Dev Game Club inspired me to re-play
Thief. This was my first expert difficulty playthrough. It adds objectives, changes the levels slightly (moves loot, closes secret exits, etc), fails you when you kill people (humans, anyway) and has semi-strict loot requirements. The latter is thematically appropriate and I enjoy it for the most part, as I naturally want to explore levels fully, but it's a double sided blade. I did not attempt to ghost it this time, opting to just knock out guards with difficult patrol patterns.
Constantine's mansion is still pretty loopy, but it's always been a gimmick and I actually had a lot of trouble finding one of the sub-objectives (incriminating evidence). The doors which can only be opened upon a revisit later in the game didn't help matters.
Expert difficulty bit me really hard on the first visit to the cathedral. Every bit of loot is both worth very little and hidden in an obscure places. The frustration from having to repeatedly scour every pixel of the level completely spoiled the atmosphere, too.
Speaking of atmosphere, the cathedral proper is not nearly as scary as I remember it being; the entire game isn't, really. Maybe I've changed? I also completely forgot that you have to do a fetch quest for a ghost there. A welcome surprise, had I brought enough stuff to deal with all the zombies on the way.
Their moaning actually drowned out a bit of dialog at one point, forcing me to reload a save. And really, a sword ought to be able to dismember them just fine. >:|
Allying with the Hammerites as you hurtle towards the conclusion was really well done. Finding the temple you've ransacked a couple missions before ruined, talking to the remnants of the order through a hole in the wall to get your instructions as they're attacked by the Trickster's creatures. Mh! Downright modern.
However, the final task, duping a god - in his own realm, at that - was too easily accomplished. The way it plays out sells both Garrett and the Trickster short, as you perform a simple swap behind his back ("robbing a god", my ass; a misnomer, anyway).
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Started
Thief 2 yesterday, which I have played once before, but don't remember much about at all. There will be mechanized guards and I vaguely remember the finale, but naught else.
+ Unobstructed view of an entire building, a rarity in Thief 1. (2nd level starts out similarly. "Look, skybox!")
++ Still commited to expert difficulty, and was soon impressed by how well the loot was hidden. I can see this becoming frustrating, but for now: me like.
- You can accidentally kill guards with your blackjack. Intent: maintain the fantasy, even if there's just one guard left to knock out and can freely chase them around the level? Solution: savescum. :I
- Loot requirements can be more granular, e.g. such and such amount of the total has to be in gems, so you have to explore the best guarded and hidden places. Completely redundant. You won't even meet the total if you don't find any of the hidden compartments containing gems, so why expand the requirement? Change for change's sake?
+ Cleverly constricted parts of the starting level teach you mechanics without prompts or instructions from a ghostly voice (as was the case in the first game's tutorial).
- Not so cleverly constricted parts, like an extremely short patrol pattern, when the better and more definitive alternative: the guard standing still, had been used in the level already.
+ Guard conversation that is relevant to what's happening, rather than idly channeling a geriatric patient mumbling about how they've not got their dinner yet. Hope this continues.
+++ Garrett waltzing into a mostly electrically lit mansion with more water arrows than he's ever had in any Thief 1 level. D'aw.