Thief: The Dark Project

. Thief takes place from a first-person perspective in a 3D environment, with the game's story taking place over a series of missions, in which the player character is able to perform various actions such as leaning, crouching, swimming, climbing, running and fighting, amongst other abilities. Levels are largely unscripted and maze-like, and allow for emergent gameplay; while non-player characters (NPCs) may either remain stationary or walk about on a patrol route, players have the freedom to choose how to get around them and the obstacles in a level's environments in order to complete specific tasks, such as getting through a locked door. In each level, the player is given a set of objectives to complete, such as stealing a specific object, which they must complete in order to progress to the next level. The player can choose to play on one of three difficulty settings before starting a level, which they can change between missions, with higher difficulties adding additional objectives such as not killing human NPCs or stealing a certain amount of loot from the amount available in a level, changing the amount of health the player character has, and changing how sensitive an NPC is to their environment. To do so, players must remain aware of their surroundings. To assist them in remaining hidden, a special meter on the heads-up display (HUD), in the form of a gem, helps to indicate the player's visibility to NPCs; the brighter it is, the more easily they can be visually detected, thus sticking to dark, shady spots where the gem dims ensures the player is hidden, though NPCs can still find them if they get too close in front of them. NPCs also produce noise, from whistling or walking about, for example, which can help players determine how far they are to their own position. Noise can be used by the player to mislead or distract NPCs, such as throwing an object to lure them elsewhere. The game's NPCs feature artificial intelligence (AI) systems that detect unscripted visual and aural cues. If an NPC sees or hears something out of place, they will react to it, depending on the level of its suspicions; if for a brief second, they will simply ignore it, but if for long enough, they will become alert to their surroundings and begin searching the area. If a guard is significantly injured, he will try to escape and find help; some non-human NPCs will merely flee. To assist them on each level, the player character carries with them a few pieces of equipmenta blackjack, which can incapacitate humanoid NPCs; a sword, which can kill NPCs; and a bow, which can be used for ranged combat as well as a tool. Players can use a variety of arrows with their bow, each varying in properties; for example, "water arrows" can be used to douse torches and any other source of fire as well as clean up blood stains, "rope arrows" can attach a climbable rope to wooden surfaces, "moss arrows" can cover an area with moss that muffles footsteps and "fire arrows" can relight torches and do considerable damage to NPCs. Other tools are also available, including lockpicks, "flashbombs" (which can stun NPCs for a brief few moments), and potions. The player can cycle through the inventories for weapons/arrows and tools through the HUD. In addition, players can purchase additional arrows and tools between levels with the loot they have acquired (both loot and remaining items do not roll over between missions, encouraging their immediate use) and find additional items during a level. Players can also find books and scrolls that can contain information on in-game lore or useful clues to get around an obstacle in a level, as well as food that can be eaten and keys that can unlock doors and containers. ==Plot==

Setting Thief takes place in a metropolis called "the City", The setting has been described as steampunk, a fantastical setting where steam engine technology is prominently used. It has also been argued that Thief is one of the earliest examples of the New Weird genre. 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 Thief's setting. named Artemus. Impressed by Garrett's ability to see him, he offers Garrett 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 (in Thief Gold, one talisman is in possession of the mages and another was found at an opera house after it was taken from the caves below, while the other two are in the Lost City and the Hammerite Temple as in the original game). 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 right eye. The Trickster places it on the gemstone, and the two disappear through a portal. 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, Artemus approaches Garrett and claims that he will soon require the Keepers' help. Garrett dismisses him, and as he walks away, Artemus warns of the encroaching "metal age". ==Development==

Origins Thief began development in April 1996. For the game's original designer and writer Ken Levine, credited by The Telegraph as "a key figure in the creation" of Thief, inspirations came from two of his favourite games, Castle Wolfenstein and Diablo. The initial concept was to make an action role-playing game and Levine was given the job of designing the game's world and story. Levine said the initial ideas and projects that have later morphed into Dark Camelot, before eventually evolving into The Dark Project, included School of Wizards, Dark Elves Must Die and Better Red Than Undead, the latter of which was "a campy story" about communist zombies. The game was supposed to be a first-person sword fighting simulator, but "the marketing [department] killed the idea," to his disappointment. According to programmer Marc LeBlanc, "The first proposal was Better Red Than Undead, a '50s Cold War game where the Soviet Union is overrun with zombies and you have to go hack them to pieces as the loner from the CIA because bullets don't work on the undead." Dark Camelot The next concept, Dark Camelot, still focused on sword combat. Its plot—an inversion of Arthurian legend—featured Mordred as a misunderstood hero, King Arthur as a tyrannical villain and Merlin as a psychopath. Artist Dan Thron said: "For a good long time, we had no idea what the game was about, until somebody stumbled upon the whole thief game play where you're not just running out trying to chop people up." Church recalled that "the basic stealth model was [...] having the guard looking the other way and you going past pretty quickly. So Paul [Nerath] had been pushing for a while that the thief side of it was the really interesting part and why not you just do a thief game." Production In early 1997, Dark Camelots name was tentatively changed to The Dark Project and its design altered to focus on thievery and stealth. Nevertheless, some levels originally designed for Dark Camelot ended up in the final product. Full-scale development on The Dark Project began in May 1997, with a frantic work on a demo level and trailer for E3 1997. Originally announced to come out in Summer 1997, the game was delayed to Winter 1997–98. 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 1998, and after 12 more weeks of constant work, it was ready for what Leonard called, "real testing". 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. 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". 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. 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. It features three new missions, and improvements to the original 12. Its disc also contains a level editor and a "making of Thief II: The Metal Age" video, among other extras. ==Reception==

Thief: The Dark Project received critical acclaim PC Gamer, Emil Pagliarulo of The Adrenaline Vault wrote: "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". 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". Chan Chun of 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". Peter Olafson of GamePro praised the game's AI and said that the game "gets better ... the more time you spend with it". Thiefs graphics received a mixed reaction, with several negative comparisons to Half-Life and Unreal. Gillen decried certain levels for "infring[ing] on Tomb Raider territory, and then [not] quite pull[ing] it off". Its global sales reached 500,000 copies by May 2000, making it Looking Glass Studios' most commercially successful game, according to the Boston Globe. At the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Thief: The Dark Project was named as a nominee for "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design" and tied with Age of Empires II for winning "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development". ==Legacy==

Thief was one of the first 3D stealth games for a personal computer, 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. 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." an opinion shared by Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo, and Michel Sabbagh of Bethesda Softworks. Thief: The Dark Project has been declared one of the greatest games of all time by several publications. Inducting it into its hall of fame, GameSpy writer Rich Carlson wrote: "With a tactical philosophy contrary to nearly every [first-person shooter] 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." In 2009, Thief was added to IGNs hall of fame. Sid Shuman, writing for GamePro, asserted that Thief "pioneered its own genre ... the stealth-action title". In 2012, Mike Fahey of Kotaku called Thief "the best stealth game I've ever played", superior to modern games in the genre. That same year, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time. Thief: The Dark Project was followed by two sequels, and a fourth game rebooting the series has also been released. 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 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 game, simply titled Thief was revealed to be in development by Eidos-Montréal for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It received mixed reviews upon release. After Looking Glass Studios closed its doors, Thief has been supported by community modifications (mods). Standalone fan made remake The Dark Mod aims to recreate the "essence" of Thief in a modern game engine. Originally released in 2009 as a mod for Doom 3, in October 2013 it was released as an open-source standalone game. In December 2013, fan made high definition texture mod Thief Gold HD was released. A fan expansion, The Black Parade, was released in 2023 by Feuillade Industries. ==References==