If you have found yourself stuck in the asylum basement in Thief’s chapter 5, you may be interested to hear a few options. For those of you like me, who arrived ill-prepared, there is hope for everyone – except the freaks.
Some of you are smarter than the rest of us. You’ve probably invested in good equipment and lots of arrows. Make sure you are packing fire and explosive arrows. You must place shots differently per type of arrow, and avoid wasting time with hand to hand combat.
These creatures are actually known as Freaks. They are somewhat sensitive to light, have superb hearing and burn away pretty quickly after catching fire. You can choose to sneak past them, shoot them in the body with an explosive or hit them in the head with a fire arrow. There are consequences for any action you choose.
Should you decide to unleash an explosive arrow into an unexpecting body, although you may take out bystanders, every other Freak in the basement will be alarmed. You can try to hide, but it’s all over when they spot you. Garrett simply cannot fire his bow fast enough to keep them off.
Fire arrows are only effective when placed in the head. You may alert the Freaks closest to your victim, but take them down before they move much further from their spot. If you wish to choose the arrow route and didn’t bring enough with you, there is a box with three fire arrows down a Freak filled hallway.
In the end, after exhausting my other options, I went with what I do best. Sneaking past these Primal creatures seems a bit daunting at first. But after eight tries it seems an easy task to master. Watch out for broken glass and vases scattered across the map floor. Note that some hidden items are near impossible to reach. There are two final Freaks to get past, and you must tiptoe between them to reach the final door. If the crouched one becomes suspicious, simply hide around the corner for a moment and try again.
Thankfully, spoiler alert, after you walk around in a foggy dream, you will automatically find yourself out of the Asylum. You will need to press a few buttons beforehand, but I sure was glad to leave that awful place.
Ericka Sheppard 