So yesterday, bored as always, I decided to start playing Thief II again. Oh man it was SOOOOOOO good. Thief is definitely the kind of game that you simply don't want to finish because it's SOOOOOOOO good and you simply don't want it to end. I played through two missions last night: the Mechanist Monastery and the First City Bank and Trust. Personally I like Thief II a bit better because there are no spooky Zombies lurking around in haunted graveyards or haunted Cathedral basements. Thief: the Dark Project freaked me out when you hear a Zombie sneaking up on you when you don't have any holy water handy. Thief II is a different experience; it's less scary and you get more time to explore and problem solve instead of worrying about "How the fuck am I gonna get into this area with 4 Zombies walking around?"
I always play on expert because you get more objectives. Besides it requires more skill when all you can use is the blackjack (though I'm want to play through it on hard again, just so I can use the broadheads). The Monastary wasn't too hard. I think I blackjacked everyone except the group of patrolling guards on the outside. It was definitely a fun mission though and it had a very ingenious setup. The Bank. OMG the Bank. I loved it. Roof top entry, blowing up bots, sneaking up on guards on loud hardwood tiles, setting up a moss patch and then doing a mid-air jump on to it and then blackjacking a guard... Oh man it was a super fun map! While exploring I found a floor window entry into the basement as well. I just kind of wish I had more fire arrows to blow up the bots. Well maybe not. I used the two I had on the security cams in the vault but the last two guards heard the explosion anyways. I tried to take them out but they are in a open area with a bot around them. It was fine though cuz once the vault door is closed they can't get in. Afterward I just speed potion-ed my way out after I got the recording haha. Fun shit! By the end of the night I had to stop because my pinky started to hurt from holding down the left Shift button for 'run'.
We need more games of this style: fully open, nonlinear, multiple paths to goal, and challenging (NOT frustrating). The game basically then becomes a huge problem and it's up to the player to figure out how to solve it. Now THAT is fun.
