MINORU'S BLOG

Everyday I'm taffering

In the early 2000s, we got some nice stealth game series to play hide-and-seek on. From Hideo Kojima's blockbuster movie Metal Gear Solid series; the social dress-em-up Hitman series; and of course, my starting point in the genre: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. There's also the now-forgotten Tenchu and the not-so-stealth-anymore Assassin's Creed.

All those games usually follow the same formula. Players need to emphasize on hiding from the enemies instead of just simply killing them and moving on. If you're detected, either it's game over or you need to fight difficult battles to survive. Stealth is about hiding in the dark, waiting for your chance to slip away undetected to reach the goal.

I love the stealth genre. Some of my favorite games of all time (note to self: need to make a list one day) are either stealth games or have stealth elements in them. In fact if any games give me a choice to build my own character, I usually make myself a stealth one. Like the infamously overpowered Skyrim stealth archer build. I also spent my childhood sneaking from my parents to play games during nightime

Got some rare things on sale, stranger!

That's why I owed it to myself to play one of the classics, the grandfather of sneaking video games: Thief (1998) by Looking Glass Studios. And play I did. I took my time on this, with me finishing the final level only last February even though I started it after completing System Shock 2. It's not too hard, like I said, I just took my sweet time.

Thief placed you in the control of Garrett (a.k.a. Mr. Taffer), a master thief / archaeologist who steals from the rich people to give it to the poor (himself). The game is played in first-person view, so you rarely see his face, but he does speak from time to time, giving him a bit of character. He's quite a cool character IMO, definitely right there with Geralt of Rivia ("Wind's howling") and JC Denton ("I’m not big into books") in terms of the best one-liners.

The world in Thief is kind of a mix of steampunk and medieval era, which at times looks pretty depressing. Like you don't want to live in that kind of setting. Oh, and there are also fantasy elements such as zombies and sentient, floating fireballs. However, I must admit the world is indeed very immersive. It feels alive thanks to the fantastic sound design of the game. The footsteps, the constant droning backsound, the guards' conversations, all helped to immerse me into the game's world.

A religious man he ain't

The gameplay itself is honestly pretty obvious from the game's name. In each level you need to steal certain items from a certain place. You can up the difficulty to add more objectives, like stealing more loot or not killing any guards. Garrett has many tools to aid him in his thieving quest, like water arrows to douse the torchlights, noisemaker arrows to attract enemies out of your way, and rope arrows to climb otherwise unreachable points.

To be fair, once you get the controls set up to your liking (the default is really really bad), the game feels familiar like any modern first person game that isn't a shooter. The first level set in a rich man's mansion serves as a great tutorial about the game. You can enter via backdoor after stealing the key from a guard, you learn how the guards have patrolling routes, you learn how sound and light work in the game, you earsdrop the guards about important stuff. It's a great introductory level by any means.

The story is simple at first but getting a bit cryptic near the end. You can learn the story via cutscenes before the levels, also via guard conversations and in-game notes and books. There is this grand backstory about The City and its factions such as the Hammerites, The Keepers and The Pagans but none of those are really needed to know to enjoy the game.

This is how my wife read Google Maps

Thief is not a perfect game nor it's aging well. The graphic is quite dated even by 1998 standards. Heck, we got MGS and Ocarina of Time that year. Still, after finishing it for the first time in the year of 2026, I can say with confidence that its core ideas and concepts are way ahead of its time. The sound and light systems are still used in today's games. Thief's legacy is foundational to modern stealth and immersive sim genres. Maybe it is not for everyone especially for today's kids, but if you do play it you'll know why it's an important piece of gaming history. I will also play Thief 2 soon and hopefully Deadly Shadows follows. No, there is no Thief 4.

Shik Shak Shock

If we're doing a vote and compiling a list of the best PC games since its inception, I'm sure sooner or later people will be calling System Shock 2 name into the conversation. Released on the eve of the '00s by the now-legendary Looking Glass Studios, System Shock 2 is often mentioned as one of the most influential video games ever. But in actuality, how many of those people actually played the game until the end?

The first time I heard about the game was from a gaming magazine article back in my childhood. I think the article wrote "Top Ten Scariest Games" or something along those lines. It named many horror games, but the one that caught my attention was System Shock 2. The article mentioned "screaming monkeys" and "cyborg midwives" as one of the reasons why. Of course I had to play it.

But during those days, almost nobody else talked about that game. It's like the game was some sort of fever dream of mine. I tried to find the game on the internet to no avail. Even when I found the link and downloaded it, the game refused to run on modern systems. Until finally in 2013, GOG released a non-hassle version of System Shock 2 to play.

