Mr.Reak
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- May 24, 2003
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Sorry for my poor english, but here it goes:
Well, as I said before, I pre-ordered new Thief game and it came to me today. Yay…
Before I start my first impressions, let’s see my comp specs:
2.5 Ghz intel P4
1024 of ram
ATIi 9500 pro with a latest drivers
Soundblaster 16 :/
Win XP
Okay, with that out of way, let’s share some moments.
Installed the game without any problems what so ever, maybe because of my new DVD-rom drive, which is fast, plus can also burn. Yay, nothing to burn though. Anyway, took about 7-10 minutes to install all three disks, which came in cool DVD case, with shiny manual. Icon appeared on my desktop, and my heart started to throb like crazy. I waited so many years for this game after all, so many years.
Anyway, menu is quite nice, but I still like the old one better, it was more steam-punked. In video options, I put everything oh high, expect AA/AS, but that’s because I don’t really care about this feature. Also turned Bloom off. So, without any delays, I started the game, off course there is a training mission, which is like Splinter Cell games, you go in one direction. Not biggie, already knew about it, at least while playing it, I got used to moving in first person view. Seeing your whole body is neat, additionally I tried out 3rd person view, didn’t really care for that, because I wanted to keep Thief feel. Anyway, graphics and art direction are beautiful, but there are still some low resolution textures here and there, but you don’t really pay attention to it, because of the shadows. I also love how Garrett casts his own shadow, very unusual to see something like that in FPS. Oh yeah, when I heard Garrett’s voice, something inside of me went crazy, and I started to scream like little girl. That voice alone makes this game a Thief game.
Well, training mission wasn’t anything special, finished it quite fast. After that we are treated with beautiful cut-scene in style of previous games. After that, it was first real mission. I might add, there are bunch of different ways to get inside of castle, it’s just fun. Took me about 2 hours to finish this mission, on expert (with reloads and everything). AI was pretty smart, much better than in old game, reacted to the torches and open doors, missing loot, etc. Game ran smooth btw.
Mission was split in two, but both chunks were pretty big, at least much bigger and more detailed than any Deus Ex 2 level. There were two transition points, it annoyed me a bit, but I already got used to it. Watch out for some secret places there
Now, City, levels between missions, are smaller, but still fun and go foot in foot with storyline. Plus if you explore enough, you will be rewarded.
Sound is great, at least as great it can be with soundblaster 16 + headphones. I love ambient sounds, and voiceovers are mostly good, expect for some annoying female characters. Seemed like actress tried too hard to emulate a specific accent.
Atmosphere is top notch too, feels like THIEF, and it’s the most important thing. I can’t really say anything more here, you need to try out for yourself. I am also on a second mission right now, so don’t ask anything about storyline.
Now some new “features”
-Loot glint, I thought I will hate it, but actually it is VERY usefull. It’s very hard to see in the dark the difference between junk and valuable stuff, so glint helps. And it shines every 5 seconds or so, and glint itself is very small, so it’s not like a damn lighthouse.
-Arrow-tails. That blue thing behind arrows, I have no idea why it is in the game. It’s annoying, but after hour of play, you stop noticing it. Then again, I didn’t use bow so much, only to take out some torches.
-Highlighting WITH LEET NEON BLUE. Annoying as ****, to see damn door being highlighted so bright, plus corpses too. No idea who made this decision, but it’s ugly and annoying. I hope someone will be able to turn it down.
-Physics are good, at least not like Deus Ex 2. To knock something out, like a box, in Deadly Shadows, you need to run pretty fast and bump into it. I never run in this game, so I never knocked anything out by mistake. Rag-doll physics, on another hand, are blah… People “break in half” so often.
-Due to body awareness, controls feels a bit sluggish, but you get used to that too.
Well, I can’t really think straight right now, playing for 3 hours in a dark, so I will add more impression later on.
But I must say, I’m lovin’ it (yay for McDonalds marketing campaign). Playing this game makes me one happy gamer. Shame some people have installing/graphic problems with TDS.
