Thief: The Dark Project
Encyclopedia
Thief: The Dark Project is a 1998 first-person stealth game developed for Windows
by Looking Glass Studios
and published by Eidos Interactive
. Set in a medieval steampunk
metropolis called the City, the game follows Garrett—a thief trained by a secret society—as he undertakes missions to steal valuables.
Thief was the first stealth game to use light and sound as gameplay mechanics, and the first to feature a first-person perspective; its use of this perspective for non-confrontational gameplay challenged the first-person shooter
market. The game's design combines complex artificial intelligence
with simulation systems to allow for emergent gameplay
. Thiefs influence has been traced to later stealth titles, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
and Hitman
.
The game received critical acclaim, and has been placed on numerous "hall of fame" lists. With sales of half a million units by 2000, it is Looking Glass Studios' most commercially successful game. It was followed by three sequels—Thief II: The Metal Age
, Thief: Deadly Shadows
and Thief 4—developed by Looking Glass Studios, ION Storm
and Eidos Montreal, respectively.
environment. Its gameplay emphasizes evasion over confrontation, and the player character
has limited combat proficiency and damage resistance. Shadows may be used to avoid notice; a monitor on the heads-up display
(HUD) indicates the player character's visibility level. The player character may lean, crouch, climb, swim and run, among other actions. Surfaces cause varying amounts of noise; for example, carpet is quiet and ceramic tiles are very loud. The player receives information about non-player character
s (NPCs) through sound, such as the surface on which they are walking, their proximity and suspicion level. The player may use sound, such as a thrown object, to distract NPCs. Each of the game's 12 levels has objectives, such as the theft of a specific item, that must be completed before another level is reached. The game's three difficulty settings
alter objectives, paths through the level, and other aspects. Levels are largely unscripted, and allow for emergent gameplay
.
The game's NPCs feature artificial intelligence
systems that detect unscripted visual and aural cues; if a NPC sees or hears the player character, it becomes suspicious. Depending on its level of suspicion, a NPC might ignore the cue or begin to actively seek the player. NPCs detect clashing swords, other NPCs' voices, and changes to their environment, such as blood stains, opened doors and fallen bodies. The game contains both "guard" and "servant" NPCs, who vary in their reactions to the player character: guards call out an alert and attack, while servants will run for help. If a guard is significantly injured, it will try to escape. The game features non-human characters, such as zombies, and certain levels contain horror elements.
The player character possesses a blackjack and a sword, which incapacitate and kill NPCs, respectively. The game features a sword-combat system for direct confrontations; it contains three directional attacks and the ability to parry. Fallen bodies may be picked up and hidden. The game's bow may be used for ranged attacks or as a tool; for example, "water arrows" extinguish torches while "rope arrows" lower a climbable rope. Other tools include lockpicks, "flashbombs" and speed potions, among other things. Weapon and item inventories are displayed in the bottom corners of the screen; the player cycles through them to select objects. Equipment may be purchased between levels.
and the Industrial Revolution
. Project director Greg LoPiccolo said in an early preview, "In essence [... it's] this undefined medieval age, sort of medieval meets Brazil
meets City of Lost Children
. There's some electricity, some magic, and some 19th century machinery kind of stuff". The setting has been described as "steampunk
", a fantastical setting where steam technology is prominently used. During levels, the player may learn about the setting by finding notes and overhearing conversations; it has been noted that the player participates in the revelation of Thiefs setting.
The City contains three factions: the Keepers, and two opposing religious orders known as the Pagans and the Order of the Hammer, or "Hammerites". The latter two have been cited as representations of chaos and order, respectively; the neutral, secretive Keepers strive to maintain balance within the City. The Hammerites worship a benevolent deity called "The Builder", and believe in progress, craftsmanship and righteousness; the Pagans, who have been described as "primitive, almost animalistic", worship the dangerous "Trickster" god and value the natural world. It has been assessed that the design of each group's architecture reflects their beliefs.
a suspicious man who reveals himself to be a Keeper. Impressed by Garrett's ability to see him, he offers him the chance to join his order. Garrett accepts, but later leaves the order to pursue a life of thievery. Years later, Garrett works as a thief, and is under pressure to join a crime ring. As punishment for his failure to pay a protection fee
, he is targeted for assassination by the crime lord Ramirez. Garrett evades the assassins, and robs Ramirez's mansion in retaliation. Following this, he is approached by a woman named Viktoria—the representative of an anonymous client who was impressed by Garrett's theft from Ramirez. He is contracted to steal a sword from Constantine, an eccentric nobleman who recently arrived in the City. After Garrett completes the mission, Viktoria takes him to Constantine, who explains that he hired Garrett to steal his own sword as a test. Constantine offers him a fortune to steal The Eye—a gem kept within a sealed and deserted Hammerite cathedral.
To reach the cathedral, Garrett ventures through Old Quarter, a haunted, abandoned district of the City. Through an opening in the cathedral, The Eye informs Garrett of a nearby Keeper sanctuary, where he may learn how to unseal the cathedral. There, Garrett discovers that the cathedral was sealed to prevent the City's destruction by the Trickster. He learns that there are four talismans needed to remove the seal: two hidden in ancient ruins beneath the City, and two inside a Hammerite temple. Garrett recovers the talismans and returns to the cathedral. After unsealing the cathedral, he learns that its inhabitants had been killed and made undead
by The Eye. He returns The Eye to Constantine, who reveals himself to be the Trickster. Viktoria says that The Eye requires a flesh eye to function; she binds Garrett with vines and removes his eye. Trickster places it on the gemstone, and the two disappear through a portal. Garrett, left for dead, is found and freed by two Keepers. During his escape from the Trickster's mansion, he learns that the Trickster plans to use The Eye to revert the world to a wild state.
