Thief™ Gold

I can see how this was such a cult classic. Requires a lot of patients and save scumming, but the environments and story keeps you wanting to know more. I never imagined what the game would turn into in the end.

Its a little clunky, and sometimes hard to tell where the dark pockets are to hide. But don't let those things deture you. Give it a shot and find out what our ancestor gamers called one of the best.

Though in modern times it will take a bit of setup to get the optimum experience, Thief still stands out as one of the best stealth games around. The fact a modern game has yet to successfully build on the foundations laid by this game is a tragedy. Everything about this title and it's superior sequel The Metal Age is masterful - the writing, music, visuals, audio, level design, mechanics and the AI make for some of the most engrossing gameplay possible.

This is way worse than I remembered. Play Thief 2 instead. There Looking Glass learned how to make the formula work.

Though there are many ways in which this game is a product of its time, and its jank can be occasionally frustrating, Thief set the standard for the stealth genre, and there's been nothing quite like it since. OG Thief is the Half-Life of stealth games.

It's pretty skibidi

When you buy Thief: Gold, you're not only gaining access to one of the most influential and important games ever made, you're also gaining access to 25+ years of Fan Missions made in its level editor. This means, for free, you get Thief: The Black Parade, which is not only the best mod of the past 5 years, but one of the best immersive sim stealth games of all time. It's a two-for-one of some of the best shit you'll ever play, and a two-for-one-thousand if you get deeper into the fan mission scene. I recommend Endless Rain and Alcazar to start. You can find 'em over on thiefguild.com. Install TFix to get started.

Half the time this game's on sale for pennies. Do yourself a favor and spend the pennies. Best pennies I've ever spent.

I stole lots of stuff, got betrayed, saved the world, what more can you ask for in a game really?

A true pioneer of stealth gaming. Thief still holds up with its eerie atmosphere, smart level design, and immersive sound. Dated visuals, sure—but the tension, creativity, and freedom are unmatched. An essential piece of gaming history.

A true gem of a game

you can steal stuff 👍

absolutely phenomenal. the movement is janky as hell but if you work with it it's SO rewarding. vaulting up secret pathways, ladders, stacks of boxes (0451 !!!!!), is an incredible time. the story is absolutely killer, the atmosphere is unmatched, and stealing is the most fun you can have....................in game. (heh!)

lovely variety and back and forth between "ah yes, i am robbing a rich dudes manor" to "i'm in a cave running from dinosaurs and fireballs and ghosts and zombies and fearing for my life." the vibe of everything being "normal and human....until it isn't" puts thief in an incredibly compelling world of its own.

it is as emergent as emergent can be, and it takes 5 hours to comb through every level. masterpiece.

A miracle of existence. The world was made a better place when this game got released.

Came here for "black parade". Canonical, all mission are bangers!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458847278

Good game. Much sneak. Would recommend.
Fan Missions/mods are a solid plus.

I don't recommend this game, it got me into liking men and I'm uncomfortable with that, I will now return to my ghetto in the lost city with my beautiful husband mandy

Thief Gold is, even by today’s standards, a fantastic game and is only second to its sequel. It is a pure stealth game that offers no option to fight your way through, has incredible level design and great mechanics.

As others have mentioned in their reviews, I recommend installing TFIX for an improved experience while keeping a lot of the original design. Personally, I was able to play it quite well using a controller with Steam's controller mapping support. However, I understand that many players will prefer using the standard keyboard controls. I found that a standard Xbox controller had too few buttons for full functionality, so for anyone interested in playing this series with a controller, I purchased a BIGBIGWON Blitz 2. This controller features four additional mappable buttons that are accessible while controlling both joysticks and it works very well with this game and the others in the series.

In short, Thief is a masterclass in stealth and atmosphere. For anyone who enjoys the stealth genre, it is a must-have.

Great game. Amazing. And it's not nostalgia speaking, I literally discovered this game.

Played with TFix 1.27b.
[hr][/hr]
First off, I didn't expect this to be as spooky as it was which made me enjoy the atmosphere of most missions. Aside from the spookiness, dialogue can be funny at times especially from human enemies who have some hilarious trash talking. Gameplay-wise, it's a stealth game with quite a few ways for the player to be creative in completing objectives.

classic!

