SilverJackal on 9/11/2020 at 19:40

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Upon replaying The Metal Age for the millionth time. I can't help to feel that the game feels lacking.
Maybe it's the fact that Thief Gold/The Dark Project had more time to flesh out and evolve?
For me there are great concepts for Thief The Metal Age I feel falls flat. I almost want to say
that they were heading in the right direction in which fans had to pick up and develop more so
through their own using lore that was already present.

While there, Thief Gold has great atmosphere. Characters are more fleshed out. You know why
Garrett is motivated to do what he must instead of just nudging the story along ever so slightly
in The Metal Age. Don't get me wrong. I love the Metal Age, but I feel as if though it had abruptly
ended maybe through lack of creativity or lack of resources. Where I think overall Thief II Gold
would have benefited most when it comes down to design and execution.

Would it have been better if Thief II Gold would have released with more fleshed out missions that
didn't require that you repeat the same map from Casing the Joint and Masks? Honestly it's hard to
say that hardcore DromEd collectors (such as myself) saw the base design of the missions. Enjoyable,
but would it hinder The Metal Age's Reputation?

The reason why I think this is because it was going in an odd off course plot that would have been
suited more so for Thief Gold/The Dark Project being that in extension they would involve the
Hand Brotherhood. Which, if you are like me... I wish they could have extended on that lore.
Believe me when I say that I loved The Hand Brotherhood Mission in which I came up with my own
concepts to someday release to the world. I owe a lot more to the Thief Community than that though.

Long story on that circumstance. I'll detail it more if I can discipline my mindset and mental illness to
tackle on completing missions.

Overall I'm trying to say that I saw where The Metal Age was going in terms of setting and environments
in which the Thief Community had better ways of fleshing out and developing. I could understand why they
wanted to develop and branch out the story in another direction if it meant adding onto lore that "could have been".

If I had the time I would write an essay about the matter and how Thief Gold is underrated when it comes down to
the Thief Community and them preferring Thief II for setting and overall feel. Because Gold is more fleshed out doesn't
mean that we shouldn't add more to its setting. I mean... afterall we do all have a copy of DromEd.

bbb on 12/11/2020 at 22:41

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Every once in a while we have a thread where we all state our preference for TG or TMA. Although I am partial to TG, TMA is great as well. For me it is hard to forget the great feeling the first time I played Lord Bradford and heard the Bear Pits conversation. I still remember that.

I think as a community we are split but there does not seems to be a lot of love for T3.

prengle on 13/11/2020 at 15:20

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this isn't a hot take at all, and as klatremus said, i think the modern day remnants of the thief scene are somewhat evenly split between thief 1 and thief 2 fans. if anything, the divide's actually gotten worse in the last few years - even in the mid 2010s, around 2015 or so, when i first became obsessed with the series, most people seemed to unanimously agree that thief 2 was the GOAT and that absolutely nothing could ever top it. as time went on i noticed more people growing to appreciate the dark project's more raw and grotesque aesthetic, and now every single thief-related conversation i see outside of sites like ttlg turns into an epic DARK PROJECT VS LE METAL AG3!!! shitflinging contest and while i may be exaggerating things, i have absolutely no idea how things reached this point. it's still a little aggravating

i don't remember which one i liked more initially (maybe tma, briefly) but i've been a tdp diehard for years, it's so relentlessly dark and sinister and oppressive and i absolutely love it, it still resonates with me... and most of the game is actually good and fun to play, unlike tma where the latter half of the game is a miserable slog. i'm not confident thief 2 gold would've "fixed" the game's pacing issues wither - looking back at thief (1) gold, only one out of the three new missions it added was genuinely good, it didn't really do anything to fix the "bad" missions in tdp and in fact it somehow managed to make lost city slightly worse? doesn't mean i wouldn't want to play a fanmade t2g, but still...

and even then, a good portion of the people who prefer thief 1 (like me) do so because it's surprisingly different stylistically, and i don't think an extra undead mission in thief 2 would've changed that. they're both unique takes on the city and not everyone is going to prefer karras's steampunk utopian robot hellscape (although i do prefer him as a villain to constantine and gamall...) ultimately both games are absolutely amazing and we will never see anything like them again in this industry so who cares

and of course there's thief 3 but lol who cares :ebil:

god i missed downwinder's posts

RoSoDude on 20/11/2020 at 23:31

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You're not the only one. I replied to a thread earlier this year about it after finally playing both games.

(https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150335&page=2&p=2439860#post2439860)

Thief 1 had excellent mission variety, with constant surprises thrown your way. For reasons I cannot fathom, a lot of people disliked the horror-themed missions focused around dungeon-crawling (these were honestly some of my favorites), and they veered towards pure burglary and stealth in the sequel. While T2 is a great game in its own right, it also has some of my least favorite missions (Trace the Courier, Casing the Joint, Soulforge) and is lacks the creative spark I felt playing the first game. Plus, I dislike how the movement was altered and the difficulty design is less interesting.