After Garrett escapes the mansion, he seeks help from the Order of the Hammer. However, he finds that the Trickster has attacked the Hammerite temple. In a refuge beneath the temple, he finds Hammerite survivors who provide him with a booby-trapped replica of The Eye. Garrett descends into the Trickster's domain, where he finds the Trickster performing a ritual with The Eye to complete his plan. Garrett stealthily substitutes The Eye with its copy, which kills the Trickster. Later, Garrett has acquired a mechanical replacement for his lost eye. On the streets of the City, a Keeper approaches Garrett and claims that he will soon require the Keepers' help. Garrett dismisses him, and as he walks away, the Keeper warns of the encroaching "metal age
".
as the protagonist and Arthur as the villain. The game's design combined a first-person perspective with action, role-playing and adventure elements. Warren Spector
, who had recently left Origin Systems
to found Looking Glass Studios Austin
, became Dark Camelot's producer after his predecessor departed. In early 1997, Dark Camelot's name was tentatively changed to "The Dark Project" and its design altered to focus on thievery and stealth. In March 1997, project director Greg LoPiccolo described the game's design: "Essentially we're building a type of simulator [...] where object interactions are correct and physics are tied in correctly". Then-Lead Designer Jeff Yaus reiterated, "The goal is for everything to behave as it should. For example, things that burn will burn, and then it's up to the player to decide to burn things, whether or not we've anticipated it". Multiplayer support was planned. Formal development on The Dark Project began in May 1997, with a team vastly different from the one with which it began.
Looking Glass Studios experienced serious financial trouble as development progressed into mid-1997. The company's Austin branch closed, costing Spector and several game engine
programmers; this team relocated to ION Storm
, and released Deus Ex
in 2000. Spector later called his impact on The Dark Project, "at best, minimal". Looking Glass Studios laid off half of its entire staff in six months, which damaged The Dark Project team's morale. "Few emotions can compare to the stress of heading to work not knowing who might be laid off, including yourself, or whether the doors would be locked when you got there," lead programmer Tom Leonard later said. This stress caused several team members to voluntarily quit, including a designer and the lead programmer. The lead programmer had designed the game's AI system, which suffered from software bugs and problems with complexity. When Leonard took over the position of lead programmer, he believed that the AI system was fixable; over several months, he learned that the pathfinding
database—code that helps AI navigate a map—was unsalvageable. He completed the design—but not implementation—of a new system by November 1997, using an estimated one-fifth of the original code.
Several features were removed during development, among them multiplayer support, a complex inventory interface, and branching mission structures. Leonard said, "We focused in on creating a single-player, linear, mission-based game centered exclusively around stealth". He believed that the removal of multiplayer support and the game's renaming—from The Dark Project to Thief: The Dark Project—solidified this in the minds of the team. By summer 1998, the team was challenged by exhaustion and the game's numerous simulation and AI
glitches. These problems resulted in what Leonard later described as "a game [that] could not be called fun". Implementation of Leonard's new AI system was halted so the team could quickly assemble proof-of-concept demos; publisher Eidos Interactive
had grown skeptical over the team's vision. Work on the AI did not resume until March, and after twelve more weeks of constant work, it was ready for what Leonard called, "real testing".
Three months before the game's scheduled ship date, most problems had been resolved. The team began to believe, as Leonard described, that Thief "did not stink, [and] might actually be fun". Further, the release of games like Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid
eased worries that experimental gameplay styles were unmarketable. "A new energy revitalized the team," said Leonard. "Long hours driven by passion and measured confidence marked the closing months of the project." The game went gold in November 1998, following an estimated 2.5 year development cycle and a $3 million budget. Thief was released by Eidos Interactive on November 30, 1998. An expanded edition of the game, entitled Thief Gold, was released by Looking Glass and Eidos on October 29, 1999. It features three new missions, and improvements to the original twelve. Its disc contains a level editor and a "making of
Thief II: The Metal Age
" video, among other things.
concept: "It is a game style that many observers were concerned might not appeal to players [...] and even those intimately involved with the game had doubts at times," said Leonard. In response to the sentiment that their previous games "[required] a fair amount of investment from the player to get maximal enjoyment", the team specifically designed Thief to allow players to "pick [it] up and start playing". While the team's goal was to "push the envelope" with the game's design, Doug Church said that it shared its core design with previous Looking Glass Studios games. He explained, "[We try to] provide a range of player capability in [a] world [where] the player can choose their own goals, and their own approaches to an obstacle[... so that] when they reach the goal it is far more satisfying", and that "flexible simulation of game elements is a powerful way to enable the player to make their own way in the world".
Thief was designed to be largely unscripted
; events, instead of being pre-defined by designers, occur naturally. The intent was to further increase the amount of "player interaction and improvisation" over their previous games. According to Leonard, Thiefs central gameplay mechanic was the player's relationship with non-player characters (NPCs), who are the primary obstacle in the game. The game's goal of emergent events
required a sophisticated artificial intelligence
system. Leonard later demonstrated that first-person shooters, like Half-Life, often utilize "look and listen" AI systems, wherein NPCs become aggressive when the player is seen or heard. He explained that the Thief system defined a broader range of "internal states" a NPC could feel, such as suspicion. For example, a NPC who heard a suspicious noise would investigate rather than become immediately hostile.
