Report 41: Post-pixelated Hack’n’Stealth
No wonder everyone was calling this soft-reboot a serious dissapointment. I took notes during my playthrough, so I’m sorry in advance that this review will look like a jumbled mess.
The plot clearly lacks some points that had to be made for it to make more sense. It’s just there most of the time. Maybe it was better explained through the various notes, but I’m not really a fan of that kind of narrative being essential to comprehend the game’s plot. Erin’s portrayal is really poorly done, making her look like a very annoying character all the time (at least that’s my own impression), which I’m pretty sure is not what they were going for.
Even though level design doesn’t seem that linear, it’s still essentially just a “choose path 1 or 2 to get from point A to point B”. Multi-layered levels with some room for manoeuvre are rare, and there’s no creativity involved whatsoever. Every possible solution is already presented to you, and you just have to use the right equipment or movements. While the same can be said about every game of Thief franchise, they still made it way less obvious. What I’m trying to say is leveldesign is pretty boring. Also, every puzzle in this game is so dumbed down it’s not funny.
They decided to further “improve” the idea of The City being a hub between missions, and it’s a pain in the ass to traverse back and forth all the time.
The way you control Garrett makes the actual “control” part pretty difficult sometimes. I’ve been hugging the corners instead of picking stuff lying nearby up and climbing on stuff instead of doing a swoop numerous times. Even though it’s all scripted pretty heavily, it still feels good to be running and jumping between the city’s rooftops/
Rope arrows make their comeback… and you can only use them in specific places. What’s the point? I remember how much fun I’ve had and how many crazy plans I came up with while using them in the first two games. Also, “"”choke””” arrows are almost useless now instead of being an instakill tool back then.
Devs really went out of their way to be as edgy and grimdark as possible. I have NO idea why would they scratch the series’ trademark “taffer” swearword and replaced with actual F-, S- and all the other -bombs. It sounds really weird, if not childish. I also sure wish I didn’t hear the same dialogues about piss, hangings, murders and prostitues over and over, sometimes not even a second after the dialogue was over. By “same” I don’t mean same-sounding dialogues, I mean, literally the SAME dialogues, over and over, when you’re going near some specific places in the city.
They still did a pretty solid job with the atmosphere here and there, but overall it didn’t leave a good impression. They also tried to do a trademark horror-ish level, but it wasn’t scary at all. Really dissapointed about that.
Also, the amount of annoying bugs is overwhelming.
It kinda looks weird that I gave it a 7 after all the rambling, right? The thing is, as a game on it’s own - it’s FINE. It plays good enough, the story and everything is manageable. Half of my criticism is coming from comparing the game to its’ predecessors, and in that case, the game really, really sucks imo. It was nothing completely deal-breaking, but after playing with it for a while I feel mostly dissapointed.
I finally got myself to play through the first game of the franchise.
I was surprised to find out that this game isn’t that big in scope (quests-wise), but that’s for the best I think. I’d have a much harder time exploring it from this new (at least for me) perspective if it was larger than that. Even then, I missed quite a lot of content (some of the quests were too much for me and it was just easier to go finish the game).
The game design part isn’t that as user-friendly as the later games, which is to be expected. There were a lot of not-so-obvious actions you could take to progress, which is cool, but I’m having mixed feelings about the fact you don’t know the possibility to do something is even there. There’s many things you can miss just because your one of your stats wasn’t high enough and the needed dialogue wouldn’t trigger. Some interface parts could use some improvement too.
I’ve heart a lot of good things about the second one, so I’m looking forward to try it after some time.
Overall, it was pretty decent (and pretty damn hard too) RPG.
This is a fun compilation of parody games published by Devolver. It’s just what you’d expect - a downgraded versions of the games mixed with other classic games’ styles. Even in their downgraded form, these are pretty fun to play.
This is a pretty lax title for achievement hunters, since you don’t have to complete most of the games for the achievements.
Overall, fun.
I just got to embrace the fact that I suck at oldschool games, I have no patience to get good at them, and I’m just examining them to get a feel of what gaming was like. One day I’ll find an old console game that I don’t suck at, but Golden Axe isn’t really that case, as you might’ve guessed already. Savescummed quite a bit and used a level select cheatcode.
Now with that out of the way, the game was pretty fun and action-packed. It was really annoying that you can’t hit your enemy if you’re not in the same row as him, and while AI knows exactly where to stand to hit, my precision wasn’t as good. I barely learned any special attacks, but it was really satisfying to grab your enemies and throw them off the cliffs.
Overall, it’s short, fun (if you like your fun hard)… cut’em-up? Blade’em-up?
Backlog progress status:
Oh nooooo! But Thief! Dx
Ok, I confess: I never even played the old games, bc I really don’t like old games and since I struggled a lot with the old Hitman games, I didn’t want to do the same with Thief, so I only ever played this one (and still hope there might be a next Thief game!). So I can’t compare it. I love it. Will love it. And def keep my ava xD
But interesting to read a review about it from someone who played the other games :3
Previous games (at least the first two) didn’t age quite well graphically, but their complex and massive levels were amazing. Thieves’ Guild from Thief Gold is so easy to get lost in it became a meme at this point, and Constantine’s Mansion is one of the most surreal experiences I’ve ever had in a videogame. All the horror levels (there was a fair share of ‘em) felt like a real adventure. If only this one had levels like this, It’d been a masterpiece, really.
I’m really not thaaaaaaaaat much into horror. And Thief was already… almost too much - ok, by the second (and third?) time it wasn’t, but first time round I know I freaked out a lot hide
Maybe I’ll… mhm.. have a look if there are let’s plays or something. I don’t think I want to do it, even if they are better. Ugh, maybe I should! I just doooon’t knooooow! runs away
Honestly, I won’t blame you if you can’t handle it. It took me a while and quite a lot of persistence to even get into it in the first place. And, as I said, the levels can be… really confusing. These games barely hold your hand and there’s not much linearity.
You’re safe to try Deadly Shadows if the first two aren’t good for you, though. It even looks pretty damn good for a 2004 game. I think you’ll be kinda confused by the whole Keepers thing that was established in the first games and further involved in the plot of this one, but it’s nothing too complicated.
Sounds good, I’ll check it out :3
I kinda maybe bought it right away, bc it was on discount on Fanatical xD
Heh, good for you.