Nox on 3/3/2018 at 11:37
I was thinking of playing iron man to keep the tension high, but allowing for anything else to win. If I go around killing everyone though does the game become too easy? Or will it still be a challenge on hard?
SlyFoxx on 3/3/2018 at 14:56
I don't know about too easy. I found easy difficulty quite hard enough for my first play...gosh that was like 17 years ago! But Thief was also the first FPS game I ever really played so I was learning how to work the mouse and keyboard and "drive" the camera so to speak. Just moving through space was a challenge at first let alone being super sneaky! But I'd suggest letting the humans live...there will be other foes as you progress. "Knocking over the hornets nest" isn't the best option in many places but some stealthy kills here and there certainly speeds up progress. Have fun.
ZylonBane on 3/3/2018 at 15:53
Playing Thief Iron Man for your first playthrough would be the height of lunacy.
McTaffer on 3/3/2018 at 19:06
As with any Thief game, killing people is really noisy, so in some cases you're just asking to be caught. Some might disagree, but I would say knocking people out just makes it less annoying to revisit places (Thieves' Guild, I'm looking at you). Also, if you're a first time T1 player you should know that not only does the difficulty change your health, objectives, and number/placement of guards, in some cases it also physically alters the level. I think there's maybe one place you can only visit on normal, but generally more areas open up the higher the difficulty you're playing on.
Tomi on 3/3/2018 at 19:16
You should adjust the iron man rules a bit at least for your first playthrough, so that stupid "falling off ladders" (etc) deaths don't count. Really, ladders in this game can be pretty annoying, I wonder if they're the reason why I'm afraid of climbing down ladders in real life too. :p
Starker on 3/3/2018 at 19:43
When I used to play iron man, there was this annoying bug where Garrett would sometimes just scream and die out of the blue. I always ignored those. Haven't encountered it in a while, though.
Cigam on 4/3/2018 at 03:50
I don't think you need to worry about IM being too easy no matter what else you do. Assuming you mean classic IM where you cannot save at all.
Whether killing makes it easier than not killing depends on context. When I got busted by a single guard it was often simpler to kill him in a swordfight than run away or waste a flash bomb. But sometimes this will be too noisy if AI is nearby.
User 205 on 4/3/2018 at 09:30
I played T1 on my first playthrough on Iron Man mode and it is doable. Even tough I normally would try to hoard alot of flashbombs and gas arrows. But Iron Man can be quite fun and make the game much more tense, so give it a try, I guess.
Darkness_Falls on 4/3/2018 at 18:24
I've seen some newcomers to Thief get too really good at killing and they lose out on some tension they should be feeling, imo. I feel it's better to just try and embrace the role of being Garrett, a stealthy thief... and kill only if/when you absolutely need to.
Perhaps a better way for you to create tension without having it be a totally insane endeavor for you, is to allow yourself one save per mission. Maybe two if you need. (When you fear having to reload a game timestamped 30-60+ minutes ago, or from the beginning of a mission, there tends to be more tension than if you are QuickSaving all the time.) Since the game isn't perfect (i.e., you might think you're not going to make noise doing something, but you make noise; or you might not think you'll fall at one point, but you fall), that justifies 1 or 2 saves per mission, in my opinion.
I think you should record your blind playthrough, and play at your own pace without concern for anyone else. But don't publish it online until sometime after you are completely finished. That way, you will avoid spoilers, armchair quarterbacks, rushing, and any pressure of performing for a viewing audience. I hate it when people play Thief for the first time and commentors spoil things left and right, coach them, say what things they missed, say what missions they hate and love, and say, "Oh, you liked that mission? Just wait for two missions from now!! It's my favorite! I can't wait to see how you like like it". Arguably, some tiny bit of coaching can help and may be needed for Thief for some of the basics; but everyone goes overboard, imo... and everyone inevitably says many things I would, personally, consider spoilers. Even sharing ones hype over a certain mission is spoiler territory for me because it builds a level of anticipation that I shouldn't be feeling unless the game itself makes me feel that way.
Mr Art Valnades on 2/4/2018 at 03:32
Been playing Thief for 10+ years and the thought of ironmanning certain levels still makes me wince. Soulforge made me wanna smash my computer several times. These days I generally allow myself a save after I check off an objective.
