Thief is a series of mainly first-person computer games where the player takes the role of Garrett, a thief in a steampunk world resembling a cross between the Late Middle Ages and the Victorian era, with some primitive technology thrown in. The series consists of Thief: The Dark Project (1998), Thief II: The Metal Age (2000) and Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004). An expanded version of Thief: The Dark Project, titled Thief Gold, was released in 1999 and features three extra maps, new enemies and several bug fixes.
Looking Glass Studios developed both Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age. After the studio went out of business in 2000, many former employees moved to Ion Storm Austin and began developing the long-anticipated third part of the series, Thief: Deadly Shadows. The game was released on May 25, 2004 and is believed to be the last in the series. Although there have been comments suggesting a continuation, they have not yet been confirmed. Eidos Interactive published all four releases in the series.
With the release of DromEd, a map editor, an active community of fans began providing a wealth of home-grown missions for the first two games (see External links, below). A few of these were so successful, in fact, that their creators were invited to work with Ion Storm Austin on Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Style of play
The main tactic of Thief is to avoid fights and instead sneak around the enemies. For example, killing an innocent will often cause the player to fail a mission; on higher difficulty levels, killing anyone, even an angry guard, will result in mission failure. Thief is sometimes described as either a "first-person sneaker" or a "first-person looter" to emphasize this difference. Classification of the game has been slow coming, as three-dimensional stealth games, such as Splinter Cell (released in 2002) for example, only became more common years after the first Thief.
Another innovation introduced by Thief is the careful use of sound effects as an integral part of gameplay. Sound cues not only tell the player of other characters in the vicinity, but also indicate how much noise Garrett makes when moving about an area. Too much noise can alert nearby guards, who will grow suspicious and come looking for intruders. There are a variety of tactics to avoid being heard, however, such as walking gently, steering clear of noisy pavement, or using magical arrows to create a moss carpet that muffles the sound of footsteps.
In a similar vein, lighting became one of the most important strategies. A gauge at the bottom of the screen (called the 'Light Gem') indicates how visible the protagonist is. Entering deeper shadows or ducking made the character less likely to be noticed. Walking about increased the risk of being spotted, and having a sword or bow drawn makes him very conspicuous in the game. The astute player is constantly keeping an eye on areas of light or shadow in case a hiding place is needed in a hurry. Arrows with water-filled tips can be fired at torches and braziers, dimming the surrounding light and creating a handy pocket of shadow which can then be used for hiding.
Story
The Thief series follows the exploits of Garrett, a master thief living and working in a steampunk metropolis constantly being fought over by a corrupt aristocracy, an order of religious fanatics and a horde of vengeful woodland beings, all under the eye of a secret organization of Keepers.
Setting
Thief creates a living, breathing steampunk world for the player. The games are set in what is always referred to as "The City", with occasional excursions into nearby areas like Markham's Isle.
The technology present in the game seems to be a cross between the Victorian Era and medieval times. The city has the air of a 19th century metropolis, and electricity is somewhat prevalent, yet torches are still used in many homes and businesses. Weapons such as broadswords, bows, and maces are common, and firearms seem to be nonexistent, except in the artillery carried by the robotic Mechanist sentries. Many guards wear mail armor and helmets similar to those in the middle ages, and quite a few structures are more like late medieval fortresses and castles than Victorian houses.
Factions
There are three primary factions at work in the City. Below is a description of each.
The Keepers are an ancient sect of expert observers, dedicated to preserving balance in the world. Garrett once belonged to the organization and still makes use of the skills learned as a Keeper for his own clandestine purposes. Even though Garrett refuses further involvement with the Keepers, they inevitably manipulate him into acting out their prophecies and obscure designs in all three games. Much of the Keeper's powers are derived from their special Glyph magic, which spells out their prophecies and allows them to weave extremely powerful spells. The Keepers seem to be highly dependent on the Glyphs for their powers, with Garrett and Artemus seeming to be the only Keepers able to operate effectively without the aid of Glyphs.
