away in Level 3.

I preferred the first level in all honesty but this wasn’t bad once I got back amongst all the guards. It’s taken me quite a while to play through since I went through all the wrong cell blocks before finding the one I needed. I could have spent money before the level on getting tips. I presume these would have told me where to look. It’s an interesting idea having the buy-able items at the start of each level. So far I’ve not really looked into them + I’ve not tried any of the unusual weapons available to me such as water arrows for putting out lights, or rope arrows for climbing up to wooden beams. I’ll have to try out some of these next time I play.

It’s going to take me weeks to finish this if I don’t speed up a bit but I’ve not much on today and will try to make some real progress.

Thief : The Dark Project – Day 1

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Thief is another game from Looking Glass Studios and was influential enough to create a whole new genre – the sneak-em up. Warren Spector is often credited as being the driving force for this game but only actually worked on it for the middle year of its 3 year development. A lot of the familiar names from Looking Glass were involved though and that should have been enough to get me playing it years back.

As ever I’m going into this game knowing very little about it which is always the best way to approach a game. I’m going to be playing Thief Gold here which was a later re-release with some extra levels. This game uses the same engine as System Shock 2 which means the same patches all work allowing me to play it in 1920×1080 widescreen on Windows 7.

Thief starts off with the usual FMV intro. A young boy called Garret (my character in the game) notices someone moving through a crowd unseen by all except him. He goes after the man with the idea of stealing from him but is caught instead. The man instead sees his talent in being able to spot a keeper who is trying not to be seen and recruits him to the order. I’ve no idea at this stage what a keeper is – I don’t have a manual for this game and should probably have a look on replacementdocs for it later.

The game starts with my keeper training. This is the usual training level that seems to have been compulsory in FPS games since Half-Life.

This is a bit different though as this game concentrates on remaining unseen and unheard. For the first of these I’m put in a dark room with shadows zig-zagging across the floor. I have to remain in the shadows and approach a guard unseen.

The second room is a similar idea but with sound this time. The room is carpeted in some areas which quietens my footsteps and I have to approach a guard with his back to me unheard.

Next I get a couple of weapons. This is a fantasy/medieval game so its longbows and swords.

The control system for these is simple enough. If I hold attack down long enough then I get a more powerful shot, it’s not that far off what we saw in the Underworld games. I get to spar a bit – there is also a block move here although if it’s like other games I’ll rarely use it preferring to step out of the way and get my next blow in where possible.

There are brief instructions after this on object use also. This game does have a simple inventory but I don’t expect it will be much more complex than use this key on this door, etc…

To end the training there is a short assault course where I get to learn the basics of jumping and climbing. Thats the extent of the training level. The controls are simple and intuitive enough. Graphically the game is possibly a little ahead of Half Life but its on the same sort of order. In high resolution, the graphics don’t really look all that bad. As in System Shock 2, its the sound where the game really shines with excellent use of 3D sound and the sound reacting well to the environment I’m in at the time. This is crucial to a game like this – you have to be able to hear the noise you are making and hear other people moving around.

There is another cutscene between levels. Garret has decided not to use his keeper training as intended and is instead using it to make a bit of money on the side. A local Lord is away for the night along with his Captain of the Guard, leaving his house ripe for a little breaking and entering. I have to enter the house and try to steal a valuable sceptre.

The cutscene provides me with a couple of options on how to enter. I could go through the well guarded main gate or alternatively take the back entrance. I start on the street outside near the front of the house. I can watch and listen to some of the guards talking. There are three of them here and I don’t fancy taking them on. The back entrance is clearly the way to go.

I sneak through the shadows to the back of the house and find the guard here is very drunk. I tiptoe around him and grab the key off his belt. He is so drunk he doesn’t notice me opening the door behind him. I jump in the well in the here and swim through into the basement.

Exploring the house is where this game really starts to come into it’s own. The guards all follow patrols but if I make too much noise they come and investigate. There are plenty of shadows to hide in and I sneak my way through the rooms trying to get to the sceptre. I do my best to avoid any combat but I can blackjack a guard and knock him out from behind with a single blow. I then get to carry the body to a quiet spot to try and avoid being spotted.

