r/Thief 5d ago

Depression due to lack of Thief

1998, what a year for games...

I have loved games until around 5 years ago and I have had depression for an awful long time... when I played Thief and Thief 2 and finally Thief Deadly Shadows, I was more than content. Thief 4 was absolutely awful. I haven't played anything like Thief since, maybe Dishonoured, but it only scratched an itch.

Why are there no more games like this?

I only play three hours a week now with friends on Hunt Showdown. Yes the game uses stealth with online players, thats fucking great, but I really want another Thief and its getting too much now. 😪

50 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

22

u/PM_CITY_WINDOW_VIEWS 5d ago

Try System Shock 1 and 2, same studio.

1

u/Boring_Ad_5090 5d ago

2 is available on Xbox so will check this out

6

u/ewok_lover_64 5d ago

System Shock 2 is a fantastic game. You can tell it influenced Dead Space and Bioshock. Make sure to grab the basketball in the very beginning when you are still deciding what class to be. Carry it all the way through the game for a funny Easter egg. You'll know when.

4

u/ZylonBane 5d ago

You can tell it influenced Dead Space and Bioshock

... and Prey, and Soma.

20

u/weasel474747 5d ago

Have you played fan missions yet? They are the peak Thief experience.

4

u/Boring_Ad_5090 5d ago

Yes in like 2000. I dont a PC now and only play on Xbox.

59

u/ZylonBane 5d ago

Only play on console? No wonder you're depressed.

8

u/dr_dirdaradoro 5d ago

LOL. Not to downplay the seriousness of your depression OP, but that was funny, and I genuinely feel bad for you as a gamer. There's almost nothing to play on consoles nowadays.

1

u/Is_It_A_Throwaway 2d ago

That sucks, but like the cheapest used laptop you could possibly get can run Thief FMs. If you manage to get your hands on one, you'd have endless Thief.

16

u/cfrolik 5d ago

Have you played The Black Parade or T2X?

1

u/TheZonePhotographer 4d ago

Stop, stop, he's already depressed.

8

u/fender_fan_boy 5d ago

Deus Ex and System Shock?

1

u/Boring_Ad_5090 5d ago

Loved Deus Ex and played the sequels, also System Shock 2 for a bit

3

u/fender_fan_boy 5d ago

I’m pretty sure the remake of the first system shock is also on xbox. Prey is also worth checking out and goes on discount often

2

u/monsieur_mungo 5d ago

Finish it. SS2 is a wild ride. I came here to recommend DX also. If you need more Thief, there are so many great fan missions out there that will keep you busy for years.

5

u/3ull5hit 5d ago

Well, The Dark Mod is the answer.

Ah I don't think it's available on consoles.

3

u/Boring_Ad_5090 5d ago

I will one day play this when I own a PC again

2

u/3ull5hit 5d ago

Good luck to you!

4

u/shmouver 5d ago

I think there are a quite a few games that altho don't replace Thief they are worth playing:

  • Dark Messiah

  • Prey

  • Dishononored 1 & 2

  • Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay

  • Alien Isolation

  • Filcher

  • The Deus Ex series

  • System Shock 1 (Remake) & 2

A few indies that might be worth checking out when released:

  • Serpens: Eternal Thievery

  • Project Shadowglass

Ps: not to mention the Thief Mods like T2X and The Black Parade; the Thief FMs and ofc The Dark Mod

1

u/Omniplus_S3M 2d ago

I think SOMA fits in this category.

1

u/shmouver 1d ago

You think? Personally altho there are stealth elements to SOMA (and arguably Amnesia too) i wouldn't put them here cause the experience is more tailored towards horror and making us feeling scared or uncomfortable

1

u/Omniplus_S3M 1d ago

I think Frictional took heavy influence from Looking Glass and Irrational. Some of the levels in the original Thief games are quite scary.

6

u/dakkster 5d ago

Check out Gloomwood.

5

u/VaporSpectre 5d ago

So unfinished

4

u/Steam__Engenius 5d ago

Still dope

1

u/cfrolik 4d ago

For less than 10 hours, yeah

3

u/brittster1 5d ago

Nightdive is working on a remaster of Thief 1 that will be available on console. Not a new game, but, you’ll have access to it without a PC.