Designer Randy Smith
said, "In Thief the safe boundary is often between light and shadow [... but] these boundaries are [...] not stable or secure[... .] The player will eventually have to emerge from the safe zone [...] and embrace risk until another safe boundary can be found". He explained that players felt unsafe even when hidden, but learned to judge their level of safety as they improved. Certain levels included horror elements, and one such mission, Return to the Cathedral, intentionally removes players' ability to judge their vulnerability. Believing that "nothing augments the fear associated with boundaries like forcing the player to violate them of their own free will", Smith said of the mission, "Eventually [you force] yourself to do practically every scary thing you noticed the potential to do in the whole level". Kieron Gillen
of PC Gamer UK believed that the level creates "a cycle of relaxation and abhorrence [... that results] in a devastating pummelling of the nerve endings."
The game's missions were designed to suit the story, rather than the story to fit the missions. Taking inspiration from GoldenEye 007, the team added a difficulty system that changes mission objectives; Leonard said, "it allowed the designers to create a very different experience at each level of difficulty, without changing the overall geometry and structure of a mission. This gave the game a high degree of replayability at a minimum development cost". The team extended the concept by decreasing the player's ability to kill human characters on higher difficulty settings. Designer and voice actor Terri Brosius said, "We took pains to make sure all the missions could be won without killing any humans".
Project director Greg LoPiccolo wanted Thiefs audio to both enrich the environment and enhance gameplay, and the game's design necessitated an advanced sound system. The designers created a "room database" for every mission; these provided a realistic representation of sound wave propagation
. Audio designer Eric Brosius
and the development team gave sound multiple roles. It was used to give the player aural clues about the NPCs' locations and internal states; to enhance this, vocals were recorded for NPCs. Conversely, sounds generated by objects gave clues to NPCs about the player's location, and NPCs used sound to communicate; a guard's call for help signals other guards within earshot. Sound was also used to divulge narrative information, so that stealthy players could eavesdrop on NPC conversations and learn more about the game's backstory.
, a proprietary game engine
. It was written during the game's development, rather than as a separately budgeted project, which led to time constraint issues. An emphasis was placed on simulating real life physics
; arrows would arc through the air rather than fly straight. The engine features alpha blending, texture filtering
and lighting techniques
. Motion capture
technology was integrated to allow for realistic character animation. The engine's renderer
—which draws the graphics—was largely written by Looking Glass Studios programmer Sean Barrett in fall 1995. While the renderer was expected to be finished before the game's release date, Barrett left the company in 1996. He later performed contract work for the company, and assisted in writing features like hardware support. However, the renderer was never fully addressed, and was less advanced than others of the time.
The Dark Engine was designed to be reusable, and to give programmers the ability to easily integrate their work. Programmer Marc LeBlanc wrote the "Dark Object System", which became the center of this concept. According to Leonard, the object system was a "general database for managing the individual objects in a simulation". Designers were able to alter the game's behavior by manipulating objects—the content that composes the game—without writing additional code. The system also managed source data, the game's tangible content such as textures
, maps, models
and sounds. An unfinished build of the Dark Engine was used to develop System Shock 2
, a collaboration between Looking Glass and Irrational Games
. The object system worked so well that Thief and System Shock 2 used the same executable
for most of their development.
, PC Gamer
, and Salon.com
. Lance A. Larka of Computer Gaming World
said, "If you're tired of Doom clones and hungry for challenge, give this fresh perspective game a try. I was pleasantly surprised." Emil Pagliarulo of The Adrenaline Vault said that, "I will tell you, without reservation, [...] that this has become my favorite game of all time". Paul Presley of PC Zone called it "a bloody good game".
Kieron Gillen of PC Gamer UK said, "The freedom Thief offers you is at first terrifying, then absolutely intoxicating". Aaron Curtiss of the Los Angeles Times
noted that the game "demands thought". T. Liam McDonald of PC Gamer US called Thief, "a challenging, riveting game that defies easy categorization", and praised the game for its focus on the player's cunning. Jason Cross of Computer Games Strategy Plus
noted that "It's quite amazing how much fun it can be to avoid action". Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times described the game as being "incredibly immersive and suspenseful," and "a highly-recommended game for those yearning to be a night rogue".
The game's sound was widely praised. Paul Presley of PC Zone said, "The sound adds a whole new level of realism to the game and boosts that whole 'total immersion' thing to previously unattained levels." Lance A. Larka of Computer Gaming World
noted that "the audio is simply amazing. With directional noises and haunting 'background' effects you are plunged into Garrett's shadowy world and left with a pounding heart and twitchy nerves." Wagner James Au, speaking for Salon.com
, noted that the game's level of suspense was "exquisite", and that its use of detailed aural cues as a gameplay device bordered on virtual reality
.
Thiefs graphics received a mixed reaction, with several negative comparisons to Half-Life and Unreal; however, Andrew Sanchez of Maximum PC praised the game's graphics and noted that they went "feature-for-feature with the LithTech, Quake, and Unreal engines". Sanchez also praised the game's AI, sound and plot. Larka disliked the game's extremely dark areas, which required him to "max out the gamma correction and set [his] monitor to its brightest setting just to see the barest details". However, he called the graphics "seamless". Several reviews complained about collision detection
issues.
The game's use of supernatural and cave-exploring elements received criticism, and several reviewers said that more realistic, mansion-robbing missions should have been used instead. Presley believed that the game's undead enemies caused the game to "degenerate into the standard hack 'n' slash, sub-Conan sort of thing that Heretic, Hexen and a million others gave us," and that "it amounts to [...] an erosion of the storytelling skills that Looking Glass once had." Gillen decried certain levels for "infring[ing] on Tomb Raider territory, and then [not] quite pull[ing] it off". Larka found certain levels too difficult. Next Generation Magazine
noted that "sneaking can get repetitive", but finished, "[Thief] is still a fun game to play [...] and a worthy addition to the genre".
