Galaer on 26/11/2018 at 16:30
There is Thief Anniversary Contest that's happening,so I have decided to bring back my memories of how it was the first time playing Thief The Dark Project. I believe it was 1999 year when I bought this game with magazine “RESET”. It wasn't Thief Gold yet. I bought Thief Gold when it was in the pack, with Thief 2 and Thief 3, called Thief Anthology. I don't remember proper date. Few years later I got internet connection and I managed to beat Thief Gold on Expert Difficulty completely.
BEFORE STARTING
First of all, my skills were really bad. I didn't knew about many things like cutting banners or leaning forward to KO enemies. I learned that I can blackjack enemy only in the back of their head when their unsuspected or return to their station after search mode.
The second thing is - I didn't knew English at all. I had polish version. But still there were parts where was vital to understand what NPC is telling. For me it was just “Bla, bla, bla”. I couldn't understand a thing. Luckily I had help thread from CDA, which helped me to beat Haunted City. I also had part of polish walkthrough (from Return to the Catedral to Strange Bedfellows) on Hard Difficulty. Thanks to that I managed to beat the game.
Another thing is - I always start any game from easiest difficulty. The thing is at some point I have restarted the whole game on Expert Difficulty. I believe it was around Mission 4. The reason is simple. After I figured that higher difficulties gives more objectives and more places to explore, I deduced that by playing on Normal I'm missing some content of the game.
Fourth thing is - when I started this game I didn't know I can save during mission. And that's because most of the game I played didn't have Save Option or had Password Function or no matter when you saved the game it always load at the beginning of level. So at the beginning I was ironmaning this game. Until Mission 2 which was first difficulty spike. And after few tries I discovered how Save works in this game. Also quicksaves and quickloads I started to use in 2017. Somehow I didn't wanted to use them earlier.
Fifth thing is - Graphic. Back when I started playing Thief TDP, I didn't have graphic accelerator. That means that this game was really dark for me. It helped to make a good atmosphere, but most of the time I was walking completely blindly. If you play without accelerator, then minimum gamma is screen completely black and full gamma is screen completely white (which wasn't helpful at all). That's why I was forced to play at medium gamma. There were many times when I was changing gamma between max and medium to figure what was better, only to get back to medium setting. To better visualize the problem you would change your gamma to minimum and this setting was the best vision I could achieve.
Fun fact: when I got Thief Gold from Thief Anthology, I had new PC with graphic accelerator. But I didn't use it. I was too scared that game will slow down. I have activated accelerator function last year (in 2017). I was reading forums to check about whiteness of the screen at full gamma and couldn't find it. Finally activated accelerator and max gamma changed night into day. And it didn't slow down the game. All these year... I thought... wrong... Sometimes my stupidity really amaze me.
So after this explanation I will tell how the thread is going look. I'm going to describe what I remember from Thief TDP missions focusing mostly on my gameplay and experience rather than a story. Then I'm gonna talk about Thief Gold content and finally describe my memories of the missions. Also I apologize for my English. Enjoy.
TRAINING
First steps with the game I began from training. Figuring first rooms was quite easy. In Sword/Bow training section, I remember that in some later run in Thief Gold, I managed to climb on balcony. I was really proud even though there is nothing there.
Rope training was really troublesome for me. Keeper is explaining how to climb the rope. But I didn't know English and I didn't understand a thing. But there was written on the screen info how to jump. And that's the only thing I understood. So for 15 min I tried to climb the rope by jumping. And finally I succeed by... mantling. One room too early. After that I failed jump over water. But I knew how to beat rope, so it was no problem. The rest of the training was also no problem.
MISSION 1: LORD BAFFORD MANOR
First time playing this mission and I beat on my first time. On Normal Difficulty. It wouldn't be anything special, but remember I didn't knew about saving during mission. And it was my first playthrough. Also I wasn't very quiet, so I needed to run away few times from alarmed guards. Trying to sneak up to the drunken guard from the front wasn't really bright idea.
When the mission began I took a look at the map and noticed arrow stash. So I decided to search for it, but the streets are just too dark. I had many playthroughs, but I couldn't find it. Until 2017 when I activated accelerator and finding it became really easy task.
Falling from well into sewer water was exciting. I never noticed underwater cave (until 2017). After that I remember clever passage from second floor to basement. And final guard. I had no problem stunning him with flashbomb and KO him on the back of his head.