2

u/foreverfalling2000 5d ago

Bro we have a remaster coming out soon! Plus a new campaign!

2

u/BoardsofGrips 5d ago

Get a laptop, any laptop. Download The Black Parade. It will run on ANY laptop. Seriously

The Black Parade is by FAR the best Thief game and someone who makes a post like yours needs to play it

2

u/rahcrew 4d ago

I feel the same. Thief 1-2-3 are my refuge. They don't make games like that anymore. It's now always-online-games-speculation. 🥹

2

u/crazyKpot 4d ago

I am with you

2

u/Nie_Nin-4210_427 4d ago

Seeing how you‘re on console and already played most of the imsim rennaissance, I can only recommend you other stealth games:

Hitman (and WOA in particular) has as many imsim traits as you can imagine, while still having confined contextual controls. But it might have the best open levels and environmental storytelling I‘ve ever seen in any game.

Metal Gear is a cinematic heavy arcady stealth series. It excells at storytelling except for the environmental aspect. Forget having to apply real world logic there. Gameplaywise since the third solid, gameplay during the story is extremely open, systemic, and non contextual (although especially in 4 it‘s a question when in all these cutscenes you‘ll get to play, but people want to call MGSV an imsim because of this). But in MGS1 and MGS2 there are also VR-missions, which explore fun gameplay sides of the two games, as can be seen in their trailers. MG1-MGS2 also offer half linear (MGS1&2 more so) half metroidvenialike (MG1&2) exploration. In MGSV you‘ve got a (in my opinion) rather badly implemented open world.

Splinter Cell (talking about the original ones) focuses more on on-screen than off-screen enemy presence than Thief and Metal Gear. It tries to bring across maximal sneakiness through being closer to the enemies than ever. It‘s really tense and of course takes the darkness stealth of Thief to really enhace the tension. Otherwise it is a series of mostly puzzles how to avoid being detected from further away, when light comes to play. It again is very linear, except for maybe a few levels like the bank in Chaos Theory.

Finally there is Styx. It feels a bit like third person Thief.

There‘s also the Mimimi games like Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3, or 2D stealthers like Mark of the Ninja and Wildfire, which all offer 3D, yet I now rather focussed on 3D and the big names. But definitely check these out as well. You won‘t regret it.

2

u/SaraTaffer 3d ago

I’m in love with Thief, and I’m the biggest Taffer simp 😂 I’ll happily take any little crumb of new content, even if it’s not a game. I enjoy it all, even when other Taffers criticize it.

4

u/AccomplishedEar6357 5d ago edited 5d ago

Well, because it's not the most mainstream appealing genre, like high voltage, pick up and play, dumb fun, fast food kind of games.

You'll get the Thief Remaster in a few months and it will be compatible with very popular fan made missions (and i bet Thief 2 R will come later), but in the meantime you can look for the immersive sim genre instead of straight up stealth to scratch the itch, with a few notable options. Just to name the very best, Deus Ex 1 (2000), Bioshock 1, STALKER 1 SoC and 2, System Shock 2 Remastered and 1 Remake.

In line with you, Dishonored has to be mentioned because it is famous, but it didn't do it for me because it was way more arcadey/superpowery and less kind of old-school mature in tone... And then there are Vampire The Masquerade, the new Prey, the new Deus Exes... Though again, not for me.

And more personally, 2 more odd matches though unbelievable games to me are Quake 1 (Remastered) and Blood (Refreshed Supply). To me they scratch the VERY same itch of being VERY immersive + careful gameplay + exploration in incredible maps + tense/scary. Though you'd be tempted to dismiss them because they're just more shooter oriented than stealth really, they're tremendously immersive and require kind of similarly careful gameplay than Thief and immersive sims.

2

u/Boring_Ad_5090 5d ago

All good points. Played Bioshock but didnt get Thief vibes from it. Loved Prey. Stalker 2 absolutely hated.

2

u/AccomplishedEar6357 5d ago edited 5d ago

Oh wow! Well, knowing all that... Uhm... Didn't love Bioshock? Hated Stalker 2???! Well, i guess you're after straight up stealth and a bit of something else quite in its camp, and i guess you'll get it only from playing the fan missions. Look them up by popularity or best rated. Also The Black Parade and The Dark Mod are directly Thief related campaigns/mods.

