How to scare Jon
Merkaba
Digital Harmony Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 22Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester
Digital Harmony Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 22Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Thief (mild thief level-spoilers)</div>[Edit]My name is Jon, btw. Hi![/edit]
I'm playing through Thief again and am currently sneaking around the infamous Return To The Cathedral level. I decided to record a portion of me playing in audio-form so that others can get an idea of what playing Thief can be like. Without the visuals it's perhaps nto quite so scary; hearing some sudden haunting laughter isn't the same when you don't know that its coming from a 7ft skeleton in period guard costume with a sword that is RIGHT behind the door you just opened.
<a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/thief.mp3" target="_blank">Recorded with Audacity's "What 'U Hear" mode</a> - 4.3Mbs
A little commentary to go along with the mp3:
The cathedral is in the abandoned part of the City - abandoned because it is rife with undead and haunted like anything. I am being paid much much money by a Mr. Constantine to steal a gem known as 'The Eye' - what it is exactly is not known, Garrett (the player's character) isn't one to ask such questions if the price is right.
I have already entered the cathedral in this recording.
I start off in the rafters of the cathedral, sneaking across wooden beams that stretch high above the floor below, which has zombies and 'haunts' (the skeleton dudes) prowling around. There are some little rooms up high that I am going through. Soon after passing the cathedral bell room (you'll hear it), I drop down to the 2nd floor and unlock a door into a room that provides access to the Eye, which is my goal for the map (ironically, although my objectives are "Steal the eye" and "leave the cathedral", I've probably got an hour of gameplay before I can safely go to the next level). As soon as I take the eye, suddenly everybody knows I'm there and you should hear things get a little more heated.
The Eye speaks to me as I take it, and then I leave the room and fire a rope arrow up at the wooden beam I was crossing earlier, as I am very vunerable to attack down below. I work my way around the perimiter of the cathedral again, back to the other side...at points you can hear a poltergeist who has joined the hunting party.
At some point I goof up (just after I go into the menu screen which is a small period of a low tonal hum); I drop down back to the 2nd level and find myself staring into the skeletal face of a haunt who starts laughing - and I very speedily turn around and fire a rope arrow at the beam above to get back up again to safety. Haunts can kill you in about 2 seconds if you give them a chance - my immedate reaction as soon as one sees me is to just turn and RUN. A poltergeist also seems to notice me, either because I was visible or because he noticed that someone else had spotted me. Anyway, he fires clusters of smoking skulls in my direction; one of them hits me, most of them hit the wall and I rest in a doorway out of sight for a moment. When all seems clear again (the haunt at this point is running up some stairs to meet me at the doorway I'm hiding in - the AI is very clever), I climb back down my rope I left hanging there and pick up some gold I saw laying on the 2nd floor, then climb back up again, open the door and get a brief shock as the haunt is standing there waiting for me. Luckily, he can't cross the wooden beams so I quickly stepped backwards.
I stopped recording soon after that.
I hope you enjoy it, I really think Thief is an amazing game to listen to, owing largely to the awesome sound and that there isn't many periods of action cluttering the soundwaves (can you imagine just listening to Quake2 or Doom3? I think it would get very tedious very quickly.)
Just to clarify, this is Thief 1, aka, Thief: The Dark Project released in 1998.
I'm playing through Thief again and am currently sneaking around the infamous Return To The Cathedral level. I decided to record a portion of me playing in audio-form so that others can get an idea of what playing Thief can be like. Without the visuals it's perhaps nto quite so scary; hearing some sudden haunting laughter isn't the same when you don't know that its coming from a 7ft skeleton in period guard costume with a sword that is RIGHT behind the door you just opened.
<a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/thief.mp3" target="_blank">Recorded with Audacity's "What 'U Hear" mode</a> - 4.3Mbs
A little commentary to go along with the mp3:
The cathedral is in the abandoned part of the City - abandoned because it is rife with undead and haunted like anything. I am being paid much much money by a Mr. Constantine to steal a gem known as 'The Eye' - what it is exactly is not known, Garrett (the player's character) isn't one to ask such questions if the price is right.
I have already entered the cathedral in this recording.
I start off in the rafters of the cathedral, sneaking across wooden beams that stretch high above the floor below, which has zombies and 'haunts' (the skeleton dudes) prowling around. There are some little rooms up high that I am going through. Soon after passing the cathedral bell room (you'll hear it), I drop down to the 2nd floor and unlock a door into a room that provides access to the Eye, which is my goal for the map (ironically, although my objectives are "Steal the eye" and "leave the cathedral", I've probably got an hour of gameplay before I can safely go to the next level). As soon as I take the eye, suddenly everybody knows I'm there and you should hear things get a little more heated.