The Order of the Hammer is a group of technocratic religious fanatics, also known as the Hammerites. They seek to carry out the vision of the Master Builder, their architect god, and are the burning force of progress in the Thief world. They represent Order and Orthodox religion (which has many similarities to the medieval Catholic Church). The Hammerites are skilled warriors and routinely carry large metal sledgehammers with them, which are both a religious symbol and a very effective weapon against trespassers. They despise the nature-worshipping Pagans, and are also mortal enemies of the Undead. Their scriptures are very harsh and draconian, but many Hammerites temper their religious zeal in order to better accomodate the realities of City life.
In Thief II, a group of Hammerite schismatics under the leadership of the charismatic (but insane) Karras, gives birth to the Mechanist sect. Even more fervent about technology than their Hammerite cousins, the Mechanists invent steam-powered robots to act as servants, and rumor has it those robots might be intended for more than just subservience. The plotline of Thief II: The Metal Age revolves entirely around this sect, and they receive a few brief mentions in the third game in the series.
Finally, the Pagans represent the forces of nature and chaos in the Thief world. Nature worshippers who live in the deep forests away from the City, the Pagans shun technology and live in harmony with wild, supernatural creatures. They despise the ordinary people of the City, and are completely inimical to Hammerites and Mechanists. Pagans are for the most part unskilled at combat, and rely on stealth and subterfuge in their ongoing campaign to undermine and subvert the City. Their demonic god, the Woodsie Lord or Trickster, and the facts surrounding their resurgence are central to the plot of Thief: The Dark Project. Owing to a twist of fate, they side with Garrett against the Mechanists in Thief II.
Language
The game uses the expletive "taffer" and variations in place of English profanities. This also has a special in-game connotation as a corruption of the name of the evil nature god, the Trickster Spirit. As such, to curse someone as a "taffer" is to insinuate that that person shares some of the spirit's dubious qualities. It is a fairly broad oath that can mean "scoundrel", "joker", "fool", or simply indicate a contemptible person whom the speaker both scorns and derides. Curiously, the Pagans, worshippers of the Trickster, also use the epithet, sometimes in the pidgin form of "Tricksie." "Taffing" (or "taffing around") is also a nebulous term that generally involves an activity that lacks proper forthrightness or diligence, such as lying or exaggerating to someone or shirking important responsibilities in favor of play or frivolous pursuits.
The developers have more than once remarked that all such words in the game are made up.
Also, the Hammerite and Pagan factions both have their own dialects. The Hammerites speak a dialect of English that uses many archaic-sounding constructions and words, although grammar and usage do not necessarily correspond to the older dialect it is presumably based on. The Pagans speak in a euphonic pidgin dialect with even more grammatical irregularities, at least when compared to American English.
The Games
Thief: The Dark Project
Released by Looking Glass Studios in 1998, and powered by their own in-house developed DARK engine, Thief: The Dark Project was in many ways a revolutionary title. Although it utilized a first person perspective, it was not an action-oriented shooter like almost all other first person games. Instead, the emphasis was on stealth: The character was not particularly agile nor a skilled fighter, and much of the gameplay involved using shadows to avoid enemies. However, for those who desire action, there are weapons available that allow direct confrontation. A skilled player can often break cover and go head-to-head with the enemies.
The game's original gameplay quickly developed a cult following. However, many players complained that the game's "Thief" theme was underutilized. Although the first few missions were typical "rob a rich guy's mansion" levels, the latter 2/3s of the game took part largely in monster-infested ruins where you were pitted against various zombies, beasts, and Trickster creatures.
Thief Gold
Thief Gold is a 1999 re-release of Looking Glass Studios' Thief: The Dark Project computer game.
In addition to various bug fixes, Thief Gold added three new levels which contributed significantly to the existing plot. The package also contained the DromEd Thief editor as well as a behind-the-scenes "making of" video.
