1, 2, Deadly Shadows, or Dark Mod?

[sinkheadhxc]

i'm new to the series, as much as i hate to say it. the stealth genre is my favorite style of gameplay, period. MGS, Dishonored, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, Tenchu... you name it, i've probably played it and love it.... EXCEPT THIEF!

i feel that, being a newcomer, the original 2 may just be too outdated. though i'm on a bit of an "old school" kick, if you will, having just beaten Return to Castle Wolfenstein for the first time since its release (holy god that game is good), the original Deus Ex (nuf said), and Half-Life (which holds up better than anything i've played from the lat 90's). if either of the 2 originals will please me like these classics, then i will consider them more. 2 is very tempting after hearing the praises for years.

the reason i bring up DS and DM are because they'll obviously be easier to slip into. DS gets most of its praise due to The Cradle, and Dark Mod, wel... i just don't know much about other than the aesthetics of it look incredible and its supposed to keep the gameplay pretty deep. definitely my cup of tea.

as far as the upcoming title goes, it looks fantastic and i do plan on playing it either way, but i have a bad feeling it will just be another Deus Ex:HR/Dishonored/Bioshock clone. i hope its not, but it seems this way.

so what are your recommendations, stealth fans? keep feeding my classics addiction and go up to bat with 1 and/or 2, trudge my way through DS and experience the demigod essence of what is one of the greatest levels ever created: The Cradle, or hop into the DM?

[pannicatack]

I haven't played the Dark Mod, but the first two games are great. They have tons of great levels - The Sword, Song of the Caverns, Shipping and Handling, Life of the Party… the second is probably the best on account of the level design, but both games have huge maps with lots of exploration. Deadly Shadows… not so much. The engine limitations made the maps much smaller and broken up by loading screens, and depending on your system they might cause you to minimize the game entirely (at least, they did for me).

I'd say just start with 1 and 2.

[sinkheadhxc]

Originally posted by pannicatack:

I haven't played the Dark Mod, but the first two games are great. They have tons of great levels - The Sword, Song of the Caverns, Shipping and Handling, Life of the Party… the second is probably the best on account of the level design, but both games have huge maps with lots of exploration. Deadly Shadows… not so much. The engine limitations made the maps much smaller and broken up by loading screens, and depending on your system they might cause you to minimize the game entirely (at least, they did for me).

I'd say just start with 1 and 2.

i have an SSD so loading times probably wouldn't be too big of a deal... but it'd probably still urk me a bit.

if the level design is better in the first two then i'm considering going for 2.

[76]

T2 was the best, its dated but still amazing.

I have no faith in this new 'thief' typical devs of today remember nothing of what made their series great to begin with.

[coeseta]

1 and 2. The Dark Mod is also really nice after finishing the first two games ^^
Deadly Shadows was not that good, but I liked the Asylum level.

[Lannik]

Thief 1 & 2 are great plays.2/Metal age Is by far the best in the series. Deadly Shadows is mediocre at best that has you constantly retracing your steps re-looting the same areas thus IMO shooting itsself in the foot. Dark Mod is ok, some missions are great some not so much a mixed bag really. Dark mod is worth getting if you already own doom 3 or see it on steam sale.

[BuckleBean]

Dark mod is stand alone now and totally free. Don't need Doom 3. May as well give it a go: http://www.thedarkmod.com/main/

[Wrapping_sum]

Dark mod: absolutely recommended. But play thru all thief -games also. With dark loader you can get fan made missions that exceed the original missions and give lots of play hours more. If nothing else then play " Seven shades of Mercury " w/ dark loader ( http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126831 ) damn good fan mission to T2. There is also T2X which is also stand alone but goes into different story in Thief setting. Rusty and out dated also, but still damn good one.

[Wrapping_sum]

Also, worth to note that, just recently a new HD-texture pack was released to TG and is available now and works 100%. This will bring classic thief to this century.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-gold-hd-texture-mod

[Aldarith]

If you want a good Thief experience I HIGHLY reccomend the following.

Go to GOG.com and type "Thief" in the search field.
Pick "Thief:Gold" and add it to cart.
Purchase that version , download and install.
Go to www.thief-thecircle.com, click "Fan missions"
Click "Darkloader", download and install.
Go back to the fanmissions page and enjoy 1000+ hours of custom thief missions!

Good old Games will give you a version of the Original Thief with community updates for modern systems, as well as the soundtrack and other awesome bonus content. It's way more worth the 9.99 than the steam version.