Thief is kinda brilliant, and really one of a kind. Given I just played it for the first time, I was truly surprised at how good this was. I was actually expecting a lot of 1990s jank but there wasn't much. It's rare to recommend old games without any caveats but this is one is truly a masterpiece.

I had already heard so much good things about it, how much it influenced the immersive sim genre and stealth games in general. But now that I've played it, I actually think that it did it better than most of the games it influenced.

In more recent games, stealth is often given as an option to the player. You are rewarded with bonus XP for your "sacrifice" of playing the game stealthily. Some games actually give you a different ending as incentive for not killing NPCs, like in Dishonored. In all these games, you're actually a killing machine, and when you choose a stealth approach you're actually protecting the enemies from your true powers, instead of protecting yourself from the enemies. It's great for people who don't want to play in that style, but really hampers the potential of a true stealth focused game like Thief.

In Thief, you are not a killing machine that happens to be merciful and chooses to spare your enemies by avoiding them in the shadows. You are hiding to survive. Your enemies are smart (to a certain extent) and will track you down if you're sloppy. You have to use all your resources to beat them. Combat is your last resort.

The stealth system works with the expected cone of vision of your enemies that's ubiquitous in any stealth game, but most importantly, there's lighting mechanic as well. You have a "light gem" in your UI that tells you how visible you are in the darkness. That means that you can be directly in front of someone, if it's pitch black they won't notice you. But keep your sword sheathed, because it will reflect light and make you more visible! How cool is that? Also, to control your environment you're able to blow out torches or light them up with your special arrows. These are just a few examples of the clever mechanics you'll have at your disposal.

Sound also plays a huge role, different surfaces will be louder than others. You can easily run on tapestry without anyone hearing you, but the slowest creep on a tile floor will be heard if you're near someone. As another example: If you lean on a door, you'll be able to hear what's going on in the next room, like what the guards are saying, you can even gauge how big the room is by how the sound is travelling. All these systems are coupled with very impressive and creative level design, even for '90s FPS high standards.

This is a hard game. Difficulty settings don't scale enemies' HP or damage. It actually just adds or removes objectives of a mission. Playing on normal (there's no easy difficulty), will grant you the least objectives and you won't need to explore the level as much as in higher difficulties. I found this a very interesting approach that gives the game a lot of replayability potential.

The story and world-building are also surprisingly unique. There's a lot of genre blending going on and some unexpected horror elements. It seems to take place in a very low fantasy steampunk style setting, more medieval europe than Victorian England though. There are knights and electricity at the same time and for some reason it doesn't end up looking jarring. Maybe because it's not so over the top with the technology like in some "magitek" settings.

Also, the writing is great. From the guards Monty Python-esque dialogue to the more serious tone of the cut scenes, it's really well done. Moreover, most of the world-building is conveyed through environmental storytelling instead of exposition.

I really don't have many negative things to say about this title. Some levels are better than others for sure, and there are some frustrating parts where you will get stuck looking for some hidden room or object (the level "Undercover" was the worst offender for me), but none of its issues really detract from such a great experience.

Compatibility wise, the steam version is kinda broken, cut scenes won't load, sound quality will be limited and resolution is scaled badly. The good news is that modders upgraded the game's Dark engine to run on modern hardware and also fixed a lot of bugs. Just google TFix and install the latest patch to make it run properly. I recommend the lite version of the patch for a more authentic experience, since it doesn't include any mods or updated visuals. Also, remember to turn on OpenAL hardware audio in the game options for EAX support and 3D audio.