For All the Gaming Ninja's Out There: Aren't the Thief Games Awesome??

**lordbd** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 2:00pm

Now that I spend all of my time between patients on Bullshido........who shares my love of this video game franchise?

Thief 4 is in development and it got me thinking about my old pal again.

If only ninjutsu was real.....

**Hiro Protagonist** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 4:07pm

Thief was pretty awesome for its time - however, today, most modern RPGs like Skyrim already incorporate a few of its greatest elements. Also, there's Assassin's Creed, of course, which on first sight might seem pretty similar.

In any case, if you liked the world, check a book series called "Thieves World" by Robert Asprin. "Thief" is basically a ripoff of that one.

**lordbd** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 4:17pm

I've never read Thief's World but I have heard of it. It's one of those shared universe sort of deals where several authors all write stories in the same setting isn't it? Might have to check it out sometime. If you were a Thief's World fan, another thiefly fantasy series is the Gentleman Bastard cycle of novels. I read the first one and it was alright.

Importantly however, the thief universe has Hammerites. How cool are those Hammerites? And that horned god guy!

**ironcastknight** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 6:52pm

Quit your taffin' about you taffer!

The Thief games and the early Hitman games defined how I feel stealth games should work and flow. Sadly few games learned from their examples, however, which is why forced stealth sections are still reviled and tend towards being shitty.

**alex** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 6:56pm

the first hitman game not so much, but the following games have gotten it down a lot better. stealth play is something that is hard to do right without it feeling claustraphobic and scripted (like every fps game that tries it) or boring and overpowered (TES games)

i havent played much of the thief games but i really enjoyed the first one.

**lordbd** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 7:00pm

If you wanna go low tech again, Thief 2 is like identical to the first Thief but with more story obviously, and several awesome missions that involve acually just thieving.

**ironcastknight** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 7:04pm

I view Hitman 2 as being the pinnacle of the series, with the best missions and story and whatnot, with Blood Money being an exceptionally close second that surpasses 2 in a few areas.

Of course then there's the upcoming Absolution, which seems to be a huge steaming wormy turd on the face of the entire series.

I do like the way Deus Ex and Human Revolution did stealth for being FPS games, primarily on account of their heavy focus on alternate routes and the option to just say "**** it" and go in guns blazing with no stupid instant game-over bullshit.

**alex** · Posted On: 6/10/2012 7:17pm

i liked the first deus ex a lot, second one was **** obviously but to me the third was just... meh. i got bored real fast.

im not sure about absolution. it looks like there is a lot of lame **** catering to the console crowd with slowing down time and seeing through walls etc, but then you can just turn that **** off. personally id put blood money over hitman 2 in terms of the levels, but the story in hitman 2 was much better, so its a tough call. i liked the new mechanics with upgrading weapons etc, but since you didnt need any weapons for any of the levels its a little silly.

**resolve** · Posted On: 6/16/2012 5:01pm

I loved the Thief series. It was my very first introduction to stealth games (and the only one I felt got it right) and to the steampunk fantasy genre as well.

The Cradle mission was just wrong though... It deserved all the awards it got for scariest mission in a video game for sure.

The reason TES games like Oblivion and Skyrim have Thief elements is because they hired one of the main developers from Looking Glass Studios (the makers of Thief, Deus Ex, System Shock, et cetera) when it got shut down by Eidos Interactive... Although they tied his hands a bit because they needed to balance stealth gameplay in regards to the rest of the gameplay.

**lordbd** · Posted On: 6/16/2012 5:08pm

Originally Posted by resolve

I loved the Thief series. It was my very first introduction to stealth games (and the only one I felt got it right) and to the steampunk fantasy genre as well.

I'm right there with you. Thief is what introduced me to the steampunk culture that I've been enjoying so much (through books, movies, comics, and artword) ever since. And the storylines (for the first two at least) were pretty badass as well.

Also how scary were those baby-doll faced patrol robots in Metal Age?