Subtle Darkness

            Not everything’s as it seems in Thief.

            This is especially the case in Thief: The Dark Project. From the very beginnings of the game at Bafford’s manor, I knew there was more to this game’s story than being a thief. At face value, you’re just a thief going to steal some loot. But what a dark world! The Keepers lurk somewhere in the background; hints of ancient magics, past darkness, and the Pagans show in art and readables; AI converse about the “walled-off section of the City”; and so forth. Together it all works subtly to remind you, the player, that you are moving about in a world with its own history and culture. 

            There’s a sense of unease under everything. It seeps up through the cobblestones of the City streets and through the heavy stone of the nobility’s manors. It can’t be escaped. The technology of the City and the riches of its upper crust can’t contain the past which seeps through the darkness.

            In Thief II, this is not so much the case, though darkness can occasionally be seen with such examples as the catacombs in Eavesdropping, the mage’s home in Life of the Party, and the haunted library in Casing the Joint. But the Mechanist’s twisted technology takes the show.

            Thief III’s story, like the original Thief game's, is ultimately about an ancient evil lurching forth from the past. But even when the story does not explicitly thrust some long dormant monster into the modernized world of the City, there is the sense that something is wrong. There is some evil creeping about everywhere, at any point during most of the first and third Thief games.

Indeed, a major theme in the Thief games is that there is stuff going on in the background. You think this is just about a thief stealing loot? There are greater forces at work here. And poor Garrett always, unwittingly, gets caught up in them.