Thief: The Dark Project

The Good
I bought this game without even playing it first, I was reading about it for months and was pleasantly satisfied with it. I'm sure most would agree, this game broke some ground on improving NPC's A.I. and implementing the use of light and darkness in the game. It was something me and my friends hadn't really seen before. This backed up by beautiful textures and a smooth running game engine, this game was definitely in a class of its own. Eavesdropping on guards, knockin' people unconscious, hiding dead bodies around castle basements trying to cover your tracks.... just a sweet game. I love the use of the bow and the various types of arrows you can buy....

The Bad
I can't think of anything bad about this game... im not being biased, I seriously can't think of anything worth complaining about..maybe in a way, I thought it could maybe use more items and a different way of buying the items. Also maybe not as linear....stages get kinda boring.. I think it would have better if it would have been a large world you could wander freely and explore...

The Bottom Line
Original...very original, It definitely broke some ground on certain areas of PC gaming.

The Good
The concept of stealth over firepower works beautifully in this game. If you try to apply your Quake tactics here, you will never have a chance. Thief forces you to think differently, and think up smart approaches to challenging situations. The feeling of robbing the wealthy blind and slipping away without detection is a rush. The environment enhances the gameplay more than you would believe. Thief sports excellent level design, an engaging storyline, sharp voice acting, awesome artwork, and haunting sound effects, which are crucial to playing the game. The detail put into the levels is absolutely dumbfounding, and easily makes up for thier slightly limited number. Dark, gothic artwork enhances the levels, making them truly atmospheric. They also have a lot of variety. You'll be breaking into mansions, gravedigging in mosuleums (littered with the undead, of course), and entering other worlds of evil and mystery. The levels last really long, but there's always something to do, and threats to worry about. And perhaps some of Thief's best elements are it's intimidating threats, including a variety of guards, zombies, monsters, ghosts, and traps. All throughout the game you feel like you're on the bottom of the food chain. This chilling feeling will haunt you until the game's end, and the sounds of you enemies stalking you in the dark gives Thief a real adrenaline-rush factor not commonly found in games. This game will get your blood pumping like no other. You have to play it to believe it.

The Bad
As excellent as it is, Thief has it's share of problems. Most of them are very minor, and don't affect the gameplay, but they are Unfortunately, dispite the great art, the actual graphics engine is slightly below average, with lots of jagged edges. For example, the people and creatures at times look too pointy. They lack the curves that bodies should have. Also there are some textures like dirt and stone that leave a lot to be desired when viewed at lower resolutions. There are some quirky bugs here and there, and the AI, while usually smart, sometimes doesn't put enough effort into finding you. Thief is challenging by today's standards, which is good, but there are times when the game gets painfully difficult, even on the lowest difficulty. This tends to occur on levels that deal with the undead. While they're are a blast to play against, all too often there seems too be too many of them, and not enough ways to defeat them.

The Bottom Line
I can't recommend this game enough. You simply must play it! There has never been such a perfect combination of inspired design, and brilliant execution in a game, on any platform. I have played a TON of games in my life, and this one is undoubtedly the most memorable. It's focus on stealth over strength may not be for everyone, but Thief is easily my favorite game of all time. I can't wait to play the sequel!

The Good
Incredibly deep and exciting gameplay! Thief takes the gung-ho notion of most fps games and turns it around on it's ear by delivering a game where the emphasis is not on jumping guns-blazing on enemy territory, but in snaking and infiltrating without being detected. Results? The most deep and nerve-wrecking experience you have ever had. Nothing compares to the feeling you get when you try to sneak past a guard and suddenly a false step makes him turn around and start looking for you in the dark, coming closer and closer while you pray the small modicum of invisibility the shadows provide don't fail you; or the feel you get as you frantically pick a lock while hearing footsteps coming closer and closer... or knowing that time is running out and you have to put that guard you blackjacked somewhere safe before anyone comes by, etc. etc. etc.. I could go on, and on, and on. The fact is that Thief combines a dark and lovingly crated atmosphere with the romantic yet nerve-wrecking feeling of being a thief, you know your enemies are out there, and the only way to defeat them is to hope they don't know where you are while trying to traverse some of the most intricate and finest levels ever designed (Constantine's mansion alone deserves to be nominated as one of the best levels, ever).

Thief introduced sneaking as a viable aspect of gameplay to the world, and if you think you know what I'm talking about simply because you played Metal Gear, Hitman, No One Lives Forever or whatever, then you have no clue whatsoever. This is the one and only sneak-sim, and remains unsurpassed to this day (except by it's sequel).

To top that off, the game makes the first really, really, REALLY impressive use of 3d sound in a videogame. If you are equipped with a surround set of speakers and an EAX or similar enabled sound card, then you are in for a treat. Enough sound channels to bog down a nitrogen-cooled CRAYII make sure that each and every sfx in the game comes from it's specific spatial coordinates, and there are even fantastic effects like the echos you hear on long hallways, or corridors, etc. fully recreated for your listening pleasure.

There's also the addition of a really cool storyline which fully exploits the fantasy-steampunk atmosphere and which is told via unique cutscenes that combine cel-animation, live action, and a lot of post-production magnificence into some of the darkest, most surrealistic imagery I've ever seen since The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Trust me, THIS is how you do cutscenes. Not by hiring the best 3D studio animators, or getting the latest Silicon Graphics Workstations, but by making them unique visual experiences on par with the game they come with.

Also: This game has the scariest zombies EVER. You have no idea the amount of times I screamed in terror when facing those bastards!! Genius I say!!

The Bad
Well, the graphics are not the best ever. They work, but the character models are truly bad.

As mentioned, the cutscenes are some of the best I've ever seen, but unfortunately they were digitized at a lousy resolution, resulting in a lot of blurryness when blown-up for fullscreen playback, a real shame.

Other than that the only real gripe I have with the game is that it relies a lot on dungeon-crawling. There's a lot of crypts, and caverns, and catacombs going on in this game, and that really hurts this game since it is much more fun to sneak around the urban locations of the game than journeying to the lost tomb of Krakatua in search of his magic wand; which also means you have to face off a lot of monsters and truly annoying critters... They would fix all this in the sequel, but no cookie for us now.

The Bottom Line
Thief: An engrossing sneaking experience by Looking Glass Studios. Go-Fetch-NOW!