This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Eep² (talk | contribs) at 00:46, 11 June 2004 (Thief is also (primarily) a computer game. Garrett doesn't save the world... Edited Thief's concept and minor rewording.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 00:46, 11 June 2004 by Eep² (talk | contribs) (Thief is also (primarily) a computer game. Garrett doesn't save the world... Edited Thief's concept and minor rewording.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Thief series of computer games/video games are first-person action role-playing games where the player takes the role of Garrett, a thief in a mythical time resembling a cross between the middle ages and the Victorian era. Garrett starts out each one as an amoral character, but ends up having a conscience...sort of. He is kind of a Robin Hood--stealing from the rich and pompous--only he gives to himself.
The main concept behind Thief was to turn the first-person shooter idea on its head. Most first-person games are about killing enemy after enemy in a Rambo style until bored or until the game is beaten. But Thief takes a different approach; the main tactic of the game is to avoid fights and not to kill and to instead take a stealthy approach. Thief is sometimes described as either a first-person sneaker or first-person looter to emphasize this difference.
Through careful use of sound effects and a very involving plot line, the player is drawn in to the milieu of the game.
The equipment in Thief mixes medieval weapons such as a sword, bow and arrow with modern inventions which include flash bombs, explosive mines and lockpicking tools.
Thief: The Dark Project was originally developed in 1998 by Looking Glass Studios, which went out of business in 2001. Eidos Interactive publishes the Thief series. Thief 2: The Metal Age was released in 2000. The long-anticipated third game of the series, Thief: Deadly Shadows, was developed by ION Storm Austin (the team includes many ex-Looking Glass employees), released on May 26,2004, and is believed to be the last game in the series (though there have been comments that suggests a continuation but this has not been confirmed yet).
The game uses the word "taffer" (meaning something like joker or fool), which is sometimes heard among fans.
See also: Steampunk
Thief is also the name of an older, arcade video game popularized in the early 1980s and extremely similar to Pac-Man; in it, the player operated a car being chased by several blue police cars. The board was littered with dollar bills which the player scored by running over them. There were also four special spaces near the corners of the board (the equivalent of Pac-Man's energizers); hitting one of them caused the police cars to temporarily turn red. While the police cars were red the player could crash into them and score extra points; if contact with the police cars occurred at any other time the player lost a life. When all the dollar bills were picked up on one board, the player advanced to the next.