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Bought Xbox Thief 3 second hand from somebody on NTSC-uk.
It's great so far (three or four hours of play in, just about to finish the first proper mission). Thief 2 is one of those games I always end up returning to, so this was exciting me more than the prospect of Deus Ex: Invisible War. I know Tez was complaining about it, but to be honest I've absolutely no idea why. It feels exactly like a Thief game should, and the comments about Ion Storm are unfair and baseless, given that - as they currently exist (or did when this was being developed) - they'd only been responsible for two games: Deus Ex and its sequel. I'm not sure how one universally lauded game and one which received mixed reviews can lead anybody to expect a mediocre experience from their third. Anachronox and Daikatana were from completely different teams.
You can tell it's the Invisible War engine again, but with some problems ironed out. Frame rate is far more consistent than before, and even at its lowest seems to be higher than IW's best. The lighting is nothing short of magnificent - it was bloody good anyway, but because it's all natural light sources here it seems so much more impressive. Plenty of excellent little spot effects, the best being the magical way that moonlight shining through windows picks out specs of dust floating around. You cast a shadow, even when in first person mode, which cements the feeling of being there. It probably doesn't seem like a big thing, but combined with the brilliant real-time lighting it increases the feeling of being there (in IW, Alex D didn't cast a shadow, which left you feeling like you weren't exactly solid, given the excellent shadows elsewhere). And it's proper lighting, too, allowing you to douse flames or put out candles. It's a Thief game, so that should go without saying, but after the disappointment of IW's unbreakable bulbs it feels liberating.
Areas seem much larger than in IW - loading between sections is much les frequent. That might be due to the way I play it, though - Thief, for me, has always been about making sure that you knock every single person unconscious and steal every single bit of cash, without causing any deaths or being spotted, so I take it at a snail's pace. Learn guards' patrol routes, listen to all conversations.
Unfortunately, screen tearing is in, in a big, big way. Presumably, it's a result of the increased frame rate, but I'm starting to think that it might be a problem with my Xbox. It's not so much of a problem in the darker areas, or in third person (it's still there, but you don't notice because you're focussing on Garrett in that view). In first person and in a well-lit area, though, don't even think about trying to turn around at speed unless you want your TV to look like it's a patchwork. But you don't take Thief at speed, so it's not really a huge thing.
Other, very minor issues: NPC animation's a little... stiff. Seems a bit lazy, given the amount of time that's obviously been spent on making Garrett move so fluidly in third person. The training mission is horribly basic and linear, which gives an unfortunate first impression - as soon as you're out of it, though, you get complete freedom back. Havoc physics are in, but not for any reason beyond increasing immersion. Well, they do have an effect on the game every now and again - you need to be careful when walking past items placed near or on stairs in case you knock them down, swords stacked up in the armoury can be knocked over if you're not watching where you're going, clattering on the floor. The freedom that you're given to mess around in the world in IW is removed almost entirely, which is a pisser - creeping through the kitchens I felt the urge to throw one of the legs of lamb or loaves of bread into an open furnace, only to find that Garrett refused to do it and instead dropped it on the floor.
Minor things. The stuff that you only tend to notice in excellent games, because minor problems there are so much more noticable than in games which are generally poor throughout. Like I say, I've not even scratched the surface yet. Can't wait to get to the City - the addition of a hub system to the Thief universe is massively appealing. Been looking forwards to this game for so long and, right now, it's not failed to live up to my expectations. |
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