Thief™ Gold

I came into this game blind just off the rep it has, but I was not dissaponted. While there are a bunch of missions which are pretty polarizing and bad towards the end, the missions with actual thievery are masterpieces, and the best of the genre. The story is amazing at subverting your expectations, and takes some pretty wild turns and ends at heights you would never expect from a game about classic medieval thievery. Best 98 cents I have spent ever, big fan of looking glass's work

EXCELLENT STEALTH: * Light/Dark stealth gameplay, very addictive * Uses a unique sound propagation engine that, at the time, required the player to listen for nearby enemies. DIVERSE LEVEL DESIGN: * Personally, I feel that there was WAY too much supernatural elements in the level design, but the game ranges from exciting, to suspenseful, to absolutely horrifying in tone due to the excellent level design.

This game is brilliant. I had played some of Thief 2 when I was younger but I had always been too impatient and had gotten frustrated and tired after some long playing sessions. But with this game, I enjoyed the vast majority of it to a high degree. This was on sale for a ridiculously low price (less than a bottle of Coke) so I gave it a chance just for the experience. I didn't think I'd finish, given my previous experience with Thief 2, but I thought it would be interesting to play a couple of levels nonetheless. To my surprise, I started got really into the game after around the 3rd level. The story was very interesting, the world had incredible atmosphere (with regards to architecture, the immediate scenes, the lore, the dialog and the level cutscenes), the gameplay was very diverse and the missions were challenging yet satisfying to complete. I foundbthe different factions and their various scriptures to be fascinating. They made me want to read each book/scroll and continue through the levels. It's nice that the books generally just have a couple of interesting paragraphs to read, and not an A4 page of a story. You can just read them quick and then move on. Their bits of lore are brilliant at giving the surrounding world a sense of depth, preventing any blandness in the experience which the flat planes and textures of the geometry could cause. The end mission was fantastic in my opinion. I just finished it there 15 minutes ago. To those considering trying this game, I would recommend short sessions at a time. I found it all just became too frustrating after long sessions, as my patience gradually ebbed away and I became more reckless. If you find yourself getting to this point, just put the game away for half a day or so and come back to it when you feel like it. I think I appreciated the aspects of the game much more with this method. I'm going to try Thief 2 again with this mindset, and hopefully I'll be able to get through it all aswell :)

Truly a must-play game... I played it for the first time last year and I can honestly say it made a huge impression on me, definitely one of the best games I've played in all my years. The Gold Edition is also WAY better than the original, so kudos to GOG for that. There are some texture mods available that make the game look a bit better, but the single biggest improvement you can make is ensure you get EAX working properly. It truly takes this game to the next level on the immersion scale. And what can I say about the main protagonist, Garrett... one of the best characters who's shoes you'll ever step into, I cannot wait to play the sequels!

I've played through this game countless times and keep returning to it. Thief is beyond a classic, it is a masterpiece. The only games that have surpassed it are its sequels. The story is engaging, disturbing and unique. The sound system fills your imagination from the groans of zombies to every footfall. The game makes you relish sneaking from shadow to shadow. Planning each attack. Hiding every body. And for your troubles you are rewarded with little stashes of gold. The designers of Thief took special pleasure in hiding their troves of loot, in fact the secrets of the Thief series are unparalleled. From tiny buttons hidden in the eyes of statues to special books on bookshelves, to little levers hidden underneath desks. The gameplay of Thief is mission and goal oriented rather than a matter of clearing areas of enemies. It is also one of the few games where it pays to play on the higher difficulties because you are rewarded with more goals and trickier mission constraints (such as not being able to kill anyone. Don't fret you have a blackjack and those unconscious guards are as good as dead.) Each guard is a challenge and each needs special attention. Some have fixed routes in which you can wait in the shadows then slip behind for a quick knock the the head and a furtive heft of their body to dump in some dark corner (leaving bodies in the open tips off other guards). Others turn this way and that making you dread the short spans of loud flooring you will have to cover to knock them out or endure in the hopes of slipping by. As for the story, you are treated to a vibrant world alive with intrigues of its own beyond your main quest. Rival nobles, stupid guards, warring factions, all detailed not just through the cut scenes but also through numerous books, scrolls, and overheard conversations. You'll listen in the shadows as guards discuss matters of their nobles, key plot points, vital hints that add to your mission objectives and general and often hilarious chit chat. The themes of the game are dark and surprisingly deep and mature. While the graphics are dated, the game still succeeds in making you feel vulnerable. You will cower in the corners praying the guards will turn back to their patrol routes. That the zombies will stop hunting you because you managed to run out of holy water and don't have enough health to try an assault with your sword. You will not regret playing this game. And if you're still not convinced, realize that an entire community of gamers has produced hundreds if not thousands of fan missions for this game ever since it's release in 1998. Yes, they are still obsessed with this game and it is worth the obsession.