I tried it. It was suck. Or I was suck. Regardless, I couldn't get past the first hour of the game. It was ugly as sin; the controls were janky, and there was too much stuff to learn in the beginning that I got overwhelmed. I gave up shortly after. Thus, I put the game back into my endless backlog.

Meanwhile, I played a lot of games known as immersive sim (I kinda dislike the term) such as Deus Ex series, Dishonored, Prey, and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Basically those games play like a first-person shooter, but there are different options on how to solve the level instead of just shooting your ways out. You can have techs or magics to help you deal with the enemies. You can go gunblazing or tippy-toe stealthing. Some also have multiple routes and dialogue choices. Games that give you freedom. 

There is also this series called Bioshock, you can guess from the name, that is a spiritual successor of System Shock series. All of these games were my favorites, and lo, they all took inspiration from System Shock 2, which many named as the grandfather of the immersive sims genre. So one day I decided to swallow the pill and jumped onto the decks of the Von Braun, the spaceship that became the setting of System Shock 2.

The first few hours were still painful. Until at one point it finally clicked on me, and then I understood all its praises and reputation. I can find the System Shock 2 DNA in all of my personal favorite games. The freedom play of Deus Ex and Dishonored, the audio logs and environmental storytelling of Bioshock, the body horror of Dead Space, the manipulative AI villain of Portal, and many more. It was a game ahead of its time in terms of gameplay.

The story itself isn't too special nowadays, but it's still fascinating. I won't tell much about the detail of the plot; basically you're a dude who is one of the few survivors of an FTL spaceship expedition that went very, very wrong. You were contacted by another survivor that gave you a mission to try to survive and rendezvous with her. You explored the Von Braun decks which were filled with enemies such as zombies/mutants (of other crew members), suicide bombing androids, the aforementioned monkeys and cyborg midwives. Oh, I did also mention a rogue AI before. Enter SHODAN.

Many have heard of her name and her famous line: "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?" that was delivered with such a chilling robotic voice. But being actually stalked and taunted by SHODAN throughout the Von Braun corridors while being chased by killer mutant with a shotgun made GLaDOS from Portal look like a tsundere roleplaying ChatGPT.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my playthrough of this game and its unmatched atmosphere. My only gripes with this game are the inconsistent background music and the unbalanced builds. My advice if you play the game is to take your time to read, whether it's the game's manual or the in-game guides.

I played the original 1999 release with mods, but recently they released a remastered version of the game on Steam called System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster which has multiplayer and other trinkets like achievements and QoL fixes. There are many more to said about this game but I'll save those for later. Next, I'll discuss about the grandfather of stealth game.

Can't believe I'm still alive, unlike this blog. So I wrote some kind of a post, in my other blog (please read it if you have time—it's in Indonesian though). After a whole decade of not writing something in the form of a blog post. No, that previous failed comeback post in 2020 doesn't count. That was the post-Covid syndrome talking. What makes me do it btw? I can't say. Maybe I just woke up one day and decided to relive the past glory of shitposting. Yeah, I'll go with that.

P.S. Kirino is still mai waifu

P.P.S Besides my IRL wife of course

 

It was around 6 in the afternoon, when my buddy sent me a Youtube link on Steam chat. I thought for a sec it was probably a silly video or something then I clicked on the link. It was actually an announcement of I LOVE ANISONG guest stars. I was preparing for the worst, maybe someone new will show up. Or it may be this certain idol group whom I adore recently. Whatever, I thought. Then I watched the darn video. Eir Aoi and FLOW, still not amused. I was a bit upset when it get to fripSide, why didn't they come to AFAID earlier. GARNiDELiA, the awesome DJ Kazu and LiSA followed. 'Meh, nothing new this year' that was what I thought at the time when May'n was the next one that get announced. I was getting ready to close the tab when suddenly an awfully familiar voice heard in the earphone. Boy, I wasn't prepared. I shouted my lung out, in somewhat combination of excited and fury. It was Yanagi Nagi herself in the flesh. Yanagi Nagi will perform live in AFA Singapore. Fucking hell. It's almost unreal.

Been following her steps since 2009, I have several mixed reaction for this news. I am of course really, really, really glad to see her getting the recognition she deserves. I am enjoying her works and so do the other people out there. Her fanbase is getting bigger day after day. I still remember the time when it was really hard to get ahold of her new doujin single, let alone to see her face. Good 'ol days. Now we can see her live. As big fan of her I cannot get more grateful for the event organizer. However I am also mad, because it looks like I cannot go to Singapore to attend the show even though there's still time to save money. They could've include her in AFAID anisongs artiste but nay, they didn't. Well they'd better invite her again next year to come to Indonesia. I'm sure as hell I'll go even if it costs me an arm and a leg.