Looking Glass were working on a similar re-release of Thief II: The Metal Age, provisionally entitled Thief II Gold, at the time they went out of business in 2000.
Thief II: The Metal Age
Looking Glass Studios released the sequel to Thief in 2000. Utilizing the same DARK engine that powered the original Thief, Thief II had an almost identical look and feel, with only minor graphical and programming improvements. The basic gameplay was also fundamentally similar to the original Thief, but many new elements had been added, including technological gadgets such as a remote eye camera. Other changes include an increase in the number of A.I. behaviors, and the addition of female guards and soldiers.
Responding to criticisms of the original Thief, the missions in Thief II were designed much more around typical thief-like behavior, and much of the game is spent robbing the rich denizens of the City rather than battling monsters.
Thief: Deadly Shadows
A major departure from the first two games in the series, Thief: Deadly Shadows was developed by Ion Storm rather than Looking Glass Studios (albeit with many of the same people). The game was powered by the highly problematic and buggy Unreal-based Deus Ex: Invisible War engine. Unlike the original two titles, the third Thief game was developed simultaneously for the PC and the Xbox.
Because of all these factors, Thief: Deadly Shadows (Ion Storm decided not to name the game "Thief III" for fear that it would alienate console gamers who had never played the previous 2 titles) was different from the first two games in the series in both appearance and gameplay.
One of the game's major new features was the ability to explore the City. While previous games sent Garrett straight from mission to mission, Thief: Deadly Shadows allows him to walk the City streets between missions where he can steal from passersby, spy on the townspeople's daily lives, and search for sidequests in addition to major story missions. Unlike games such as Grand Theft Auto III, the city is not one large continuous map, but rather several small neighborhood maps connected by load zones (similar to Postal²).
The game was unanimously considered as the worst of the series mainly due to "selling out" to the console market, resulting in very "dumbed downed" gameplay (like Ion Storm's critically panned Deus Ex: Invisible War). It include the fact that the maps are much smaller compared to those from the original two games (to compensate for the hardware limitations of the Xbox), annoyance at the level designs (much more inferior than the previous games) that require players to repeatedly switch between 1st and 3rd person perspectives, and that the gameplay has been greatly simplified for the console market (such as the removal of the swordfighting system, and using "wall-crawling gloves" rather than climbing grappling hook-like "rope arrows" to higher areas).
The Shalebridge Cradle
One of the most notable parts of Thief 3: Deadly Shadows was the mission "The Shalebridge Cradle", carrying on the tradition of creating atmospheric levels in the Thief series. "The Shalebridge Cradle" quickly became a fan favourite due to what fans felt was an impressive use of ambience and atmosphere to create a chilling environment of fear rarely explored in many video games, with the notable exceptions of games such as Silent Hill. For example, the first part of the mission created what many fans found to be an unnerving environment through ambient sound and lighting effects, despite containing no enemies whatsoever. The level itself is widely assumed to be the largest part of Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. The "Cradle" itself was designed in a traditional format of using an abandoned haunted house as a backdrop but contained a developed backstory for the ___location, which started out being an orphanage, later was turned into an insane asylum, and then finally was abandoned after a fire. It also has many other backstory strands containing in-game information (through the medium of old books and notes) about the inmates in the lower levels of the "Cradle".
Game editing
A mission editor, Dromed, was available for Thief, Thief Gold and Thief II. Hundreds of fan missions for these games have been created, some equally or more complex than the original game missions. After a letter-writing campaign by fans, an editor was released for Thief: Deadly Shadows in February 2005.
Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age
Some time after Looking Glass went down, a small group of enthusiastic developers took the opportunity to extend the Thief universe using DromEd. The result was an unofficial Thief II expansion pack titled Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age [1]. The game — though an expansion pack for Thief II — presents a new protagonist, a young girl named Zaya. The game has features similar to those in retail Looking Glass games: complex level design, lengthy campaigning (consisting of thirteen long missions), pre-rendered introduction and ending sequences, redesigned voice-over sound effects, original artwork, and animated mission briefings.
