Thief 2: The Metal Age

After approximately a year of playing Thief 2 (on and off, not constantly), I've reached the final level. It's an incredible game, and one that I'm certainly going to revisit.

To begin with I found Thief 2 incredibly hard to get in to - I think I started it about half a dozen times before even getting past the first level. It has an oddly sparse, angular graphical style which probably looks even odder and sparser when played on today's maximum resolution. That's not to say it doesn't look good though, and it certainly has its moments in terms of design.

But where Thief 2 really comes into its own is in the level design. The way I play Thief 2 is as follows, and explains why I've probably spent so long playing it: I start playing a level, and whilst doing so I think to myself "this is pretty boring, I don't actually like it all that much and there doesn't seem to be anything going on." So I stop playing.

Then, two or three days later I find myself thinking about the level, and the whole "I wonder what's around that next corner?" thing kicks in. So I boot up the game again, and start playing and I think to myself "Wow! This level's actually pretty good. Now what's down this path? Wow! A whole boat! And pirates too!" It's a game in which exploration and curiosity are an integral part of the gameplay.

The other thing that elevates Thief 2 to genius game status is the way it respects the player's intelligence. It's not an easy game to play by any means. Playing games is about learning how to "break" them; how to trick the AI, how to use levels to your advantage. Half-Life is an easy game to "break", it's accessible and never presents too much of a challenge. But Thief 2, on the other hand, excels at being very difficult, even on easier diffculty settings. It's indicative of a game that's obviously had a lot of care and attention poured into it, feeling more like the work of some nobel gamesmith working in an ancient forge than a team of programmers sat round workstations.

If Half-Life is the loud, photogenic hey-look-at-me offspring of Doom, Thief 2 is its smarter, moodier older brother. It doesn't immediately grab you in the way Half-Life does, it's less linear and less accessible and fairly uneven. But the stakes are so much higher, the rewards so much more fruitful, and as a whole it's a far more enjoyable experience.

Now I've moved on to System Shock 2, so expect a similar post this time next year...

Labels: Review

posted by Henry @ 2:56 pm