MISSION 2: CRAGSCLEFT PRISON
This mission is much harder. First meeting with zombies was really scary. I was very scared to check tunnels or approaching corpses, because they could stand out of nowhere. And after that walking zombies. After I found holy water fountain I managed to discover killing zombies.
I also managed to learn how to climb ladders in the mine. Finally. Also it was a part when I was changing and look at my controls often.
Skeleton trap was weird. After that I managed to get to first Hammerite. Tried to KO him, but he was always aware of me. I couldn't understand why. The reason was that I didn't noticed that I'm walking on the loud ground. That was the farthest place where I got on this mission without saving. After that I discovered that saving during mission works.
Expert Difficulty note: I remember these annoying climbing in the mine. I died a lot of times during trying to jump over gap. Also I remember that at some point I KO Hammerite near lake. I didn't knew where to hide his body, so I throwed it into water. Then out of nowhere I started failing the mission. It was really mysterious for me. Until I figured out that he's drowning and it still means that I am the killer. Luckily I managed to take him out of water in time without restarting the whole mission.
First experience with prison was really something for me. First alarm camera completely took me off guard. Luckily I noticed that 1 broadhead arrow is enough to break them. It alerts Hammerites, but that's a good time to destroy other cameras.
I also learned how to KO Hammerites: double jump on the floor, hide, wait until they calm down and then quickly blackjack them in the back of their head. Of course I was really bad at these and I wanted to KO everyone, so it took me many many tries.
I remember getting to the roof of the prison. Looking at the outside world after many hours spend underground was really refreshing. I know there is no second exit out of the mission there, but whenever I'm there I always search for the way to trigger exit there.
And the last thing - cell controls. It was always confusing for me. Cells are numbered, but levers controlling them aren't. Some levers at the left position are open, some on the same position are locked. How do Hammerites know which lever is for which cell I don't know. So when I played this game first I ended opening all cells and freeing all prisoners. Many minutes later I found that it launched alarm and some prisoners were blocking the paths. Really annoying.
MISSION 3: DOWN IN THE BONEHOARD
This mission is dark, it's also huge and it's a maze with lots of zombies and... dinosaurs. Burricks are really frustrating to deal with. My first time was focused on shooting them with arrows, using normal slashes of the sword (because at that point I entirely forgot about powerful hit) and trying to go behind them and dodge their acid breath. I hate these monsters. On my Expert playthrough I bought all broadhead arrows to deal exactly with them.
I remember that these place has lots of traps. I'm climbing down on rope second time (first time was painful, because I went through rope and felt all way down) and boulder fall on me and kills me. There were random fireballs or gems activating fireball traps and many more.
I remember room with fire arrows. It was quite easy room. But lately (2017) I can't find this room at all. And I play with full visibility. I smell conspiracy. Maybe Tfix erased this room or something.
I didn't knew about second exit from the mission until internet. Even though I remember finding this little outside spot. I never connected it with exit.
Torch room - I remember having problem to fit into opened hole. And there were alerted zombies after me. Really stressful.
I remember descending from beam to beam while magic bolts were firing. And first haunt afterwards. I quickly ran through room, opened chest and escaped from room. It was more scary than hard.
Seeing calm burricks in Horn of Quintus Cave was really uneasy. I was walking very quietly to not wake them by some mistake. Then really annoying climb on barely visible ladders and escape from burricks. That was actually quite easy.
Also thanks to playing on both Normal and Expert I noticed that some parts of Bonehoard are just walls on Normal Difficulty. That was really neat idea. Wish it was present in more missions.
MISSION 4: ASSASSINS
I remember that during trailing assassins there was metal bridge that I crossed without moss arrow. Also after finding Ramirez Mansion I always took my time to return to starting position. It was really confusing, because the city is huge and empty and dark and for me everything looked the same. That's why I don't like city missions. After 20 min getting lost finally found the shop, took whole stuff and again was forced to look for Ramirez Mansion. I hate this part of level. I mean there is nothing in the city except this shop!
This mission is also first time with lockpicks. The first thing I did was switching controls for lockpicks. Like for me it's natural is that triangle lockpick has earlier F button than square lockpick. The same like triangle lockpick is earlier than square lockpick in item list. I also liked this lockpick system the most. Unlike in Thief 3 where it changed into stupid minigame.
