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Essays 10 December 2019, 15:59

Thief: The Dark Project. From PacMan to Hitman - Stealth in games

Table of Contents

  1. Creator: Looking Glass Studios
  2. Released: 1998

Oh, Garrett, Garrett, where have you been? Many players won't even remember you. They had Sam Fisher (who also slowly fades into oblivion), Ezio Auditore and his successors (all wearing hoods), then Jensen, and then the greatest competitor – Corvo. The last time they saw you, you were so... blurry. And it wasn't like that at first! The first three parts were all outstanding and trully challenging first-person stealth games (the third part also featured a third-person perspective).

Before all those celebrities pushed you out of the limelight, you ruled supreme wherever darkness used to reign. You were elusive. You roamed the dark streets of a gothic-steampunk city, where the poor were crushed by the boot of mega organizations, and monsters born of greed and created by the hand of man lurked in the alleys and ruins. It was hard to tell them apart. In this world, a man like you was a damned ray of hope. Sure, you robbed the poor and kept and kept it for yourself, but sometimes your actions made a difference!

First of all – the genre. You were once among the boldest. You moved in an unusual setting. You were the first to use shadow and light so efficiently – and it was you who showed that you had to be careful with any piece of garbage that could cause noise and alert the guards. It's a pity that you went missing after the last robbery, and Eidos cut you off from funds. I hope you come back. That you'll show me how to be as elusive as a ghost again. See you later, Garrett. See you among the shadows.

PART FIVE, WHICH WASN'T THERE

The reboot of Thief from 2014 was a misfire. I mean, it offered excellent stealth mechanics, good atmosphere, decent graphics and gameplay, but the game fell flat because of poor technical condition and bad story. The reviews were not amazing, and sales even more so. When rumors surfaced in 2017 that despite this, Thief V was in the making – David Anfossi, head of Eidos Montreal, offered the following commentary: "Apparently we’re developing Thief 5 game! So now we have a title... We just have to build a team, a budget... Forget it.”

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Hubert Sosnowski

Hubert Sosnowski

He joined GRYOnline.pl in 2017, as an author of texts about games and movies. Learned how to write articles while working for the Dzika Banda portal. His texts were published on kawerna.pl, film.onet.pl, zwierciadlo.pl, and in the Polish Playboy. Has published stories in the monthly Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror magazine, as well as in the first volume of the Antologii Wolsung. Lives for "middle cinema" and meaty entertainment, but he won't despise any experiment or Fast and Furious. In games, looks for a good story. Loves Baldur's Gate 2, but when he sees Unreal Tournament, Doom, or a good race game, the inner child wakes up. In love with sheds and thrash metal. Since 2012, has been playing and creating live action role-playing, both within the framework of the Bialystok Larp Club Zywia, and commercial ventures in the style of Witcher School.

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