Thief Impressions and Comparison to Thief II

With all the old franchises receiving reboots I'm somewhat surprised that it took so long for Thief to get the treatment. Because the Thief series has always held a bit of a niche appeal there's been a lot of speculation about the reboot and whether or not it would carry the spirit of the older games or fall into the trap of over-simplification for mass appeal.

I decided to do as fair a comparison as I could between old and new, so I replayed several hours of Thief II: The Metal Age before touching the new Thief. I examined both old and new with a critical eye, trying hard not to let my own nostalgia of the series cloud what it actually was in order to give the reboot a chance to stand on as even ground as possible.

Here are my thoughts and impressions after playing the first 5 hours of each game side by side.

Interface and Controls

One of the first things that I noticed after loading up Thief II (and installing tafferpatcher) was how clumsy the controls felt. It took several minutes of looking over the control bindings and customizing them to get a scheme that even approached usable. Even after the controls were taken care of playing the game still felt very dated - a single button to pick up and use items, overly slow movement, clunky inventory cycling, etc. all caused it to take some getting used to before skulking in the shadows felt comfortable.

Oh you wanted to pick up the next item? I thought you wanted to drink that potion of invisibility you just picked up!

This is one of the areas where the Thief reboot absolutely shines. Right from the start almost all the controls felt intuitive and easy to use. Changing stealth knockouts to a context sensitive action feels a lot more natural than having to weapon swap, the swoop mechanic allows for faster overall movement to help with the pacing, and you still have the same three speed options of walk, sprint, and creep (as well as walk and creep while crouching) to allow for quiet movement when walking on various terrain.

Unfortunately, there were a few problems with the new controls as compared to Thief II.

Peeking - The context sensitive peeking mechanic replaces the old leaning mechanic from Thief II, and from the minute it was introduced I was disappointed by it. Because it's context sensitive you can only use it in specific places, and I routinely found myself wishing I could lean around an object where peeking wasn't allowed. You also can't peek fully around corners larger than 90°, so peeking to either side of a door is impossible. To top it all off you can no longer use weapons or items while peeking, making maneuvering to use your bow far more difficult and annoying.

Jumping and Climbing - The jumping from past Thief games was replaced with a context sensitive jump/climb mechanic where you can only climb up certain objects and jump between certain ledges. This was more of an annoyance than anything else as it was uncommon to find areas I thought I should be able to climb or jump across but couldn't, but it did end up feeling a bit restrictive in comparison to Thief II.

Excessive Animations - There was an animation for almost everything you do. Picking something up, opening a drawer/cupboard, etc. and while it was a very nice touch they weren't as quick or as fluid as I would've liked. It started to negatively impact the pacing when you were alone in a room looking in a half dozen drawers and you would stop to carefully cradle every ashtray you picked up. It would also force you to let the animation finish and go back to a neutral position before starting another action, which felt very disjointed when picking up several nearby items off a desk. A faster and less pronounced animation for these actions would feel far better.

Who leaves a golden ashtray on an abandoned balcony anyway?

The Map - In Thief II you were generally given a rough map with a few notes and an indicator of what general area you're in. In the reboot they opted to give you a map that gives your exact location and facing at all times, as well as a minimap you can turn on while playing. Personally I greatly prefer the method in Thief II as it was perfect at giving the impression that you were handed maps drawn by someone else and that they weren't perfectly reliable, forcing you to constantly look for landmarks and keep your orientation. Additionally the reboot only gives you the map for the area when you enter it, taking away some of the fun of planning your route.

Waypoint and Threat Indicators - The HUD was given a complete redesign with a lot of features added. Most of them are great (like optional fading on certain HUD elements when not relevant) but adding in a waypoint marker and threat indicator went a little too far in my opinion. When someone is starting to spot you there is an instant HUD notification to alert you accompanied by a crescendo in the music. This means that you don't have to be quite as aware of your surroundings as in the older Thief games, which does affect the feeling of atmosphere. Thankfully the game does allow you to turn off the HUD elements - however you cannot turn off the music crescendo.