It was also amusing to see guards standing in front of locked door, because earlier I stole their key.
I couldn't find firepocker anywhere. I was looking everywhere, but without accelerator it's just too dark to find switch in total darkness even if you are looking at it. I founded it after internet. This forced me to replay this mission on Hard Difficulty.
I remember first time going through mission, I killed burricks to check what's inside and I think I found something there. But never checked this place again, because fighting 2 burricks at once with just sword is really tough.
And the last thing - spawning enemies after taking Ramirez purse. That's a really mean trap. Seeing new guy in the front of the mansion was really surprising. But he was looking towards exit and was easy target for me.
Galaer on 26/11/2018 at 16:32
MISSION 5: THE SWORD
This mission is tough, but for good reasons. Lots of loud floor, less light and lots of guards. But the toughest is just first floor. Second floor is just traps, so it’s really easy. There is a floor, which I call 2,5 floor, with all crazy architecture and third floor with a sword, which again is heavily guarded and there is loud surface.
On the first floor impressed me the most garden with trees, which was still inside the mansion! And church – it looked really unique compared to everything else. And the atmosphere inside was amazing. I also remember getting to the room through water on the ceiling. That was strange but I really liked it.
Second floor had this one room with upside down chest and loot falling on the floor. And fly swarm. The sound in this little room is like something very soon will happen.
Floor 2,5 is the best though. Twisted room, upside down rooms, room in space! Or my favorite 4 corridor room, some of these corridors are just clever illusion. Also laugh of little girl adds the uncanny.
I remember I had a lot of trouble to KO 2 guards under the sword. I used flashbomb, but before I could see again, I could only run to 1 guard to blackjack him in the back of his head. And I wanted to KO everyone, so it took me many tries.
Expert objective is again something that I couldn’t find when I played this mission first time. So I beat it on Hard. I managed to find the scroll in Thief Gold, but in little big world. I was really amazed that I missed so big and incredible secret area. I didn’t knew that it is exclusive area for Thief Gold. And because I did beat it on Expert, I wasn’t looking in the internet how to get it normally. I found about it 10 years later. And managed to get intended for Thief TDP way to finish Expert objective finally in 2017. So it took me almost 20 years to beat this mission completely.
MISSION 6: HAUNTED CITY
This mission has everything I hate: city maze, lots of darkness, lots of undeads, burricks, voice explanation of what to do. Oh, and there are random mines in the darkness, so that you can die by just exploring the level. I hate that.
For darkness there light controls and I activated all of them. Mostly because I thought that undeads will vanish or at least leave light areas. That was logic for me. Well, at least I got a chance to see a little better. That’s helpful in this very dark mission. It was also a time when I experimented with gamma a lot, especially in the Serpentine Torc area which is completely dark.
With darkness I have also different memory. After getting out of spider cave located near a bridge leading to Keeper Area, I swear I was seeing giant spider (few times bigger than green spider) walking over the bridge. It was probably mistake made because a lot of darkness. But it affected me a lot and whenever I play this mission I’m always looking for this giant spider.
With the Eye explanation of what to do, I had luck. I had Help Thread from CD Action and it explained this part of the mission. Otherwise I would be forced to give up playing Thief.
The enemy that scared me the most was undead priest. His many voices sound when alerted scared the hell out of me.
The biggest problem in the mission for me was getting enough loot. Loot requirement is really tough to get on Expert. After I beat the other objectives it took me few hours to get enough loot. Because loot is scattered in all these awkward places. It doesn’t help that there is darkness everywhere and lots of enemies everywhere. I needed to wait in shadow a lot and try to see a loot. I remember I had huge problem to get into small room above bridge with “gigantic” spider. Unfortunately in this game mantling works only whenever it feels like. So it was very troublesome. And then disappointment – there is nothing there. I couldn’t believe that, so I searched this room and finally found last loot. Objective completed. All I needed to do was getting back to Keeper Hideout and take stone. But getting out of this small room took me several minutes. For some reason it was really hard. That being said whenever I play this mission, I always have a problem to complete loot requirement for Expert Difficulty.
