Thief missions ordered from worst to best

Sanctus Germanus on 7/1/2016 at 20:41

I'm a ranking addict almost as much as a Thief addict, and I couldn't find something to put in harmony these two concerns, so I had to create it myself. What do you think about it? What would be your personal worst to best?

Tomi on 7/1/2016 at 22:40

Psst... wrong Thief forum! :p This one's for the Thief (2014) reboot only, and since your post seems to be about Thief Gold, you might want to post this in (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=83) Thief Series General Discussion instead. Or maybe wait for one of the moderators to move this thread for you...

However, to answer your question... well, I haven't played the original Thief Gold missions for 12 years, but I'm gonna try...
The worst? Thieves' Guild of course. I can't remember much about the whole game anymore, but I do remember how frustrating those endless ugly corridors in Thieves' Guild were. I kept getting lost and didn't know where I was supposed to go and it was just annoying. The second worst might be Cragscleft Prison. I had been playing the TDP demo (Lord Bafford's Manor) for months before buying the game, and I was expecting something similar, but Cragscleft Prison turned out to be something quite different. The mines were ugly, the zombies were more boring than scary, so I almost gave up Thief because of it. I'm not a huge fan of Into the Maw of Chaos either, things just go way too weird for me at that point, they could have saved that mission for Thief: The Space Age or something.

The best? Maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but Lord Bafford's Manor is awesome! So it's a bit surprising to see that it's the worst in your opinion. It's a rather simple mission with nothing too weird or supernatural. I wish there had been more missions like it. But then again, I did like Return to the Cathedral (my 2nd fav) despite of the undead. Not because of the zombies - they're still boring - but because of the haunts! I <3 haunts. The Lost City was an exciting experience especially on the first play through as well, even though the fire elementals were just stupid. The atmosphere in that mission was really cool though. :)

Starker on 8/1/2016 at 04:18

The bad
Thieves' Guild -- ugly confusing sewer maze whose only redeeming value are the mansions. I actually think the game would be better without it (also for story pacing reasons).

The bland
Into the Maw of Chaos -- apart from the end bit, it's just so linear and uninteresting, but thankfully it's also fairly short.
Strange Bedfellows -- a mix of the first part of Undercover and an imitation of the worst parts of Thieves' Guild, but with spiders and exploding frogs.
The Mage Towers -- a surprisingly boring and blocky level. I don't even really know why I don't like it, maybe it's the pacing or something, but something just doesn't feel right about it.
Lord Bafford's Manor -- a solid intro level, but also very short and simple.

The good
Break from Cragscleft Prison -- a fair bit of variety, with the best parts in the prison and the barracks. Also, a nice peek into how the Hammers operate.
Escape! -- it's like a repeat of the latter parts of The Sword, but also a fair bit of deja vu. Would have been great if it had some places like the Little Big World in The Sword.
Down in the Bonehoard - a nice varied Tomb Raider flavoured level with traps and treasure and stuff.
Assassins -- It's basically a meatier and more interesting Lord Bafford's.
Undercover -- a really interesting twist on the standard sneaking around in the shadows. I'd have loved another infiltration level like this.
The Haunted Cathedral -- an interesting location with a fair bit of sidetracking which keeps it from being excessively linear. A sneak peek into the past with the keeper hideout as a cherry on top.
The Lost City -- more Tomb Raider, but this time with a more pulpy Lost World/Atlantis vibe.

The great
The Sword -- a really cool mansion with a fair bit of Alice in Wonderland mixed in.
Song of the Caverns -- the opera house was simply splendid. For me, this level alone made the gold version worth it.
Return to the Cathedral -- very scary and atmospheric.

bangersnmash on 8/1/2016 at 11:37

The meh

Thieves Guild- Like almost everyone I think objectively it's overly confusing, but I still like it subjectively simply because it's early Thief and have memories of playing it late at night in 2000 fueled by expensive brandy :D

Maw Of Chaos- Linear, yup.

Cragscleft- Too long and depressing. To hell with Cutty!

Stange Bedfellows - Large level doing a task I don't particularly want to do.

The good-

Lord Baffords Manor. I'm tempted to call this great because it was my first taste of the world of Thief and the atmosphere is superb ( thank you Mr Brosius!) but it's fairly short and straightforward.

Bonehoard. I know many people think this is the epitome of everything flawed about Thief 1 was, but I find it extremely atmospheric , with the huge echoing halls and Horn Of Quintus sound.

Escape- Just feels good to throw a middle finger to Constantine.

Haunted Cathedral- Spooky and grim. Plus there's lots of little hidden places for you to discover.

Songs Of The Caverns. I hate the first fiddly part with the craymen but once inside I do enjoy a bit of culture.

