Far too many enemies are perpetually staring at walls, making those encounters far too easy and absolutely useless. Gloomwood actually has some of the most forgiving stealth game AI I have ever seen, much more so than the Thief games which are already too forgiving. Since gameplay evolution wasn’t on the table, of course AI evolution also was not. Although one improvement with doors is that they are destructible, taking after Deus Ex in that regard. You also cannot hide under objects in this game, like you can in Dishonored and other more recent stealth games. Most notably door manipulation, which is far more granular, fluid, and capable in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 and in Penumbra. Herein lies a problem: it is nice to see the return of ground surface material impacting footstep noise like in Thief, but Gloomwood lacks gameplay evolution we have seen after Thief. ![]() Hit the “use” key on a door to open or close it, hit it again to do the other, hold the key to open/close it slowly, let go and hold it again to open/close it slowly (the inverse of the previous key press). Mantling objects is similar to how it is in the Thief games, as are the animations/sounds/mechanics of carrying and throwing bodies and objects, water and swimming through it, the importance of ground surface material on footstep noise, and manipulating doors which is an important mechanic in both games. Not that this is a real complaint, just a minor difference I have with the game.Īside from the general graphics quality, there are other clear inspirations taken from Thief. The downside to this is that valuable campaign time is spent serving as a simplified, spoon-fed tutorial which is common in games (Dishonored did it too), but I prefer Thief’s approach of not dumbing down the campaign at all for tutorial purposes. Once freed, you are thrust into the opening level of the game which is also initially designed as a tutorial, because unlike Thief there is no separate tutorial. With that out of the way, you start Gloomwood in a prison cell and are freed by a mysterious figure. The main weapon in Thief is a tool more than it is a weapon, which is not the case in Gloomwood. Stop saying it’s Thief with guns, it isn’t. ![]() Gloomwood doesn’t have that mission-based design levels so far are direct continuations of the previous. You purchase equipment for a mission beforehand, because after most missions Garrett effectively returns to base before waiting for the next assignment. ![]() Thief (the first two in particular) largely isolates each mission. Gloomwood is not architected anything like Thief. This is more like survival horror game combat, something the game accurately bills itself as. You can take on one foe head-on easily enough, more than that is more trouble than it’s worth. While the player character is far more proficient in combat than Thief’s Garrett (a game in which combat is highly discouraged by the game design itself), you are no superhero like you are in Dishonored. Stealth is the main gameplay element you don’t want to go around trying to openly slaughter everyone like you can do in Dishonored. In truth, Gloomwood is somewhere between Thief and Dishonored. Many players (thankfully not New Blood Interactive themselves) have long ago taken to calling the game, “ Thief with guns” because its graphics look most like Thief’s, but this is an oxymoron since Thief with guns would no longer be Thief as it would play totally differently. The early access build only includes three levels, so it is basically an extended demo. When you look past the nostalgia, how does the early access build actually measure up? This alone, rather than any actual game design elements, is the cause for much of the praise – nostalgia is very powerful and clouds clear, objective thinking. It is a first person stealth FPS game with survival horror elements, with 1998-2000 graphics quality similar to other games from New Blood Interactive. Many were praising it long before it released. ![]() Gloomwood early access released on September 5, 2022, to much anticipation and tons of hype.
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