Moving Right Along...

Now that THAT ugliness is behind us, here are some thoughts on Thief III.

Thief III Deadly Shadows is pretty good. It's definitely not the best in the series, but I'm having trouble figuring out whether Thief I or Thief II was my favorite. It's realistic running around the same city day after day to fence your goods and buy equipment, but it's a micromanagement that I rather not deal with, personally. It's not fun to sneak all the way to the opposite side of The City to sell off art goods and then sneak another way back to sell gems, for example. You don't have to be insanely diligent: cityfolk don't know or care that you're around but City Watch and any opposing factions don't take kindly to you.

Plus, I'm not sure how I feel about that faction stuff. I mean, after the first game you're supposedly in good with the Hammers but then Karras takes helm and you're the enemy again but then you stop him and the Hammers like you again and then you have to steal from the Hammers again. Love hate love hate. You can also ally with the Pagans but that makes no sense: you totally iced the Woodsy Lord. Sure, it's neat to ally yourself with a faction and run up to them in good light and practically pat them on the ass without so much as a peep but... so?

Now, Thief takes patience to play. At least for me. I like to sneak around everywhere, plucking all I can off shelves and whatnot. I don't wanna kill anyone, but I have no qualms against knocking everyone out and piling them up in a corner. (I secretly imagine people coming to and wondering why someone's fishing for trout between their legs.) Anyway, doing a level takes a few hours or so. You know, to figure out good paths, check out patrol routes, etc etc. And after 30 minutes or so I just get tired of being on edge. So save, come back later, and it's all good. Which is another issue with the whole City intermission levels... just put me where I need to be... I don't want to spend another hour or so doing the whole City level again, since I don't know if the next mission is going to advance the day. When the day advances, a lot of goods come back to get stolen again.

Well, I was tired of playing and I found a mission and I figured, while it's up, let's case the joint. So I'm running around like a jerk and getting spotted and chased and fought with and I'm TAKING PEOPLE OUT. Fancy dagger play, sniped with arrows, gassed out of existence, exploding mines, a fucking FLAMING FIRE ARROW OF DEATH TO THE FACE. I wasn't killed. I was hurt, but it wasn't too bad with all the health potions around. The game shouldn't have let me do that. They should have ganged up on me and beat me into submission. It's supposed to be that way... the ONLY way to play the levels should be stealthy sneaky thief. Now, things could go horribly wrong and you can defend yourself and mitigate the situation. But, come on, I did the WHOLE level Metal Gear Solid style. Boooooooooooooooo

I'm not sure how far I am in the storyline since I can't use an FAQ for that game without it being ruined totally. But it sure LOOKS pretty. I miss the rope arrow and instead got these "Human Fly" gloves that let me climb walls. When I bought the upgrade I was trippin' with how awesome it would be, except I've found ZERO instances in which it's useful. All walls have an overhang or a balcony above it that prevents you doing kickass stuff like squirreling around on rooftops like you did in Thief II (which were really fun missions).

If you have a computer strong enough to play it, I suggest checking it out.

I also saw some Chobits this weekend. But it's already kinda late. I have a feeling that series is going to make me cry a little.

SPOIL IT FOR ME AND DIE IN A FIRE.