One of the most successful games, as I view them, was Thief. It was different, fun and tried to take on things that were overlooked by its rivals. Thief 2 has the distinction of following such a great piece of work. That can go both ways. It can have an easy ride, or it can have the albatross of the first version constantly leaning on its neck. How will Thief 2 do in such a situation?
Thief 2 takes you back to the same character (Garrett) but a little later on in history. The industrial age has just begun and machines and electrical lighting are becoming prevalent. Thief 2 did a good job setting up the new story without disrespecting the old. In fact, it even had little tidbits of enjoyment for the people who played the first version that someone new wouldn't catch.
The new world of machines also ushered in new challenges for a thief. You can't use a water error to put out an electric light. So, you sneak around using new ideas, mixed with some old to try to achieve your mission.
The game itself is set very close to the original. You go on a variety of missions. Each mission is still built on what was done on the last mission. I think this was a smart idea because both the purchasing of weapons and just the overall plot wouldn't have gained anything by changing this system. They probably even had more missions than last time, although I did not count.
The way they introduced variety was in trying to put different constraints on the missions. One of the missions that I had more fun with was trying to get across town via rooftops alone. Don't worry if you haven't played this, this is not a game that requires a lot of manual dexterity and its application on the keyboard. The "jumping" part was not the fun part. It just happens that many people are on the roof tops and you just can't run and jump and expect not to be heard. After all, the sneaking is the key to this game.
I think that if there was a problem with the missions, was that there were not enough different scenarios or constraints. When you have a lot of missions to go on, you also have the burden of not being repetitive. Only a few select games can stand on game play alone. Thief 2 is about the closest to the line without surpassing it.
The repetitive scenarios would then lead to impatience. When impatience comes, you are no longer a good thief. I ended up super-multiple saving and reloading after I was killed, which was often and grossly too much. So, essentially, I just wanted to get to the next mission instead of enjoying the current.
The story was good. It did not live up to the first Thief mostly because the evil character was not as strong. It also did not leave as much mystery as the first. Although, they put quite a few nice twists and turns so that you won't be dissatisfied. Its largest flaw might have been that it will leave you a little hanging at the end. Ah well, I guess they have to get you back for the next sequel.
As far as the more tangible evaluatables, it had both good and bad. The sound was near excellent. You just can't make a game like this without meticulously choosing sounds. The soundtrack was great as well. The only thing that kept it from true excellence was a couple of volume flubs. In walking on a couple types of materials, my speakers did not give off much in terms of volume. However, the guards or thugs or whoever were quickly alerted. This really shouldn't have happened. In a game where you rely on every sound you make, the feedback loop should be strongly in place.
They said that the graphics engine was improved, but I didn't see any great difference. They still used a lot of dark scenery (not just for sneaking) to obviously hide some of the seams and differences in the resolutions where skins met. The scenery itself was not all that changing. It became a boring visual in a few spots.
I think that there were some strong forwards in the AI department. Monsters seemed to learn what works and what didn't. They were not predictable in their movement. Sometimes, you'd see a monster go in a circle, and the second time it would go in a semicircle, stop and reverse. Even on reloads, you weren't assured that the monster would take the same path.
Overall, I still liked the game quite a bit. They had large spaces to move to prevent linear progression and did well in the sound, story, AI and challenge level. However, I did not like it as much as the original. However, that is a tough scale to weigh yourself.
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