Guards, AI, and Combat

It's no secret that the old Thief games never had fantastic AI. Guards walked a single set path and only strayed from it if you were detected, and even then they would rarely walk more than a few feet unless they actually engaged you in combat. On top of that the guards had terrible eyesight - if you were in the shadows a guard could walk straight up to you close enough for you to tie his shoes and so long as he didn't trip you'd be fine.

The Thief reboot comes with new and improved guards that are far more attentive and intelligent. Even if you are in the shadows guards will notice you if they get too close, guards are far less dismissive of light sources going out (and in some cases will even light them again), and they will venture farther than two steps to investigate something they notice.

Those darn rats - always shooting their water arrows at me. Better ignore them and keep walking.

These changes are a huge improvement. Not only does it feel more satisfying and engaging to skulk around better AI but it introduces new ways of dealing with them. Their willingness to move and investigate something allows you to draw guards away from an area rather than having to wait for their patrol around the corner. There are of course still incidents where they behave stupidly or don't see you when they really should have, but the reboot seems to be far better about that than Thief II.

Combat is another area that remains very faithful in the reboot. While it is still possible to fight off a guard or two, it's clumsy and difficult to deal with - and easy to get overwhelmed. The reboot does a great job of keeping combat a last resort and a very non-optimal choice.

Missions vs Open World

The first two Thief games were played through individual levels that you would play one after another, whereas the Thief reboot has an open world hub style where you need to move through the city to get to each mission and side quest. While each one has their own merits I feel that the individual level system works better for the Thief style of game.

With a hub system you are constantly traveling around in the hub moving from place to place, usually with no explicit objectives or goals beyond "get to the next mission". This works well in games where the hub itself is fun and engaging (such as the GTA series) but when the game is about slowly sneaking around obstacles it quickly becomes a chore. After the second or third time getting through the same area you've already discovered what paths work, so you just go along the same convoluted paths you discovered previously to get to the next destination.

Additionally, a hub system generally necessitates having persistent resources across levels. Because they're trying to create the illusion that you're following Garrett everywhere he goes it's hard to just reset his items, which creates an environment that passively encourages hoarding resources rather than using them. In Thief II any resources you saved in one mission disappeared rather than being held over, which actively encouraged the player to use all the items and special arrows available to him and led to more variety during play.

Level Design

Now to address the elephant in the room.

The Thief games (and Thief II in particular) are renowned for having expansive nonlinear level design allowing you massive freedom in routes to objectives as well as endless rooms to explore for treasure and items. Many hold the top notch level design as the crown jewel of the Thief series, so good that even 14 years later it stands head and shoulders above most other games.

The map for level 3 in Thief II. In addition there are several secret passages.

Unfortunately, this is where the Thief reboot falls flat on it's face.

Let me be perfectly clear: the level design for the Thief reboot isn't bad. It is, however, extremely linear. Gone are the expansive levels where you're given 4 options for point of entry and 6 different possible routes between given objectives, and in it's place are long winding hallways with at best 2 or 3 different paths of traversal, usually locked behind arbitrary upgrades that you have to buy in game.

It's clear there was a very different philosophy behind the level design in the reboot, more akin to puzzle games. You have a fairly straight path between points and your goal is to figure out what tools to use where to get through. Rather than blazing your own trail in an open level you are finding the one or two solutions to the level puzzle that the designers intended.

While not everyone will be bothered by this, old fans of the franchise and those looking for large nonlinear level design are sure to be disappointed by the new Thief.

Verdict

The Thief reboot is a good game with some very solid and engaging mechanics behind it. While it does generally stay true to the past Thief games it suffers greatly in terms of level design in the form of extremely linear levels and very little choice of path. Newcomers to the franchise will likely enjoy themselves, however fans may be left disappointed by the lack of freedom. It is however still by far the most faithful modern interpretation of the old Thief games, and I would tentatively recommend it.

Personally I can't help but feel that this was a bit of a missed opportunity. With better level design rooted in the old Thief design philosophy the reboot could have been the best Thief game to date. As it stands I guess we'll have to wait on the modding scene to see whether this flawed gem can be polished to shine.