The Eye speaks to me as I take it, and then I leave the room and fire a rope arrow up at the wooden beam I was crossing earlier, as I am very vunerable to attack down below. I work my way around the perimiter of the cathedral again, back to the other side...at points you can hear a poltergeist who has joined the hunting party.
At some point I goof up (just after I go into the menu screen which is a small period of a low tonal hum); I drop down back to the 2nd level and find myself staring into the skeletal face of a haunt who starts laughing - and I very speedily turn around and fire a rope arrow at the beam above to get back up again to safety. Haunts can kill you in about 2 seconds if you give them a chance - my immedate reaction as soon as one sees me is to just turn and RUN. A poltergeist also seems to notice me, either because I was visible or because he noticed that someone else had spotted me. Anyway, he fires clusters of smoking skulls in my direction; one of them hits me, most of them hit the wall and I rest in a doorway out of sight for a moment. When all seems clear again (the haunt at this point is running up some stairs to meet me at the doorway I'm hiding in - the AI is very clever), I climb back down my rope I left hanging there and pick up some gold I saw laying on the 2nd floor, then climb back up again, open the door and get a brief shock as the haunt is standing there waiting for me. Luckily, he can't cross the wooden beams so I quickly stepped backwards.
I stopped recording soon after that.
I hope you enjoy it, I really think Thief is an amazing game to listen to, owing largely to the awesome sound and that there isn't many periods of action cluttering the soundwaves (can you imagine just listening to Quake2 or Doom3? I think it would get very tedious very quickly.)
Just to clarify, this is Thief 1, aka, Thief: The Dark Project released in 1998.
Comments
I know at the very least I'll play the Thief 3 because of all the spoiler-free high praise I hear for a certain near-endgame mission. But is the series worth jumping back into from an earlier point? Back where I left off on Thief 1? Beginning of Thief 2?
If you wonder what I mean by magic, I guess I mean virtual things that make you feel emotion. Thief has lots of emotional moments whether observed or participated in, be it killing Lord Bafford's pet Burricks just to see if they're protecting gold (I felt really sad doing that <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> especially when I found out there was no point lol), stealing something that you've only just previously read about has great personal value to someone, or helping the ghost of a departed Hammerite monk leave the material world and rest in peace. Or else there's the satisfaction of stealing an extremely expensive flute from a woman who treats people who are of value to her like saints and those who she doesn't care about like vermin ("I don't care how many men you lose, I want every last spider in the sewers killed or else I shall find someone more capable of doing it!"~ Thief Gold: Song of the Caverns mission ~ Lady Valerius, owner of the Opera House).
Simply don't play it on expert if you want to kill people! In fact, it's more fun to play it on medium or easy and the replay it again on expert. In expert mode, you are -forced- to explore the whole of a map to complete all the objectives. In medium and easy mode, you can still explore teh whole map and get the goodies but it's not required. The maps are HUGE. Really H-U-G-E. It took me perhaps 3 full games of playing Thief to visit every area in the game, and I'm still finding gold I never noticed before on what must be my 7th time playing it now. Also, the enemy placement is different in Expert so by playing it on that mode straight away you are missing out on the fun moments when you suddenly realise there's an extra guard on patrol, or the object you need has moved to a different place <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
The game certainly has its bugs and annoyances, but if you can look past that and just play the game regardless then you should find that its positive aspects outweigh its negatives a hundred fold. I personally have a deep love for the game, and it will always be one of my favourite games ever made.
The Undead are extremely good at spotting you if you're in darkness, but ONLY if you've already alerted them to your presence. If you haven't jostled them at all then you can quite happily stay in total darkness just inches away from an undead and it won't pay any attention. If it's looking for you, you're best off running to a safe place where they can't get you, or else just very far away.
But I will concede that the game is not polished by a long shot. I frequently die by silly things like not being able to climb up ledges from a certain angle and so dropping to my death, leaning too far around a corner so that by some weird glitch my view snaps back to normal and kills me in the process (that happens if you lean around a corner from behind a thin wall, and then you can turn the view near 360 degrees and still be looking on the other side of the wall...but it kills you), being stuck behind doors once I unlock them, simply not being able to climb ledges in some situations (generally when I am trying to do it to save my life, ironically!). It's a very odd game engine, but so very unique at the same time.
