Graphics

The glory of... 16bit color?

Strange as it may sound, one of the biggest graphical advancements that Thief II boasts over the original game is the addition of 16 bit color. "What?" you ask? Well, the original Thief actually ran on an 8-bit palette. That means that all art was done in 256 colors, though with lighting and shading effects, it didn't look quite as bad as it might seem. However, it was noticeably drawing away from the quality of the game, so LG implemented a 16 bit palette in Thief II.

Who's that in there?

There are the two lovebirds!

The difference isn't remarkable, but definitely something we are pleased with. Gone is the "grainy" look on some textures, and the extra colors mean more variety in the world. Of course, when one considers just how dark the game is by design, it's a little hard to appreciate the improvements.

The Cool

It's easy to tell that the designers spent a lot of time on the levels. The architecture is very believable, in an industrial/medieval sort of way. Thief II carries over the slightly gothic feel of the original, but the addition of the dreary, industrial look makes the atmosphere all the more oppressive. There are now many artificial lights and other industrial-age inventions which impede Garrett on his undertakings, but they also illustrate the cold, unfeeling nature of the City. An apt comparison might be Batman's Gotham City, but even there, we can find examples of people being nice, happy, and friendly. Garrett's City has a similar look to it, but the entire feel is a lot colder. People there seem to have a sort of hostile apathy towards everything.

Hmm... this is considerably bigger than the last job

Ah! A victim approaches!

While character models aren't particularly impressive, their animations are. All characters have a wide range of motions, with smooth animation to fill it in. Archers raise bows, draw an arrow, cock it back and aim. Swordsmen go through the entire range of swinging and blocking motions. When someone is looking for you in the dark, they creep around - hunched over, feet slowly moving, all the while peering into the shadows. This is not that much, if at all, different from what was offered in the original game, but it is still some of the best animation around.

Someone has a taste for statues

Two bogies at 12 o'clock high, duck!

Lighting is absolutely amazing. Maybe it's the fact that it is used so much in the game, or that the game relies on it, but Thief II has a truly impressive lighting model. Every wall, pillar and crate in the game will cast a shadow. If there is a strong light source on one side and a weaker one on the other, then the shadow will be that much weaker. All light sources are factored into the shadows equation, giving poor Garrett a lot to think about before he steps forward.

The Uncool

However, as mentioned earlier, we are still disappointed with the character models. They were sub-standard when Thief came out, and right now they are just plain bad. At best, the models look like they came from a poor Quake II based game. At worst, they might be mistaken for skins used on the original Quake marine.