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Thief: The Dark Project

30 November 1998
Thief: The Dark Project - cover art
Glitchwave rating
4.02 / 5.0
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596 Ratings / 6 Reviews
#161 All-time
#8 for 1998
A thief named Garrett, raised and trained by a shadowy guild known as the Keepers, is tasked with retrieving valuables from the houses of the wealthy in a sprawling medieval metropolis. But as he takes on bigger heists, Garrett becomes entangled in a larger conflict involving more than just larceny.
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Thief Gold
1999 Looking Glass Eidos  
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Considering that so many of the revered classic first-person action titles before 1998 emphasized combat and generally loud approaches to situations, Thief must have been pretty unique to audiences back in the late 90s. While seamless first-person action-adventures centered on storytelling and varied environmental design weren’t necessarily uncommon and highly acclaimed and influential titles such as 1994’s System Shock and even Half-Life (which was released just a couple weeks before Thief) set pretty high standards in creating engaging 3D first-person experiences, I can’t think of a single game prior that captures a sense of truly “being” in the shoes of the protagonist as Thief. While mowing down enemies in Half-Life and Duke Nukem 3D is plenty of fun, there’s an inevitable disconnect between the player and the avatar when the protagonist can just cut through enemies and keep moving in a blaze of nonstop action. In Thief, combat is clunky and a bit strenuous, each footstep needs to be kept track of, light and sound can either help or hinder you depending on how you use them, and the sprawling manors and catacombs you investigate means every minute, you’re having to stop and check your cheap hand-drawn map for some sense of guidance towards an object or person of undisclosed location. It cultivates a relatable sense of awareness between oneself and the environment that really was quite rare for first-person titles in the early-to-mid nineties. I’ve played plenty of first-person action games since that use similar elements and other stealth series like Splinter Cell have utilized many of these basic gameplay functions, but this is about as far back in time I can think of where it all comes together to create an experience that feels so palpable. Keep in mind, Garrett is exceptional as a thief, and it’s not likely anyone playing this game could ever actually pull off the kind of heists in each mission, but the sense of being alone in a large, unfamiliar complex where being spotted could easily mean your death borders on survival horror territory at times and the confusing navigation and slow, deliberate feeling of the controls plays a big part of engaging you in the situation.

The missions where you break into a large estate to steal valuables are perhaps best representative of the general stealth gameplay loop that inspired so many future titles and what Thief is likely best remembered for, but one thing I was completely surprised by when playing was that those missions encompass only about half the game, maybe less. Thief isn’t just a game about being a career burglar job-by-job, you’re sent to pursue lost treasures in ancient ruins, deep underground catacombs, and surreal structures that wouldn’t be out of place in a high fantasy action title. But because this is a stealth game, these familiar medieval fantasy and steampunk settings take on an entirely new context. Particularly, the third mission in the game, ‘Down in the Bonehoard,’ managed to open up an entire new conception of what a dungeon crawl in an action game could be that I hadn’t ever considered. This isn’t like blasting through a large cave in an Elder Scrolls game or treading softly through a haunted tower in something like Amnesia. It’s scary and slow-paced like the latter, but because the gameplay involves minimal combat and platforming mixed within a stealth-focused framework, as well as a clear sense of purpose and an elegant control scheme, it offers a more natural sense of exploration than anything else I’ve played while still maintaining a sense of excitement over pure dread. Instead of fighting or running away from zombies, you have to plan around them - they’ll soon know you’re there, they’re coming for you, but they’re slow, you’re quick and nimble, and the multiple connecting pathways keep your options for sneaking and exploring new areas open throughout the level.

Thief is ambitious not just because it pioneered so many influential stealth systems still utilized and expanded upon in games today, but because it applies them in situations well beyond simple thievery, and forces the player to adapt to levels similar to those in a variety of action-adventure titles from survival horror to action RPGs. This is both one of the game’s greatest strengths and weaknesses as well, however. While ‘Down in the Bonehoard’ is an excellent example of this blend of styles (at least to me), some missions can’t quite capture that magic and inevitably fall short when the stealth-focused gameplay can’t keep up with incompatible level designs. The final three missions in the game suffer greatly from this, thrusting you into linear, monster-riddled corridors where simple charge-and-fight combat becomes the focus. And in a game where you’re supposed to be playing the role of a vulnerable thief, this becomes tedious and tone-breaking real fast. ‘Return to the Cathedral’ is perhaps a good example of both the good and bad aspects of this, where the early parts of the mission are filled with dread and careful planning through a haunted church complex, only to become bogged down as you are required to visit every location in a sequential order similar to level direction in survival horror games like Silent Hill 2, but without any lock restrictions or story ques to guide you - just an annoying ghost who keeps piling on fetch quests well after the horror starts to dissipate. The level design is ultimately pretty contentious, and probably the most divisive element of the game depending how well you think the stealth gameplay melds with certain settings, but I admire that the developers were willing to take such risks with the format, and it keeps the game feeling unique almost two decades after its release.