But if you're up to, say, level 4 and you don't feel inclined to go any farther due to bugs then perhaps the game isn't for you. Still, the game just gets better as it goes on, and the plot and story become extremely important to the levels and ambience. The first lot of missions are generally just to get a feel for the game and the character, but he gets drawn into the plot around mission 6, which continues to mission 15 (last one).
Oh, and you shouldn't have lost a mission from drowning a soldier! Perhaps its just a bug that's fixed in Thief: Gold, but its only if you are directly responsible for the death of someone that you get punished. If they chase you into water and drown, thats their problem not yours. HOWEVER, if you knock someone out and then throw them into water, THEN you get punished for it.
I've never played any of the Theif games, but I'm <u>amazed</u> at the quality of this game sound. I'm huge scaredy cat, and I think I would have quit the game out of sheer terror after I got the eye.
I'm actually looking foward to possibly starting a career in Sound Design, so this definitely captures my interest a lot.
The zombies are the most obvious, they grunt and wheeze.
The haunts make rattling chain sounds as they walk about. Stirring them makes them start emanating haunting voices, getting visibly noticed by them makes them laugh hauntingly (whilst they run at you VERY quickly).
The poltergeists generally talk backwards and seem to have montage of various voices at times. Generally they speak gibberish.
At points, particuarly right at the beginning of the mp3, the player triggers some sounds that are there to punctuate to entrance into a room. Listen out for the mystical sounding intakes of breath at the start - they're played as you exit the small rooms at the top of the cathedral and enter the wide open chamber in the middle.
Doors block sound, which is why at points you'll suddenly hear things get a lot louder - a door has opened, and all the sounds in the adjacent room are much more audible.
I also believe that sound tends to come more from openings such as doorways than directly through walls, simulating a brick walls effect on muffling sound. For example, you could be in a room facing a wall and hear someone on the other side of the wall walking in your right speaker, yet they are actually to the left of you - they are simply being heard in the right speaker because the door is open to your right, so sound travels more easily through it. In Thief 2, you can lean against closed doors to hear what's going on on the other side.
I encounter the same problems in every one: I'm a perfectionist and have to find everything or almost everything, and just standing still in hiding, waiting for every single guard to get into a good knock-out position, eventually bored me to tears <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
but I do love the mood and style of the games. wish I could bring myself to finish em.
The only thief game I've played is 3, and I loved it, but lost interest when I lent my Xbox out to a friend for the holidays.
I almost whizzed myself on the second level :*(
I almost whizzed myself on the second level :*(
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<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> *groans and grunts* euuahhHHHHhghhh!
I'm too much of a rambo so I didn't finish the game the proper way.
The ambiance or whatever you call it is the best in those games, spooky/magical.
I can still remember me stirring one of the guards, so he goes wandering around looking for me while saying 'show yourself!' and I thinking 'hell no' x-D
<a href="http://www.reflex-studio.com/soundeffects/sfx-sci-fi-demo.mp3" target="_blank">Clicky</a>
And no cheating!
If you can tell me what video game these sound effects come from, I will be pretty impressed.
<a href="http://www.reflex-studio.com/soundeffects/sfx-sci-fi-demo.mp3" target="_blank">Clicky</a>
And no cheating!
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Aquanauts, or whatever?
Sounds pretty familiar to that old game.
AquaNox is, to this day, one of my favorite scifi shooters. I'll never uninstall it.
Killing the haunts was not, I repeat, not fun. Satisfying, mind.
Go go go flash bombs <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />. I finished T1 some months ago, after having played it once and stopped due to sheer terror playing the cathedral. I swear I didn't make it past the front courtyard doors. I had to CHANGE THE HAUNT TEXTURES TO PLAY IT because I'm absolutely scared by skulls. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> Finished all three thiefs two or three times though, even on expert.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> (kinda like that?)
<a href="http://www.justadventure.com/reviews/Thief/v33dkf02.jpg" target="_blank">Original Image</a>
Screenshot is from the level I was on at the start of this thread. The door I unlocked is the 2nd one down on the right.
[edit]
I uploaded some .wav files from the Thief sound package also, grab them <a href="http://www.archwolf.net/merkaba/thief" target="_blank">here</a>. (My favourite is HM3A0MU2.WAV <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />)
Sorry for the lack of proper names, I just uploaded them as-is. Some of them are funny, some of them are freaky. I can upload more if people like.
If you are using firefox, i HIGHLY recommend opening these sounds in IE instead, or else downloading them then listening. Firefox seems to have a bug where it doesn't play the first second of a wav, so if you're serious about listening to these, use IE.
