I remember some time ago there was some discussion of Thief: the Dark Project -- and I was wondering what people thought of that game? I've always liked thief characters the best in crpgs (and rpgs, for that matter), but am looking for something maybe a little less rpgish than I'm used to. Is it worth picking up?

OE

• I really liked it,Llevram, 03:39 PM, May-14-00
  • I'm almost ashamed to ask...,DrSlop, 04:12 PM, May-14-00
    • Luckily for us, very little :),Llevram, 06:22 PM, May-14-00
      • Just tried it...,DrSlop, 07:36 PM, May-14-00

To me, it was the most worthwhile game I have got in the past couple years. It was not top-notch graphics, but it was something different. Not a lot of RPG to the game, I thought of it as and FPS (First Person Sneaker ). I really can't stand First Person Shooters, just because of (what I see as) the mindless runa round and shoot em up, die, start over aspect of the game. No real penalty for death.

This game, there is a penalty, you start the scenario over. And it is scenario based, you are following a script. It does get a little tedious at times and has that "ground hog day" aspect I hate in games (everything happens the same way, if you do the same thing - i.e. guards are statucally placed an triggered).

But sneaking around, lurking in the shadows, chosing the right arrow from your arsenal of specialty arrows, clubbing people with your blackjack and just plain stealing ... it was all well worth the price of admission (to me).

If you have other specific questions, fire away.

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

... but what level of dexterity (mine, not the character's) does it require? I used to really think I had great reflexes back in my old Atari and Spy Hunter days, but since then, my fingers just don't seem to respond as fast as my brain...

OE

I hate games that are a click fest or that try and shoehorn "mouse dexterity" into game dexterity. The interface in the game is really pretty good. If you get into a sword fight (not a good idead for most thieves, going up against armed guards) it's basically right or left click (for hack or for slash, I think ... didn't use the sword much)

What you use more of is the bow or blackjack. The Blackjack (club for knocking out folks) is just a click and hold while you manuever closer, then release (*thud*).

The bow is a little more complex: click and hold to bring up the view portal (an area you are targeting, about the size of your thumb - or my thumb anyway ). If you hold long enough, the view portal zooms in a bit closer, for those long range shots. Then release the mouse, to fire. You can also you two keyboard keys (I forget which ones) to "lean" around corners, while firing.

Really, if you've got 2 or 3 working fingers and can operate the mouse (at solitaire level), the interface should not be a problem. There were a few run and jump (press space to jump) places, but not too difficult. And they have a save game feature, so you can always try the jumps again (even if you make it, just to see how you would have died })).

Tools for your Wizardry(r) toolkit

Well, I just downloaded the demo and played around with it for about 2 hours (can you tell I have far too much time on my hands these days... I just finished off my school semester a few days ago and now I'm waiting for my girlfriend to come down from USC on Tuesday -- so for the last few days I've just been killing time). I really really sucked at it -- I just could never figure out the layout of the damn building, and I ended up just stumbling around in circles and running into guards. I think it's a combination of 1) not having enough patience, and 2) liking killing things too much. But, still, I really didn't like the engine, it felt too much like a shooter -- and the fact that I couldn't shoot any thing seemed more like an annoyance than a playing style. Sigh, now I know why I only play crpgs.

OE