While the levels are often a pretty inconsistent amalgamation of brilliant and occasionally tedious adventuring and thieving, Thief is aesthetically fantastic all the way through. Even missions I loathed like ‘Escape’ (not ‘Thieves Guild,’ though, believe all the bad things you’ve heard, it sssuuuuuuuucccksss) are still often beautifully designed. While wandering near-aimlessly around giant complexes with only vague hints may not be everyone’s idea of fun, the mission grounds themselves offer an incredible visual style of medieval fantasy, steampunk, and some seriously mind-boggling surreal architecture in certain levels the left me feeling awestruck through a good portion of the game. From the dark, mechanical Hammerite prison to Constantine’s botanical, geometrically absurd mansion, Thief has such a great mix of interesting, dark, and inspiring visual styles that still linger on my mind well after playing them.

Those looking for an interesting story to accompany all this visual marvel and stealthy meanderings may be a bit disappointed as Thief’s main plot is ultimately pretty simple. After a few heists, Garrett is eventually tasked by Constantine to recover a magic stone eye, which sends him to various locales to recover artifacts needed to enter the cathedral where it’s housed and recover the eye. He is betrayed by Constantine however (which is heavily foreshadowed and not really much of a surprise), and sets out to stop him from unleashing the eye’s power. I normally wouldn’t even elaborate because it’s such a standard video game plot, but the story actually does play with some interesting themes on the role of nature in the face of an increasingly technologically advancing society. Constantine isn’t necessarily looking to accrue power for himself, he seems to sincerely believe that humanity is drifting to a cold, unimaginative future and wants to bring back a sense of fear and discovery that stimulated people’s mind back before the rise of machines. It’s not particularly convincing, and isn’t explored too thoroughly but compare the drab housing and gloomy prisons of the mechanically-focused Hammerites to Constantine’s imaginative and emotionally stimulating manor, intermingled with plants and wonderfully weird design. It’s a small touch, but it did resonate with me and is a particularly good example of subtle, visual storytelling that makes the main plot feel just a bit more engaging. [ /spoiler]

While it does often rely on inconsistent level design, I really enjoyed Thief, and, at its best, it’s easily one of the best stealth games I’ve played and I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of the classic Looking Glass and Ion Storm titles of the 90s and early 2000s, and of course, fans of the stealth genre as a whole. You’ll likely have some serious hang-ups of your own on certain levels and design choices, but Thief is fondly remembered for a reason. It’s innovative, ambitious, and often stumbles on its many experimental (at the time) gameplay mechanics and applications, but when it succeeds, it’s an incredibly unique and engaging experience.
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I was incredibly happy once I finally got around to playing this game. Thief has a lot going for it that appealed to me on a basic level: mostly bow-based combat (I love archery in games), sneaking/stealth, a sarcastic protagonist, and some weird level design. You spend one level (“The Sword”) navigating what is effectively a lunatic noble’s fun house mansion, filled with doors on ceilings, plants growing indoors, and so on and so forth. The game lets you play with various types of arrows, which I found very satisfying to use. Water arrows, which put out lights so you can hide, Rope arrows which let you climb things, Moss arrows which let you walk over surfaces without making noise. The game could have all this cool stuff and still be lackluster, but fortunately Thief goes the extra mile.

Back when I played through the first four Metal Gear Solid games, I recall being disappointed by how little a factor stealth tended to be, especially since MGS is the game that immediately comes up when one thinks of the stealth sub-genre. Thief, released in the same year as the original MGS, gave me the experience that I actually expected. The main character, expert thief Garrett, is not a super soldier like Snake. Shadows and ranged weapons are his chief advantages against the guards and monsters he’ll be facing.