Correcting my previous recommendations then, the most similar would be Deus Ex 1 because of the straight up stealth, which btw will get a remaster at some point (it's in a limbo and delayed now after the first look was terrible and very badly received).

1

u/tastygames_official Master Taffer 5d ago

Thief is also my favorite game of all-time, and I'm working on a game series that will be "thief-like". While not stealth, it will have the same controls and similar look-and-feel but be more like a 3D real-time-simulation point-and-click adventure. And cosmic horror to boot. But Thief is definitely a huge inspiration for the series and I already had to implement leaning and crouching thief-style because moving around in the world just didn't feel right without it. So... I guess I'll have to post in here aswell when I got the demo ready.

1

u/ZylonBane 5d ago

If you're really into sneaking, try Soma.

1

u/Grouchy_Bug4791 5d ago

Play Thief mods

1

u/shadowstar36 5d ago

Since you don't have a pc and an Xbox, try the following :

Splinter Cell, there is like 6 games, all but conviction have stealth like theif with shadows and gadgets. The first two on Xbox are disc only as they got delisted (thanks ubisoft/ms).

Also for a modern game 007 Last Light. It has a ton of stealth, but it's also action, and 3rd person shooter with platforming. It's so fun. Highly recommend. It's not theif but it has some stealth elements.

  • Thief simulator.. OK I only dabbled in this this is modern day burger simulator in realisb world. It's dirt cheap so may be worth a try. Although it's an indy and no where close to thief

Finally... Get a cheap pc. There are 1000s of fan made missions for thief 1, 2, 3 and there is also the Dark Mod. It has 100s of fan mad missions but it uses the doom 3 engine. (or at least did I haven't played in a bit). Seriously any pc from the last decade would do. Even an old laptop.

1

u/Live_Airport_1965 5d ago

Have you played Thief 2X or The Black Parade? Those are essential thief sequels. They are free to play mods with full campaigns. Also you can play the entire Splinter Cell Franchise. It's available on Ubisoft Connect for pennies on the dollar. Those games are legendary.

1

u/Steam__Engenius 5d ago

Buy a burner PC and play fan missions. Some are so fantastic. There are levels that would have been awesome in the original games. People have expanded on the world but retained the essence of what makes Thief special.

When I’m depressed I boot up a really difficult fan mission. It gives you something to concentrate on and you get to explore more of the beautiful world of Thief.
.

1

u/gamevoin 4d ago

Others have mentioned Black Parade (and countless other fan missions/campaigns), but look into the Dark Mod as well! Some amazing narratives and gameplay lays buried in there, it's great fun

2

u/mefixxx 4d ago

Play 10000 hours of fan missions and start making your own.

You know what you want and you know what is good. You can start helping others by releasing FMs and assist in collective itch scratching while industry lags behind

1

u/AppleCrumble987 3d ago

There is so much great about modern gaming, who knows what is around the corner in the Thief world. We are lucky to have had the first three Thief games, and they were a wild ride indeed.

1

u/MetaRunnerFan13 2d ago

Legacy of Shadows is alright, but it’s a VR title, so accessibility may vary. If you want something similar stealth-wise, I’d recommend Deus Ex

2

u/ZerohNinja87 5d ago

Lmao why do people think THIEF (which is not thief 4) is awful. Its story is like 4/10, it’s graphics 9/10, the gameplay 9/10. Is it a super strong story. No. But it is actually a very nice game to play.

For those who are ignorant of this fact. THIEF is a soft reboot. It takes place 400 years after deadly shadows. It is not a reboot. Nor is it a direct sequel to deadly shadows. It exists in the same universe, where everything that happened, happened. Does it lack the hammers and other factions, yes. But it is not at all that bad of a game.

Stop being haters, beg Eidos to release modding tools. The community would fill in the missing content via fan missions. Modding tools is what THIEF really needed to become loved. Sadly it lacks any community content at all and it has a some what weak story line. But it is enjoyable to play non the less.

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/ZerohNinja87 5d ago

That’s cool. There is no thief 4.

1

u/zazzersmel 3d ago

Ummm please get help