Thief Gold (1999)

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"What was that?..Probaly just the wind"

Man, I can't believe it took me this long to finally play and beat this game. I'm incredibly surprised how well this game holds up and how not-frustrating it was to get through (most) levels. There's a ton of creative and horror-focused levels along with the mundane home invasion robbery missions. 'The Sword' might go down as one of my favorite video game levels ever. The game does drag on for a bit too long, and some levels are kind of forgettable, like 'The Lost City.' Has a similar problem to System Shock 2 where near the end of the game it forces you to go through long labyrinthine cave sections with annoying monsters you have no real ability to sneak past and kind of have to fight or run past. Great plot twist and final boss that you defeat with stealth, no fighting involved, just like a thief should.

[h1]7.3/10[/h1] [u][h2]Thief Gold (Dark Project)[/h2][/u] [b]ImSim that actually immerses you[/b] +++++ [b]Immersion[/b]: The category of "imsim" is often derided for being hard to define. But at it's core, it is about a new outlook on games which puts realism of the world you are in before being game-y. [b]If you feel like it should work, it should.[/b] This intuitive game-sense puts you into a fugue state that is pretty unique and hard to replicate. When i get killed in Thief, i feel killed irl. When i formulate a plan to hang above a guard's head only to drop to his back and get him, i feel the satisfaction of a plan well done. ++++ [b]The levels (good ones)[/b]: Thief 1 and 2 has one of the most engaging, complex levels i've ever played. It comes down to putting realism over being straight forward, scale over hand holding. They also don't ever repeat themselves, every level has an unique take. Know this though: [b]You Will Get Lost. (And That's OK)[/b] +++ [b]The world and the narrative[/b]: The worldbuilding is done at the background, you are free to engage with it or not but usually rewarded if you do. In the environments, npcs, dialogue between the npcs, written notes. Plotpoints are foreshadowed if you pay attention which i like. ++ [b]Difficulties that change objectives[/b]: Harder difficulties are not just less hp more enemies. They give you extra objectives and you have to steal more gold, to pay your rent. I know it is too much work but i wish more games do interesting stuff like this with difficulty. Makes playing on expert really fun. + [b]Garrett (the protaganist)[/b]: He doesn't speak much, but every word that comes out of his mouth is golden. He is a professional and every line sells it. - [b]Most items can't beat crouching[/b]: You have variety of fun tools in the game but your biggest tool is just patience. Which is boring. Dishonored had a similar problem with blink being OP. -- [b]The levels (bad ones)[/b]: Thief started as a action adventure game, which you can see due to sword mechanics and explosion gibs being unnecessarily good. But one of the bad remnants of this is non-stealth levels. If it was just the one it would be excusable but there are simply not enough levels in thief where you are thieving, not even counting the filler levels. This would be fixed later on in thief 2. [u]Other Thoughts[/u] *Use TFix *Best Levels: The Sword, Cragsleft Prison, Song of the Caverns *Worst Levels: The Haunted Cathedral, Escape!, Strange Bedfellows

I LOVE THIS GAME this is by far the best stealth game series you can play right now only real alternative is gloomwood, but even it goes into survival horror way too much, and it has worse enemy ai than a 20 year old game also please play the black parade mod

Thief the dark project set a standard for what stealth games should be that modern high-budget titles still can't reach, then thief 2 expanded on that further. Then a bunch of maniacs spent 15 fartf*cking years making a full conversion mod for this version of the first thief called "the black parade" and it is the greatest immersive sim of all time, a statement i can make easily as there exist zero games that approach it closely enough in quality and substance to make direct comparison. if for nothing else, buy this game for that mod, though you should play through the base game first. you will likely need to install certain fix mods for the base game as well, as it is pretty old at this point. it isn't hard, trust me.

i underappreciated how much thief 2 built upon thief gold's mechanics. thief gold feels like dropping into a beta-test. most maps feel unpolished and badly-paced but all in all i do think this game is still good.