10/10 masterpiece
For me best stealth game

I love thief gold, i think 5 of the missions are bangers and I absolutely adore "the sword" im pretty impressed how much stealth mechanics it had for being so old :)

Aged like wine, although to get the best out of Thief I'd recommend installing Tfix so it runs well on a modern PC.

Full of charm, and with a number of excellent fan missions (especially the Black Parade) Thief remains one of the best stealth games I've played.

so good

Classic stealth game from back in the day. Solid despite its age.

Classic and flawed, a great game made even better now with an unofficial GFX upgrade called HDMod which runs alongside Tfix a mechanics fixing mod. Both are excellent and unless you are a purist retro streamer there is no reason to not be using those mods in 2025.

Strongly recommend using Tfix mod for major improvements.

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A good game, tough to run and with many issues due to how old it is but a good game

I would probably give a middling review if you could, but this game, as it stands, deserves a non-recommend due to how frustrating and exhausting it is.

Firstly I was playing with TFlite and did the hardest possible difficulties since the higher difficulties give you more objectives to do so it felt the intended way to play.

The good:
Some levels are clearly well thought out and are interesting, such as return to haunted cathedral, lord baffords house and the one with the 4 towers.
Sneaking mechanics are generally servicable, nothing too ground breaking though.
Cutscenes and overall story is pretty good.
The architecture of some levels is pretty cool (Although dated).
No quest objectives, static maps etc. demand you to pay attention to your mission and what you're looking for making it more immersive.
Garrett

The bad:
Tons of levels in this game are just downright confusing. Lots of things look the same so you'll end up getting lost... A LOT.
Some of the objectives to complete a level are moronic. The best example I can bring to mind is the one where you sneak into a hammerite temple dressed as one of them. To complete the level you have to find 5 levers that are strewn about the level with 2 of them seemingly having no cohesive reason for their locations. Think trying to do an easter egg in a game where the devs put a random bunch of esoteric bullshit to get the easter egg. Obviously thats fine for an easter egg since its not part of the main mission, but hopefully that gives some perspective into how bad some of these objectives are
Lots of missing random critical items that blend in far too easily etc.
The geometry feels clumsy. You'll end up knocking into things that kill your movement and get you caught.
Enemy AI is very basic, bordering on bad.
Noticeable dip in level quality near the end of the game.


The main reason the game is bad is due to the confusing nature of a lot of levels. Have to give this a big NOT RECOMMENDED from me. I suggest looking over the positive reviews and seeing how many people mention that are a large portion of the levels suck BUT "its groundbreaking, was ahead of its time" etc. The latter comments aren't valid reasons for a positive review and it seems many people are giving positive reviews due to rose-tinted glasses or feeling they need to give it a positive review since its heralded as a classic. Only play this if you're dying to play a stealth game that is considered a classic I guess.

another banger from the thief series

thanks tyler

i like stealing and having things that belong to other people

As you progress, the junk becomes increasingly noticeable, AI becomes unreasonable, and levels become confusing. However, this game certainly has its charm and is definitely worth checking out at least for its aesthetics and top-notch voicing.

An excellent game for the most part, it may be old but the amount of detail within the world is incredible especially given its age.

The gameplay mostly holds up bar a few levels that are honestly truly scuffed. The game shines brightest when there is no light and you're free to skulk in the shadows undetected. Combat isn't the games strong suit and it knows that, however some levels throw you into fights to progress and it's a chore to get through those segments.

One of the most impressive aspects of this game is rarely propagated by its contemporaries and that's the use of sound design within the environment. Walking on carpets are silent, tiles are not and if you can properly enable EAX emulation you're in for a treat.

On the whole the mandatory combat doesn't make the game any less enjoyable and I'd highly recommend if you enjoy stealth games.

relived i love it

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Very fun stealth game that is oozing with charm. Would recommend to buddies.

Very much worth your coin

Thief is a weird game in that it feels unfair to call it the "best" stealth game, given so few games really drew on it as inspiration and thus much of its direct competition are fundamentally different experiences. As a result though it still feels almost wholly unique, as always I recommend buying it on GOG over Steam though.

