games like Thief?

[bvanevery]

I played Thief I and II. Tried the demo of Thief: Deadly Shadows on the PC today. Seemed like the same drill. Thought the graphics were really ugly compared to contemporary stuff, but that's not why I'm posting. I'm interested if any games have tried to do the "First Person Sneaker" thing to the degree that Thief did it?

Deus Ex 2 is often mentioned in regards to this, but from what I recall of the demo, it definitely wasn't as Thief as Thief. More like, it had some stealth elements in it, it wasn't the point of the game.

[ChrisP]

Thief is pretty much it, as far as I'm aware. Other games have stealth elements, but nothing quite as hardcore as Thief. This is perhaps one reason why there's still an active community (http://www.ttlg.com/) around the series. They've created lots of fan missions, so if you don't mind Thief's outdated graphics there's plenty of good content there to keep you interested.

Have you tried Splinter Cell? I haven't played it, but it seems like it would be the next best thing.

You may also be interested in this Thief-inspired mod for Doom 3 (http://www.thedarkmod.com/) (which I am involved in). While it hasn't been released yet, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on, in my (biased) opinion. :)

By the way, if you're looking at the Deus Ex series, I'd recommend the original over the sequel.

[soniCron]

Splinter Cell?

EDIT: Nevermind! Beat to the punch... ;) (And yeah, nothing beats the original Thief.)

[Sol_HSA]

Chronicles of Riddick has plenty of sneaky stuff, and even GTA:SA has some sneaking missions =)

[Polycount Productions]

Our Edoiki (http://www.edoiki.com) game ("under construction") will have stealth elements - but it's not "like thief" (and not FPS).

[Bad Sector]

Chronicles of Riddick has plenty of sneaky stuff

That's why it took me a little long to finish :D

The game ruled, btw. Shame that it was a little underappreciated by the mass media...

[Diragor]

The two closest games I can think of are Project IGI and the Hitman series. Neither is strictly a "sneaker" to the degree that Thief is, but both have several missions where stealth is very much required throughout, or at least strongly encouraged/rewarded.

[Fry Crayola]

I'd say that Chronicles of Riddick is the closest to Thief's gameplay, although it deviates wildly most of the time, there are periods of darkness-based first person stealth. The Deus Ex games can be played stealthily (they're best played that way, in my opinion) but don't come close to Thief.

Oh, and definitely stick with Deadly Shadows, which is really all you've got in the same vein. It contains one of the best levels of any game, ever, and it's worth persevering with for that alone. Helps that the rest of the game is good too, of course...

Moving way from the first person perspective, Splinter Cell is the closest thing. None of the other major stealth games make as good a use of darkness as Thief, Riddick or Splinter Cell, to my knowledge.

[bvanevery]

Played the Riddick demo. Seems like stealth is mostly about shooting lights out, then waiting in the darkness for the hapless sap to stick his nose out. Not as "hardcore" stealth as Thief, where you might sneak up in a brightly lit room, just to get behind 'em to whack 'em in the back of the head with a blackjack. I love blackjacking people.

Riddick had some other flaws. The thing I found unforgivable, is I'd shoot and shoot and shoot these guards at point blank range and THEY JUST WOULDN'T DIE. How friggin' inaccurate are these machine guns? Or how many friggin' hit points of body armor do these guards have? I've seen the movies, I know that there's no such thing as body armor that can stand up to these weapons. I felt decidedly un-awesome blasting at some guard for multiple tenths of a second trying to get him to go down. In the movies Riddick is quick. He's a super killer. I can't stand being made to feel like a clumsy oaf.

At first I thought maybe it was my laptop touch mouse control. Maybe it was too sloppy to aim, and I remember having a similar problem with BioShock. But I plugged a real mouse in, and I know I had the little red bead on my victims. They just don't die a lot of the time.

Fighting hand-to-hand didn't feel awesome either. I suppose this would only be disappointing for a seasoned Riddick fan. Half the point of the movies is that Riddick fights awesomely. But here I am just punching some guy. Punch, punch, punch until he finally goes down. Where's the "I'll kill you with my teacup" feeling?

I liked that I could grab the edges of boxes and hoist myself up on them. I found it odd that when the animation of that runs, the action stops. Ditto when getting healed. I thought Riddick was acting awful clumsy for such a great killer that he was. I mean, he's slowly straining to get over these crates? In the movies he moves like a cat.

Belatedly I discovered that I could monkey my way along pipes. I didn't have a use for that skill in the demo though. Found it by accident while going to retrieve the ammo of some guards I killed.

I did like the nano healing animation. That I thought was very Riddick, even if it wasn't in the movies.

Why are my eyes normal? When did Riddick get his shine job? WTF am I using a flashlight for, other than to make the game easier to write?

I can't seem to move, jump through the air, leap and strike, or grab on to things as awesomely as Riddick really does. In fact the guards all seem to move better than I do, rolling all over the place and stuff. Really annoying.

I think I'll pick up Thief: Deadly Shadows if I see it on the cheapo rack somewhere.

[Fry Crayola]

Why are my eyes normal? When did Riddick get his shine job? WTF am I using a flashlight for, other than to make the game easier to write?


The first 15% or so of the game is pre-Shine. After that, you can flick on the dark vision whenever you feel like it.

[Sol_HSA]

Sounds like the demo is the tutorial level, which means that the real game starts after that.. the tutorial is in a dream, and they had to jam all sorts of gameplay in a short level, so it may feel a bit off. The full game is better. =)

[bignobody]

It's not out yet, but Assassin's Creed (http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/index.php) looks like it will take things to the next level...

[bvanevery]

Interesting. Yeah, that's what I wanted out of Thief: less forced skulking, more assassinations when I wanted to. Being able to jump around on buildings looks good. That's what I would have wanted to do in Riddick.

[Fry Crayola]

From what I've seen of Assassin's Creed, there's not terribly much stealth to it. Mind you, I've not seen much.