As I mentioned earlier, its the sound that really draws you into the game. If I’m hiding out of sight or about to enter a new room, I often can’t see where the guards are but I can hear their footsteps and attempt to place them through this. This is what creates the immersion. The graphics may be dated but the gameplay and sound are what count in this case.

I find a book which mentions delivery of a false bottomed chest. This is a bonus theft by the looks of it which I’ll need to keep an eye out for.

At least one of the castle guards has a key. I end up resorting to fighting him with a sword. This is easier than I might have expected considering that the game is more about sneaking. I reckon with a bit of practice I could take these guys out instead of sneaking but it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the game. Besides which I’m sure there is tougher to come.

I find the throne room and grab the sceptre. I’m expecting to have to escape from the house and was going to look for more treasure on the way, but instead this instantly ends the level.

There is another cutscene showing my fence being captured by the Hammerites (a guild of blacksmiths?) before I can get to him with the goods. I’m therefore going to go and rescue him by sneaking in through some abandoned mines which are rumored to be haunted. This puts me in mind of something I have heard about this game alternating between theft levels and zombie levels, with a lot of complaining about the zombie levels. A bit of variety doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me but I’ll have to see for myself.

It’s a promising start to the game. I can’t think of that many stealth titles off the top of my head but they seem to be something I enjoy playing. It’s incorporated to some extent into a lot of FPS games now but its always optional so I just go in all guns blazing. I enjoyed the Splinter Cell series though and this is quite similar in many ways and was clearly a big influence.

I’ll veer off topic at this point and (fairly) briefly discuss a couple of the other games I’ve been playing since my last post. First off was the new Monkey Island game from Telltale. I was a bit sceptical about this before I played it but it was a lot better than I expected. It’s more along the lines of Monkey Island 3 than 1/2 but hugely better its predecessor. The usual Monkey Island humour is there but what impressed me most was the way that it used themes from the earlier games without actually retreading old ground. The game was possibly a little short but the whole series is the price of a single game so I can’t complain about value for money. With all of Telltales other series the first game has typically been the worst one which bodes very well for the rest of the series. My only real complaint would be the graphics for the game are really quite dated and wouldn’t have looked out of place 5 years ago.

I said I wasn’t going to buy it but in the end I got the Monkey Island 1 remake on Steam. The price was a lot less than I was expecting which is what made the difference. The price point is about right but I wasn’t too impressed with the remake itself. I found the voice acting to often be quite flat and wooden even from the main actors who did such a good job in other MI games. The supporting cast was a mixed bag with some reasonable performances mixed in with a few that were truly dire.

The graphics are the same story. Some of the new backgrounds were fantastic but I didn’t like most of the character art at all. A lot of the animation also looked worse than in VGA as the high resolution showed up the lack of frames. The music was of a more consistent level, although I still like the MT-32 soundtrack more than the CD one you get when you swap back to the old MI. Speaking of swapping versions, this was a neat idea but the graphics in the old game look far worse than through an HQ3x filter in scummVM or DosBox which just isn’t good enough.

All in all, I think I’d rather have replayed the original game. The remake felt to me like a well made fan game rather than something turned out by professionals. If you don’t own the original, it’s well worth the money. Add in nostalgia for an old time fan like myself and the original version wins hands down.

I’ve carried on watching all the Warren Spector lectures which I mentioned a month or two back and have nearly seen them all now. I just have 30 minutes of the last one left. They have been well worth watching with the guest speakers bringing a very broad range of views and experience from across game development. The final speaker touches on EA’s version of what went on at Origin which was something I’d not heard before. He’s quite critical of Richard Garriot and even moreso Chris Roberts. Its hard to say who’s version of events is correct, no doubt the truth is somewhere inbetween. As interesting as these lectures have been, I probably know as much about game development now as I want to. Definitely enough to know its not an industry that I’d especially like to work in myself.