Thief: The Dark Project

The Good
1. Complex AI. Guards will chase you, will look for you if you give them the slip, and will get bored of looking if they can't find you. Dead bodies alert them to your presence, so hiding said bodies becomes a priority.

1. Open-ended gameplay. This is no railroad shooter. You must come up with your own way to achieve your objectives. Do you try a frontal assault on the Manor? Quite possible, but not advisable. Sneak in through the sewers? Maybe a rope arrow placed right there? Kill the guard? Knock him out? Distract him? There are a million ways to play the game, including the ever popular "never let them realize you're there."

2. Difficulty levels that are meaningful. Not merely content with giving you less health, higher difficulty levels mean more objectives and limitations on how you can go about it ("You're a thief, not a murderer - don't kill anyone"). You haven't played the ENTIRE game unless you've done it on Expert.

3. A unique inventory. Your bow has several types of arrows, each with a different purpose. Water arrows to douse torches (making you harder to find). Rope arrows for climbing to interesting places. Fire arrows for when something absolutely MUST go boom. Your other tools include flashbombs, lockpicks, mines, and holy water. It's up to you to use them well.

4. An amazing storyline. Set in a rich steampunk setting, you are a thief caught up in a horrible plot to destroy civilization. Which puts you in the last position any self-respecting thief wants to be: the role of hero. The voice-acting is flawless, the world is unique and alive, and the continuity is maintained with extreme precision. The smallest scroll contains a scrap of information that jives with everything else PERFECTLY. Even if the information is useless to the player.

5. The main character. Garrett is a truly unique person. Cynical and jaded, he still possesses a sarcastic streak a mile wide, resulting in some priceless dialogue.
   
   The Bad
   1. Lack of rag-doll physics means that dead bodies get thrown into weird positions, which kinda ruins the verisimilitude (oh, look it up!) . There was nothing to be done about this at the time, but it'd be nice if the source code to the game was released so the fan community could improve on the engine. It worked for Doom!

6. Difficult to work with custom content. To make new missions, one must replace the existing missions. The game simply does not support loading custom content the way other games do (like Doom, for example). This doesn't affect the main game itself, so it's hard to really hold this against it.

7. Uh, I can't come up with anything else to complain about, but these lists always look best with at least three entries.
   
   The Bottom Line
   A steampunk cloak-and-dagger adventure, where a sharp mind is more important than a sharp sword.

The Good
The strongest thing this game has going for it is the atmosphere. Your universe in the game is a city combining industrial-era technology and magic that has not really been explored before by other game. Ruling the city is a religious cult called the Hammerites, which worships the symbols of industry. Narrative is presented using plain but terrific-looking cutscenes sandwiched between the 13 or so huge missions. The atmosphere in each mission is augmented by the best 3D sound I've ever heard (much better than Half-Life, for instance). You really feel that you step into the shoes of Garett, a cynical thief who was taught the art of invisibility in the dark by a mysterious group called the Keepers.

Each mission takes you a very long time to finish. This is because unlike most shooters, here the goal is not to be seen by the bad guys. Stay in the dark and keep quiet, then silently follow the guard and whack him on the crown of the head or shoot him with an arrow from a distance. Forget fancy rocket launchers and shotguns. The weapons here are a bow with multiple purpose arrows, a blackjack, and a sword for an emergency ie. when you're caught. The empahsis here is definitely on the thinking, not the fighting.

Another one of the great parts of this game is the creatures. The generic baddies are the guards and the Hammerites. The AI is phenomenal. They'll snoop you out when you make a sound or if they catch a glimpse of you in the dark. Some of the more exotic monsters are the scariest creatures in the history of computer games. The zombies freak you out like nobody's business, and the Haunts are ghostlike creatures that mutter the coolest things (Join ussss!). The AI will constantly surprise you with what it can do. Some people didn't like the undead missions, but I thought they were the best part of the game. My guess is those people didn't like getting scared, but if you do, you'll love the undead.