This expansion is freeware and can be downloaded from the developer's site [2], although it requires the original Thief II in order to be played.
The City
The universe of Thief is centered mostly on a dense, sprawling metropolitan complex known only as "The City." Garrett works with the underground economy of the City, making a lucrative living for himself. The City is comprised of a mosaic of districts that are visited by Garrett over the course of the series.
Districts of The City
The gamer sees most of the districts as the series unwinds. Some still are uncharted, however, and have only been heard of through documental or vocal references.
- Auldale: One of the wealthiest districts in the City (if not the wealthiest), situated on the east side of the River. Hammer Inspector Drept, and the Citywatch make the area seemingly safe to walk the streets at night there. The well-to-do residents spend their leisure time shopping at pricy goldsmiths, strolling the parks, or gazing at art in the renowned Wieldstrom Museum. In spite of the perceived safety in this high-end district, rumors of Pagans dwelling in Auldale Park have been growing. Some of the most recent murders and sightings of the Old Grey Lady have also been spotted around the Auldale Canal.
- Dayport: An upscale seaside area, as opposed to the run-down Docks. In Thief 2, Garrett referred to the area with the densely packed high rise apartments and business buildings as the "Thieves' Highway." In Deadly Shadows, he also referred to the Old Quarter as the Thieves' Highway. The Mechanist Tower, Angelwatch, was constructed in Dayport.
- The Docks: One of the roughest neighborhoods in the City.
- Eastport
- North Quarter: the site of Ramirez' castle and the City's First Bank and Trust.
- New Market: ___location of Fargus' shop. Not far from where Garrett lived in the first Thief.
- The New Quarter
- Old Quarter: A diverse middle-class neighborhood in the heart of the City. In the first Thief game, the Old Quarter is a walled-off section of the City. A generation or so ago, a mystical artifact known as the Eye caused a horrendous cataclysm, causing the dead to rise in the area around the Hammerite Cathedral, and somehow in the ensuing chaos (the fire may have been a defensive measure) the Old Quarter caught fire and began burning out of control. The Old Quarter was sealed behind stone walls, to keep the zombies in and everyone else out. What remains in Thief: The Dark Project is an abandoned mess of ruined buildings, debris and wandering undead (as well as wild animals).
- Shalebridge: neighborhood between the Old Quarter and the Docks. Close to where Garrett lived in the Metal Age.
- South Quarter: One the largest and busiest residential areas in the City. Where Garret resides in Deadly Shadows. After the demise of Sheriff Truart, South Quarter's corruption has been burgeoning. Black Alley is one of the most notorious spots here. Pavelock Prison, one of the Citywatch's largest penitentiaries, is also located here.
- Stone Market: Commercial nexus of the City. Many merchants dwell in guild homes here. Many of the businessmen make crooked deals with City thugs as well. The district is divided into the Stonemarket Plaza, and the Stonemarket Proper. The Plaza is home to the Clocktower, the tallest skyscraper in the City. The Proper cradles St. Edgars church, and is a center for Blackmarket activity.
- The Warehouse District: Adjacent to the dock. A popular hangout spot for smugglers and the like.
- Westport
Characters
Here is a list of specific characters who either play a major part in one game, or have recurring roles throughout the series.
- Garrett: The protagonist of the series. A cynical, highly disciplined master thief who only wishes to be left alone to steal in peace, but who unwittingly becomes embroiled in a series of epic events. As a child, Garrett was recruited into the Keepers but later rebelled against their secretive, hierarchical ways. He left the organization, went into business for himself as a thief, and now uses his Keeper skills to steal from the rich and give to himself. Garrett comes across as cold and ruthless, but also seems to have a professional pride and will only kill when absolutely necessary. A large scar runs down one side of his face, the result of his enemy plucking out one of his eyes in Thief: The Dark Project. Garrett now sees with a mechanical eye, a piece of Mechanist technology given to him by the Hammerites at the end of The Dark Project.
