Thief: Gold

The Good
- Very advanced stealth system for it's time (and 20 years after), surprisingly developed sword fighting. - Variety of environments; from grounded and mundane to wacky and surreal or downright horror. - Missions vary heavily both in gameplay and the atmosphere, some give you multiple options on how to play through them. - Great difficulty system. - Unique setting and lore, voice acting is stellar, story is intriguing. - Stylish cutscenes and art direction. - Sound design is iconic.

The Bad
- Sometimes a level can make you mad not in a good way, due to it's gargantuan size and confusing layout. - Some missions are heavily focused on fighting different creatures. These can be a walk in the park or pure hell, depends on your ability to utilize game fighting mechanic and some engine quirks. Overall, these levels can still be completed in a stealthy way, but you'll have to be a very patient person. - Some levels can be a real chore to get through, in most cases due to the backtracking and pacing issues. - Not very responsive controls at times, occasional engine bugs.

The Bottom Line
Despite everything, this deserves the praise it's got over the years.

The Good
Pretty much everything is pretty darn good here. First off, the graphics have the right mood (dark) and complexity to suspend disbelief, the sound, music and voice acting are all top notch. The controls are simple to use and master while being, oddly, complex at the same time. The stealth dynamics (light sources, shadows and having to pay attention to sound to succeed) are excellent, as are the intelligence of the guards and monsters you will face (or sneak by). The diversity of the places you loot is excellent, ranging from a manor, a prison, a cathreadral, a fortress comprised of mages, a ruined city, an opera house, a temple and a crypt. The story is well thought out and masterfully scripted, and in game conversations between guards are amusing and at times useful too.

The Bad
Can't pop popcorn. Also, it can not cook pizza or pour beer, which is a dreadful oversight most developers overlook. ;)

The Bottom Line
Thief is a game where you go around, steal things from people or places, use some of the artifacts you stole from the last mission to purchase equipment for the next area and then steal some more stuff, all the while avoiding guards, monsters, undead and/or lethal traps by sneaking around and hiding in the shadows or attacking your foe (the former option (sneaking) being the safest by a wide margin). All the while you unravel an excellent storyline. Of course, there's much fun to be had, too. Defininely one of the best first person games to ever be released and certianly the best (and most innovative) since Doom. A must buy, IMHO.

The Good
I played Thief Gold after playing its sequel. The sequel ironed out most of the bugs and honed in on the best aspects of gameplay, so visiting its predecessor was a little disappointing. However, I fully recommend this game.

The gist of Thief is that you are Garrett, trained thief and anti-hero who finds himself in the unenviable position of having to save the world. In Thief, you must stay in shadows, pay attention to your noise level, knock out guards, douse torches, etc. In this game, if you aren't a proficient thief, you'll die. That simple rule made the game incredibly immersive and I really felt that it was similar to an RPG. You take on the role of Garrett.

The ambient sound and vocal acting was pretty good. Sometimes character voices seem a little campy. The locations are highly detailed although I preferred the urban locations to the outdoor/other world ones. The story is engaging and the bonus levels included in the Gold edition help to flesh out the plot.

Also, this is one of the few games I've played where the difficulty settings seemed to matter. Each level of difficulty offers different objectives and even forces you to play the game in a different way. At the hardest levels, you are often not allowed to make any kills.

The Bad
I've heard that Looking Glass wasn't sure if players would like a fps that relied on stealth rather than ammunition. As such, some levels require combat and there is a great number of undead. Of course, it was the stealth aspect that became popular and coined the phrase "first person sneaker."

Secondly, there seems to be no advantage to conserving ammunition, items, or gold. You basically start from scratch each level. I would have preferred to have had a wider arsenal at the end levels.

The only other quibble I have is with item interaction. To open doors, pick pockets, etc you must maneuver in such a way that they are highlighted. This is useful but I was often able to open doors from a distance, which seemed unbelievable.

The Bottom Line
This is one of the best examples of what a computer game can be. I loved the vision of a medieval city, struggling between paganism and fanaticism. While this game has some peaks and valleys in level design, there are moments that are as riveting as any movie.

For fun, look straight up when you are outside and shoot an arrow-- how's that for physics?