The Motherland

Simply put, lately I've been playing this MMORPG-type game called Puzzle Pirates. To put things short, it is a game where you are a pirate, and to do just about anything, you play a puzzle-themed game.

If you click this link, it gives me (the referrer) some money just for referring you, and gives you some money to start out. Everyone wins:

http://www.puzzlepirates.com/register/ welcome.wm?from=r523018

Since I know some people aren't fans of the referral system, here is the non-referral link:

http://www.puzzlepirates.com

If you're interested in playing forever for free, I suggest you pick a doubloon ocean. I myself play on the doubloon ocean "Sage", for those that may be interested.

Summary: Thief II is everything from Thief, but more or better. But is it enough to give it a 10/10 in my book? Almost, but no.

Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 10/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Before I start the review, note that I am going to review it compared to Thief. The game is very, VERY similar to Thief in every way, so the differences are what will be highlighted. Anything not mentioned can be explained in my Thief review.

Gameplay: The gameplay is very similar to Thief. You have your stealth gear (lockpicks, blackjack, different kinds of arrows, etc), but this time you can have items and weapons that weren't in the original (like invisibility potions, flash mines, and Slow-Fall Potions). This is great, because the system for giving the player weapons and items was flawless before, so the great system got -more-.

In Thief II, you do a lot of stealing of anything you can find that isn't nailed down (or made of crap). Very similar to Thief in this aspect. The differences are that the loot is hidden a lot more in this game than in the last. While playing through the game on Expert mode, plenty of times I couldn't finish missions for a decent period of time just because I needed more loot. Not always a good thing.

Unlike in Thief, there are no "creature" missions. Every mission has you taffing about, using stealth rather than cold iron. This is great because not only does this installment of the series have more missions, but each one is a quality mission, guaranteed to give you the same experience as the one before it...which as it ironically turns out, isn't the best thing. The game tries hard to mix it up while giving the player stealthy, stealing missions, but about half of the missions in the game felt quite similar to each-other. Because the similar missions weren't always one after another, and there were of course about 8 unique missions I did enjoy of course, I'd say there were about three times I truly wanted a different type of mission.

The AI is even smarter in this game, which made me wonder why the game wasn't named "Thief II: You Better Learn How Quicksave Works". The guards are very unforgiving. If they happen to hear you or faintly see you, you must be able to haul it to a hiding location WHILE not letting them see you more, or hear your footsteps (they will hear some pretty soft steps), or use one of your precious auxiliary items (assuming you bought something like a flashbomb or gas arrow). The guards will hunt you down like a dog if you let them know you're there, so hide the bodies, clean the blood, and tread softly.

The levels in Thief II are enormous. Not just enormous, but some were five times bigger than those in Thief (I'm not lying, they were huge). Combine that with obstacles at every turn (there are new types of foes and new types of traps to ruin you this time around), you will spend a lot of time in one mission, just trying to get around, exploring, or trying to pass an obstacle. You will get a lot more time spent in your missions in Thief II than in Thief.

The game was hard on Expert, which I am glad for. If I didn't want a game that was very hard, I wouldn't have picked that difficulty, or I would've restarted the mission on a lower difficulty. In general, the gameplay in Thief II is Thief, but more. More to the point where it is definitely worth noting, but some flaws keep Gameplay from a 10.

Story: The story in the second game is in the same type of context as the first one. Garrett likes money, and he doesn't like anyone else. Things get a little more intense in the story this time through, due to new people in town, and further references to the previous game.

What truly made me give Thief II's storyline a 10/10 where Thief only got a 9/10, is the fact that in Thief, not even half the missions were devoted to story building, and instead left a great frame story lingering at times. However, in Thief II, less than four missions will be fillers. You will have purpose to where you go about taffing, and you build a better story. Furthermore, you learn just how unique and solid some characters can be. Just like in Thief, Thief II doesn't give you any stereotypical story about a group of people out to save the world, it gives you the story of one person who finds a bunch of other people to be a pain in the ass. It is solid, realistic, and enjoyable.

Graphics: What can I say? It is Thief's graphics but better. You see some nice textures and great lighting. There's so many different textures and skins though, that it seemed to have worked out better in this installment. Not to mention time has passed.

Sound: What, you want me to explain improvement on perfection? The sound is great, and you get your money's worth. And if it matters, voices getting louder or softer based on distance and pressing you head against a door is done nicely.

Overall: Thief II is "Thief II" in a more legitimate and obvious sense than one can give it credit for. It is essentially Thief but with more, bigger, and better. There is no new engine, there isn't a groundbreaking change in gameplay. If you didn't like Thief, don't buy this. If you liked Thief, buy this. If you liked Thief but got a tummy ache by the time you did the last stealth mission, you won't like Thief II. In either case, do get Thief first, because the stories do intertwine.