, and its stealth gameplay innovations influenced later games in the genre. The game has been cited as the first to use light and shadow as a stealth mechanic, and the first to use audio cues, such as the ability to eavesdrop on conversations and alert guards with loud footsteps. The game's use of sound wave propagation
, which allowed sounds to travel around corners and through rooms, became widely considered by game developers. Thiefs influence has been recognized in other stealth games, such as Assassin's Creed
, Hitman
, Splinter Cell
, and Tenchu
. Marc Laidlaw, writer and designer on Half-Life, said that "Thief is the single most terrifying, immersive, and rewarding game I have played and the one single-player game I continue to replay. [...] There are countless books I wish I had written; Thief is one of the few games I wish I had worked on." In an interview with Gaming Nexus
, Laidlaw called Thief his favorite game, an opinion shared by Fallout 3
lead designer Emil Pagliarulo.
Thief has been declared one of the greatest games of all time by certain game publications. Inducting Thief into its hall of fame, GameSpy
writer Rich Carlson said, "With a tactical philosophy contrary to nearly every FPS action game at that time, Thief rewarded stealth and sneaking over brazen frontal assault", continuing, "While inadvertently undermining the notion that all action games need be shooters, it carved a completely new niche in the same already glutted genre." Gamespot
editor Greg Kasavin argued that, while Metal Gear Solid
, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
, and Thief defined the stealth action genre, Thief displayed "the purest depiction of what it might be like to slip from shadow to shadow". Kasavin further wrote, "[the title] largely remains an unsurpassed achievement in gaming." In 2009, Thief was added to IGN
's "Videogame Hall Of Fame". Sid Shuman, writing for GamePro
, asserted that Thief "pioneered its own genre ... the stealth-action title."
Thief was followed by two sequels, and a fourth game is undergoing development. Looking Glass Studios developed Thief II: The Metal Age
, which received positive reviews when released in March 2000. Thief: Deadly Shadows
, released for both Windows and the Xbox
, was developed by ION Storm Austin
due to the 2000 closure of Looking Glass Studios. After a troubled development cycle, the game's May 2004 release met with positive reviews. In May 2009, a fourth Thief game was revealed to be in development by Eidos Montreal
for Windows, PlayStation 3
, and Xbox 360
.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
by Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....
and published by Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. Set in a medieval steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
metropolis called the City, the game follows Garrett—a thief trained by a secret society—as he undertakes missions to steal valuables.
Thief was the first stealth game to use light and sound as gameplay mechanics, and the first to feature a first-person perspective; its use of this perspective for non-confrontational gameplay challenged the first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
market. The game's design combines complex artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
with simulation systems to allow for emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics....
. Thiefs influence has been traced to later stealth titles, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is an action-adventure stealth game, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and built on the Unreal Engine 2. It is the first Splinter Cell game in the series endorsed by author Tom Clancy, and follows the activities of American NSA Black Operation, "Black Ops", agent Sam Fisher....
and Hitman
Hitman (series)
Hitman is a stealth game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. The series is available on PC as well as several video game consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The game series has since expanded into a novel, Hitman: Enemy Within written by...
.
The game received critical acclaim, and has been placed on numerous "hall of fame" lists. With sales of half a million units by 2000, it is Looking Glass Studios' most commercially successful game. It was followed by three sequels—Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age is a 2000 first-person stealth game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, the game's plot follows Garrett, a master thief, as he attempts to uncover a conspiracy in a medieval, steampunk city...
, Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a stealth video game in which the player takes the role of Garrett, a master thief. It is set in a fantasy/steampunk world resembling a cross between the Late Middle Ages and the Victorian era, with more advanced technologies interspersed...
and Thief 4—developed by Looking Glass Studios, ION Storm
Ion storm
Ion storm may refer to:* Ion Storm, a defunct games software company.* An interplanetary coronal mass ejection , a disruption of the fast and slow solar winds, often called "ion storm", "solar storm" or "space storm"...
and Eidos Montreal, respectively.
Gameplay
Thief takes place from a first-person perspective in a 3D3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
environment. Its gameplay emphasizes evasion over confrontation, and the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
has limited combat proficiency and damage resistance. Shadows may be used to avoid notice; a monitor on the heads-up display
HUD (video gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
(HUD) indicates the player character's visibility level. The player character may lean, crouch, climb, swim and run, among other actions. Surfaces cause varying amounts of noise; for example, carpet is quiet and ceramic tiles are very loud. The player receives information about non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s (NPCs) through sound, such as the surface on which they are walking, their proximity and suspicion level. The player may use sound, such as a thrown object, to distract NPCs. Each of the game's 12 levels has objectives, such as the theft of a specific item, that must be completed before another level is reached. The game's three difficulty settings
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...
alter objectives, paths through the level, and other aspects. Levels are largely unscripted, and allow for emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics....
.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
systems that detect unscripted visual and aural cues; if a NPC sees or hears the player character, it becomes suspicious. Depending on its level of suspicion, a NPC might ignore the cue or begin to actively seek the player. NPCs detect clashing swords, other NPCs' voices, and changes to their environment, such as blood stains, opened doors and fallen bodies. The game contains both "guard" and "servant" NPCs, who vary in their reactions to the player character: guards call out an alert and attack, while servants will run for help. If a guard is significantly injured, it will try to escape. The game features non-human characters, such as zombies, and certain levels contain horror elements.