Thief‘s survival horror elements also make it positively nerve-wracking to play. Zombies don’t usually scare me (and I am an easily frightened white boy) but the ones in Thief are downright terrifying. It’s funny to think that this game came out in 1998, the same year as Ocarina of Time, and some people were scared of the Redeads. Part of what makes the horror sections of Thief work so well is Garrett’s vulnerability. You carry very few weapons capable of handling the undead and a single hit from a zombie can put Garrett in the red. Thus, much of the undead stages are spent avoiding encounters with zombies or trying to get them together so you can kill a bunch at once. One stage of the game stands out in my mind: the chapter called “Return to the Cathedral.” Here, you are tasked with retrieving a spooky possessed eye from a cathedral overrun with the undead. In stages like this one, the single greatest quality of Thief shines more than ever: sound design.

This game uses sound better than pretty much anything else I’ve played. There’s not much music to speak of, but the ambiance of stages makes everything feel tense, and the various creatures’ sound effects are disturbing enough to rattle anyone. Because you spend so much time hiding in the dark, the sounds of footsteps and shifting become a valuable tool from the very start. A loud noise can often alert enemies, for better or worse: I often found myself shooting arrows to distract enemies or finding ways to maneuver around tile floors. It seems like an odd thing to praise sound design over everything else in a game, but it’s something that most players take for granted, often because sound is just not as important in some titles.

Another twist that Thief pulls, which I initially hated but ended up adoring by end game, was the use of unreliable maps. In most action-adventure games, you get a map that shows where everything important is or even fills out as you play, which is all well and good. Not in Thief. Garrett is a shady hoodlum, and he only gets access to crappy old maps that have vague instructions, missing details, and sometimes downright incorrect information. In a few stages, you don’t even get a map because Garrett’s in unknown territory. The great thing about this is it adds to the immersion so much: you really feel like a thief working on no budget with nobody to help you out. Naturally, this also adds to the survival horror feel of the game, but it’s worth mentioning on its own because I don’t think I have ever seen a game use bad maps the whole way through on purpose.

Thief has three difficulty levels (which you can adjust at will in each stage), but unlike many games they aren’t solely based on the number of enemies or Garrett’s health total. No, the difficulty levels in Thief instead add new objectives to the stages. I thought this was an interesting way to handle challenge relative to player experience. I played the game on Easy (I’m awful at first person games) and found it plenty challenging and very satisfying for a first go, and now on a replay I would still have more of the game to explore. It adds something to the game for people who might want to come back to it. You don’t see that in every game.

If I have to complain about one thing in Thief, it’s the final stages. They don’t test much in the way of stealth, and when they do it’s disappointing. The game’s later enemies go down the same as earlier ones: a blow to the head from the dark. While it’s fun figuring out how to sneak up on stuff, the developers probably could have come up with a few more creative enemy designs, as I had basically mastered the tried and true techniques by then. Still, this ends up being minor in the scheme of things and didn’t bug me much for about twenty hours, and the game makes up for it by construing a great situation in which stealing something actually saves the world. Thief ends on a cliffhanger, and left me very much looking forward to playing the sequel at the time.
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jsh357 2016-04-03T00:28:25Z
2016-04-03T00:28:25Z
4.5
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A Great Game with Some Frustrating Choices
It’s easy to forget that Thief was the first of its kind because Looking Glass managed to get so much right on their first try. The game may be almost as old as me, but the light and sound mechanics of this game have yet to be surpassed nor even matched.

The game oozes charm from its breathtaking cutscenes, killer soundtrack, and heartwarming voice acting. While Stephen Russell is of course incredible as Garret, Joffrey Spaulding as Constantine is a very close second. I also love the campy delivery of the npcs. It’s clear that many of them are people just from the office or close friends helping to save the budget. But it only seems to add to the late 90’s charm of the game.

The level design can be downright jaw dropping at points. The variety is stupendous, with every level feeling like its own unique idea and concept. There’s a real thrill of every briefing due to the sheer wonder of what they’ll throw at you next. While the scale of each map is absolutely massive, it seems like every inch is filled with some sort of mob, text, or collectible. Showing how much of this game was a labor of love and a testament to the sheer ambition of the team. However, that can’t save its shortcomings.

The last third of this game is frankly brutal. I have no issues with the supernatural aspects of this game. In fact, I found the atmosphere in those levels fantastic. But I noticed overtime that so many of these levels are incredibly difficult to do without combat. It makes you appreciate just how good of a job Looking Glass did with the sound and visual cues of the npcs. But highlights the lack of polish with its mobs. The fire elementals, for instance, give no hints of when they can see you. Considering that Garrett can’t take many hits and some enemies move around in groups. Not to mention some can’t even be killed with a sword...this can get frustrating. But wait until those last 4 or 5 missions where the game pushes the stealth to the backburner and keeps throwing them at you. You don’t know true rage until you play “Escape!”

