Thief is in a class by itself it offers gameplay you simply can't find elsewhere. In no other game are you forced to think like a thief, on the fly, in order to avoid violence. If I didn't complain much about the games I've reviewed previously, I have very little to argue with in Thief . The graphics are somewhat lacklustre, but they're eerie and more than serviceable. My concern is the difficulty of the game.
Thief is tough.
So tough that, instead of labelling the three difficulty settings 'Easy', 'Medium', and 'Hard', developer Looking Glass more accurately labelled them 'Normal', 'Hard', and 'Expert'. You will be killed repeatedly until you learn which shadows are darkest, what amount of noise is tolerable, and what risks aren't worth taking. Even the training mission teaches only the basics of what you'll want to know. I've played computer games since 1986, and I still trudged along on Normal. I shudder to think what newcomers to gaming will have to cope with.