The player character possesses a blackjack and a sword, which incapacitate and kill NPCs, respectively. The game features a sword-combat system for direct confrontations; it contains three directional attacks and the ability to parry. Fallen bodies may be picked up and hidden. The game's bow may be used for ranged attacks or as a tool; for example, "water arrows" extinguish torches while "rope arrows" lower a climbable rope. Other tools include lockpicks, "flashbombs" and speed potions, among other things. Weapon and item inventories are displayed in the bottom corners of the screen; the player cycles through them to select objects. Equipment may be purchased between levels.
Setting
Thief takes place in a metropolis called "the City", which has been noted to contain elements of fantasy, the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. Project director Greg LoPiccolo said in an early preview, "In essence [... it's] this undefined medieval age, sort of medieval meets Brazil
Brazil (film)
Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...
meets City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children is a dystopian French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:A mad scientist,...
. There's some electricity, some magic, and some 19th century machinery kind of stuff". The setting has been described as "steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
", a fantastical setting where steam technology is prominently used. During levels, the player may learn about the setting by finding notes and overhearing conversations; it has been noted that the player participates in the revelation of Thiefs setting.
The City contains three factions: the Keepers, and two opposing religious orders known as the Pagans and the Order of the Hammer, or "Hammerites". The latter two have been cited as representations of chaos and order, respectively; the neutral, secretive Keepers strive to maintain balance within the City. The Hammerites worship a benevolent deity called "The Builder", and believe in progress, craftsmanship and righteousness; the Pagans, who have been described as "primitive, almost animalistic", worship the dangerous "Trickster" god and value the natural world. It has been assessed that the design of each group's architecture reflects their beliefs.
Story
The game's prologue sees Garrett, the protagonist, describing his youth as a homeless orphan on the City's streets. He is caught while attempting to pickpocketPickpocketing
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection...
a suspicious man who reveals himself to be a Keeper. Impressed by Garrett's ability to see him, he offers him the chance to join his order. Garrett accepts, but later leaves the order to pursue a life of thievery. Years later, Garrett works as a thief, and is under pressure to join a crime ring. As punishment for his failure to pay a protection fee
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
, he is targeted for assassination by the crime lord Ramirez. Garrett evades the assassins, and robs Ramirez's mansion in retaliation. Following this, he is approached by a woman named Viktoria—the representative of an anonymous client who was impressed by Garrett's theft from Ramirez. He is contracted to steal a sword from Constantine, an eccentric nobleman who recently arrived in the City. After Garrett completes the mission, Viktoria takes him to Constantine, who explains that he hired Garrett to steal his own sword as a test. Constantine offers him a fortune to steal The Eye—a gem kept within a sealed and deserted Hammerite cathedral.
To reach the cathedral, Garrett ventures through Old Quarter, a haunted, abandoned district of the City. Through an opening in the cathedral, The Eye informs Garrett of a nearby Keeper sanctuary, where he may learn how to unseal the cathedral. There, Garrett discovers that the cathedral was sealed to prevent the City's destruction by the Trickster. He learns that there are four talismans needed to remove the seal: two hidden in ancient ruins beneath the City, and two inside a Hammerite temple. Garrett recovers the talismans and returns to the cathedral. After unsealing the cathedral, he learns that its inhabitants had been killed and made undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
by The Eye. He returns The Eye to Constantine, who reveals himself to be the Trickster. Viktoria says that The Eye requires a flesh eye to function; she binds Garrett with vines and removes his eye. Trickster places it on the gemstone, and the two disappear through a portal. Garrett, left for dead, is found and freed by two Keepers. During his escape from the Trickster's mansion, he learns that the Trickster plans to use The Eye to revert the world to a wild state.
After Garrett escapes the mansion, he seeks help from the Order of the Hammer. However, he finds that the Trickster has attacked the Hammerite temple. In a refuge beneath the temple, he finds Hammerite survivors who provide him with a booby-trapped replica of The Eye. Garrett descends into the Trickster's domain, where he finds the Trickster performing a ritual with The Eye to complete his plan. Garrett stealthily substitutes The Eye with its copy, which kills the Trickster. Later, Garrett has acquired a mechanical replacement for his lost eye. On the streets of the City, a Keeper approaches Garrett and claims that he will soon require the Keepers' help. Garrett dismisses him, and as he walks away, the Keeper warns of the encroaching "metal age
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age is a 2000 first-person stealth game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, the game's plot follows Garrett, a master thief, as he attempts to uncover a conspiracy in a medieval, steampunk city...
".
Production
Thief began development in April 1996; it was originally titled "Dark Camelot", and focused on sword combat. Its plot—an inversion of Arthurian legend—featured MordredMordred
Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
as the protagonist and Arthur as the villain. The game's design combined a first-person perspective with action, role-playing and adventure elements. Warren Spector
Warren Spector
Warren Spector is a role-playing game designer and a video game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline L. Spector...
, who had recently left Origin Systems
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...
to found Looking Glass Studios Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, became Dark Camelot's producer after his predecessor departed. In early 1997, Dark Camelot's name was tentatively changed to "The Dark Project" and its design altered to focus on thievery and stealth. In March 1997, project director Greg LoPiccolo described the game's design: "Essentially we're building a type of simulator [...] where object interactions are correct and physics are tied in correctly". Then-Lead Designer Jeff Yaus reiterated, "The goal is for everything to behave as it should. For example, things that burn will burn, and then it's up to the player to decide to burn things, whether or not we've anticipated it". Multiplayer support was planned. Formal development on The Dark Project began in May 1997, with a team vastly different from the one with which it began.
Looking Glass Studios experienced serious financial trouble as development progressed into mid-1997. The company's Austin branch closed, costing Spector and several game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
programmers; this team relocated to ION Storm
Ion Storm Inc.
