@Kieron: Don’t think that made it back in but that is exactly what the games need. As much as Thief 3 is popular to bash I though the only thing that really sucks about it is that the default movement is running and you have to hold down a toggle to walk. This is annoying as these are the times you will actually be pressing a lot of other buttons. And the fact that your running footsteps are bloody loud and you can’t hear other people. A simple always run option like every FPS would have done wonders too.

My favorite part about The Sword mission was being able to play it on Expert and kill 95% of the guards anyways. There are just so many ways to arrange ‘accidents’ with the death traps :-)

I know what you mean. I had to listen to my younger console-owning brothers slavering over Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. “Look at the stealth, man, it’s AWESOME!! Watch me hide in my cardboard box – they can’t see me in here! Oh, and this guy follows me having heard a noise but forgets I exist once he’s half the way around searching my hiding place!”

Needless to say my scoffing was mighty and persisted well until after their bedtime.

I love Thief so much. The game, the play-style (I figure I’m a born sneak – I just adore the slow, patient pace of it all), the characters (Even Karras, who often sounded like an evil Deputy Dawg), the setting, the amazing levels, the unparalleled cutscenes…they’re in my soul now.

Also, I loved being told for the first time (in my experience) NOT to kill anyone! And that choosing to play on ‘Expert’ meant exactly that; you’re a thief, not a murderer! Brilliant! SUCH a refreshing change after years of Doom, Duke etc.

Game number 4 has a LOT to live up to. I’d far rather they didn’t attempt it than see them mess it up, but what if – ludicrous moment of hope coming up – they get it right?!? Oh, I’m going to be on absolute tenterhooks with this one!

My history with the Thief games is silly really. I own them all, haven’t played #2 and on #3, my save became corrupted after the first level and I ragequit. Love them to bits, yet never further than the first level. Must grow balls…

Thief 2 runs surprisingly well on modern hardware with the various fixes such as the widescreen hack. The graphics are primitive, but the atmosphere and gameplay are still excellent.

Thief 3 is much better than I remembered, and I’m playing with a widescreen hack and John P’s excellent texture pack. Apart from some dodgy NPC models it looks surprisingly modern. The lighting works well, and of course a modern PC can run it at a framerate that was impossible to achieve when it was first released. The loading between areas is still a pain though, and it still doesn’t feel as nice to play as the first games.

There is one big barrier to playing Thief on modern systems though: LCD monitors. The Thief series was designed for CRT’s with their incredible contrast. You really need to play it in a darkened room to make out the detail in the shadows. LCDs just don’t do black, and dynamic contrast doesn’t really work. The majority of LCD panels are 6 bit TN’s which just can’t handle the dark colours, showing dithering or distinct bands of colour, like you see on poorly compressed pictures, which makes the games look much worse than they did on CRT’s

In fact I found Thief 2 so hard to play on my Samsung TN panel monitor that I bought a Dell S-IPS panel monitor instead, which though it still isn’t as black as a CRT, at least can do the dark colours and shadows justice. It’s 1000% better, and Thief 3 looks fantastic.

One good thing about LCDs is their 60hz refresh rate. Thief 1 & 2 were designed for a max 60FPS (I imagine at the time they couldn’t ever conceive of it running at the framerates we can get today). If the frame rate runs faster than that the whole gameplay speeds up and you have to slow it down somehow. One way is to set the refresh rate of your monitor to 60hz. On a CRT that’s quite flickery, but it’s perfect on an LCD.

Did they ever patch that back in? It was in the final preview code I played, but removed in the rush to get out the door.

KG

The difficulty levels are a mixed blessing though. I like the don’t kill difficulty constraints and the increased guards perception but those games were a real pain to find all the hidden loot which you needed almost all of to get for the hardest difficulties. It brought pixel hunting to 3d games.

An option to have the harder difficulty without the excess loot requirement would have been excellent.

Actually Thief 2 *does* have remote camera, really, try the game. If you thought Splinter Cell was good then Thief will blow your mind with its earlier and yet more advanced stealth mechanics and genuinely free-form missions design.

That was always my biggest complaint with the Splinter Cell games. Linear. Every once and awhile it gives the illusion of being freeform by saying ‘oh you can go through this air vent OR take the door’, but honestly, that’s about it. Whereas with Thief it was ‘here’s the level, here’s a map, have fun!’, and that’s brilliant.

Thief is easily the best stealth series ever. I really, really hope the new game does well and sticks to the formula just so that a new generation of gamers will get to experience the best of the best!