Recent reviews by Spoof

Payday 2 was an okay-ish upgrade to payday the heist, with better gunplay but horribly worse levelling through a skilltree system and cod-prestige-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ added later on.

Until today there are about 40 pieces of paid dlc. each between 2.50 and 7 bucks
the total cost of the game plus every dlc is nearing 150€ and overkill is continuously releasing more and more dlc

overkill also stated on numerous occasions that there would never be microtransactions.
then they started pumping out 5€ dlc every 2 months or so.

THEN they ripped off csgo and copied the very same system that already killed csgo, but also added skins that increase a gun's base stats
these cases do not exclusively drop statboost skins so you may not even get one if you want that, and also you may drop a skin for a gun contained in a DLC you don't own. you cannot receive skins without using a drill (key) to open a safe (crate).

for years the fanbase of this game demanded the ability to use mask materials on weapons to create their own camouflages, this is what we got instead.

if a player creates a nice suggestion for the game, some random developer says that "the engine can't handle it". then a modder does the very same thing in about an hour of work. then overkill bans this player from the forum.

since the release of payday 2, there are no hitboxes for arms and legs
since the release, the game crashes onboard soundcard drivers
since the release, it was promised that this game would not have microtransactions
prior to release, a housing-feature for the safehouse was promised and then never realized


♥♥♥♥ this game
for the love of god, DON'T BUY IT.

I had a lot of fun in the free weekend... The boss of every level is a ♥♥♥♥♥ though.
I don't recommend playing the game alone or in PUGs. Co-Op games aren't fun w/o friends.

Also get the soundtrack on iTunes if you're into metal.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this soundtrack is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome!

Mehrere Playthroughs auf einer "ausgeliehenen" Version bevor ich mir das Spiel dann doch letztendlich gekauft habe, aus der Überzeugung heraus dass die verantwortlichen das Geld für dieses Meisterstück von einem Videospiel durchaus verdient haben.

Klare Kaufempfehlung für absolut jeden der etwas für Shooter bzw. Stealth-Shooter mit RPG-Elementen übrig hat!

The Gage Ninja Pack DLC is one of the most extensive DLC Packs released so far
It contains
-1 Sniper Rifle: The first semi-automatic Sniper Rifle in the Game; The Walther 2000
-1 Submachine Gun: The Kriss Vector
-1 Special Secondary Weapon: a Pistol-style Crossbow
-1 New Type of Throwables: Shuriken
-1 New Type of Arrows for the Plainsrider Bow and Bolts for the Crossbow: Poison
-4 New Melee Weapons: A Ninjutsu-Punch, Sai, Talons, and Kunai
-4 New Masks
-4 New Mask Patterns
-4 Achievements

Masks and Achievements are not weighed into the final rating as they're cosmetic only.


The Lebensauger .308 (Walther 2000) is the first Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle in Payday 2. To sum it up, it's pretty much an M308 with Penetration and everything doubled (except reload speed). Concealment is very good at a base of 16 and a max of 18. Ammo Pickup Rate seems to be an average of 1.5 shots per box, which is a remarkable trait for a sniper rifle.


The Kross Vertex (Kriss Vector) Submachine Gun is meh. It's a half-decent gun in close-quarter-combat, but its high RoF (1200 RPM) combined with low accuracy (8 base) makes it ill-suited for medium to long range engagements.
Base concealment of 20 with 21 max, no folded stock or smaller magazine attachments to make it viable for stealth. Definetly the laziest gun of the DLC.

The Crossbow works similar to the Plainsrider Bow, but instead of having to be drawn before every shot, it has a quite extensive reload time after each one. Similar concealment at 26 base (28 max), Bolts can be retreived from terrain or corpses by walking over them.

The Shuriken are the STAR (get it?) of this DLC. These things wreck ♥♥♥♥. A single hit to the head kills an MRF, and they can be retreived just like bow arrows and crossbow bolts.
Gone are the days where an accidental hit of the grenade button ruined your stealth heists.

Out of the melee weapons, the Kunai is the only one that's not just another melee weapon.
The Kunai has a fixed chance to apply a DoT-effect to an enemy, and stunning him at the same time. Applying this to special units can save lives at a regular basis. It also has 30 concealment (32 with Hidden Blade basic) which makes it the best choice for stealth.

Overall this DLC is solid. However the badness of the Vector is tearing this DLC down for me. I almost take it as an insult, since I am one of the people who have been demanding this gun's presence in the game for several years.

If you want this DLC for Ninja Swag, you want this DLC.
If you want this DLC for the Vector, you don't want this DLC

The first 30 minutes of this game were a blast and I can recommend the game to you, BUT!!!

I feel sick after playing just a few minutes from the game, as it induces terrible headache, even though I'm not prone to nausea or motion sickness at all.

Soundtrack is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AWESOME!

This Game...

XCom: Enemy Unknown feels like being raped and beaten by your husband every day, yet you return to him every day because it feels good.

As a total scrub in strategy games, my opinion whether or not this game is hard might not matter to anyone who plays these kind of games on a regular basis, but I can assure you that it's a welcome refreshment in the world of cowadoodoo "follow the npc" shooters that kill you when you try to break free from the scriptleash.
While lacking some features and having a rather shallow micromanagement component compared to the original XCom, the actual gameplay is rocksolid; fun, challenging and encounters are always winnable, though that might be a flaw in someone else's eye, because s/he feels like there should be battles that are simply unwinnable.
Graphics and Controls are "okay". Decent for what it does but it could be a lot better. Things such as Overwatch being mapped to 3,4, or 5 depending on what skills your selected soldier has, and whether or not his or her magazine is empty are very annoying.
The game's visuals are similar to "Alien Swarm" Levels. Decent enough, but it COULD have been better, even though the need for good graphics are debatable in a strategy game.

