Back when it was released, there were games like Half life promising innovative gameplay and Thief: The Dark Project delivering it. I'm a gamer since my early ages, spanning all generations of videogame consoles and the PC, and when Thief came out videogames were practically out of my life! Nothing new or interesting. Then I've played Thief's demo, featuring the famous first level: Lord Bafford's Manor. Every Thief fan will describe this moment with a sparkle in the eye, let me share here my own experience: Started the demo. "A First person game. How original." After a short walk through unimpressive streets with unimpressive graphics I found what appeared to be the entrance to the manor, guarded by very few guards. I draw my sword and rush into combat. I died and tried again, now with the bow. Yeah, that'll do the trick. Died again. My lack of faith in the game industry's originality made me reluctant to see the obvious: This was not an action game! The rest of the mission (I was calling it 'mission' already) was filled with moments of tension, where I had to navigate through a place assisted by a poorly hand made map with no obvious path, and I was always rewarded for my patience and planning. Then I found the main objective, a scepter in a throne room, and took it. So I was already stretching my arms, expecting a "success" screen, when another magic moment happened with a choir of angels and tears. Nothing happened. Nothing happened because I was supposed to LEAVE with the scepter! By the builder's hand! This seemingly trivial detail wasn't trivial back then. It's not the first stealth game but it did took the genre to a whole new level. The level design is completely non linear, the missions are usually complex buildings where you have to navigate, complete your objectives and leave. Audio plays an important role, besides the obvious stealth reasons, which is somewhat novel in games. Because of the first person perspective the player couldn't see through doors or around corners, so he needs to rely on his hearing often in order to know if there are guards patrolling nearby. (includes a nice feature where you can lean on doors to listen to what's on the other side) This adds a lot of tension to the gameplay, fact even more obvious in the more horror oriented levels. Needless to say, a lot of people were fascinated by this game. Me included. This community is very much alive today, a prowess aided by the inclusion of a level editor in the game, which kept taffers all around the world busy for years to come, making and playing fan made levels. When you buy this game you're not only getting the several hours campaign of a masterpiece of the stealth genre, you're also getting as a bonus access to about seven hundred (and still counting) fan made missions.
