I'm a big fan of Thief and Thief2. Amazing games, by far the best stealth ever made. The first one introduced the real stealth gameplay to videogame realm and the sequel elevated it into masterpiece that's still yet to be matched, let alone surpassed. So... what did community did to save Thief fans from starving to death? Let's go back to 2000. Thief2 has just been released, unfortunately rumored multiplayer didn't make it. But fans hope it will be in Thief3. Soon after LookingGlassStudios closes it's doors. On consoles it would mean no more Thieving fun for long 5 years. After those 5 years finally ION Storm releases the third game in the series Unfortunately it doesn't live up to expectations. It's much worse than previous two, and of course there's no multiplayer. So anyone who loved Thief so much is left with nothing but broken heart. No other game can give the same experience THief 1-2 did. Sure,there are other stealth games, some are even great, but not only they don't offer the same stealth perfection, but they also differ in style a lot. And since THief 3 flopped(damn you Xbox!!!) the series died. On consoles that would mean the end. But on pc it's different. first of all:
FanMissions LookingGlassStudios was kind enough to release mission tools for THief 1 and 2. This resulted in flood of FMs. Just go to: http://www.thief-thecircle.com/ http://thiefmissions.com/ thousands of fms, hundreds of them are actually high quality(the users are now experienced and new missions are very nicely done). Yep, six years after Thief2 was released there's still big constant stream of quality fan missions. Not only small ones, but also "monsters" like
Shadows of Metal Age http://www.thief2x.com/ a 11mission long add-on like mod with new graphics, characters, changed protagonist and very cool cutscenes , or The Circle of Stone and Shadow http://www.thief2x.com/ a trilogy of extreme high quality FMs(the first one Gathering at the Inn is one of THE best levels I've played in any game). But that's not all. What about the promised multiplayer? Let me introduce you to Thievery- a mod for Unreal Tournament it's basically Thief multiplayer. Yes... done years before Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and done better than anything Ubi has done so far. So we finally got the Thief MP we waited for so long. So, we Taffers(as THief fans like to call themselves) not only got our singleplayer fix, but also great Thief multiplayer, all thanks to mods. Any Thief fan has tons of content to play with. Without any official support, without new games Taffers can still enjoy their beloved game. Screw Eidos, we can survive on our own just fine! Isn't it wonderful? And so typical to PCgaming? What's in for the future? Besides more amazing Thief2 fan missions of course. Well, three things: 1.Thief3 fan-missions http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=138 the editor was released some time ago and first good Fms are starting to come out.Fans are playing with the engine and maybe someday they will be able to bring it more or less to Thief2 level. 2.Night Blade http://www.night-blade.com/ Thievery team is also working on Nightblade, follow up to Thievery , this time on ut2004 engine(altough now it's on hold till they finish AlienSwarm:Infested on Source). 3.DarkMod http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/ fans are making total conversion of Doom3 to make it run like Thief2. It's designed as singleplayer mod. And it's likely the future of THief fandom, especially since by 2009 Doom3 engine will become open source. It will be interesting to see what will become the next platform for Thief FMs. THief2 still has couple good years of life in it, but sooner or later the community will have to switch to new engine. Will THief3 be modified enough to handle this? Or will DarkMod become community's choice. One way or another it will be exciting to follow. Thief community survived the death of the franchise, not only that, the community managed to flourish even when the IP was a rotting corpse in retail market. And that's what's so beautiful about pcgaming. On consoles Thief legacy would be end with disappointing Thief3. On Pc we are getting high-quality SP, high-quality MP and great perspectives for future. 6 years after Thief2 was released the community is incredibly experienced with editing tools. Over 8 years of experience allows them to do wonders with the engine. Obviously they're not going to compete graphically with Splinter Cell: Double Agent, even Thief3 fan-missions or DarkMod won't reach those levels of visuals, let alone Thief 2. But they can offer much better stealth gameplay with level design quality that has not been seen in this sub-genre since 2000.