My Least Enjoyed THIEF game
I honestly have more fun playing the Thief Reboot than this game, and would actually tell people to play the Black Parade mod over Thief DS.
Back when I was in college and I tried playing it on the Original XBox, I only got so far before I started feeling just completely uncomfortable with the game's controls, sound scape, graphics, and general atmosphere. Sure, you *could* blame it on just bad TV speakers, but every time since its release, when I loaded it up on a PC with much better sound, I could only get so far in before I just got sick of playing it. For the same reasons.
I don't think it's a terrible game, either. It just rubs me the wrong way.
When it comes to the environments, they were chewing on the "2000's" rush to higher graphical fidelity, when it could have had bigger, more interesting levels, and just focused on excellent art direction instead. They feel so closed in and just plain ugly to me. They aren't -all- bad levels, but I honestly don't enjoy 80% of them.
At the time, I could see how they wanted to emulate the success of Splinter Cell (or at least, that was my view back then). I have absolutely NOTHING against the 3rd person camera, or the integration of a more detailed physics model to base Garrett's movement around. But after playing Deus Ex IW, I can safely say that they were still struggling with the tech they had. It's pretty unpredictable, and while not quite as "floaty" as 1 & 2, it just doesn't feel good.
The gameplay around audio feels nerfed. The NPC's look terrible. The audio itself isn't all that great in places. The "claw gloves" or whatever, that let you stick to walls, would be cool if the levels had much in the way of use for them. They don't, though.
Just ..
There's a lot about the general feel of Thief 3 that I can safely say, even with the best fan-made updates and patches, is not fun. The game needs a full-on remake, if not a major remaster. Until then, I'll probably beat it once, then never touch it again.
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