Ion Storm Inc. was a Texas based developer of computer games founded by John Romero, Tom Hall , Todd Porter, and Jerry O'Flaherty, under the slogan "Design is Law"...
, and released Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
in 2000. Spector later called his impact on The Dark Project, "at best, minimal". Looking Glass Studios laid off half of its entire staff in six months, which damaged The Dark Project team's morale. "Few emotions can compare to the stress of heading to work not knowing who might be laid off, including yourself, or whether the doors would be locked when you got there," lead programmer Tom Leonard later said. This stress caused several team members to voluntarily quit, including a designer and the lead programmer. The lead programmer had designed the game's AI system, which suffered from software bugs and problems with complexity. When Leonard took over the position of lead programmer, he believed that the AI system was fixable; over several months, he learned that the pathfinding
Pathfinding
Pathfinding generally refers to the plotting, by a computer application, of the shortest route between two points. It is a more practical variant on solving mazes...
database—code that helps AI navigate a map—was unsalvageable. He completed the design—but not implementation—of a new system by November 1997, using an estimated one-fifth of the original code.
Several features were removed during development, among them multiplayer support, a complex inventory interface, and branching mission structures. Leonard said, "We focused in on creating a single-player, linear, mission-based game centered exclusively around stealth". He believed that the removal of multiplayer support and the game's renaming—from The Dark Project to Thief: The Dark Project—solidified this in the minds of the team. By summer 1998, the team was challenged by exhaustion and the game's numerous simulation and AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
glitches. These problems resulted in what Leonard later described as "a game [that] could not be called fun". Implementation of Leonard's new AI system was halted so the team could quickly assemble proof-of-concept demos; publisher Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
had grown skeptical over the team's vision. Work on the AI did not resume until March, and after twelve more weeks of constant work, it was ready for what Leonard called, "real testing".
Three months before the game's scheduled ship date, most problems had been resolved. The team began to believe, as Leonard described, that Thief "did not stink, [and] might actually be fun". Further, the release of games like Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines is a single player real-time tactics computer game developed by Pyro Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The first installment in the "Commandos" series, the game was released in 1998 and is set in wartime Europe and Africa where a group of six Allied Commandos...
, Half-Life, and Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
eased worries that experimental gameplay styles were unmarketable. "A new energy revitalized the team," said Leonard. "Long hours driven by passion and measured confidence marked the closing months of the project." The game went gold in November 1998, following an estimated 2.5 year development cycle and a $3 million budget. Thief was released by Eidos Interactive on November 30, 1998. An expanded edition of the game, entitled Thief Gold, was released by Looking Glass and Eidos on October 29, 1999. It features three new missions, and improvements to the original twelve. Its disc contains a level editor and a "making of
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age is a 2000 first-person stealth game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, the game's plot follows Garrett, a master thief, as he attempts to uncover a conspiracy in a medieval, steampunk city...
" video, among other things.
Design
The design of Thief focused on stealth and evasion from a first-person perspective. This idea challenged the standard first-person shooterFirst-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
concept: "It is a game style that many observers were concerned might not appeal to players [...] and even those intimately involved with the game had doubts at times," said Leonard. In response to the sentiment that their previous games "[required] a fair amount of investment from the player to get maximal enjoyment", the team specifically designed Thief to allow players to "pick [it] up and start playing". While the team's goal was to "push the envelope" with the game's design, Doug Church said that it shared its core design with previous Looking Glass Studios games. He explained, "[We try to] provide a range of player capability in [a] world [where] the player can choose their own goals, and their own approaches to an obstacle[... so that] when they reach the goal it is far more satisfying", and that "flexible simulation of game elements is a powerful way to enable the player to make their own way in the world".
Thief was designed to be largely unscripted
Scripted sequence
In video games, a scripted sequence is a pre-defined series of events that occurs when triggered by player location or actions.Some scripted sequences are merely used to play short cut scenes that the player has little control of...
; events, instead of being pre-defined by designers, occur naturally. The intent was to further increase the amount of "player interaction and improvisation" over their previous games. According to Leonard, Thiefs central gameplay mechanic was the player's relationship with non-player characters (NPCs), who are the primary obstacle in the game. The game's goal of emergent events
Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics....
required a sophisticated artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
system. Leonard later demonstrated that first-person shooters, like Half-Life, often utilize "look and listen" AI systems, wherein NPCs become aggressive when the player is seen or heard. He explained that the Thief system defined a broader range of "internal states" a NPC could feel, such as suspicion. For example, a NPC who heard a suspicious noise would investigate rather than become immediately hostile.
Designer Randy Smith
Randy Smith (game designer)
Randy Smith is a game designer who has worked extensively on the Thief series with both Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm Austin. In addition, Smith has participated in the Indie Game Jam....
said, "In Thief the safe boundary is often between light and shadow [... but] these boundaries are [...] not stable or secure[... .] The player will eventually have to emerge from the safe zone [...] and embrace risk until another safe boundary can be found". He explained that players felt unsafe even when hidden, but learned to judge their level of safety as they improved. Certain levels included horror elements, and one such mission, Return to the Cathedral, intentionally removes players' ability to judge their vulnerability. Believing that "nothing augments the fear associated with boundaries like forcing the player to violate them of their own free will", Smith said of the mission, "Eventually [you force] yourself to do practically every scary thing you noticed the potential to do in the whole level". Kieron Gillen
Kieron Gillen
Kieron Gillen is a British computer games and music journalist, as well as a comic book author. Gillen has worked for many years as a video game journalist and has, more recently, worked on various comics. He is perhaps best known for his creator-owned comic Phonogram, created with artist Jamie...
of PC Gamer UK believed that the level creates "a cycle of relaxation and abhorrence [... that results] in a devastating pummelling of the nerve endings."