MISSION 7: LOST CITY
Entrance at the beginning was clever. But I had a lot of trouble with surviving underwater passage. I was forced to restart the mission and buy breath potion. I had no idea how else to survive. The waterfall area remind me third mission in good old Tomb Raider. There was also waterfall, jumping from one side to another, falling to the bottom and climbing back up. On top of that graphic also look similar between these 2 games.
Lost City itself like city in Mission 4 and previous mission was and still is very confusing place. And the map doesn’t help. At least there is a lot of light here. And there are burricks. Luckily for the last time.
With fire elementals I had a lot of trouble. Because during my first playthrough I had no idea that I can kill them with water arrow. So I was avoiding them and that was very hard, especially after getting Talisman of Fire when new fire elementals are spawning.
The Arena reminds me Colosseum mission from Tomb Raider. After getting Talisman of Water more Craymen (for me they were crabmen) is spawning. I remember KO first, but when I blackjack second Crayman, he always turns towards me and attacks me. So I was forced to kill him.
About spawning fire elementals and Craymen there is one funny thing. If you don’t kill fire elementals, they just by floating will kill Craymen which is very fun to watch.
The last thing is about special request scroll in the shop. The first time playing I bought it and the masks became loot. In Thief Gold though I decided to not buy the scroll. How surprised I was when I found out that previously obtainable loot masks changed into mask trash. How annoying was to be that late in the mission and find that because I didn’t buy one item I can’t get some loot. And sometimes in my later playthroughs I still forget about it.
MISSION 8: INFILTRATION
The last human mission in the game. Sadly. And instead of hiding from Hammerites I can walk along them and make a lot of noise. That’s really interesting experience. Also guards can notice lack of loot. That was really surprising for me. I didn’t knew that something like that can be done.
I had a lot of trouble with Ko-ing enemies. Sure, I could do a lot of noise, but in many situations they watched at each other. Just in Thief Gold it became easy, because I started blackjacking everyone from the very first guard. Still I had a lot of resistance from dropping their unconscious bodies in the shadow just below gate at the beginning. About pairs of enemies, I remember that after KO-ing first guard, the second instead attacking me was running towards alarm switch. So I was running behind him and attacking him with blackjack like crazy until he finally dropped unconscious.
Another thing is reading Prayer in order to destroy barrier. All the time I have lots of problems with that. Most of the time I’m using scroll when I have barrier highlighted, so it doesn’t work. It was really confusing. I need to be very close to the barrier but not look onto it. But every time I start this mission after few years of break, I always forget about that.
And the last thing. In my first playthrough I left a lot of Hammerites conscious. So the escape through balcony was really stressful for me. I needed few tries because I got stuck on them and they killed me few times. That was really scary.
MISSION 9: RETURN TO THE CATHEDRAL
I hate this mission. There is a lot of darkness, lots of undeads and vocal quests from ghost. I remember waiting a lot of time for path to clear, then finally go and notice that out of nowhere new zombie appeared, reloading game and waiting even more. I remember especially 2 places: stairs in the Cathedral part and entrance to the cemetery.
For the first time I didn't have a blackjack. Which felt weird. I learned to switch to blackjack not only to KO someone, but also for every other action as well. I know that blackjack in this mission would be useless, but it would be easier for me to switch weapons from sword or water arrows. That's my habit and it was very troublesome to change it. And it still is.
Also I remember that for some reason I noticed that using fountain in the Cathedral makes zombie outside less alerted. I believe that he was standing, but after using the fountain he felt down on the floor. It may sound weird now, but I really discovered that and I was doing that every time I played this mission and it worked. After using accelerator and Tfix I couldn’t notice that in my recent playthrough though. So it is really weird for me.
I hate Brother Murus. I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Why his objectives doesn’t appear in the Objectives Menu? This would change my experience with the game. I completed his 2 quests because walkthrough, but this walkthrough didn’t include Expert Difficulty. The only word I understood was – hammer. So I started bringing him different hammers: normal hammer, blessed hammer and not blessed yet hammer. Nothing worked. So I explored the mission and even found secret passage in the sewers. I thought that maybe this will help me, but unfortunately I was wrong.
So after few hours of exploring, I restarted this mission on Hard. This time I was smart and brought 2 bodies outside Cathedral before taking the Eye. Hearing Eye voice was really surprising. I didn't understood what it said, but I understood the tone of the voice. After that I solved 2 ghost quests and got key to the Cathedral. You can imagine how happy I was to return to this crowded place. And after all that I finally exploded the giant mine and finished the mission. Fun fact: in 2017 I was ironmaning this mission, I shoot fire arrow into explosive device, it exploded, but it didn't open exit gate. It pissed me a lot. I mean it's already very frustrating mission and after all that the mission broke. I really hate this mission.