"HH1..." = 'Hammer Haunt' (Pictured above)
"HM3..." = One of the hammerites.
"HMT1..." = Raoul. He's only in Thief Gold, and is a hermit who lives beneath the Opera House. He used to own the OH but Lady Valerius took it from him. <3 these sounds.
"LO5" = One of 5 of a set. Background ambient sound played in Constantines mansion, very strange.
"LVMOULD1" = Simple lever pulling sound.
"M05LOOP..." = Examples of the wonderful style of Thief's in-level 'music' (basically tonal ambience). Best heard looped, but you'll get the idea.
"MURROS1" = Previously mentioned ghost! He's very friendly, one of the few friendly people you come across in Thief in fact.
"OP1..." = Another sound from the Opera House level (Thief Gold). This wav is a good example of how the themes of Thief are brought forward to the player(Man vs nature). In-game, it's part of an overheard conversation.
"PR1A3__1" = Prisoner at Cragscleft Prison. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
"RUMBLE2" = Background ambience in the Lost City level.
"hm1..." = Hammerite. They tend to say things like this as they wander about.
"hm2..." = Another hammerite. One of these is him just reading more scripture, the other is of him noticing something is missing.
"sg1..." = Guard shouting "After him!"
"zm2a0..." = zombie groaning.
I keep hearing such great things about the Thief series, I was a huge fan of System Shock 2, and I still have my discs for Thief 2...but I remember being very frustrated in Thief 1 by things like "Difficulty setting I chose won't allow me to kill people and I'm failing because this one stupid guard is committing suicide by drowning to chase my last known location" or "These undead seem to have wallhacks & see/smell me no matter where I am." I never progressed more than 1/3 or 1/4 through the 1st game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You are exactly like me then Marik, I did not like the over-use of undead in the first game and there are muchhhhhh less of them in the second game (like seriously, hardly any). I thought this worked out much better and I enjoyed Thief 2 a lot more than I did thief. Also, on expert difficulty you are not allowed to kill anyone, but you can on lower difficulties. Expert is meant to be a challenge and one of the ways it ensures that is by removing your ability to kill people.
Garrett is not an assassin, he's a thief, which is why he doesn't really kill people.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I know at the very least I'll play the Thief 3 because of all the spoiler-free high praise I hear for a certain near-endgame mission. But is the series worth jumping back into from an earlier point? Back where I left off on Thief 1? Beginning of Thief 2?
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Beginning of thief 2 would be fine, though I suggest giving the first game another go. But if the undead truly annoy you that much, don't bother with it and go to the second. There are only 2-3 'wierd' levels in the second.
Thief 3 is an alright game, but the tiny levels, less area to explore and less well thought out mechanics do degrade the game.
The level you hear so much about though is <b>absolute genius</b> and is worth the price of admission by itself.
I would recommend Thief 1 a shot again. Then Thief 2. Then Thief 3, or Thief 3 first to get it out of the way (or else you will likely feel disappointed). While Thief 1 does have a lot of undead, it's important to realise that you don't HAVE to kill them. Personally, I spend most of my energy avoiding the undead rather than killing them, as I spend most of my time avoiding guards rather than knocking them out. It's just no fun if you're running about a map and everyone is 'sleeping', and it's satisfying to think that you've completely stripped a place of everything of value without anyone knowing!
It's what you make of the game. If you want to kill undead, go ahead...but then don't complain that the game is too action compared to the others. There are very very few instances where it is necessary to kill undead ([edit]actually, I concede that later in the game a fair bit of spider killing is required unless you don't mind not being able to hang around in an area for very long[/edit]. The lack of the undead in Thief2 saddened me, and it gives the game a very different vibe - it's much more moulded to the sneak style gameplay, whereas Thief 1 is more raw and do-what-you-will style gameplay. But the rawness is what I think makes the game so great - somehow there are all these factors in the game working against each other, and it just <i>works</i>. Plus, there is some incredibly imaginative level design in Thief 1 that for the most part isn't present in Thief 2 or Thief 3.
I'll always say that Thief1 is the better game, because it is the scariest, most diverse, and most imaginative of the 3, with the best cutscenes and plot also. The pagans in Thief 3 SUCK. I just wanted to mention my opinion on that. S-u-c-k....they are mysterious and seemingly quite cool in the first two games; and then they introduce them as proper characters in Thief 3 and totally botch it by making them stupid sounding muppets with the mysticism of a crusty sock. ARG...my favourite characters, ruined.