What is the point of zombies?

[myhihi1]

I'm only a few missions into the game but every time there's a mission with zombies it never seems worth it to kill them because they walk so slow. What is the point of having them there if they're barely a threat to me? I did this crypt mission and even with tons of zombies surrounding me I could always run around them.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

They're not meant to be an immediate danger. They're more made for you to just stay on your toes and keep aware of your surroundings. They're also to make these types of missions not so empty. They can also block your way a bit and with a few in a tight area they can become an issue. They're also an atmospheric thing and to add t o the world and lore of Thief.

You're not meant to kill or knock out everything you see by the way. The zombies are made to be a nuisance without the right equipment for a reason.

[zero]

It's supposed to be spooky.
What Wizzin' 'N' Jizzin' said is true, though. Their main purpose is to take your time and leave you always trying to be on move, which makes it possible for you to miss small details. You won't have enough time to look around a room where zombies are moving towards you, so you just want to quickly have a glance and leave/take whatever you find. I think it's an interesting mechanic. Plus, as Garrett, everyone is barely a threat. You're not supposed to get in combat with zombies or humans or rats. You're just a thief.

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by Ozzy:

It's supposed to be spooky.
What Wizzin' 'N' Jizzin' said is true, though. Their main purpose is to take your time and leave you always trying to be on move, which makes it possible for you to miss small details. You won't have enough time to look around a room where zombies are moving towards you, so you just want to quickly have a glance and leave/take whatever you find. I think it's an interesting mechanic. Plus, as Garrett, everyone is barely a threat. You're not supposed to get in combat with zombies or humans or rats. You're just a thief.

Precisely. I've seen a few posts even on the Steam forums, so recent, about how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spooky the zombies are to the point that it's actually scary so I guess there's that too. I'm sure they would've been a hell of a lot creepier back in the day.

[jle30303]

Although, even on Expert difficulty, you *are* allowed to kill zombies if you have the capability - you're not allowed to kill living people, but you can kill zombies. Not that it's easy: you will need holy water (to make your water arrows into holy water arrows) or fire arrows, or flash bombs if you want an area effect. Of course, in the Cragscleft Prison mission, you only have water arrows and the holy water font, and a couple of holy water potions - and not many water arrows, and you'll need some for torches.

(One thing you can also do is hack zombies down with your sword, then they fall "dormant" and only require one holy water arrow instead of two or more to kill as long as you don't move close enough to wake them up again. Even on Expert, zombies can be beaten in a sword fight, though you'll stand no chance against a Hammerite.)

It seems like there are too many zombies in the Bonehoard quest - but they can also be led to the "repeating fire arrow" trap and killed by that. It is actually possible to have enough resources to kill every undead creature on every difficulty, and that includes the "dormant" zombies who look like corpses. Given the trouble that the Hammerites have been having with zombies, I take it as I'm doing them a big favour if I manage to kill them all when breaking in and out of Cragscleft Prison, even though I also loot all their loot and release their prisoners...

The other undeads fall without too much difficulty, you can kill a Hammer Haunt with a single successful backstab if you're undetected, and the Spectral Spirit requires a backstab and one or two more strikes but you can take it out if you're quick enough. All can also fall to flashbombs.
In fact, the only mission where you really can't kill every non-human enemy (due to a never-ending respawning supply) is the final one.

All of which is very good: no matter whether I'm killing, blackjacking or avoiding human enemies, I object to leaving the undead still alive behind me...

[Xautos]

if i were you around Zombies? i would kite them all into a group, use a holy water vial on water arrows, two would be enough to take out a large group of a dozen zombies without much issue. you just need to be careful when kiting and finding the right place to be so they see you but can't get at you.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Trickster:

You don't need to kill zombies. A ton of hate for this game seems to come from the misconception that you need to kill/eliminate any enemies that aren't human.

best to deal with the threat for what it is worth rather than let it fester later on and you end up stuck in the middle of them even by accident. on higher difficulties, you just can't risk it, the less zombies out there the easier it will be to survive the few hits you can take

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by Xautos:

Originally posted by Trickster:

You don't need to kill zombies. A ton of hate for this game seems to come from the misconception that you need to kill/eliminate any enemies that aren't human.

best to deal with the threat for what it is worth rather than let it fester later on and you end up stuck in the middle of them even by accident. on higher difficulties, you just can't risk it, the less zombies out there the easier it will be to survive the few hits you can take

It's incredibly easy to avoid a zombies' attacks even when in very close range surrounded by them. Also a couple hits won't do much especially since besides burricks they're likely the only enemy to do any real damage to you without killing you outright. Zombies are total cakewalks.

[Xautos]

Great i'm talking to people who want to take enemies for granted. What next? reasons why one should stand in a burricks gas attack?

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by Xautos:

Great i'm talking to people who want to take enemies for granted. What next? reasons why one should stand in a burricks gas attack?

You’re quite simply, a total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron.

[dunbaratu]

The thing that makes zombies easy to run away from is NOT that they walk slow. It's that their rotting brains give them very short attention spans.

After they no longer have sight or hearing of you, they only persist in chasing the memory of where you were for a few seconds before they forget what they were doing and just walk away. This is most noticable when you aren't trying to run away from them but instead are actually trying to actually attract them to lead them somewhere. One of my favorite things to do is lead them into the fire trap room so the fire trap kills them for me without me having to spend the ammo. But I only do it to a few of the nearby ones, The farther away ones are too tiring to lead over to the trap with all their forgetfulness.

Contrast that with the living guards, who tend to have longer attention spans and be willing to chase you all across the map. Once you alert them, their notice *matters*. Zombies noticing you doesn't matter because they'll forget quite soon.

[Ithurtswhen_ipee]

Originally posted by The Godfather:

Originally posted by Ozzy:

It's supposed to be spooky.
What Wizzin' 'N' Jizzin' said is true, though. Their main purpose is to take your time and leave you always trying to be on move, which makes it possible for you to miss small details. You won't have enough time to look around a room where zombies are moving towards you, so you just want to quickly have a glance and leave/take whatever you find. I think it's an interesting mechanic. Plus, as Garrett, everyone is barely a threat. You're not supposed to get in combat with zombies or humans or rats. You're just a thief.

Precisely. I've seen a few posts even on the Steam forums, so recent, about how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spooky the zombies are to the point that it's actually scary so I guess there's that too. I'm sure they would've been a hell of a lot creepier back in the day.

Nah i played thief 2 and they still generally scared me AND creeped me out thereafter, and i only met two of them.

[dj onion sprout]

to appeal to the more modern cod audience i dont agree with the decision either :/

[Francisè von Spitroast]

Originally posted by raw yolked:

to appeal to the more modern cod audience i dont agree with the decision either :/

I hope this is tongue in cheek

[Hyron]

You should stay away from they, unless you have holy water they are literally immortals. And yes, they are slow, but for example, in the down in boneheard mission there are a looooot of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ zombies, and that could be a trouble

[psilocybe93]

Hey taffers,
Zombies are the result of the trickster.