Retro Revival, Part #30 - Thief Gold (2012, GOG.COM)

"Immersion" is an over-used word in articles about games, but rarely is it more appropriate to use the full potential meaning of the term than when talking about Looking Glass Studios genre-defining masterpiece "Thief: The Dark Project" (1998), which has now been re-released on Good Old Games. The legendary Looking Glass Studios meticulously crafted a haunting steampunk world of gloomy mansions, dark alleyways and dreary dungeons - all fleshed out and made believable first and foremost with the help of a ground-breaking sound design which has yet to be truly surpassed in video gaming. And as if that wasn't enough, Thief's common sensical, cleanly implemented stealth mechanics were revolutionary at the time and really set the bar for any sneaking-oriented game from there on.

Despite my lack of patience with stealth games in general, I've spent many hours with the Thief series over the years and am therefore anxious to see whether the demonstrably capable fellows over at Eidos Montreal (who, if nothing else, managed to get stealth right in DX:HR last year) have been able to do something interesting with this venerable license. Until then, the game that started it all is conventiently available from;

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/thief_gold

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[Demiath]

@Beelzebubb Yeah, I loved that. Haven't played Thief 1 in many years and it was a big WTF moment for me (I first thought the servant had a metal helmet or something...) until I realized what it was that I had *actually* hit with that blackjack...

[Demiath]

@ArbitraryWater After struggling with it for quite some time, I blazed through Thief 1 during three intense summer days back in 1999. Thief 2 is probably the game in the series I spent the most time with (frequently starting over etc.), but I actually never finished that one.

Punishing or not, Thief is one of the few stealth series which actually make sense and have reasonably logical and transparent rules (although part of the game's charm is also the emergent silliness which can ensue).

[Beelzebubb]

4:07 What was that you ask? It was Demiath beating the shit out a lamp.

[ArbitraryWater]

Thief is by far my favorite stealth game from the time when stealth games were super punishing. Of course, I never did beat it, partially for that reason.