Undercover. Another surprising mission.

Lost City. Adds greatly to the Thief "world" and I still find trying to nail a fire elemental with a water arrow before it toasts me nerve wracking

The great

The Sword- Best Thief level. Surreal and sneaky.

Assassins- It's not my absolute favourite, but I think it nails the pure "thief" aspect like no other mission.

Mage Towers- Large and satisfying. Just like me.

Return To The Cathedral- Like 99% of Thief players, I think it's scary. But you get satisfaction from accomplishing all the tasks you've been set.

User 205 on 8/1/2016 at 19:50

The bad: -Escape! : just a poor boring and annoying level where you are sometimes even forced into combat.
- Perhaps the mage towers. The mage compound is fun but the towers can get a little tiresome.

The great: -Lord Bafford´s manor, first time playing this game I wasn´t really impressed by this level (as Thief II offers some better "mansion simulation" (played 2 beforehand) but on my second playthrough it turned out quite fun.
-The thieves guild: a really confusing level but getting lost is part of the fun here and you´re also forced to use your map and compass wiseley, nearly no other mission does that. And the mission is full of secrets and varied location.
-The sword: Surreal as hell but thats great.
-THC and RTTHC: THC is a great zombie exploriation level while RTTHC is a really scary level even tough Murus has some annoying fetch quests.
-The lost city: just the sense of discovering a lost city
-The maw: because it is surreal and I like that

JarlFrank on 10/1/2016 at 22:51

The okay:
- The Thieves Guild. I didn't hate it, and I actually found it rather interesting in its concept on my first playthrough. You go into an underground thief base through a pub/gambling hall they use as a front for their operation, and then you access the private houses of two major guild bosses through these underground halls. The concept is pretty awesome... too bad the execution is lacking and the sewers quickly become tiresome, especially since they are quite labyrinthine and there is a lot of going back and forth.

- The Haunted Cathedral. Unlike most here, I didn't like this mission that much. Yeah, the atmosphere is pretty good, but there was too little loot and the end of it became a re-visiting of places I've already explored in order to find that last bit of loot I still needed. It was an okay mission, but one of the less good ones, in my opinion.

- The Mage Towers. Another mission that is great in concept but not that great in execution. It starts out pretty good, and the central building is quite fun to sneak through, but the actual mage towers lower the score for me. While giving them appropriate fire/earth/air/water themes, it could've been executed better. The interior of the towers was disproportionally large and empty (especially the air tower... huge rooms with nothing in it but slow moving platforms!) and the element-related puzzles were annoying rather than clever. A good mission that is dragged down by the element towers.

- Escape! I didn't like that one too much, as I remember it as a rather bright level with few shadows to hide in, and I wasn't too amazed by the overall design of the level either. One of my least favourite levels in the game.

- Strange Bedfellows. I didn't like this one all that much, either. I found the tasks I had to do in this one pretty annoying, and it had this stupid objective of knocking out or killing each and every bugbeast in the level if you got rid of one of them. Seriously?

- The Maw of Chaos. Eeh. This had a lot of potential for a big, surreal level full of weird stuff, but it was quite a letdown by being so short and linear. It's funny how Thief 2's final mission was also not that great because it did the exact opposite of this one: being too large and having too many objectives that required lots of backtracking. I would've enjoyed the Maw more if it had been less linear. This could've been something like The Sword, only with even more weirdness! Wasted potential.

The good:
- Lord Bafford's Manor. A solid first mission that introduces the player into the world of Thief - or at least, one aspect of it: the nobles. A large mansion with multiple floors, many different rooms, and lots of luxuries. Poorly decorated servant quarters meet lavishly ornamented sitting rooms, and you start your adventure out on the street where you get a good look on the city. The bear pits conversation is also a classic. Great introduction to a great game.

- Return to the Cathedral. Yes, I'm only rating this good instead of great. For one, I'm not a big fan of creepy missions, but this didn't scare me as much as its reputation made me expect it would. The atmosphere was very thick, though, and the cathedral was a fun place to explore. What prevents it from going into my personal "greats" rather than merely "goods" is the endless fetchquest stuff with brother Murus. Go fetch this, go do that, now bring me this. Eh. That drags it down a bit for me.

- The Lost City. A good mission, and one of the missions that conributes to Thief Gold's great variety compared to Thief 2. I like Tomb Raider, so of course I enjoyed this. The ruins look pretty good, and it's an interesting change from the other missions. Fire elementals were an interesting enemy as they illuminate the area around them, so hiding in shadows won't do it if they approach you. A little less platforming would've been welcome though, because Thief doesn't really have the mechanics for that.