I played the majority of the game on expert (even the thieves guild), but these missions were enough to make me push it down to hard, sometimes even normal. Speaking of the difficulty, I love the idea of the objective based difficulty. It gives incentive for players on lower difficulties to come back to see things they missed, and the goals genuinely point you towards the most interesting parts of the levels. But setting benchmarks on how much loot players have to collect was such a misstep. The developers already created a great incentive to keep you looking for it anyway…it’s your only means of buying equipment before missions and seeing how cash can't be carried between levels. You’ll naturally find yourself scanning each room, because you know the more of it you can collect. The more control you’ll have over your approach for the next heist.

Wandering aimlessly around these levels for that last 100 gold, only seem to highlight the disadvantage of having such large-scale levels. With maps this large, the hints for objectives should’ve been made clearer. You’ll have npcs or documents that hint at goals but it’s rarely enough. I still found myself completely lost after scanning entire levels and I had to turn to a guide just to find where to go next. In almost every instance I found myself frustrated at the sheer cryptic nature of the solutions. It’s not a surprise that my favorite mission in the game, the sword, was one of the few where I could find every objective just through pure exploration.

The map makes this no easier, so navigation can be incredibly difficult even with a compass. When you add on that every level takes at least 45 minutes, maybe even double that to complete. It comes incredibly draining as the game goes on. There’s a part of me that wishes they had honed the game to just 10 levels instead of 16. Cut back on the size of the locations and just focused on expanding the most interesting sections of each level. For the thief's guild, for instance, removing the sewers and just having the level take place in the multiple manors.

In terms of gameplay, I absolutely love the arrow system. I found water arrows to be an absolute blast when knocking out torches and you never truly forget the first time you use a rope arrow to bypass a floor. The biggest thrill I had playing this game was always breaking into the heist locations because I love the sheer number of methods of entry the game gives you. When you climb onto someone’s roof and lockpick their door. It really makes you feel like you're playing the role. I thought the lockpicks would hamper the flow, but honestly the tension they provide is great. I can’t tell you how unsettling it is to be fiddling with a lock only to hear the sound of a guard approaching right behind you. It’s in those high-tension moments that Thief shines the brightest.

Yes, the game is more lenient than most when it comes to alerting guards. But I love how the game actually gives you the chance to fix your mistakes and give guards the slip. It makes me wish that they added some sort of limitation to the blackjack. Considering you can use it to knock out almost any enemy with one hit in this game. You become incredibly dependent on it. It results in you spending every mission just knocking every guard you see, rather than doing what the game does best. Sneaking around. In mgs for instance, I like the fact that other troops can call in on knocked out guard's radios and investigate if they don’t respond. It really made ghosting feel like the best option and combat to be a desperate last measure.

What was the purpose of the walking speeds anyway? I found as long as I creeped across tiles, I was fine to walk across just about anything else. It really makes me question the need for a dedicated walk button. While we’re on that note, the controls are absolutely terrible as well. I found the game to be incredibly awkward to play without the wasd binding tfix gave and the tutorial does a pretty terrible job of teaching you the basics of the game as well.

At no point is creeping explained to you nor are you given any opportunities to practice knocking out guards or even told about crouching or leaning. I couldn’t imagine how frustrating this game must have been for the people who didn’t even know about the ability to walk without making footsteps.

At the end of the day, what really held thief back was the time period and the fact that looking glass had to start this genre with almost no references. I’ve heard Thief 2 fixes a lot of my issues with the first and I’m looking forward to trying it.
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ubnubmaster 2024-01-24T01:33:58Z
2024-01-24T01:33:58Z
3.5
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Thief: The Dark Project is a classic of stealth games, and I don't dispute that. Considering its age, the stealth gameplay is varied and enjoyable, people who like other old-school sneaking games like Deus Ex or Metal Gear Solid will feel right at home.

Unfortunately, there are too many factors that distract from the fun part of breaking into people's mansions and taking their valuables unseen.
The biggest issue for me is the level design. Thief's levels are absolutely massive and are set up like mazes, often without a clear structure. This is 90's level design at its best and simultaneously worst. There is a map, but it's so useless it might as well not even be there. What this means is that in some levels you will run around in circles around the same, ugly, identical-looking hallways and empty rooms until you finally find that one hole in the wall that takes you to the next area. The fact that levels are built from very simple geometry and only a small variety of textures leads to many places looking the same, which doesn't make it easier to find your way around. Also, many places require backtracking, so have fun getting lost in the same area for the second time.
Many mission-critical items are hidden very deviously and some are almost impossible to find without looking it up in a guide. This game does not hold your hand.

