Closing

            In closing, I have one, final thought to share on Thief: I can’t think of a game series that so satisfied my desire to explore houses. As a kid, whenever we moved, I loved seeing and exploring any house we looked at. I’m no architectural guru or interior decorator—I just like seeing houses.

This simple experience is lost in so many current games. The highly-detailed, cinematographic visuals and restrictive game environments never give the player any freedom to explore. The simplicity, directness, and openness of Thief allows one to explore, and, while crypts and haunted cathedrals are great, I get a particular joy out of exploring the noble’s manor houses. Sometimes I lose sight of the fact that I’m a thief on a quest, and just start taking in the décor. I feel like I could sit down and relax a little bit (until a guard starts coming).

And I’d like to re-emphasize that, in light of my project’s thesis, but in any circumstances really, the Thief games are not about being a thief. They’re about exploring places and experiencing stories. Being a thief is just the vehicle, a way to experience these worlds, a setup for what are some of the greatest immersive simulations ever made.

            ~

Well, anyway; you, the reader, have read a lot about Thief, particularly the first two games in the series, and myriad points I have to make on them. Perhaps you’re interested in playing the games, and even all their hundreds of fan-missions? It’s loads of great content, for a very cheap price (and fan-missions are free, of course!). Thanks to services like Good Old Games (gog.com) and the Thief fan community (ttlg.com) playing these over-a-decade old games on modern hardware can be done.

            First, you can purchase the games, DRM-free, from GOG (gog.com). See here for Thief I; here for Thief II; and here for Thief III. Then, you can get the “NewDark” patches—fixes, uploaded in 2013, that allow the first Thief games to be played on practically any PC. Applying them is simple. See here for Thief I; here for Thief II; and here for Thief III. Do note that getting Thief III up and running might be a bit more difficult.

            Then there are the fan-missions. You’re looking at thousands of hours of always good, many times great, sometimes phenomenal content, that’s all free. The fan-missions I covered here are just the tip—so many more adventures are out! See here for a list of most FMs, by category; see here for an information page on Thief fan-missions; see here for an FAQ on Thief fan-missions.

            As for the 2014 Thief reboot? … Just ignore it.

            Then there’s “the Dark Mod”, a standalone mod, built off of Doom 3 technology, that gives fans a Thief experience in a relatively newer game engine. See its website.

            So dig in, and experience, yourself, the greatness of Thief.

            ~

            I remember when I got each Thief game. The first one, my dad picked up at a store, soon after we had moved to a new area. The game became a world I escaped to as I adjusted to a new school environment; I was just in the fourth grade. The zombies in ‘Cragscleft’ and ‘Bonehoard’ scared me greatly back then. Several times I just sat at the pause menu, too scared to go back into the game.

            Thief II my dad had to order a new computer for. We had been playing PC games on laptops up until then; my dad’s company laptops (this included the first Thief). For Thief II, we got a proper desktop PC that, for its time, was a solid mid-range PC. I first played through Thief II when I was home sick one day in seventh grade. Playing through Thief II for the first time was a grand experience, and the game has remained a top favorite (perhaps my favorite of all time).

            The buying experience for Thief III was the most memorable, though it was the weakest of the three games. We had to get it the day it had come out. But my dad was out of town. My mom, brother and I spent a good amount of time scrounging for cash, getting enough dimes, nickels, and pennies to equal the amount we’d need. This was the only game for which we had a pile of coins out on the GameStop counter, counting them. Unfortunately, the new gaming PC we had ordered to play Thief III on had not arrived yet. But we had the game, and enjoyed looking at the box. I still have the receipt from when we bought it that night.

            You’ll notice that the version of Thief I I have is Thief Gold. This was a re-release that came out a year later, in 1999, and had three additional missions. I also have multiple copies of Thief Gold, and also have an “Eidos Platinum Collection” release of the games.

            This is the end of my project, but I plan to continue blogging on Thief missions. Thank you for reading, and happy taffing.*

*taff / taffer / taffing / taffed is a phrase used in the world of the Thief games. Some guy stole your sandwich? He’s a taffer. Stealing some loot from Lord Bafford’s estate? You’re taffing Bafford’s estate. Going off to play some Thief missions? You’re off to go taffing.