Thief 3

smilodon · June 05, 2004, 02:42:21 PM

Coming to a shop near you on 11th June...or the 18th June.........or the 26th June.....who knows?

Looks very tasty indeed. But then I'm a thief addict.

Poncy Flash site HERE

Review

Another review

smilodon · June 07, 2004, 01:03:03 PM

All too shocked too speak I see

Anyway I'm sure there are lovers of this excellent series of games (Chimpy?) so I will continue.....

It seems the game is definately due out this Friday 11th June

I've downloaded the 470mb demo and given the training mission and first level a whirl. The move to a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine makes for a stunning looking game with real rag doll physics, dynamic lighting and some beautifully rendered locations. ION Storm of Deus Ex fame have created this game and added some great touches including a free form open city for you to loot and steal your way through as well as the more traditional defined missions.

If you like the Thief series or fancy playing the Ultimate sneaker I suggest you give this a look. I know it's not always wise to rate a game based onlyn on the demo, but sod it I love this game

A Twig · June 07, 2004, 01:14:52 PM

I shall pruchase this on your advice smilo, so it better be good!

Maus · June 07, 2004, 06:20:53 PM

I am worried about it. I loved DX:IW for the eight hours it took me to finish, and after that decided it was a big piece of crud for being much too easy and much too short. I absolutely adore the Thief games, and so I am a little wary that this one'll be a big fat disappointment.

smilodon · June 07, 2004, 07:54:29 PM

A fair concern.
However the difficulty setting can be changed in all sorts of ways. You can set your own failure conditions. So for example you can turn up the enemy AI to full and set the mission to fail if you get a single alert. Or you can set it so you can't kill anyone. It's very user configurable. As with previous Thief games there is no marker on your map telling you where you are all the time, so you have to work it out for yourself. With the AI turned up guards will relight any torch they find that you have put out and search around the local area. They notice if you leave doors open and come in the room to check for you. On highest AI they are canny sods that don't give you an inch, while on the lowest setting they are comfortingly thick. A great idea that worked a treat in Halo.

I'm not sure how many missions there are but previous Thief games always did well in that area. Especially if you set the difficulty so that you have to find all the gold plus all the secret booty.

Finally there is a nice freeform feature that lets you roam around The City at will stealing and pick-pocketing as you go. You also have to physically take your booty to a fence and sell it for cash. You then have to go to a Thief supplier and buy new tools and weapons. You no longer get to do this on a single inventory screen. You ahve to do it for real. There's also a feature that allows you eavesdrop on conversations as you creep through the city that lead to sub missions. So I think it's going to be a fairly substantial game that can be as hard or as easy as you want to make it.

A Twig · June 07, 2004, 09:23:44 PM

I jus dlaoded and played the demo, and I'm well and truly hooked, cheers for the heads up that 'don!

ChimpBoy · June 08, 2004, 01:19:23 AM

QuoteOriginally posted by smilodon@Jun 7 2004, 12:03 PM
Anyway I'm sure there are lovers of this excellent series of games (Chimpy?) so I will continue.....

Totally - first thing I buy when I get back into the UK on Friday.

Doesn't really matter what the demo's are like or what the reviews say, I'll buy this whatever given my (plutonic) love of Garret. Just hope the unreal engine can handle the dynamic lighting and sound of the original Dark engine. If it does then ace - the Dark engine was always a little clunky at times.

Just hope they stick to the Thief 2 formula - less (or no) undead and lots of free-form human looting and classic "medieval" comedy asides. One of my fave moments in any game ever in Thief 2 when you eavesdrop on that set of guards arguing over the virtue of their Mistress with another set of guards, ending in a massive arrow fight, leaving you to stroll right on through rather than taking them on

Sounds like it's a winner Smilo

Maus · June 08, 2004, 08:19:04 AM

QuoteOriginally posted by ChimpBoy@Jun 8 2004, 12:19 AM
One of my fave moments in any game ever in Thief 2 when you eavesdrop on that set of guards arguing over the virtue of their Mistress with another set of guards, ending in a massive arrow fight, leaving you to stroll right on through rather than taking them on

One of the best gaming moments evar!

"Oh bloody hell - loads of guards and nowhere to hide while I sneak past. How am I going to work this one out ... hang on, what's that they're saying? Might be a treasure clue here ... oh my - ahahah!"

A Twig · June 08, 2004, 10:46:12 AM

The Unreal engine copes admirably with dark areas, it is just excellent. I wasnt really a fan of the Thief series until now, but I think Thief III will certainly be installed on my PC soon

DarkAngel · June 08, 2004, 11:16:14 AM

Sigh only just managed to find a link shame going to work now dont finish till 9 <_<

Anonymous · June 08, 2004, 08:06:15 PM

To save people searching here is a link to uk site:

Thief III Demo

DarkAngel · June 09, 2004, 12:27:44 AM

big file aint it?

FrEnZy · June 09, 2004, 02:10:33 AM

Just within my Uni bandwidth limit! :blink:

...But at over a 1 meg/sec i can't complain too much!

smilodon · June 09, 2004, 10:27:53 PM

Just knocked over the first level on Expert Difficulty without Blackjacking anyone. Took me over two hours fourty minutes and it's one of the smallest levels :blink:

What is they say?

What is locked can be opened.
What is hidden can be found.
What is yours can be mine.

and it's confirmed for release the day after tomorrow

Maus · June 12, 2004, 12:40:19 AM

Bought it on the way home from work this afternoon, and holy good jesus is it awesome. I am a little concerned about the size of the city, but I have been reading things about how it is a lengthy game, so that's okay then. Graphics are gorgeous, atmosphere as incredible as ever, and the map architecture is probably the best I've played in.

Apparently there is a bug with the AI, in that it resets the AI levels to "normal" difficulty upon reloading a saved game or entering a new area, but a patch is in the works.