Summary: I got Thief from my best friend ages ago. I completed the normal mode on it those ages ago, and beat it again on expert this time. It's a game I was very pleased to have played. Allow me to explain. Quite a change of pace for the FPS genre.

Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty sweet. It's a game of stealth where you must be hidden and be...uh...stealthy. If you fail to be stealthy, you are punished through direct combat (and in expert mode, that nearly means you lose). There's a lot more details to it, like you can arouse their attention without them actually coming for you. For those of you who have played the Metal Gear Solid series, you can be safe in knowing that being stealthy is harder, but a lot more logic is used before encounters, during encounters, and after encounters (enemies are smarter in Thief).

In Thief, you have many gadgets and crap at your disposal. Health potions, flashbombs (basically flashbang grenades), speed potions, mines, lockpicks (oh how I loved lockpicking), and all sorts of other cool things. The details in the game come from usage of your environment in any way you can. You can't ignore a feature the game gives you, otherwise you may find yourself with a sword in your forehead. You have many weapons that are very interesting, but they are all also very valuable. If you wish to do well, you must think like freakin' MacGyver.

The way the game handles difficulties alone is worth noting. It works sorta like how some other games handle their own. What I mean is the game gives you more crap to do when you're on a harder difficulty. Everything is made harder for you in many ways on the difficulty levels. The game truly does change dramatically.

As a Thief, you're not there to just kill people. Your motivation is money, and it's proven by the fact that you steal anything that isn't nailed down (and also isn't made of crap, like wood or plastic). After you are done with a mission, you goto a shop for the next mission, where you can buy extra supplies to aid you in your mission. Your options are restricted, and you also can never buy everything. Buy all you can for the difficult missions.

Where the gameplay lost a point is simply in that some parts of the game are not based on stealth, but killing of creatures or the like. The game doesn't have enough of a combat engine to make it always a great experience.

Story: You are a thief named Garrett who was raised by a strange thievery group called the "Keepers". They raised you, and taught you all you know. From here, you are a master thief. The game doesn't tell you everything in the story for a good reason. It oftentimes plays itself as if it's too cool for you (really hard to explain besides with that). Everything that the player needs to know is in the game though. It's deep, but it won't be making anyone feel stupid.

Just as I said with stealing things, your motivation is money. That logic alone is a winner, because the hero is greedy, witty, selfish, and an ass. That fact alone makes you like him, because he is a real person. He's not out to save the princess, he's not out to prove he's a badass. He's there for what he wants, and he groans at challenge. T'is the life of a great thief.

Graphics: The graphics aren't all that pretty at times (which can be forgiven because it was made in 1998). The graphics do their justice where it matters though, so nothing really hurts the experience.

Sound: Everything sounds like it should, everything makes sounds when it should, and sound is a part of the gameplay (as it should be). Clickity clacks and breaking glass, strains on a bow and arrow, clashing swords, explosions, painful screams. Some of the excellent sounds I heard this game. The voice acting was very convincing the entire game too. From sarcasm to being annoyed, the voice acting won't shy anyone away.

Final notes: Thief is a game for someone who likes stealth. Thief is oftentimes a difficult game (on normal difficulty), and is for the resourceful. Assuming you're not afraid of difficult games, Thief is a game I recommend for everyone. Just don't expect ethics or firefights. The best part is that it is a very old game, so chances are you'd be able to pick it up (or Thief Gold, which is supposed to have more) for very cheap

Yesterday I got Thief II as a birthday present from Bob. I have very high hopes for it, but I decided to type up this review before playing it, so I could properly compare the two.