Since the missions are mostly non-linear, there are usually many ways to accomplish your objectives. These vary between the difficulty levels, meaning that there is replay potential to the game.

This game is a classic. You have to get it, if only to try it out.

The Bad
There is a lack of balance to some of the action. It's too easy to clear an area of bad guys, and since Thief has many non-linear levels where you backtrack you get to wander through some boring areas where everyone's already been wiped out. Undercover, for instance, is completely devoid of atmosphere if you blackjack all the Hammerites. Looking Glass corrected this flaw in System Shock II, where (Like SS1) the bad guys respawn, making every area constantly tense.

Also, the blackjack is too powerful. One hit in the back of the head will take out most enemies. This is why the zombies are great. They're immune to blackjacking (and hacking and shooting). It's worth noting that some players have the habit of not using either the blackjack or killing anyone (the latter is enforced in expert difficulty). This allows tension to be maintained throughout.

These are minor gripes, however.

The Bottom Line
This game surpasses almost every expectation you may have had about the 3D 1st person genre. You're a master thief using stealth and shadows to steal from rich lords and plunder ancient tombs. You get caught up in a fantastic plot to destroy the city as you know it and only you, the cynical thief, can save the day.

The Good
Being sneaky was not generally a priority in early first-person games. The famous "Doomguy" from the Doom games readily mowed down rooms packed with hell monsters with a double-barrelled shotgun and probably did not think much about trying to quietly evade them instead. Good thing, too. Who would want that in Doom? But game designers, somewhere along the way, realized that it could be fun to create a first-person environment in which the player would actually want to avoid direct combat. The result was the "first-person sneaker". And one of the earliest and best games of the genre, one which would influence the whole genre ever since, was Thief: The Dark Project.

When Thief came out, it was different than anything I had ever played. I remember getting it on a demo disc from Eidos. The first time I tried it, I was blown away. It was an experience which opened new possibilities of gaming for me.

Thief casts the player as expert rogue Garrett in a fantasy steam-punk world which resembles in many ways the middle ages. Although the world's mythology was not well fleshed out in The Dark Project, there was certainly enough information to provide distinct character. Whether reading a secret letter from a noble or listening in on a guard conversation laced with fantasy slang terms, there is a good sense of place in the game.

As a "sneaker", Thief is appropriately centered around stealth. The action is by no means fast. Rather, being slow and careful with bursts of speed at key moments tends to pay off. Garrett is not very good at direct combat, despite carrying a sword in case it should be required. If you do need to remove someone, a carefully aimed arrow or a swift smack with a blackjack is a far better way. Then quickly drag the body away before someone notices. Vanish into the shadows once again, using the interface's light indicator to show you how visible you are, to return to your business.

Atmosphere is heavy in Thief. The constant threat of being caught keeps things interesting. While observing guard routes carefully can put you ahead, longer or more complex patrols can be more difficult to predict. As a result, the game is constantly tense. Even when traversing ground already travelled, the player thinks twice about leaving the shadows.

Environments in Thief are rich and detailed, especially for their time. Exploration itself is a pleasure. The most impressive levels, perhaps, were the noble's castle with its grand decor and the magician's home with its insane design. In both cases, the player feels driven forward by the desire to see more.

A good thief will use sound to his advantage, whether by silencing himself or listening to his enemy's movements. The sound in Thief is great for its time. Certainly, it serves the purpose wonderfully.

Garrett carries a variety of tools with him to slant things to his advantage. Gadgets such as water arrows to douse lights and moss arrows to soften footsteps enhance gameplay options. There is definitely a variety of ways to achieve objectives and this keeps the game fresh throughout.

The Bad
One thing that can kill any "sneaker" game is thrusting the player into direct combat. Later in Thief, missions involving areas full of undead were frustrating and an unwelcome break in the otherwise brilliant gameplay.

Additionally, some objectives or puzzles are obscure and frustrating. This is common of older games. Nonetheless, it is a pain.

The Bottom Line
Even now, Thief is a fantastic first-person sneaker. It set forth many ideas which would become standards of the genre.