Taffer69 on 27/4/2025 at 09:48
Which makes me sad, since everything else about the game is amazing. The level design, the atmosphere, the light/shadow mechanics, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the idea of zombies if they mesh with the stealth gameplay. However, they don't. In fact, they actively detract from it. Which I guess makes sense, given that T1 did not originally start out as a stealth game.
I've looked at some other threads here to see if anyone else had a similar experience, and I am slightly baffled by the ammount of people who enjoy and defend their inclusion. Speaking as someone who is trying the game for the first time in 2025, (And has played almost every other major stealth title) the zombies ruin what is an otherwise tight and polished experience.
I don't care if I am raiding a mansion or a tomb, as long as it's executed well and feels fair and most importantly, CONSISTENT. But here, it's just not. RNG does not belong in a stealth game, and zombies are the epitome of it. There is no "git gud" with them, there is no memorizing patrols...Because they have none. Which direction they'll go in, how long they'll walk before turning around, it's all randomized.
People will say "Oh, just sneak by them like any other AI!" but that's not possible 99% of the time. I've tried watching Klatremus' "Let's supreme ghost Thief Gold" videos and even he has to reload in the same spot until the stars align and he can pass undetected. How is that fun or engaging?
I hope that one day, someone makes a mod that makes them more predictable. Because as of now, they make T1 borderline unplayable as a stealth game, at least for me.
marbleman on 27/4/2025 at 09:52
Your problem is not with zombies. Literally any AI can be given a randomized patrol path, and zombies can be given a consistent one.
Taffer69 on 27/4/2025 at 10:45
Quote Posted by marbleman
Your problem is not with zombies. Literally any AI can be given a randomized patrol path, and zombies can be given a consistent one.
That is true. Though, so far, all of the ones I've encountered are random. (Talking about the base game, FMs are probably a different story) I have no problem with the zombies themselves, they could be a cool obstacle if they were handled better. If I knew how to code, I'd make a mod that fixes their pathing.
Tomi on 2/5/2025 at 10:23
I couldn't agree more with the original statement - zombies are awful and made me want to skip the game too. I had played Lord Bafford's Manor in the Thief 1 demo many times before and I loved it, so throwing Garrett in an ugly and frustrating place like Cragscleft Prison right afterwards felt so disappointing that I put the game down for a few weeks.
After finishing Thief 1 I wanted to create my own missions in Dromed. And of course, my first mission had zombies in it. :p
Renault on 2/5/2025 at 13:49
Unless you're ghosting, they're pretty easy to just run by. But marbleman is right. You don't need to learn how to code, just learn some Dromed basics and you can go in and change their patrol paths and randomness.
Thirteen1355 on 8/5/2025 at 18:08
You write a lot of things, but it doesn't quite hit home what makes zombies awful. They are more random than other enemies. And? What makes you think there's no place for randomness in stealth games? They increase the amount of problem solving you have to do.
And this doesn't even apply to Thief, because you can just run past. Maybe you're forcing yourself to ghost? Then it will surely be annoying. But ghosters seem to save scum every second to counter this (sounds like soo much fun), so you could do the same.
WEI on 11/5/2025 at 07:44
Ghosting isn't the only way to play the game, it's only one way among many others, you can play as a master thief, a master of fuckups or a master of trickery : taunting your enemies only to disappear in the shadows after. That's why there is no game over if someone detects you nor somekind of stealth score at the end of each missions. In that sense zombies mesh just as well with the gameplay as any other ai, not ghosting doesn't mean you don't have to hide, so again, it doesn't break the gameplay at all.
Stealth really isn't an issue with them unless you're trying to ghost hard, because they are dumb and slow, they'll forget about you quite easily even if they detect you, and they hardly can chase you.
The game even gives you a tip for the Haunted Cathedral, advising you to trick them to attack any other living being in the area by making noise, it's easy to do and quite funny to clear out the level that way. Roleplay wise it also makes sense not to try to ghost them since..you know..they are dead, so they wont tell anyone they saw a human trespassing.
I get what you are saying though. Yes in any other game I could see why it would feel out of place, but the Thief games brought us the damn Haunted Cathedral, the Shalebridge Cradle, missions with scary atmosphere that makes you want to hide because of discomfort and not convenience, even Thief 2 didn't shy away from this idea (even if they actually did cut out most of the zombies and tombs thing)...even after countless playthroughs Sabotage at Soulforge is still a scary mission to me.
Darkness_Falls on 12/5/2025 at 07:08
Only thing I hate about zombies is their loud, annoying, repetitive groaning and breathing sounds. I wish I had unlimited water arrows and holy waters to take each one out immediately upon seeing them to promptly silence them.
RNG absolutely belongs in a stealth game. Otherwise things are way too predictable and unrealistic. Thief 1 and 2 do a good job of making you feel like you are plopped into a game world/universe that would exist with or without you... unlike practically every video game since that has a game world filled with actors, level designs, and enemies whose only purpose is to exist for you the player, and you're reminded of that constantly.
Obviously, a fair amount of patterns and predictable patrols are nice, and the Thief games have a good amount of that. But to say RNG doesn't belong in stealth games at all is bad. Save that idea for AAA games who love having purely gamey mechanics, interactions, and level designs clearly built solely for the player. The game world exists FOR you in 99.9% of games, and feels like it wouldn't exist without you.
The game shouldn't be designed so fringe/niche "supreme ghost" players have a perfectly predictable game like clockwork and so "speedrunners" can have perfectly orchestrated 3 minute level completions.
By having some variation and unpredictability there is replayability. Having the exact same experience every time would be lame, as would no RNG. Again, save that mentality for modern day AAA titles whose main idea for replayability is giving trophies for collecting 50 blinking trinkets, jumping from 30 towers into bales of hay, and getting 100 headshots... all of which comes to you via hard-coded patrols, NPCs, and levels that you're forced to play how the devs want you should play... with the experience being exactly the same every time.
shouganai on 15/5/2025 at 08:07
Quote Posted by Tomi
I couldn't agree more with the original statement - zombies
are awful and made me want to skip the game too. I had played
Lord Bafford's Manor in the Thief 1 demo many times before and I loved it, so throwing Garrett in an ugly and frustrating place like Cragscleft Prison right afterwards felt so disappointing that I put the game down for a few weeks.
After finishing Thief 1 I wanted to create my own missions in Dromed. And of course, my first mission had zombies in it. :p
I suppose, in my opinion, if you are Ghosting, then it would be painful especially in the later missions too. I have the same issue, but for casual play, I think they are easily ignorable. Funnily enough (my opinon), Cragscleft Prison is befitting of the zombies and I genuinely enjoyed that mission. It's the tomb I don't enjoy replaying, but even then, the atmosphere is still rather cool. I would not call it terrible, nor worthy of skipping the game.
But I can understand your frustrations at it.
I hope you can get through the entire game!
downwinder on 16/5/2025 at 00:45
zombies aren't bad, what is bad is in some older fan missions they made the hammer haunts deadly and super fast where you can't outrun them
i hope they play the fan mission by dront called "plot" now that will test a true thief player its for thief gold
