Thief 2X doesn't make a good impression in its first 5 or so minutes: The voice acting is stiff and unconvincing, and the presentation in the first cutscene doesn't reach anywhere near the quality of those in the original games. However, if you stick with it for those first 5 or so minutes and reach the mansion in the first mission, everything that follows (imo) is easily on par with and often exceeds the quality of the first two games. Personally, I love it even more than Thief 1 and 2, and I can see why it has always been so widely praised in the Thief community. Having played it for the first time in 2023 immediately after replaying the first 2 games, I was stunned by how immersive and believable every single environment felt. I love that the developers didn't try to recreate the levels of the first two games and opted instead to iterate on what Looking Glass had previously accomplished while heading in their own direction. For example, Mission 3 (While the City Sleeps), was a far more interesting city mission to me than anything found in Thief 1 and 2 (yes, even Life of the Party in Thief 2 and Assassins in Thief 1). It felt so satisfying hopping from balcony to rooftop to ledge, infiltrating all the various buildings and uncovering the tiny stories and secrets contained within them. And this isn't even close to being the best mission of the game, but it works so well because the environments feel believable and believable I also love that they absolutely *nailed* the atmosphere of Thief, and struck a fine balance between the tone of both the first two games. The haunting mechanical ambience that they composed for Thief 2X felt perfectly fitting with what Eric Brosius had accomplished with the Thief trilogy. They also did such a great job at fleshing out the lore between the Hammerites and Mechanists while managing to avoid having it all read like fan fiction. Honestly, I wish more people would talk about how absolutely bleeding excellent this campaign is. If this is the kind of quality I'm in for when I play more Thief Fan Missions, I can't wait to see what's in store. The Thief modding community are truly some of the most dedicated and insanely creative that I've ever seen. Thanks for the great video!
While the City Sleeps is guaranteed not to sustain replays as much as LotP, by virtue of being much smaller and having much fewer emergent scenes. Assassins is a mansion mission so it isn't a reasonable point of comparison. There are some classic missions here (especially the Grand Hotel and DatDM) and Zaya is an interesting character, but while it nicely rounds out Thief, it's a very tall order to argue that it is better than any of the original games.
I fully agree with you! I'm glad that I am not the only one who's of the opinion that T2X has a slight edge over the two main games even though it's by no means without its fair share of flaws. Some levels are a bit too linear to have any replay value so I suspect I'd prefer T2 over T2X after replaying them both a few times but as someone who has only finished each level once I must admit to having had more fun with this fan campaign. Sure, the character models haven't aged well, the voice acting is obviously not done by professionals and the new arrows aren't as well thought out as the 'official' ones (in my opinion at least) but some of the levels are incredibly fun and well thought out, and the refined, grounded stealth from T2 making up most of the campaign with two solid T1-esque missions sprinkled in has worked really well for me. I have to admit that I initially dropped T1 during the bonehoard and moved on to T2 which I enjoyed significantly more so I am a lot fonder of T2's missions, but mission seven, Down Among Dead Men was one of my favorites despite causing some slight frustration, but I did not expect to enjoy a more maze-like, fantasy exploration mission as much as I did.
I got a bug in mission 7, I used the key to unlock the tower..........then decided to go back the first part of the mission and make sure I got all the loot. I go back to the tower and the door is closed.........and I don't have the key anymore. Oops. lol. I used a cheat to skip to the next level.
25:24 IT'S A BURRICK NOT A LIZARD
18 years ago ???!!! Jeez ! It feels like yesterday !
Thief 2X doesn't make a good impression in its first 5 or so minutes: The voice acting is stiff and unconvincing, and the presentation in the first cutscene doesn't reach anywhere near the quality of those in the original games. However, if you stick with it for those first 5 or so minutes and reach the mansion in the first mission, everything that follows (imo) is easily on par with and often exceeds the quality of the first two games. Personally, I love it even more than Thief 1 and 2, and I can see why it has always been so widely praised in the Thief community.
Having played it for the first time in 2023 immediately after replaying the first 2 games, I was stunned by how immersive and believable every single environment felt. I love that the developers didn't try to recreate the levels of the first two games and opted instead to iterate on what Looking Glass had previously accomplished while heading in their own direction.
For example, Mission 3 (While the City Sleeps), was a far more interesting city mission to me than anything found in Thief 1 and 2 (yes, even Life of the Party in Thief 2 and Assassins in Thief 1). It felt so satisfying hopping from balcony to rooftop to ledge, infiltrating all the various buildings and uncovering the tiny stories and secrets contained within them. And this isn't even close to being the best mission of the game, but it works so well because the environments feel believable and believable
I also love that they absolutely *nailed* the atmosphere of Thief, and struck a fine balance between the tone of both the first two games. The haunting mechanical ambience that they composed for Thief 2X felt perfectly fitting with what Eric Brosius had accomplished with the Thief trilogy. They also did such a great job at fleshing out the lore between the Hammerites and Mechanists while managing to avoid having it all read like fan fiction.
Honestly, I wish more people would talk about how absolutely bleeding excellent this campaign is. If this is the kind of quality I'm in for when I play more Thief Fan Missions, I can't wait to see what's in store. The Thief modding community are truly some of the most dedicated and insanely creative that I've ever seen.
Thanks for the great video!
While the City Sleeps is guaranteed not to sustain replays as much as LotP, by virtue of being much smaller and having much fewer emergent scenes. Assassins is a mansion mission so it isn't a reasonable point of comparison.
There are some classic missions here (especially the Grand Hotel and DatDM) and Zaya is an interesting character, but while it nicely rounds out Thief, it's a very tall order to argue that it is better than any of the original games.
I fully agree with you! I'm glad that I am not the only one who's of the opinion that T2X has a slight edge over the two main games even though it's by no means without its fair share of flaws. Some levels are a bit too linear to have any replay value so I suspect I'd prefer T2 over T2X after replaying them both a few times but as someone who has only finished each level once I must admit to having had more fun with this fan campaign.
Sure, the character models haven't aged well, the voice acting is obviously not done by professionals and the new arrows aren't as well thought out as the 'official' ones (in my opinion at least) but some of the levels are incredibly fun and well thought out, and the refined, grounded stealth from T2 making up most of the campaign with two solid T1-esque missions sprinkled in has worked really well for me.
I have to admit that I initially dropped T1 during the bonehoard and moved on to T2 which I enjoyed significantly more so I am a lot fonder of T2's missions, but mission seven, Down Among Dead Men was one of my favorites despite causing some slight frustration, but I did not expect to enjoy a more maze-like, fantasy exploration mission as much as I did.
Need to play this again
I got a bug in mission 7, I used the key to unlock the tower..........then decided to go back the first part of the mission and make sure I got all the loot. I go back to the tower and the door is closed.........and I don't have the key anymore. Oops. lol. I used a cheat to skip to the next level.