Thief: The Dark Project - Legacy

Legacy

Thief: The Dark Project was the first 3D stealth PC game 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. GameSpot editor Greg Kasavin argued that, while Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and Thief all defined the stealth action genre, it was Thief that displayed "the purest depiction of what it might be like to slip from shadow to shadow" and "largely remains an unsurpassed achievement in gaming."

Thief: The Dark Project 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.

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 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." In 2009, Thief was added to IGN's hall of fame. In a retrospective review that same year, John Walker of Eurogamer wrote: "Thief is an embarrassment to modern stealth games, each of which produces only a faded parody of this masterful original." In 2012, Kotaku's Mike Fahey of Kotaku wrote: "I love the genre—whether it's Assassin's Creed or Splinter Cell or Hitman or whatever—but little did I know that they were all doing it wrong. Thief is the best stealth game I've ever played." That same year, Time named it one of the 100 greatest video games of all time.

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." Laidlaw called Thief his favorite game, an opinion shared by Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo.