Comparing Thief (Gold) and Alien: Isolation

Thief

Before completing Alien: Isolation, I contemplated playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent as a follow up. An October horrorfest in time of Halloween.

But, after further consideration I've decided on Thief: Gold, the classic from 1999. This game shares significant similarities, but also crucial differences with A:I (and it will give me sometime to recover before another exhausting experience). It's likely I will begin Amnesia after.

Thief, recently remade and titled, creatively, as Thief, I obtained from Good Old Games, and for this reason there will be fewer screenshots. While GOG has many stregnths, ease of taking screenshots is not one of them.

The connective tissue which allows for a comparison between Alien: Isolation and Thief: The Dark Project is that their core gameplay is stealth. While it's possible both can be beaten without killing any foes, (though it's probably impossible to beat A:I without flaming the Alien a few times), the implementation of concealment differs between the two games, and this leads to divergent results. Both use hiding as a game mechanic, but in Thief stealth allows for cunning, while A:I uses stealth to enforce tension. The devices provided for aiding the player underline this difference. As already mentioned, in A:I Ripley discovers a motion tracker. A helpful tool, but with limitations intended to strain the players senses. It has blind spots (behind and to the sides), coupled with its unreliability, and prone to delivering false readings when information is most needed. During its use, Ripley can't run, and objects in the distance become indistinct and blurry, because she is focused on the motion tracker.
Thief's source of information has none of these limitation. Instead of providing incomplete information about enemies, it provides perfect information about the player's condition. A small graphic at the bottom of the screen, referred to as the Light Gem, indicates two factors of Garret's condition: how visible he is, and how loud he is. The Gem transitions from black when in the darkest shadows, along a gradient to bright white when completely visible. Unlike the motion tracker it does not inspire fear, because it does not show approaching enemies. Instead it confirms the player's safety. If the gem is entirely dark, no enemy can find Garret (unless they crash into him).

This difference in stealth (hiding from enemies that are searching for you, versus maneuvering around patrolling foes) changes the atmosphere the player experiences. A:I is about the tension and fear the player feels, but Thief is about the cleverness of the player as they outwit and avoid patrolling enemies.

But a comparison of Gem vs Motion Tracker isn't the only reason for this difference.

Saving the game is just as important. As mentioned in the last article about A:I, the player can only save at certain locations (spaced about every fifteen minutes). These locations are certainly not safe. And the purpose is to offer the player of risking their achievements by forging ahead to locate the next save station, or risking returning to the last save location. There are no autosaves, nor can the player save in a menu whenever they want.
Thief encourages quicksaving after each minor achievement. It's painless (just hit F11), and it's also safe. While A:I's largest issue with autosaving would have been its effect on tension, it would have included another issue. Quicksave could force the player into an inescapable loop of death, if they saved right before they died. Because nowhere is safe in Alien: Isolation, is a reasonable problem. But in Thief, the player can know they are safe, because the Light Gem offers perfect information about the player's situation. More importantly, the game has no tension to maintain. Garret is never fearful, but embodies the archetype of the cheeky, cunning thief. With nothing to fear, the game should offer the player the ability to save and not have to repeat their achievements.

Both games are about avoiding combat, but both provide the tools for a conflict. While dueling with the Alien will only lead to death, the androids and ragtag humans of Sevastopol Station offered viable targets. Garret may find himself in a duel with armed guards, giant spiders, or zombies. No foe is as formidable as the Alien, but it's deadly to pass swords with more than a few guards. In both games, engaging a single target is likely to bring reinforcements to the fray. For silent take-downs Garrets uses the blackjack, but this isn't combat. It allows the player to neutralize enemies who don't see him, with one hit, but has no effect on guards who see it coming. A variety of arrows allow Garret to eliminate foes from a distance, but since one arrow isn't enough, they may sound the alarm. The difference between A:I and Thief comes down to this: combat in Thief is normally an engagement on Garret's terms, but Ripley is forced to fight reactively, throwing bombs and shooting an ineffective pistol as she desperately tries to avoid the enemy's grasping hands.
Alien: Isolation offered flexible solutions to difficult problems. And there were occasions when two different paths could be taken to reach an objective. But these were few, and not comparable to Thief. Unlike the narrow passageways of Sevastopol, the City (that's what it's called) of Thief offers sprawling underground caverns, and ornate labyrinthine mansions. While the earlier levels (and I'm about a third of the way through) are simplistic and without many options, they've already begun branching into a mass of paths. Each level offers a multitude of different routes for the player, which have to be discovered by player ingenuity. While A:I included a detailed map which highlighted opportunities, and a motion tracker which always pointed to the next objective, for most levels Garret only has a map with a few scribbled notes in the margins. During the course of an adventure, the player will sometimes wander off the map and into areas unknown. Surprisingly, a part of the map will normally be highlighted to provide the player a vague idea of where they are.

Thief is sure to demonstrate other differences from Alien: Isolation, but the next article will focus exclusively on Thief's setting and story.


Comments