Well, as I said before, I pre-ordered new Thief game and it came to me today. Yay…
Before I start my first impressions, let’s see my comp specs:
2.5 Ghz intel P4
1024 of ram
ATIi 9500 pro with a latest drivers
Soundblaster 16 :/
Win XP
Okay, with that out of way, let’s share some moments.
Installed the game without any problems what so ever, maybe because of my new DVD-rom drive, which is fast, plus can also burn. Yay, nothing to burn though. Anyway, took about 7-10 minutes to install all three disks, which came in cool DVD case, with shiny manual. Icon appeared on my desktop, and my heart started to throb like crazy. I waited so many years for this game after all, so many years.
Anyway, menu is quite nice, but I still like the old one better, it was more steam-punked. In video options, I put everything oh high, expect AA/AS, but that’s because I don’t really care about this feature. Also turned Bloom off. So, without any delays, I started the game, off course there is a training mission, which is like Splinter Cell games, you go in one direction. Not biggie, already knew about it, at least while playing it, I got used to moving in first person view. Seeing your whole body is neat, additionally I tried out 3rd person view, didn’t really care for that, because I wanted to keep Thief feel. Anyway, graphics and art direction are beautiful, but there are still some low resolution textures here and there, but you don’t really pay attention to it, because of the shadows. I also love how Garrett casts his own shadow, very unusual to see something like that in FPS. Oh yeah, when I heard Garrett’s voice, something inside of me went crazy, and I started to scream like little girl. That voice alone makes this game a Thief game.
Well, training mission wasn’t anything special, finished it quite fast. After that we are treated with beautiful cut-scene in style of previous games. After that, it was first real mission. I might add, there are bunch of different ways to get inside of castle, it’s just fun. Took me about 2 hours to finish this mission, on expert (with reloads and everything). AI was pretty smart, much better than in old game, reacted to the torches and open doors, missing loot, etc. Game ran smooth btw.
Mission was split in two, but both chunks were pretty big, at least much bigger and more detailed than any Deus Ex 2 level. There were two transition points, it annoyed me a bit, but I already got used to it. Watch out for some secret places there
Now, City, levels between missions, are smaller, but still fun and go foot in foot with storyline. Plus if you explore enough, you will be rewarded. Sound is great, at least as great it can be with soundblaster 16 + headphones. I love ambient sounds, and voiceovers are mostly good, expect for some annoying female characters. Seemed like actress tried too hard to emulate a specific accent.
Atmosphere is top notch too, feels like THIEF, and it’s the most important thing. I can’t really say anything more here, you need to try out for yourself. I am also on a second mission right now, so don’t ask anything about storyline.
Now some new “features”
-Loot glint, I thought I will hate it, but actually it is VERY usefull. It’s very hard to see in the dark the difference between junk and valuable stuff, so glint helps. And it shines every 5 seconds or so, and glint itself is very small, so it’s not like a damn lighthouse.
-Arrow-tails. That blue thing behind arrows, I have no idea why it is in the game. It’s annoying, but after hour of play, you stop noticing it. Then again, I didn’t use bow so much, only to take out some torches.
-Highlighting WITH LEET NEON BLUE. Annoying as ****, to see damn door being highlighted so bright, plus corpses too. No idea who made this decision, but it’s ugly and annoying. I hope someone will be able to turn it down.
-Physics are good, at least not like Deus Ex 2. To knock something out, like a box, in Deadly Shadows, you need to run pretty fast and bump into it. I never run in this game, so I never knocked anything out by mistake. Rag-doll physics, on another hand, are blah… People “break in half” so often.
-Due to body awareness, controls feels a bit sluggish, but you get used to that too.
Well, I can’t really think straight right now, playing for 3 hours in a dark, so I will add more impression later on.
But I must say, I’m lovin’ it (yay for McDonalds marketing campaign). Playing this game makes me one happy gamer. Shame some people have installing/graphic problems with TDS.
