Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12525 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sold Out Software
• Released on: 2005-12-02
• Platform: Windows XP

Customer Reviews

Two great games from great Thief series - and they work on older computers
I have started replaying these classic old games as my old 1.2GHz Athlon PC with ATI 4x 256Mb AGP graphics card just couldn't handle the action on the newer Thief III: The deadly shadows. Game play in the thief series is pretty unique, you (the thief Garret) must creep around in the shadows, pick locks and pockets, stealing whatever comes your way unseen. You can knock out the odd guard etc. and drag him into the shadows (as if his body is found the alarm will sound). In most cases everything you steal can be sold to buy more weapons at the end of each mission. So no gung-ho charge with a BFG here, as in most cases you will be overpowered and killed (you can fight back but often at heavy cost to your health). The totally convincing stealth aspect is unique to the thief series, and the recreation of a rather surreal medieval Europe (with gothic engines and electric lights) is engrossing. It's a world steeped in dark magic, holy scripts and religious fervour.

There are many missions in each game, often in cities or inside mansions, with occasional trips to lost cities and dark caverns (which are a welcome break in the game relieving any feeling of repetition). The game play isn't too hard, unless you decide or are forced never to harm anyone, and you can save anytime for difficult sequences. You do get the odd glitch, like I have never been able to get Thief II: The metal age to run as it says `No game CD in drive', eventually I cured it by putting in the first CD Thief I: The dark project. In this double pack you get one CD with one game on each side.

Those with fast modern gaming PC's should definitely also try the latest Thief 3: Deadly Shadows as it has better graphics and even more developed AI and storyline. Not that these games haven't got decent graphics though, they look pretty good if a little sepia toned - no Doom II pixellated images here. Gameplay is atmospheric and goes very creepy when zombies and spiders are about - although you can chill out in the shadows if no-one sees you go there or bumps into you. The Dark Project is probably the best of the two games, with more desolate graveyards, abandoned cathedrals, catacombs and scary zombies, compared to the Age of Metal's infernal Mechanist's machines. The latter has better graphics though and more challenging game-play.

These older games here aren't as XP friendly as Thief 3:Deadly shadows though, and may take some work to get running (you must see the Thief forums at www.ttlg.com/forums), but both are available so cheaply in this Thief 1&2 double pack from Amazon at the moment it is hardly much of risk buying them. They seem to have the latest patches already applied. Besides other than the `can't find CD' problem these games have worked faultlessly on my XP Pro PC. So a great pair of games if you have an elderly PC or onboard graphics, and now going for a bargain price.

Unique game (no other games similar in genre)
Hi everyone. I have these two games. I bought Thief 2 a while ago, but lost it. Now, i bought this double (just a month ago). What can I say?

Firstly, I'd like to point out, that I too did get this problem about the Indeo Codec Driver and Image video playback. However, I took the initiative and googled it. I came to the Indeo Ligos site which offered the codec, but for $14.95 or something. Therefore, I kept searching, and came to a legitimate site half way down the first page, offering the download for free. I later discovered that the $14.95 download from the official site was in fact the whole Indeo package, rather than just the driver.

Anyway, with that problem sorted, here is what I think. Both game are excellent. You get this FEELING of all the time in the world. And you literally do. You can walk around at your own pace, do whatever you want to do in each level. IT IS INCREDIBLE! You can hear the clank clank of soldiers in heavy armour walking down stone corridors of castles. You can hear the guards talking to each other, snoozing, lighting torches, doing whatever they wish. And all the while you lurk in the shadows, quietly stealing valuable items here and there, and of course completing your primary objectives. The battles are indeed awesome. You lurk the whole time, until suddenly a guard sees your shadow, and shouts out. You jump with fright, very literally, and you can stay and put him down with a sword if you have, one, arrows, or the trusty blackjack (used to knock guard out in stealth attacks). Towards the end, the intorduction of a few robots is, for me, a very SLIGHT downer. I REALLY like realism. But that's my opinion. I'm sure for most people it adds a bit of spice. What would have been cool though, is just a huge city for you to explore as a thief in the middle ages in england, comepletely realistic and all. But that's for another time.

Overall, this game is super, and I give it the following:

Graphics - 9/10

Gameplay - 10/10

Sound - 10/10

Replayability - 8/10 (there are tons of levels, but i just love doing them again and again, with increasing difficulty)

nVidia issues
Beware that, even though these games will play under XP with the tweaks suggested by above, recent drivers for nVidia graphics cards (91.31) may render this game unplayable. System Shock 2 is similarly affected, and AVP 1 went the same way a while ago.