Overall I can say: The game is fun. In some points it's worse, in some points it's a lot better than the original game, but it's definetly a worthy successor. Albeit a little dumbed down to appease gamers of this day and age, the original mechanics still are present and they work very well.

"gamers of this day and age"... i'm born in 1997 for christs sake

TL;DR: Not a successor to the Thief-Franchise but (except for the story) a damn good stealth-game on its own.


As you might imagine, I do not have much experience with the Thief franchise, due to me being of very young age. I wasn't even born when the first Thief was released. However, I do have experience with stealth-games in general, and I hope to bring you a detailed insight of Thief 2014 and answer your question if you should buy it or not.

STORY
The Story begins with Garrett robbing a Safe for an expensive necklace. After he escapes the attic he found the safe in, he meets his friend Erin, who leads Garrett through a kind-of-tutorial-area. At the end of the mission, the two observe a group of people who look like priests or monks performing a ritual in front of something called the 'Primal Stone'. The Building Collapses, Erin falls down and dies, Garrett falls down, survives, but falls unconscious.
A Year later, Garrett wakes up while two beggars try to smuggle his body into his hideout in the clocktower in the center of the city. The smuggling attempt fails, one beggar is killed, the other runs away and Garrett is on his own, with the claw he "inherited" from Erin. He later learns that the main antagonist is still alive, and that a plague-like disease, the "Gloom" is running about in the city.
Garrett now works for several sides, his fence Basso, Orion, the leader of the resistance, and as a freelance to discover the secret behind his hallucinations of Erin in some kind of otherworld.

HUBWORLD / THIEVERY
In the Hubworld you can take side-missions or go and heist houses at your own leisure. There's loot everywhere and some guards even carry little valuables on their belt, which you can either take by taking up their body after you killed / knocked them unconscious, or you can pickpocket the loot from them. There are also merchants who sell you various types of arrows, and quest-givers, who... well... give quests.

MOVEMENT
Garrett moves at a medium pace, and you can hold CTRL to walk over glass shards or through water quietly, or you can sprint by holding shift.
While you cannot jump in place anymore, Spacebar has turned into one button for a little dash which you can use as a crouched sprint, and you can sprint with shift and hold spacebar to turn it into an automatic climbing button.

COMBAT: Blackjack
Garrett carries a bow and a blackjack, but not a sword anymore.
Also, you can't equip the blackjack anymore, but swing it directly. Further, there's a dodge-button which helps you in combat. 3 Hits with the Blackjack while evading enemy hits will usually trigger an optional button to instantly knock out the guard. Without the Bow, you can NOT kill or civilians anymore.

THE BOW
The Bow is your all-purpose-weapon. You can shoot regular arrows to snipe enemies, water arrows to extinguish light sources, gas arrows to knock out birds, dogs and other potential troublemakers, and blunt-headed arrows which you can carry in great amounts to trigger buttons from afar.
One VERY big flaw for me is that you can shoot rope arrows only at pre-determined locations now, instead of wood in general. This eliminates the whole purpose of using a rope to climb unclimbable terrain. Now it's REQUIRED to reach certain locations, and the feeling of "being smarter than the game" which you had in the old Thief games is now gone.

MISSION DESIGN
The side jobs are manifestations of the thief formula: go to x, steal y and, sometimes, bring it to z. For every side mission you receive a small amount of gold, sometimes a few hundred, sometimes the reward is a piece of loot that's worth 50 gold.
One problem is the amount of side missions there are in the game. If you do them all, you will never face financial problems and be able to buy everything, at least below master difficulty. In the Master difficulty grade, arrows and gadgets are considerably harder to come by, and at some point you will have to decide what type of arrows you want.

The Story Missions are horribly designed. Sometimes the game crosses Horror territory,
WALKING THROUGH AN ASYLUM WITH NO ENEMIES AROUND AND PICKING RANDOM LOCKS TO TRIGGER STORY PROGRESS DOES NOT BELONG IN A STEALTH-GAME.
Sometimes it throws you into a room with 4 or more enemies, aware of your presence, and with the objective set near an un-extinguishable lightsource, forcing you to kill or knock out everyone around.

GRAPHICS, PERFORMANCE
The game runs buttery smooth on my Phenom II X4 965 BE and Radeon HD 7850, without AA and V-Sync. Shadows look great even on medium settings and the textures reach from okay to sexual intercourse for the eye.

PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
The list is too extensive to describe in in detail here, but I will give you an example:
Imagine the settings "Graphic quality: Low/Medium/High"
Thief's graphic settings are the opposite of that.
Also: FOV goes up to 110°.

GAMEPLAY SETTINGS / DIFFICULTY SETTINGS
You can create a custom game-mode with special limitations. There are many options, from "you can't use broadhead and sawtooth arrows" to "if you die your savegame is deleted". All of these options increase the score you get in the game, which is shared on a global leaderboard, if you choose so.


Overall, Thief is a nice game. The thievery and movement feels right, and aside from some really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up main missions, it's a blast to play. I bought it in a bundle for 9€ and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this game for 9€? Worth every penny.
Thief 2014, Thief 4, Thief Reboot, Thief Remastered, Thief whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you'd like to call it, is dragged down by comparisons to the older Thief titles, which were better than this game. This does not mean that this game is bad, though.