- Keeper Artemus: Garrett's one-time mentor, who took in the young Garrett and taught him all his skills. Artemus frequently contacts Garrett in attempts to enlist his help with the various Keeper Prophecies. He still holds genuine affection for Garrett, in spite of Garrett's rejection of the Keeper ways. Artemus appears to be the only Keeper whose stealth skills rival Garrett's own, and once or twice Artemus has even managed to sneak up on Garrett.
- Viktoria: A cunning and beautiful woman who works for Constantine. Like her employer, she has a hidden nature.
- Constantine: A strange and eccentric wealthy man who hires Garrett to perform a series of jobs for him in Thief: The Dark Project. The consequences of these jobs and Constantine's true nature form the crux of Dark Project's story.
- Sheriff Gorman Truart: A corrupt medieval lawman who becomes the leader of the City Watch and the apparent main antagonist in Thief II. Truart oppresses the people, collects bribes, implements outrageous taxes, brutally suppresses the criminal element, and seems to have a particular personal grudge against Garrett. Truart regards the law not as an end in itself, but rather as a means for those with power (specifically, himself) to control those without.
- Father Karras: A brilliant inventor, genius, and prophet who split from the Hammerite organization to found his own faction, the Mechanists. He and his organization play a major role in Thief II's story. While still a Hammerite, Karras invented the mechanical eye and gave it to Garrett as a gift. Karras suffers from an extreme speech impediment, yet somehow is highly charismatic and able to command the loyalties of numerous followers.
- Lieutenant Mosley: A member of the City Watch under Sheriff Truart, and one of his two lieutenants. Unlike Truart, Mosley is a solid, honest officer, and her conscience eventually causes her to question Truart's brutal methods. Mosley eventually forms an alliance with the Pagans to bring down Truart.
- Keeper Orland: A member of the Keeper organization with a strong dislike of Garrett. Orland eventually becomes the leader of the Keepers in Thief: Deadly Shadows. His leadership quickly proves officious, bureaucratic, and secretive, and Garrett quickly learns to dislike him.
- Interpreter Caduca: An old woman in the Keeper organization in charge of reading and interpreting the Glyph Prophecies. The Prophecies are central to the Keepers' work, so Caduca plays a very important role in the organization, and even the Keeper leader listens to her advice. In reality, Caduca is actually relatively young. Prolonged exposure to the Glyphs causes accelerated aging, an effect which limits the amount of knowledge and power any single Keeper can obtain from studying the Glyphs.
- Translator Gamall: Caduca's assistant, an eerie pale and emotionless child who translates Caduca's interpretations into English. As the Translator, Gamall will succeed Caduca as Interpreter when Caduca is no longer able to fulfill her duties.
- The Hag: A mythical serial killer who purportedly stalks the night, slaying victims and stealing their skin. Even the Pagans, who deal regularly with monstrous creatures, regard her as an abomination. The Hag appears to be the Boogeyman of the Thief world, and features in a variety of children's rhymes and night-time tales. Few believe she actually exists, however.
- "Benny": A recurring drunkard guard whose mood swings and amusing ramblings made him endearing to fans of the game. The name is informal, as the character's voice is used for a number of different guards. In Thief: Deadly Shadows he is at one point called "Sinclair".
External links
Official sites
Fan sites
Fan missions
- Mod (computer gaming) Wiki article containing information on Thief FM's
- Cheap Thief Missions
- Dark Loader, a freeware application to quickly and easily play fan missions
- The Keep of Metal and Gold
- Thief: The Circle
- The Circle of Stone and Shadow, an unofficial Thief expansion
- T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, an unofficial Thief II expansion
Miscellaneous
- Journey into the Cradle Analysis of one level of Thief: Deadly Shadows
- Thief & Thief 2 level design credits