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
Post a Comment