Is this game open world?

[TacticalFaux]

Unlike the other games it doesn't mention missions, but there is also no open world tag. The game right before it says "break into any house in the city". Again, no open world tag. I'd love to know of these 2 were open world, does anyone know?

[cyberwiz97]

Theif is comprised of 8 "chapters" (missions) and a City hub that you return to after completing each chapter. The City is sort of open world, in that there are various districts that are open to exploration, plus you have the ability to take on "Side Jobs" that take you to all the districts in the City. However, the individual chapters are, in most cases, fairly linear, with occassional alternative routes to reach the various waypoints.

[Pluft]

As I agree with cyberwiz97, I would add that "break into any house in the city" is far from the truth. You can surely explore several places and there are plenty of secret passages and other easter eggs to be found (I myself had a lot of fun exploring The City), but in no way you can call that 'open world' in the same sense as in other contemporary games.

[AngelOfMayhem]

People seem to like to think of this game as linear and limited. But I mean, what games are people referring to being so "open world"?
Most games limit what you can do a lot, until you have made enough progress and completed certain steps.
Thief isn't more limited than almost any other game, but is rather open to mess around a fair bit until you play the following chapter. That means you can upgrade a lot before you play the main story. You can be at maximum already after chapter 6. I also think it gives you a sense of freedom being able to replay chapters and client (Ector/Vittori/Bank Heist) jobs (not the Basso jobs, though, because they are a part of the City) as many times as you want.

Thief can even be confusing because you can walk around so much in the City so you can almost get lost, unless you use the waypoint marker (which I consider is for scrubs or lazy people).

[cyberwiz97]

Originally posted by AngelOfMayhem:

People seem to like to think of this game as linear and limited. But I mean, what games are people referring to being so "open world"?

Well, for one, "Fallout" is widely considered an "open world" game, which Thief clearly is not. And, even though the City is open-world-"ish", we still don't have the mobility typically associated with a true open world game. While the City is freely "open" to exploration and side-jobs, the overall game experience isn't what I would call open world, imo.

Originally posted by AngelOfMayhem:

Most games limit what you can do a lot, until you have made enough progress and completed certain steps. Thief isn't more limited than almost any other game

In the case of progress vs abilities/assets (powers, weapons, resources, loot, collectables), that's true. However, with regard to gameplay mechanics, I'm reluctant to agree. While I enjoyed the game immensly, the further I progressed, the more I felt I was being limited ... only a few specific places to jump to ... very limited vertical mobility (as opposed to games like Dishonored) ... in many cases, limited ability to back-track to previous maps ... and in more places than I'd like to see, I felt like I was being channelled through areas. Although, to be fair, I suppose there are a lot of games like that but, I'm not so sure that's true of "almost any other game." Maybe that's just splitting hairs but that's how it seemed to me. :/

Originally posted by AngelOfMayhem:

Thief can even be confusing because you can walk around so much in the City so you can almost get lost,

Almost? :D :D :D I got hopelessly lost so much during my first several playthroughs, especially on the City rooftops, where in-game maps are practically useless.