Galaer on 26/11/2018 at 16:34
MISSION 10: ESCAPE
First let's talk about enemies. Ratman was called by me as Moleman. There are 2 reasons. First - their eyes are so wide open, so I thought they are blind. Second - above fire elemental place there is a cave. One of these Molemen noticed me and found a way through the labyrinth of caves to me. My impression was that only Moles could do that.
Bugbeast for me was Mantis. At first slow and not very dangerous. But this fly swarm projectile is surprisingly deadly. The frogbeasts were simple frogs. But after observing them from close, I got shocked. They looked like miniature version of T-Rex. Really scary appearance. And whenever they hop, I panic a lot, because their kamikaze attack is deadly.
Now about old enemies. Thanks to the walkthrough I finally learned that I can kill fire elemental with water arrow. As for green spiders, I assumed that they are a new type of spider. Jumping spider. That's how I called them. The reason for that is - I only fought with spiders with arrows, so when I was forced to fight with them with sword, I finally noticed how they attack. But I didn't connected these facts. So for me it was new type of spider.
When I started the mission, i gathered my equipment. And that's a very interesting thing - I didn't notice the blackjack. My walkthrough was saying that blackjack can be obtained, but walkthrough was for Hard Difficulty. I was playing on Expert, so I assumed that blackjack only appear on Normal and Hard. And I made this mission as very hard. Next getting into gas arrow cave and immediately using it to gas scary enemies below.
I remember tree houses area. Somehow Molemen could notice me easily when I move. I suspected that there is loud ground (after few years - in Thief Gold, I returned to this area and noticing that ground isn't loud was really surprising for me). In this area there was lots of traffic. Enemies just keep walking and walking, so getting through this area was really super annoying. Hiding in shadow and contemplating about chances of beating this place. I think I spent 1 hour there if not more.
Also there is a riddle for me. In this mission and in Sword there is 1 door leading to basement that is always locked. I thought that in Escape I will open all doors. But no, this 1 door are always locked. What's behind them? It really bugs me.
And last thing - I got to the end of the mission. I escaped. But unfortunately I couldn't find Expert objective. So I was forced to restart the whole mission on Hard Difficulty. Another very happy news for me. At least I found blackjack, so it was a little easier. This mission was really scary. I really was understanding very well what Trickster wanted to achieve. Ancient fear from the unknown beings appearing out of darkness with weird and scary sounds. Yes, I could really fell that very well when I played this game for the first time.
MISSION 11: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
First of all let's talk about enemies. There are Molemen, jumping spiders, frogs, Mantises and magic spiders. Magic spiders really surprised me with magic bolt attack and web attack. That's another very creative way to show that when you are hit with it, you are doomed.
On the other side Mantis enemies strikes back with a really dumb objective to kill all of them. It was really frustrating and forced me to KO them and then slash like crazy their body. The thing is I never sure if they are dead or not. It forced me to journey between one to another to hit them with a sword. It was really confusing objective and I wasted most of the time on it. And let's not forget that one of them (this one under wooden bridge in the cave part) has backup of 2 frogs. Killing these 2 frogs was really annoying. It was really chaotic battle where I was alerting them and tried to shoot them. Lots of reloads happened because of that. I hate this objective.
I also remember lower floor of the church being hectic. Lots of Molemen patrols and stationary frogs. It was really annoying place. In the end I didn't found any loot, so it was pretty pointless and frustrating exploration. Also it was the moment when Garret died with no reason. So I was in the shadow leaning to the right to check what's the situation with jumping frog. And out of nowhere Garret is dead. He broke a neck, I guess. And because I was leaning right my head as well, it felt like my neck broke as well. Whenever I remind that I feel really bad.
The biggest problem in this mission for me was crossing wooden bridge with 1 Moleman patrolling it. It was really tough. I don't know why this Moleman was so sensitive. And it's not just back then, even now I have a problem. That's why I usually try to deal with him with gas arrow from above.