The other big problem is that the game quickly goes from "You are a thief" to "You are a treasure hunter". The difference is that now you are going into tombs and abandoned areas, looking for treasures and having to face monsters and zombies. Sneaking past the monsters is often not an option, unfortunately the combat in this game is pretty bad. You are always at a massive disadvantage (you can't take many hits), which would be fine in a stealth game, but then why am I forced into fighting?

Overall, this game gets frustrating quickly and around the halfway point I couldn't force myself to play more. This game has aged very poorly compared to its contemporaries (MGS, Deus Ex). I can't recommend it, except if you wanna get a glimpse into game history or if you have a high tolerance for obtuse and frustrating old PC games.
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IgorEmu 2021-05-07T00:10:58Z
2021-05-07T00:10:58Z
2.5
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Contract Indicates This Is A Job For A Patient Thief
I just finished Thief Gold for the first time. It was both fun and kind of a slog. I think that if I had more patience, more emotional investment in respecting the AI or the boundaries of the game that it would have been consistently thrilling, and tense. But because the levels are often so huge, winding, because the game likes to slide in with a tricky and unexpected prerequisite to completing certain objectives along the mission path, I often bunny-hopped around the stupidest enemies in the most free zones. When i did respect the game, hiding and sneaking felt as good as the greatest stealth thrills I've experienced in any game. This definitely holds up, and it is so contemporary in a lot of ways, but it's very long and very slow. I can still recommend it based on just that, however.

I have always heard fans of this series say that it is one of the most engaging and impressive games ever made, and even though I didn't have the patience to always hang with Thief like I should have, I can admire some of its brilliance. As if Looking Glass' precedence weren't enough to confirm this thing as brilliant on first glance... If only it were 1998 and I was a teenager with no other games to play... Maybe I'd have taken my time.

Excited to play Thief 2. I hear that some changes have made that game more difficult to disrespect like I did the first game, and I will have new tools and new challenges to consider in levels that are a little better designed. I'm not sure when I will get to it, though. Playing this sparked an interest in playing Dishonored 2 and Arx Fatalis.
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vodsel 2018-06-20T04:53:58Z
2018-06-20T04:53:58Z
4.0
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I love Thief and its a franchise that took me completely by surprise. So about 2 and a half years ago, it was around the end of Summer/beginning of Fall of 2015. The previous Summer I had beaten System Shock 2 for the first time and a few weeks prior to playing Thief I beat Deus Ex. But then my laptop of 3 years overheated and the entire hard drive was destroyed while playing Witcher, which was apparently too much for my laptop to handle. When I got it back from getting repaired, I decided to play Thief since I liked Deus Ex and System Shock 2 and Thief seemed like a game I would enjoy, plus it wouldn't require as much power as Witcher to run. Thief was kind of a hard game to get into at first, it felt difficult, enemies would hear you if you walked on hard surfaces, you could easily die in a few hits if you got into sword fights, levels were designed very non linear and it was easy to get lost, and most of all, you had limited resources and items to work with. But that's the brilliance of Thief, all you need is a blackjack to knock the guards out and a good layout of the room and patrol patterns of the guards and you are golden.

Thief is just such a well-designed game with a simple concept, it actually is fun to sneak around and nothing is more satisfying than knocking a guard out cold and then dragging their body into the shadows. Its a tense game at times and it rewards you for being patient. The game is just so well designed with its sneaking and at its best, its fantastic. However the problems I have with the first Thief mostly come to level design, rather than gameplay or story. The gameplay is excellent, but the level design is pretty mixed. Half the levels of the original Thief are quite awkwardly and even poorly designed, especially near the end of the game. Some missions don't even have any humans, you are just going through caverns running away from monsters or creatures, and the end game is just a mess, where its almost impossible to sneak without being spotted and the level design just feels messy. The final 3-4 missions of this game are just really annoying and hardly fun. But to be honest, I'm fine with that because then you have missions like the Return to the Cathedral that are among the best missions I've ever played in gaming.

Cathedral deserves its own mention because I've never seen a game pull off such a tense, atmospheric, and well-designed level. You essentially are sneaking around a cathedral area at night, but you have creepy skeleton knight enemies who talk in whispering sounds and if you are spotted by them, they rush at you super fast and can kill you in a split second. This part of the game is just so tense and for this level alone the game is worth experiencing. The only really terrible missions in this game are the ones near the end, and if you have the gold edition The Thieve's Guild mission. But I'd say half the missions in this game are at least fun and more good than bad and at least 3 or 4 are really good and highly memorable.

Thief is just a fun and groundbreaking game for its time that requires patience and planning. Its a game that gives you a good variety of arsenal and variety to play, you can go all stealth and non-lethal, you can use your arrows and make it a bit messier, or you can go all swords out if you want to be risky. Each mission has a set of goals you need to complete and specific items you need to steal, so it makes the game more open-ended and gives you tons of areas to explore. There are many big and open areas and locked rooms that are encouraged to explore. Not to mention the great stealth of hiding in the shadows and having to watch the ground you walk on were groundbreaking concepts for their time. Yeah Thief 2 improved on this game in every way, and this game really doesn't have much of a story either, but at the same time, its still a lot of fun and is easily worth playing. Thief still has a pretty loyal community as seen with the Dark Mod going fairly strong. This game just has such a well-designed system and the only real flaw is the level design.
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jweber14 2017-07-21T20:07:59Z
2017-07-21T20:07:59Z
4.0
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Catalog

andiov1 Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-26T19:22:13Z
2024-03-26T19:22:13Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
joe
OffModel Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-26T16:30:44Z
2024-03-26T16:30:44Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Ali5ia Thief 2024-03-25T21:04:40Z
Windows
2024-03-25T21:04:40Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Programator2 Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-23T17:48:33Z
2024-03-23T17:48:33Z
4.0
1
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
vitipunto Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-23T12:57:37Z
2024-03-23T12:57:37Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
vidyaculte Thief 2024-03-23T12:12:32Z
Windows
2024-03-23T12:12:32Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Bobek Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-23T08:32:07Z
2024-03-23T08:32:07Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
dotnds Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-22T19:02:14Z
2024-03-22T19:02:14Z
3.5
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Ufostal Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-22T13:40:21Z
2024-03-22T13:40:21Z
3.0
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
deforge Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-21T12:16:30Z
2024-03-21T12:16:30Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
foiebump Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-19T17:55:12Z
2024-03-19T17:55:12Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
saylexs Thief: The Dark Project 2024-03-19T16:36:18Z
2024-03-19T16:36:18Z
In collection Want to buy Used to own  
Content rating
ESRB: M
Player modes
Single-player
Media
1x CD-ROM
Franchises
In collections
Also known as
  • Dark Project : La guilde des voleurs
  • View all [1] Hide

Comments

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  • Previous comments (28) Loading...
  • AJM719 2023-12-06 21:28:04.145161+00
    I often think about what could have been for Looking Glass, beyond Thief 2. It's a shame that a studio which was capable of creating such great and (for the most part) successful games following its mid-90s slump had to suffer because of the circumstances it was in. Plus, knowing of the projects that they were working on before the studio's closure (Thief 2 Gold and Deep Cover) makes it hurt even more.

    Still, we have to be thankful for what we have. Happy 25th to one of the best pieces of media to ever exist. Let's all raise a glass of Constantine's finest brandy in honour of its anniversary!
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  • DomMazzetti 2023-12-11 00:58:13.201793+00
    Th1ef
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  • Eikonomachia 2023-12-20 00:49:51.701405+00
    thieves guild is soooo bad
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  • afterceasetoexist_ 2024-01-13 00:35:55.554039+00
    thieves guild is good if you use your map and compass
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  • UncleKippy 2024-01-20 20:51:27.495383+00
    25 years and still the GOAT in audio design
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  • caramellio 2024-02-18 20:03:21.621635+00
    >I played this game with the extra levels and hated it, it ruins the pacing makes the game feel like a total slog. I really enjoyed the first few levels though. I should probably replay this sometime and just skip the new levels.
    thats the thing i hate about gold. love the mage tower mission tho
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  • afterceasetoexist_ 2024-02-23 16:54:24.571848+00
    yeah i cant get behind this take. i love all the new additions. mage towers and song of the caverns are fucking awesome and i will defend thieves guild until the day i die; as stated above, it's a lot easier to navigate if you use your map and compass. i encouraged my friend to do that during his first playthrough a year ago and he loved the mission
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  • Genly_Ai 2024-03-22 08:48:38.44875+00
    Everyone who loves Thief, Immersive Sims, or Stealth in general owes it to themselves to play Thief: The Black Parade, a new campaign released by fans released last year consisting of 10 missions with original art and voice acting.

    Completely blows the original games out the water with some of the best atmosphere and level design I have ever seen.
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