Thief 2: The Metal Age vs Thief: The Dark Project

[RarlesCheed]

This is always a controversial debate, but I am just curious on what everyone's thoughts are. I perfer 2 ( obviously) for it's more open ended levels and noir like story. But i do think TDP has a better atmosphere and maybe a better story.

[JimmyExpress123]

There isn’t much to seperate them in my book, but I’m inclined more to Thief 2 because it’s a little more suited to my play-style, it allows for more creative exploration (such as jumping out of the map with a couple of crates and stacking your way back in further along), and it had a slightly more polished feel to it.
Thief 1 is really good, but I’ve found the controls clunky and inhibiting at times (if there are any fixes for this, I’m open to trying them).
I’ve played through them both enough to be comfortable with setting my base gold at 10000 and hitting CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+End on every second or third mission to play one I prefer more.

For me, a “best of” maps collection for both of these games would take those maps that have a focus on stealthy exploration (Bafford’s, Ramirez’s, Assassins, Ambush, Party, Casing, etc.) more than the straight thieving and what have you (Masks, Sabotage, Cragsleft, The Eye).

A final note on the finales of both: I don’t like either of them in their entirety. They’re fun to play, but they are kind of tedious in some ways. I’ve taken to sprinting to Constantin to kill him and stocking up on water arrows, fire arrows, flash bombs, flash mines, gas mines, and gas arrows for Sabotage and sprinting through that as much as possible.

TDS had a good story, level design, and open-world hub that I liked, but I felt it drifted into the Splinter Cell play-style a bit.

Thief (2014) has some good points, but there wasn’t really any point exploring. You might get a few more coins, but you wouldn’t find much else. The atmosphere was creepy for a little, but then it fell down when the level suddenly ends in a massive fight that just doesn’t work in the Thief context.

For me, rating all of them, Thief 1 and 2 are tied for first, TDS is second, and Thief (2014) comes in somewhere after The Dark Mod, Dishonoreds 1 and 2, a lot of DarkLoader-type missions and the first and third Splinter Cells.

[dprog1995]

First one is better.

The second one feels like an expansion that managed to make the gameplay more boring.(Since Zombies and spiders were much more fun that robots)

Also the first one is much less buggy. Thief 2 has ruined my progress in the last level.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1011566098702680119/A0466B9733D77D7B0FA5C37AC2614A85972FD7C1/

[RarlesCheed]

Escrito originalmente por dprog1995:

First one is better.

The second one feels like an expansion that managed to make the gameplay more boring.(Since Zombies and spiders were much more fun that robots)

Also the first one is much less buggy. Thief 2 has ruined my progress in the last level.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1011566098702680119/A0466B9733D77D7B0FA5C37AC2614A85972FD7C1/

Yeah I can't lie to you, Thief 2 does have an expansion feel to it, as there isn't a lot of added content to it. I don't think that equates to a bad game, as the fundamental mechanics of Thief are great. I partially agree with you on the enemy variety, there was a lot more of different types of enemies to deal with in 1. However, I personally don't think they were always used to the best of their abilities. I felt like the overabundance of the undead made some missions more tedious than challenging to sneak through, especially the random patrols where you had to wait God knows how long to find an opening. I liked what they did with the machines in Thief 2, as they are gradually introduced to you, and are used in a healthy amount throughout most levels. I'm sorry about your save progress tho :(

[RarlesCheed]

Also I personally think the spiders were almost utter bullsh!t to deal with, with their only gimmick with dealing with them is that they can somehow see out of their butts instead of their eyes.

[dprog1995]

Don't worry about the saves though. Someone in ttlg forums managed to fix my issue by removing the grate. :)

As for zombies, the main reason I loved them were these:

-Even if you choose to play at hardest difficulty, you can still kill them unlike Thief 2 where majority of the missions will game over you when you kill someone.(Excluding the final level which has barely any human enemies)

-The zombies and spiders made Geratt's ordinary arrows more useful than the way they are in 2.

-And finally, I get bored when I play the game full stealth all the time. Zombies and spiders add variety in the way you play the game.(I personally would either just ran away past zombies or blew them up to pieces.)

[RarlesCheed]

Escrito originalmente por dprog1995:

Don't worry about the saves though. Someone in ttlg forums managed to fix my issue by removing the grate. :)

As for zombies, the main reason I loved them were these:

-Even if you choose to play at hardest difficulty, you can still kill them unlike Thief 2 where majority of the missions will game over you when you kill someone.(Excluding the final level which has barely any human enemies)

-The zombies and spiders made Geratt's ordinary arrows more useful than the way they are in 2.

-And finally, I get bored when I play the game full stealth all the time. Zombies and spiders add variety in the way you play the game.(I personally would either just ran away past zombies or blew them up to pieces.)

Glad to hear you were able to fix your issue. I can get behind what you're saying, as for my first run through of Gold, I said "Screw stealth" halfway through the Lost City and just ran past most of the supernatural enemies. My subsequent playthroughs since then, I am able to ghost past them without so much as a peep. So with that being said, I do agree that the zombies and whatnot made you need to switch up tactics and use different tools. For Thief 2, I feel like you can still have alternative methods besides sneaking past the special enemies, it just takes a little bit more tactile. You can use water arrows to short out most of the bots. Or, if you are crafty enough, you can use their own weaponry against them. For example, if you position yourself in front of a pillar or wall the right way, you can get those big Iron Beasts to shoot into the pillar and causing them to explode themselves. Another cool thing I found out is that if you set off a turret, and you have guards chasing you, you can actually dodge the projectiles and they'll hit the guards instead. The best part is, it doesn't go against you and/or won't fail the "No kill" objective.

[DukeoftheAges]

Both are good and so similar? why even have this debate? Just enjoy both.

[RarlesCheed]

Escrito originalmente por DukeoftheAges:

Both are good and so similar? why even have this debate? Just enjoy both.

It's not even really a debate, I was just curious what other people's preferences were. It's interesting to see why people prefer one over the other DESPITE them being so similar.