Second half of the cave is very easy. As for the raft in the walkthrough it was written to use it. But I had no idea how, so I usually was swimming with him to the end of the mission. I figured out how to use raft in 2017. But it didn't felt good. Through the whole journey I was scared that priest body will fall into river and he will die.
MISSION 12: INTO THE MAW OF CHAOS
So first of all I really love this level. Sure it's linear and there is no loot, but it's really fun level. There is a lot of creativity. Ice physic can be hard to control and slides are really scary, but I love them. I like crazy water passage challenge. The idea with constantly spawning new enemies and them riding in flying eggs is amazing. And new enemy which I called Sharkman. I know it's just recollored version of Crayman, but for me he really looks like shark.
So after starting the mission and checking objectives, I noticed Destroy Portal objective. So first thing I did was to turn back and shoot the portal with elemental arrows. I was shooting and shooting trying to figure out how to destroy this thing. It took me 15 min to figure out that maybe, just maybe there will be second portal to destroy. Then I moved forward.
I remember having a lot of problems in shooting hopping frogs on top of ice slide. I also had a big problem with spiders inside giant tree.
I didn't like ultimate challenge with Constantin. Because it's really easy. Just run, exchange the Eyes and then run back to the shadow. Really disappointing challenge for a final. Also I didn't like his monologs. Compared to the amazing cutscenes, they are really boring.
I always laugh a lot when I see people trying to slowly walk towards the Eye or even use moss arrows. There is no need. That's because the stone floor isn't noisy. Not only that. Constantin is the biggest idiot in this game. It's not like Trickster from Fan Missions who is extremely dangerous and sensitive. I will tell a story from my later playthrough of Thief Gold.
One day I decided to check Trickster's attack. For that I decided to alert him. But I was really scared of his reaction, so I started very shyly by exposing myself in full light. He was walking nearby and... he completely ignored me. I decided this time to make a noise. So I started to jump in place while still in full light. He was walking nearby and… he completely ignored me. This gave me a little of confidence and I started to jump around him. He should be alerted, right? But he completely ignored me. Again! I was really annoyed by lack of any reaction. So I stood on his path while in full light and… he started to walk into me!!! So in other words he completely ignored me. I was really pissed off, so I took my sword and attacked him and… he finally noticed me. Took him a lot of time! So finally I could see his attacks: double strong web and burning ability. Yes, burning ability. I was too close to him to notice it was fireball. So I assumed that it was burning on sight ability (this ability had for example Tchernobog from Blood 1 or Arch-vile from Doom 2).
SUMMARY
This concludes my first experience with Thief The Dark Project. Overall it was very dark and scary game. It was also very hard, but fun. There is 1 decision that I don’t like and it is to force people who don’t understand English to listen and understand English voices during missions. I had polish subtitles for movies, but not for inside the mission dialogs (the Eye in Haunted City or ghost from Return to the Cathedral). Also there was way too many monsters in this thief game. That was weird. Because I felt more like Lara Croft than thief. I can also notice that playing Thief the first time I had much more patience. Right now I have help from internet threads on ttlg or just use skip cheat to finish missions when I have some problem. These options really spoiled me.
Galaer on 26/11/2018 at 16:39
THIEF GOLD
To be honest I don’t like this add-on too much. It makes a changes in the original missions that mostly I don’t like, slightly change polonization for worse, add few new missions that didn’t interest me too much. There are 2 changes I like though: little big world in the Sword mission and Blooper Reel bonus mission.
CHANGES
1. Fire shadow inside Down in the Bonehoard mission. Not only it’s hard because I was forced to shoot fire arrows in torches and deal with lots of alerted zombies, there is also this indestructible Fire Shadow that can be scared with 2 holy water arrows and after few minutes he returns like nothing happened. I really don’t like this guy.
2. Little big world in The Sword mission. Originally I thought that was the only one intended way to complete Expert objective. I remember that after complete it, I had a lot of problem to descend back to the floor. I occupied that with many deaths. But I really like the concept of this area.
3. Another Fire Shadow in Haunted City. This one I always found completely useless. Never descended to him and that solve my problem with his random appearance.
4. Mages in Lost City. I absolutely hate this change. Not only they are in strategic positions, so they are really annoying to deal with. But also they remove Craymen. I loved to watch how fire elementals kill newly spawned Craymen. In Thief Gold there is nothing like that happening.
