Thief Gold

[Cowboy Moment]

Escape is annoying with all the samey-looking caves, and the layout is not very good for a maze in general, but it gets points for having challenging stealth. Strange Bedfellows, on the other hand, is just mediocre imo. I struggle to remember anything of note about that level, and I replayed Thief a few months ago.

 

[Melan]

Of the three Thief Gold missions, only Song of the Caverns is widely considered to be good. Thieves Guild I think people dislike because it starts out promising (a casino!) but then turns unexpectedly into an endless sewer maze romp. It's like Escape with human enemies and a less satisfying ending.

Thieves Guild can also devolve into a huuuge exercise in backtracking if you visit the residences of the rival crime lords in the wrong order and miss a key in one to open a safe in the other. Predictably, the two are nowhere near each other, and are separated by networks after networks of tunnels.

Still better than Mage Towers.

 

[skacky]

Strange Bedfellows is the weakest mission in T1/G in my opinion, while Escape is one of my favorites because of how alien and hard it is. I usually dislike revisited levels and sadly it's the case with Bedfellows, especially since the Pagan area doesn't add much. Thief 2 is the worst offender though, with Ambush/Courier, Kidnap (which is by far the worst mission in the whole series in my opinion) and Casing/Masks.
I used to dislike Thieves' Guild but I've learned to like it somehow. It's sub-par compared to other missions but I like the backstory and thieves are challenging. The Mage Towers; not so fond. It's ugly as hell but the mages are interesting, plus the music/ambient tracks used in it are awesome. Song of the Caverns however is definitely my favorite in the whole series.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I never understood the hate for Kidnap. I had quite some fun revisiting the Lost City and seeing what's changed, as well as setting a sneaksy tricksy trap for Cavador and his posse.

 

[octavius]

I never understood the hate for Kidnap. I had quite some fun revisiting the Lost City and seeing what's changed, as well as setting a sneaksy tricksy trap for Cavador and his posse.

I love a good posse.

 

[Infinitron]

I never understood the hate for Kidnap. I had quite some fun revisiting the Lost City and seeing what's changed, as well as setting a sneaksy tricksy trap for Cavador and his posse.

The level can work if you treat it as a quick in-and-out sort of mission, but for completionist explorefags it's boring as hell

 

[JarlFrank]

So Randy "worthless male" Smith designed First City Bank and Trust, and another male designed Life of the Party, the two best levels in the game IMO.

How the fuck could Emil Pagliarulo go from designing Life of the fucking Party to making horribly bland shit for post-Morrowind Bethesda?
To think that this man was in charge of designing Oblivion's stealth system...

 

[skacky]

The level can work if you treat it as a quick in-and-out sort of mission, but for completionist explorefags it's boring as hell

This. Kidnap is an absolute chore of a level trying to get all the loot, etc. It is crowded with Mechanist devices and full of guards everywhere. Shadow spots are overall badly designed which makes sneaking a pain in the ass. It's not entertaining, the backstory for it makes no sense at all and it does a pisspoor job at revisiting The Lost City, which is an iconic/fun level in Thief 1/Gold (even though base T1's Lost City is the best version).

Speaking of Life of the Party; the demo version, The Unwelcome Guest, is even better.

 

[JarlFrank]

Speaking of Life of the Party; the demo version, The Unwelcome Guest, is even better.

Oh? What's different?

 

[skacky]

It's a bit bigger, the lower half of Angelwatch is missing, you can break into Angelwatch from an open window outside, you can climb on Angelwatch's roof (it's tricky but doable), there's an entirely new area in the city which is the old location of Castle Carlysle, it's stylistically closer to Thief 1 (it uses several meshes and old textures from Thief 1 for instance), some of the conversations are a bit different (one of the guards in the famous archer scene has a different VA and slightly different lines) and some other stuff I don't really remember. It's still very close to the final level.

You can grab a NewDark version here if you're interested since installing the regular version nowadays is more trouble than it's worth: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141747&highlight=unwelcome+guest