- Undercover. Another good one with an interesting twist. I love the Hammerites, and the concept of infiltrating the place in disguise was pretty cool. Thoroughly enjoyed robbing all the valuables from behind their backs. For what was supposed to be a major center of Hammerite activity, it was rather tiny though... the church felt smaller than Cragscleft! I would expect the Hammerite base to be larger than that, considering how much they love building things... the mission was over too soon, I'd say.

- Assassins. Probably the best of the ones I rated "good", and bordering on great. A very varied mission that goes deepest into what I would consider the quintessential Thief experience. You stalk assassins through the streets of the city, you reach a big mansion you have to rob, and then you try to escape back to your home turf again, through city streets swarming with guards. This is what Thief is all about for me. Would be elevated to "great" if the city part had more to show, like a couple of houses to break into on your way back.

Great:
- Cragscleft. This barely manages to surpass mere "good" and reach greatness. It's a lovely mission, very varied and atmospheric. You start out in an abandoned mine and then ascend to the prison, which exudes an even thicker Hammerite atmosphere than the Hammerite church you get to visit later. Being inside a dark place during daytime (it's one of the few Thief missions with daylight!) adds even more to the atmosphere, as it only stresses the darkness of the place you're in. It is also the first encounter with Hammerites in the game, and a great introduction to that faction. Bonus points for the ability to cause chaos by opening ALL the cell doors without knocking out any Hammers :P

- Songs of the Caverns. Another one that is quite varied, with a tiny bit of city streets, craymen caves and finally the opera house, which is the best "normal" human place in the entirety of Thief Gold. There are a lot of details, like dancing girls practicing for the show, that add life to this mission. It feels like an actual place that is being used by humans, and you're breaking into it while there's still some work going on there. Very exciting! This is one of my favourite Thief 1 missions, and definitely the best one of those that have been added by Thief Gold!

- The Bonehoard. This, to me, is one of the greatest dungeon crawling experiences ever created, topped only by a very tiny amount of FMs (the first mission of stinkykitty's Gems of Provenance comes to mind), Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis. This might not be very "thiefy", and that's why many people dislike it, but I love it because it is simply an amazing piece of level design. The atmosphere is superb, the architecture impressive, the design very competent. I don't like the burrick caves part of it, it comes very early in the mission and is rather annoying because the caves are so hard to navigate, and on first playthrough they made me almost dislike the level, but then... then you enter the actual bonehoard, and it's just impressive. Everything about it is impressive. Even with the burrick caves that I dislike, this is one of my favourite dungeon crawling adventures of all time.

- The Sword. This is the best mission in Thief Gold, and probably even in the entire Thief series. While Thief 2 has some of my favourite OMs (who doesn't just love Life of the Party?) and by now, many fan missions have been released that are even better than the original missions, this one is still the best Thief mission ever made. Yes, even if someone makes a mission that does the same thing as The Sword, only better, it would still be the best... because The Sword did it first. It starts out as a seemingly normal mansion mission, and when you get into it a little bit deeper, it seems like that noble you're robbing is really eccentric. A huge indoor garden with a river running through it? Okay, weird but if you're an eccentric rich guy, why not. But the deeper you go, the more it changes from merely eccentric to outright surreal. What is this place? Who built this? This is crazy! He really has to pay those guards well if they patrol that madhouse without asking questions. This mission is full of classic Thief gameplay - a typical mansion heist - and adds so much craziness that it just makes you shout "WHAT THE ...?!" at the screen every few minutes. Nothing captures the slightly surreal quality of Thief's setting as well as The Sword.

bangersnmash on 11/1/2016 at 12:17

To be honest Thieves Guild is worthwhile solely for the servants dialog at the casino blackjack table

"Hit me"

*whaaaaap*
:angel:

DiMarzio on 13/1/2016 at 16:47

I can't understand all the hate for Thieves' Guild. It's a solid mission with unique locations and layout, and shows an interesting side plot (thieves' guild) that needed an entry in the series. Is it a confusing maze? No, you've got a map. All floors. And seriously, if that's your argument against Thieves' Guild, why don't you all hate the other missions as well? Cragscleft, Bonehoard, The Sword, Haunted Cathedral, Lost City and Escape had much more inadequate maps and almost every mission had a confusing layout to some extent. I mean, seriously, the Sword. Does there exist a player who didn't get lost at least once during that mission? And we all love it still and perhaps even more so because of that. I know I do.

Is it repetitive? I don't think it's any more than the other missions. It has four distinct areas that feel like mini missions themselves. Is it the Dark Project purism? No, Song of the Caverns, enough said.

Now what is the real reason here?

