I just installed Thief: Gold for the first time

[Security_Tubbs]

It's just a stupid conceit. Enemies are already hard enough to dispense with if you're discovered, and running to the blessed fountain over and over fucking sucks. Stealth games got so much better almost instantaneously so while I appreciate what Thief is responsible for bringing to the industry, I'd rather admire it from arms' length than up close.

Smack them over the head with the ol' sword until they go down. They won't get up unless you go near the downed corpse. But yeah, (spoilers), Thief 1 is pretty heavily populated by zombies, so if they cause you grief then playing through the game would be quite miserable frequently. I wasn't a fan of them either and more often than not my encounters with them involved lots of sword swinging. I didn't even bother to sneak around them if there was only one or two of them. I realize this paragraph isn't very good when trying to defend a stealth game.

 

But I tolerated them, and I'm really really really glad I did, because overall the game really is fantastic.

[agorman]

So I just started playing Thief and absolutely love it. It took me a little bit to get into it, but last night had a fantastic experience and am really excited to keep playing it.

 

I was playing the second mission, the one where you have to sneak into the prison to break the guy out who owes you money...anyway I sneak through the whole thing, having to kill one or two guards to get through, since I alerted them, but generally being sneaky as hell in what was a pretty tense experience. Anyway, once I figure out I have to the officer's quarters to steal a note about treasure (I think(?) I'm not following/don't care about the story stuff all that much), I open all the prison doors and let the prisoners out to create a distraction. I sneak upstairs and get the note successfully, only having to take out one guard. Anyway I sneak back through to go down the prison, and am about to make it out, but when I get to the prison entrance, the alarm is going off, dead prisoners are strewn across the floor, and the guards, who are on high alert, immediately notice me and come charge me. I whacked each one with my sword to stagger them, and just started running for the mines to exit the level as fast as I could. I just sprinted past guards, not giving a fuck, slashing at people who got in my way. I must have had 8-10 guards behind me at one point, when I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end. I turn the corner, and boom...dead end. I turn around and all the guards just kill me immediately. 

 

So yeah, this game owns. That was one of the cooler video  game experiences I've had recently.

[sclpls]

Awesome, yeah, that's a really cool story! The game definitely harkens back to an era when level design was a little more... challenging to navigate around.