It's a great game bro, trust me bro. What do you mean it's a stealth game where the stealth is completely broken bro? You just don't appreciate any game besides Call of Dooty bro!

It's cool but it's sooo slow and I wish there were auto-saves

Great stealth game but kinda falls off halfway through where you're mostly fighting zombies and other random shit instead of thieving. The sequel greatly improves on this aspect.

Listen. Yes, this is a super old game with super old graphics.

Yes, you will need a mod to make it run, because it was not made in a time with Fancy Computers.

But also, yes, you should still 100% get this game.

And you know what? You're not only going to get this for less than a buck, but because it is indeed an old game, it will download in no time flat. You'll be able to SAVE and LOAD in zero seconds. And you know what you're getting in return for all of that?

Well, a game that basically helped found the stealth genre, doing so with cool unique artistic direction (mixing in art and live action shadows in cool ways) along with a rad story and interesting levels that do great with the stealth and thieving elements. It's a genuinely enjoyable game with a super cool setting that will keep you interested. Plus, you can adjust the challenge level for each stage if you want, which I think is pretty cool.

Also Garrett is just a snarky hot mess of a thief that is so fun to listen to and is responsible for like most of his own problems. Which is funny.

Anyway, get the entire Thief series, it will be cheaper than any groceries you ever get, and it is just a whole bunch of fun. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

if you are planning to buy this game or have gotten it on a sale for cheap like I have and intent to play it. please don't play on higher diffculty than normal. the higher difficulty gold requirement will all but guarantee you will be looking at a walkthrough for on most levels, especially on a first playthrough.

the diehard thief fan will convince you to play on a higher difficulty than normal, DO NOT TRUST THEM. Only pain and staring at a walkthrough await you after wandering around a level for fucking hours trying to find that one item you need to progress hidden away in some dark corner you looked over because you didn't have your gamma turned you to the max.

Also some of the levels in game are absolute labyrinth monstrosities which you will be forced to traverse with some fucking crayon drawn ass map. if you are planning to play this game, good luck.

good

Honestly this is a classic for a reason, however there are a few levels (about a quarter of them) that are kinda stinkers. Real hit or miss experience but overall a positive one that was pretty groundbreaking and is worth the respect its garnered

Well, it’s fantastic, but everybody knows that. Had so much fun solving all of its many levels. Play it on expert and without a guide, if you can, or you’ll miss 70 percent of the intended experience.

One of my defining games. The 9 hours played does not reflect my real ingame playtime.
The game itself is perfect, genre defining, the atmosphere can reach the bones. Goosebumps.

It's old, but with the must have mods/fixes it is totally enjoyable. The caveat is, that these tools should be included by default if it is sold in a webshop. They should write a script with options to download and apply these fixes, to be able to play. Because just the original game itself can be hard to even run on modern systems.

Otherwise the game itself is remarkable.

Taffer!

Very mixed feelings about this one. I really like many elements of it. The world and atmosphere are top of the craft, as the player is mostly kept in the shadows and the exposition is quite slow and methodical, which builds up the mystery and makes the inevitable twist in the story much more meaningful. The intro cutscenes before each level really add to the overall immersion as well. The story, disappointingly, kicks off very late, but when it finally does, it is quite good, especially for 1998, where many FPP games were still purely gameplay-focused.

That said, gameplay-wise first Thief aged worse than many hardcore fans of the franchise might want to admit. It's clear that the developers didn't intend this to be a stealth game from the very start. This fact alone makes some levels stand out in a particularly bad way. The new levels added in Gold add even more insult to the injury (look at the infamous Thieves Guild for example).

When it comes to the level design, many important clues are very difficult to stumble upon, while at the same time being strictly required in order to progress. I had to search for guides on the Internet numerous times, even though I often felt as if I've already searched every possible corner. The combat mechanics are really stiff, which is partly expected, since it's supposed to be a stealth game. Garrett, the protagonist, is not a sword fighter after all. This becomes a significant problem though, when the game forces you into combat-heavy levels, which is especially the case towards the end.

All in all, I would recommend trying it out, but keep in my mind that it's not entirely a smooth ride and definitely requires some patience. Thief 2 supposedly fixes some of those issues, so I'm hoping for a better experience when I'll get to play it.