The game's missions were designed to suit the story, rather than the story to fit the missions. Taking inspiration from GoldenEye 007, the team added a difficulty system that changes mission objectives; Leonard said, "it allowed the designers to create a very different experience at each level of difficulty, without changing the overall geometry and structure of a mission. This gave the game a high degree of replayability at a minimum development cost". The team extended the concept by decreasing the player's ability to kill human characters on higher difficulty settings. Designer and voice actor Terri Brosius said, "We took pains to make sure all the missions could be won without killing any humans".
Project director Greg LoPiccolo wanted Thiefs audio to both enrich the environment and enhance gameplay, and the game's design necessitated an advanced sound system. The designers created a "room database" for every mission; these provided a realistic representation of sound wave propagation
Wave propagation
Wave propagation is any of the ways in which waves travel.With respect to the direction of the oscillation relative to the propagation direction, we can distinguish between longitudinal wave and transverse waves....
. Audio designer Eric Brosius
Eric Brosius
Eric Brosius is a musician and video game developer, and a former employee of Looking Glass Studios. He is a former member of the band Tribe, and is married to Terri Brosius, also a former Looking Glass employee and Tribe member....
and the development team gave sound multiple roles. It was used to give the player aural clues about the NPCs' locations and internal states; to enhance this, vocals were recorded for NPCs. Conversely, sounds generated by objects gave clues to NPCs about the player's location, and NPCs used sound to communicate; a guard's call for help signals other guards within earshot. Sound was also used to divulge narrative information, so that stealthy players could eavesdrop on NPC conversations and learn more about the game's backstory.
Technology
Thief was developed with the Dark EngineDark Engine
The Dark Engine is the computer game engine used for the Looking Glass Studios games Thief: The Dark Project , Thief II: The Metal Age , and the Looking Glass/Irrational Games title System Shock 2 .-Features:...
, a proprietary game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. It was written during the game's development, rather than as a separately budgeted project, which led to time constraint issues. An emphasis was placed on simulating real life physics
Game physics
Computer animation physics or game physics involves the introduction of the laws of physics into a simulation or game engine, particularly in 3D computer graphics, for the purpose of making the effects appear more real to the observer...
; arrows would arc through the air rather than fly straight. The engine features alpha blending, texture filtering
Texture filtering
In computer graphics, texture filtering or texture smoothing is the method used to determine the texture color for a texture mapped pixel, using the colors of nearby texels . Mathematically, texture filtering is a type of anti-aliasing, but it filters out high frequencies from the texture fill...
and lighting techniques
Computer graphics lighting
Computer graphics lighting refers to the simulation of light in computer graphics. This simulation can either be extremely accurate, as is the case in an application like Radiance which attempts to track the energy flow of light interacting with materials using radiosity computational techniques...
. Motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
technology was integrated to allow for realistic character animation. The engine's renderer
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
—which draws the graphics—was largely written by Looking Glass Studios programmer Sean Barrett in fall 1995. While the renderer was expected to be finished before the game's release date, Barrett left the company in 1996. He later performed contract work for the company, and assisted in writing features like hardware support. However, the renderer was never fully addressed, and was less advanced than others of the time.
The Dark Engine was designed to be reusable, and to give programmers the ability to easily integrate their work. Programmer Marc LeBlanc wrote the "Dark Object System", which became the center of this concept. According to Leonard, the object system was a "general database for managing the individual objects in a simulation". Designers were able to alter the game's behavior by manipulating objects—the content that composes the game—without writing additional code. The system also managed source data, the game's tangible content such as textures
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
, maps, models
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
and sounds. An unfinished build of the Dark Engine was used to develop System Shock 2
System Shock 2
System Shock 2 is a 1999 first-person action role-playing video game, designed by Ken Levine for Microsoft Windows. The title is a sequel to the 1994 PC game System Shock, and was co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios...
, a collaboration between Looking Glass and Irrational Games
Irrational Games
Irrational Games is a video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier as Irrational Games...
. The object system worked so well that Thief and System Shock 2 used the same executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
for most of their development.
Reception
Thief sold half a million copies by 2000, and was Looking Glass Studios' most commercially successful game. The game received critical acclaim from sources including The Washington PostThe Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
, and Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
. Lance A. Larka of Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
said, "If you're tired of Doom clones and hungry for challenge, give this fresh perspective game a try. I was pleasantly surprised." Emil Pagliarulo of The Adrenaline Vault said that, "I will tell you, without reservation, [...] that this has become my favorite game of all time". Paul Presley of PC Zone called it "a bloody good game".
Kieron Gillen of PC Gamer UK said, "The freedom Thief offers you is at first terrifying, then absolutely intoxicating". Aaron Curtiss of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
noted that the game "demands thought". T. Liam McDonald of PC Gamer US called Thief, "a challenging, riveting game that defies easy categorization", and praised the game for its focus on the player's cunning. Jason Cross of Computer Games Strategy Plus
Computer Games Magazine
Computer Games Magazine was a computer gaming print magazine. It was formerly Computer Games Strategy Plus, and before that, Strategy Plus, which had been founded as Games International in the UK in 1988. While its initial focus was on strategy games, it covered a wide range of game genres...
noted that "It's quite amazing how much fun it can be to avoid action". Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times described the game as being "incredibly immersive and suspenseful," and "a highly-recommended game for those yearning to be a night rogue".