5. Polonization. I mentioned that. In Thief TDP Hammerites were called “Młoty” (or maybe “Hameryci”, it was almost 20 years ago). In Thief Gold they are called “Młotodzierżcy”. That’s really long name that I don’t like to use. There is even bigger problem with Keepers. In Thief TDP they were called “Opiekunowie”. In Thief Gold they are called “Strażnicy” and by the way normal guards are called “strażnicy”. So many times I needed to figure if text is talking about Keepers or guards from context. That’s really confusing. The worst thing is that this 2 definitions were brought into Thief 2 and Thief 3 polonizations. So for me Hammerites will always be “Młotami” and Keepers – “Opiekunami”.
NEW MISSION 1: THIEVES GUILD
What I remember about this mission is sewers. Sewers in this mission are really huge, very dark and confusing. I also remember having a lot of the problem with finding Lord Randall bracelet. I bumped into this safe on the side of fireplace by a complete mistake. It was hard. And that’s all I remember from my first time.
NEW MISSION 2: MAGE TOWERS
I remember that outside area is patrolled by lots of enemies (I think it was 20 or something patrollers). It was really aggravating that after so many KO-ed enemies there was still some humans walking.
I had a lot of problems in finding the key to Water Tower. It took me a lot of time to figure out that door are simple open. Also Water Tower was really easy.
I remember floating platforms in Earth and Air Tower. They were really annoying. I felt from them and died or get crashed by them so many times that I hate them so much.
I remember Fire Tower. Only loud metal floor, tiles changing from safe to hurt tiles and mages walking on lava. This place is insane.
I liked the puzzles with chests in towers. Especially in Fire Tower when I was forced to move while opening the chest.
The last thing I remember is Final Tower puzzle. For many years I couldn’t understand the riddle. So on my first playthrough I just tried all Talismans. That’s how I solved this puzzle back then. In 2017 I was ironmaning this mission and forgot the solution. I was forced to solve the riddle and I solve it. Basically the trick is about skipping 1 statue and then count. If you read really carefully this riddle you may notice this hint.
NEW MISSION 3: SONG OF THE CAVERNS
There are only 2 things I remember in this long mission:
Getting out of first Crayman cave through underwater passage. I needed few tries because it was always super dark for me, so I drown few times.
Trying to enter to the room with Talisman through the secret passage, I noticed that there were 2 guards walking inside the room. “What’s the point of this secret passage then? It’s useless”. I was forced to use door instead and deal with them. Which was painful.
BONUS MISSION: BLOOPER REEL
I really love introduction with it’s “Bla Bla Bla” thing shown. I really liked the idea of showing bugs and glitches inside Lord Bafford Manor. That was really good idea. I remember burricks shooting gas out of their asses or hopping on top of water. Seeing how Garret really looks like inside the missions was really funny experience. The biggest impression on me made alpha appearance of Mantis enemy. It looked like some kind scary alien. It was really scary. Especially when both Mantises noticed me and started an attack on me. Damn. That was really scary.
SUMMARY
After all that you may notice that I remember Thief Gold exclusive missions much worse. That’s weird because I played them later than original Thief TDP missions. I believe that’s because I don’t find them very memorable. Missions in TDP has always something surprising that stuck in my memory. In Gold missions there is nothing like that (well, except towers in Mage Towers). They are just big and solid missions. And that’s all.
Overall I don’t like Thief Gold expansion pack. Mostly I don’t like the changes in the missions, I don’t like polonization changes and I don’t like new missions (except Blooper Reel, but that’s not a true mission). Too bad I lost my Thief The Dark Project, because I would really preferred to replay it much more than Thief Gold.
vfig on 27/11/2018 at 05:58
Thanks, that was interesting to read. It's easy to forget now with internet everywhere just how isolated playing games could be 20 years ago—with only magazines and word of mouth (and then only if your friends played the same games!).
Quote Posted by Galaer
Overall I don't like Thief Gold expansion pack. Mostly I don't like the changes in the missions, I don't like polonization changes and I don't like new missions (except Blooper Reel, but that's not a true mission). Too bad I lost my Thief The Dark Project, because I would really preferred to replay it much more than Thief Gold.
There is a (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140679) mod called GoldToDark that reverses the Thief Gold changes. It won't fix your Polish translation issues, but will give you back the old Crayman-infested Lost City and so on.
