In 1998 Looking Glass Studios (LGS) released Thief: The Dark Project… and I fell in love.
Thief: TDP introduced us to the “First Person Sneaker” genre of games and by god was it awesome.
With solid storytelling, above par voice acting and well designed levels, the game lured me and hundreds of gamers like me into Garrett’s world, a world very unlike our own but with eerie similarities that pricked at the back of one’s’ mind while playing.
Then in 2000 the by now doomed Looking Glass Studios took all the player complaints and positive feedback regarding Thief: TDP and released Thief II: The Metal Age.
Expanding on the story told in Thief: TDP, Thief II: TMA added steam-powered automatons and security cameras into the fray. It also gave us Thief Fanatics the level “First City Bank and Trust” a level of pure genius and one that a Taffer can replay 100 times in a 100 different ways and never get bored with it.
As I mentioned above due to many reasons (DAMN YOU JOHN ROMERO!) Looking Glass Studios folded right after the release of Thief II: TMA
Luckily EIDOS and ION Storm Austin ran by Warren Spector, picked up mostly all of the LGS Thief team and in 2004 released Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Now I’m not going to get into the Fan-boy arguments about Thief: DS being a true Thief game or not. In My Opinion it is, regardless of the limitations of the Unreal engine, a worthy Thief game and includes some of the best levels designed for Garrett and his Steam-Punk Universe. Including one of the scariest game levels ever produced in any game before or since… “Robbing the Cradle“
Zoom forward 3 years and we get to the reason I decided to revisit these games now and write about them here.
I recently installed Windows Vista 32bit and decided to see how many of my older games I could get to work on Microsoft’s newest “Bleeding Edge” Operating System.
And with a few batch files and other assorted tricks found at the “Through the Looking Glass” forums I was able to get all three of the Thief games up and running.
Including T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, a made for fans, by fans, complete conversion of Thief II: TMA that is one of the best Thief games made, even without Garrett being the main antagonist.
So I am happy to report that it is possible to be a Taffer on Windows Vista 32bit, and I encourage you to either revisit these great games or if you have never played them before to find copies on eBay or in the dusty bargain bins of your local game store. Everyone who considers him or herself a hardcore gamer cannot afford to miss playing these monumental games that started the whole sneak genre.
Shawn
P.S. And if any of you find a copy of Thief Gold while looking or have a copy they want to sell... let me know, I'll gladly take it off your hands.
Thief: TDP introduced us to the “First Person Sneaker” genre of games and by god was it awesome.
With solid storytelling, above par voice acting and well designed levels, the game lured me and hundreds of gamers like me into Garrett’s world, a world very unlike our own but with eerie similarities that pricked at the back of one’s’ mind while playing.
Then in 2000 the by now doomed Looking Glass Studios took all the player complaints and positive feedback regarding Thief: TDP and released Thief II: The Metal Age.
Expanding on the story told in Thief: TDP, Thief II: TMA added steam-powered automatons and security cameras into the fray. It also gave us Thief Fanatics the level “First City Bank and Trust” a level of pure genius and one that a Taffer can replay 100 times in a 100 different ways and never get bored with it.
As I mentioned above due to many reasons (DAMN YOU JOHN ROMERO!) Looking Glass Studios folded right after the release of Thief II: TMA
Luckily EIDOS and ION Storm Austin ran by Warren Spector, picked up mostly all of the LGS Thief team and in 2004 released Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Now I’m not going to get into the Fan-boy arguments about Thief: DS being a true Thief game or not. In My Opinion it is, regardless of the limitations of the Unreal engine, a worthy Thief game and includes some of the best levels designed for Garrett and his Steam-Punk Universe. Including one of the scariest game levels ever produced in any game before or since… “Robbing the Cradle“
Zoom forward 3 years and we get to the reason I decided to revisit these games now and write about them here.
I recently installed Windows Vista 32bit and decided to see how many of my older games I could get to work on Microsoft’s newest “Bleeding Edge” Operating System.
And with a few batch files and other assorted tricks found at the “Through the Looking Glass” forums I was able to get all three of the Thief games up and running.
Including T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, a made for fans, by fans, complete conversion of Thief II: TMA that is one of the best Thief games made, even without Garrett being the main antagonist.
So I am happy to report that it is possible to be a Taffer on Windows Vista 32bit, and I encourage you to either revisit these great games or if you have never played them before to find copies on eBay or in the dusty bargain bins of your local game store. Everyone who considers him or herself a hardcore gamer cannot afford to miss playing these monumental games that started the whole sneak genre.
Shawn
P.S. And if any of you find a copy of Thief Gold while looking or have a copy they want to sell... let me know, I'll gladly take it off your hands.