The game's sound was widely praised. Paul Presley of PC Zone said, "The sound adds a whole new level of realism to the game and boosts that whole 'total immersion' thing to previously unattained levels." Lance A. Larka of Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
noted that "the audio is simply amazing. With directional noises and haunting 'background' effects you are plunged into Garrett's shadowy world and left with a pounding heart and twitchy nerves." Wagner James Au, speaking for Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, noted that the game's level of suspense was "exquisite", and that its use of detailed aural cues as a gameplay device bordered on virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
.
Thiefs graphics received a mixed reaction, with several negative comparisons to Half-Life and Unreal; however, Andrew Sanchez of Maximum PC praised the game's graphics and noted that they went "feature-for-feature with the LithTech, Quake, and Unreal engines". Sanchez also praised the game's AI, sound and plot. Larka disliked the game's extremely dark areas, which required him to "max out the gamma correction and set [his] monitor to its brightest setting just to see the barest details". However, he called the graphics "seamless". Several reviews complained about collision detection
Collision detection
Collision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated with its use in video games and other physical simulations, it also has applications in robotics...
issues.
The game's use of supernatural and cave-exploring elements received criticism, and several reviewers said that more realistic, mansion-robbing missions should have been used instead. Presley believed that the game's undead enemies caused the game to "degenerate into the standard hack 'n' slash, sub-Conan sort of thing that Heretic, Hexen and a million others gave us," and that "it amounts to [...] an erosion of the storytelling skills that Looking Glass once had." Gillen decried certain levels for "infring[ing] on Tomb Raider territory, and then [not] quite pull[ing] it off". Larka found certain levels too difficult. Next Generation Magazine
Next Generation Magazine
Next Generation Magazine was a video game magazine that was made by Imagine Media publishing company . It was affiliated to and shared editorial with the UK's Edge magazine. Next Generation ran from January 1995 until January 2002. It was published by Jonathan Simpson-Bint and edited by Neil West...
noted that "sneaking can get repetitive", but finished, "[Thief] is still a fun game to play [...] and a worthy addition to the genre".
Legacy
Thief was the first 3D stealth game for a personal computerPersonal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, and its stealth gameplay innovations influenced later games in the genre. The game has been cited as the first to use light and shadow as a stealth mechanic, and the first to use audio cues, such as the ability to eavesdrop on conversations and alert guards with loud footsteps. The game's use of sound wave propagation
Wave propagation
Wave propagation is any of the ways in which waves travel.With respect to the direction of the oscillation relative to the propagation direction, we can distinguish between longitudinal wave and transverse waves....
, which allowed sounds to travel around corners and through rooms, became widely considered by game developers. Thiefs influence has been recognized in other stealth games, such as Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed (series)
Assassin's Creed is a historical science fiction Action Adventure game series that as of 2011 consists of four main games and a number of supporting materials. The games have appeared on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Vita, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable,...
, Hitman
Hitman (series)
Hitman is a stealth game series developed by the Danish company IO Interactive. The series is available on PC as well as several video game consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. The game series has since expanded into a novel, Hitman: Enemy Within written by...
, Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is presented as a highly-trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon"...
, and Tenchu
Tenchu
Tenchu is the title of a stealth game series of video games originally developed by Acquire wherein the player assumes the role of a ninja....
. Marc Laidlaw, writer and designer on Half-Life, said that "Thief is the single most terrifying, immersive, and rewarding game I have played and the one single-player game I continue to replay. [...] There are countless books I wish I had written; Thief is one of the few games I wish I had worked on." In an interview with Gaming Nexus
GamingNexus.com
Gaming Nexus is a multiplatform videogame website that operates out of Columbus, Ohio. Its coverage is focused on reviews and news, although the website does offer previews and other articles...
, Laidlaw called Thief his favorite game, an opinion shared by Fallout 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
lead designer Emil Pagliarulo.
Thief has been declared one of the greatest games of all time by certain game publications. Inducting Thief into its hall of fame, GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
writer Rich Carlson said, "With a tactical philosophy contrary to nearly every FPS action game at that time, Thief rewarded stealth and sneaking over brazen frontal assault", continuing, "While inadvertently undermining the notion that all action games need be shooters, it carved a completely new niche in the same already glutted genre." Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
editor Greg Kasavin argued that, while Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins is a stealth game developed by Acquire and published by Sony Music Entertainment inc. in Japan and Activision in North America and Europe for the PlayStation in 1998....
, and Thief defined the stealth action genre, Thief displayed "the purest depiction of what it might be like to slip from shadow to shadow". Kasavin further wrote, "[the title] largely remains an unsurpassed achievement in gaming." In 2009, Thief was added to IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's "Videogame Hall Of Fame". Sid Shuman, writing for GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
, asserted that Thief "pioneered its own genre ... the stealth-action title."
Thief was followed by two sequels, and a fourth game is undergoing development. Looking Glass Studios developed Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief II: The Metal Age is a 2000 first-person stealth game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The sequel to Thief: The Dark Project, the game's plot follows Garrett, a master thief, as he attempts to uncover a conspiracy in a medieval, steampunk city...
, which received positive reviews when released in March 2000. Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a stealth video game in which the player takes the role of Garrett, a master thief. It is set in a fantasy/steampunk world resembling a cross between the Late Middle Ages and the Victorian era, with more advanced technologies interspersed...
, released for both Windows and the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, was developed by ION Storm Austin
Ion Storm Inc.
Ion Storm Inc. was a Texas based developer of computer games founded by John Romero, Tom Hall , Todd Porter, and Jerry O'Flaherty, under the slogan "Design is Law"...
due to the 2000 closure of Looking Glass Studios. After a troubled development cycle, the game's May 2004 release met with positive reviews. In May 2009, a fourth Thief game was revealed to be in development by Eidos Montreal
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
for Windows, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
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