And so I ask myself, what of Thief III...

I made a screen saver in VB, if anyone wants it, they're free to use it of course:

http://members.byond.com/ScouSin/files/Bouncing%20Ball.zip

Just put it in the WINDOWS folder in your main drive (C, probably). After that it'll be selectable.

Summary: Liking Naruto doesn't mean someone is stupid. It's sort of a given thing, but it bears explaining.

It is growing more and more common that I'm seeing people call the Naruto fans the "new DBZers". Given that many Naruto fans have been leading people to believe this, I can assure skeptics out there that there are plenty of fans who don't act like the types of people that handfuls of BYONDers associate with stupidity.

Granted, some/many/most (heck if I bother to count every idiot and every non-idiot) Naruto fans on BYOND may act like the already labeled DBZers, and are already labeled as such, but as long as I stand here as a fan of Naruto, you can be damn-well assured that Naruto will not be under the same umbrella as DBZ, when it comes to the views of fans on BYOND.

And for the fans who act like idiots (you know who you are. The people who post about hoping people get killed, the people who beg for "GM" in every game, etc); Get your act together, and maybe you won't look so stupid, or make what you're a fan of be associated with stupidity.

Summary: I got Thief from my best friend ages ago. I completed the normal mode on it those ages ago, and beat it again on expert this time. It's a game I was very pleased to have played. Allow me to explain. Quite a change of pace for the FPS genre.

Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty sweet. It's a game of stealth where you must be hidden and be...uh...stealthy. If you fail to be stealthy, you are punished through direct combat (and in expert mode, that nearly means you lose). There's a lot more details to it, like you can arouse their attention without them actually coming for you. For those of you who have played the Metal Gear Solid series, you can be safe in knowing that being stealthy is harder, but a lot more logic is used before encounters, during encounters, and after encounters (enemies are smarter in Thief).

In Thief, you have many gadgets and crap at your disposal. Health potions, flashbombs (basically flashbang grenades), speed potions, mines, lockpicks (oh how I loved lockpicking), and all sorts of other cool things. The details in the game come from usage of your environment in any way you can. You can't ignore a feature the game gives you, otherwise you may find yourself with a sword in your forehead. You have many weapons that are very interesting, but they are all also very valuable. If you wish to do well, you must think like freakin' MacGyver.

The way the game handles difficulties alone is worth noting. It works sorta like how some other games handle their own. What I mean is the game gives you more crap to do when you're on a harder difficulty. Everything is made harder for you in many ways on the difficulty levels. The game truly does change dramatically.

As a Thief, you're not there to just kill people. Your motivation is money, and it's proven by the fact that you steal anything that isn't nailed down (and also isn't made of crap, like wood or plastic). After you are done with a mission, you goto a shop for the next mission, where you can buy extra supplies to aid you in your mission. Your options are restricted, and you also can never buy everything. Buy all you can for the difficult missions.

Where the gameplay lost a point is simply in that some parts of the game are not based on stealth, but killing of creatures or the like. The game doesn't have enough of a combat engine to make it always a great experience.

Story: You are a thief named Garrett who was raised by a strange thievery group called the "Keepers". They raised you, and taught you all you know. From here, you are a master thief. The game doesn't tell you everything in the story for a good reason. It oftentimes plays itself as if it's too cool for you (really hard to explain besides with that). Everything that the player needs to know is in the game though. It's deep, but it won't be making anyone feel stupid.

Just as I said with stealing things, your motivation is money. That logic alone is a winner, because the hero is greedy, witty, selfish, and an ass. That fact alone makes you like him, because he is a real person. He's not out to save the princess, he's not out to prove he's a badass. He's there for what he wants, and he groans at challenge. T'is the life of a great thief.

Graphics: The graphics aren't all that pretty at times (which can be forgiven because it was made in 1998). The graphics do their justice where it matters though, so nothing really hurts the experience.

Sound: Everything sounds like it should, everything makes sounds when it should, and sound is a part of the gameplay (as it should be). Clickity clacks and breaking glass, strains on a bow and arrow, clashing swords, explosions, painful screams. Some of the excellent sounds I heard this game. The voice acting was very convincing the entire game too. From sarcasm to being annoyed, the voice acting won't shy anyone away.

Final notes: Thief is a game for someone who likes stealth. Thief is oftentimes a difficult game (on normal difficulty), and is for the resourceful. Assuming you're not afraid of difficult games, Thief is a game I recommend for everyone. Just don't expect ethics or firefights. The best part is that it is a very old game, so chances are you'd be able to pick it up (or Thief Gold, which is supposed to have more) for very cheap

Yesterday I got Thief II as a birthday present from Bob. I have very high hopes for it, but I decided to type up this review before playing it, so I could properly compare the two.