Game Review - by Jeremiah Pratt
Are you tired of the same old Action shooters where you run around and kill everything? Well boy do I have a surprise for you; Thief: the Dark Project brings a whole new meaning to being sneaky. My first tips for success in thief is don't try being Rambo you'll die quickly.

Storyline:
In Thief: The Dark Project you play the character of Garrett, a hardened thief of the highest caliber. Shadows and silence are your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools. And the riches of others are yours for the taking. You ply your trade in the City, preying on the rich nobility and corrupt merchants, who are no more deserving of their worldly goods, than a hard-working thief. You have a reliable fence, named Cutty, who's always on the lookout for good jobs. So far, he's never let you down. Every job comes with some danger. Being a thief means always being one misstep away from finding an angry guard bearing down on you with a drawn blade. For these unfortunate moments, you carry a sword yourself, a blackjack and a Bow.

Features:
The Interface in thief is smooth and painless, as it should be. The install was quick and never caused a problem. The in game interface is pretty unique, instead of a per say auto-run there are two separate buttons. One for running the other for walking. I assure you you'll barely ever run unless chased. Plus in order to pick up items you must stand over them until highlighted a feat that sometimes gets frustrating.

Graphics:
The Graphics in Thief are a mixed bag of tricks. Right off the bat you'll notice that they don't look that great. The gamma for the shadows and darkness could have been better. But the glass and stone, and whatever lighting there are phenomenal. The character models could have been improved as so the animations. The guards, zombies, and such move with a lanky gate. Despite that the overall environment is awesome and can be completely manipulated. You'll be very pleased that Thief is DirectX 6 optimized, you can safely run it at 800x600, and with high-end systems 1024X768.

Sound FX:
The Sound FX is the breadwinner in Thief. Without the ambient sounds that are present you would be lost. Never in one game has ambient sounds played a complete role in gameplay. Here you must listen for footsteps and voices. You can even get important clues from guards talking. The musical score is another mixed bag of tricks. Most of it you'll experience it during the cutscenes, or during danger approaching. But sometimes you'll be surprised by cryptic pipe tunes or Erie sounds of flutes. Unfortunately there is no volume control for music, so may want to just turn it off to access surroundings.

Gameplay:
The Gameplay in Thief is not only original but also inspirational. As I mentioned before, you can't just run around killing every guard in your path. Because there is a strong possibility his friends will see the strew of body's and sound an alarm. To be successful in Thief you must hide and move in stealth. And Instead of using that deadly bow and sword of yours; whip out that blackjack. Plus Thief requires you to think and access you're environment use different types of arrows for different situations. The Moss arrows cover noisy floors, the rope arrow can aid your escape, the water arrows used for removing evidence of murder, or lighting. Plus in later missions you will be accompanied by a lockpick set. Say bye bye to finding those keys.

Overall:
Overall, Thief the Dark Project does all the things I love. Which are excellent gameplay grouped with awesome SoundFX, and a fresh new idea to dive into. The Graphics took a back seat but who cares. This game is so innovative it rivals the likes of Half-Life. Thief gets top honors, and deserves it so.