Thief: Gold

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?