Thor on 13/1/2016 at 18:55

Okay, some of these items might in some other time switch places around by 1 or 2 ranks, but the general jist for me:

Not a fan of:
15. Strange Bedfellows - just didn't like it that much. Something about it, I dunno
14. Assasins - for sure the most controversial item on my list, but my reason is, that besides the nice twist at the trail's end there wasn't much to this mission. Kind of generic for me. For a total newbie to the game it's a great one, but after a while it looks worse and worse. I also didn't like that background music piece so iconic to the mission.
13. Thieves Guild - this one was kind of interesting. First time around anyway. But it kind of dragged out and I got lost. Parts of it were fun but they should have went with more quality over some things, especially texturing. I can imagine getting lost being an issue for most too, but I didn't mind this challenge too much. It had good things in it.
12. Return to the Cathedral - the buildup was great, the mission started out good also but then brother Murus showed up... Made it too long and comical. I also didn't like the aesthetic that much and the environment. Not sure if I like this less or more than Thieves Guild, but it's at least more important to the story.
11. Escape! - scariest mission of the game for me, no question. I didn't mind that as much, but I did mind the samey look all throughout it. It half made it up by having lots of new monsters but not necessarily enough for me.

Pretty good:
10. Lord Bafford's Manor - good introductory mission, some sewers to start with, tho the whole manor is orange. I kinda like it. Makes it more memorable.
9. Undercover - veeery intersting mission. Only doing this mission right and getting away made me more nervous than any other mission ever. I don't think even any FMs topped the anxiety for me when I had to escape with all the hammerites being totally onto me. Le Rocksbourge's Dark Zone? It's scary for sure, but is it scarier than a bunch of hammerites chasing you down, potentially blocking your path in a narrow corridor? I don't think so.
9. The Maw of Chaos - I kinda liked it. It wasn't difficult or long so if I went at it with a more fresh look I might be more angry about that, but for me I kinda liked the super freaky environments and all the descent like it was a rollercoaster. Creativity went pretty wild in this one. And one of the prettiest missions in the game.
7. The Mage Towers - I liked it the first time I played it - really. If I played it again it might go down (closer to 15th) in my list. The reason it's at 7 though is cause of the towers and their challenges. If you went into any of the 4 gardens and looked up you would see some high towers beautifully connected with the central tower that looked great. It let my imagination wander and get pretty excited about visiting those locations. The architecture in a lot of the places was way too basic though, which is one of the worst things about this mission.
6. The Lost City - very nice mission. Too much yellow for my taste, but over time I've come to appreciate the nice things that this mission has.

Great ones:
5. Break from Cragscleft Prison - probably the best prison mission I've ever played. Very nice idea for the mission - ascend through the haunted, abandoned, loosely guarded mines.
4. Song of the Caverns - aesthetic eyecandy is what this mission is. Some great dialogues (and monologues) in here and a very nice location overall. Brought more diversity to the game.
3. The Sword - everyone's favorite mission is also high up there for me. This is like Thieves' Guild, but with better textures, more goofy architecture and madness divine. Also the first mission for the actual story, lol.

The tied best ones:
These two I can't decide upon which is better. Both flood me with fondness and inspiration.
The Haunted Cathedral - I don't know what is it about The Old Quarter, but I find it so enchanting. When I open up dromed, that is the kind of style I usually go for myself. Broken buildings, deadness everywhere, a truly lost city (but not underground). Nowadays also mystical colors like green are a must (Rodamill). Other colors too.
Down the Bonehoard - This one is just very fun. Random discoveries like that strangely tame (blocky arhictecture) room with the fire arrows or the massive catacombs with some absolutely mysterous and horrifying fire shadow thing in one of those places also (the cylinder shape was not spared in this mission), or the expedition of those thieves. Did one of them manage to escape? I don't remember. I hope he did. I should replay it.

Sanctus Germanus on 13/1/2016 at 19:15

Quote Posted by DiMarzio

I agree with you. Thieve's Guild is a unique mission, in fact, the only one in which we get to know more about criminal associations dedicated to stealing, Garrett's truly rivals. Only have to remember the conversation between two members about Lord Bafford's sceptre. And, have to mention, the definitive heist, when you have to take the vase, if you decide to do it without knocking out any guard... well, on the edge of your seat. Then, why? Why most of us got tired of Thieve's Guild? I think that the underground layouts are capable to overwhelm some because of its monotony. Sure, there are rooms, sewers, ramps and machinery, but the constant brick walls and masonry somehow spread a tiresome feeling after a while. It just seems less visually varied. I don't know, it's a theory. Maybe someone should start a new thread: "Why Thieve's Guild is constantly disparaged?" :idea: