Thief: The Dark Project

So why did I never get myself to finish it? The answer is simple: bad level design. This is the one and only complaint I have with the game. Mind you: the level design is not always bad, just the contrary actually... But I could no longer bear the boredom of exploring immense and somehow plain levels full with the usual array of monsters. This is where Thief: The Dark Project failed to enrapture me completely. The missions are most often original, interesting and well laid out but then few others felt so awkwardly Doom-like in their concept: enormous areas with spawning of monsters and the need of going through all of it if you ever want to fulfill the mission's requirement on Expert level (which is a real gem - the only level the game should be played at to fully enjoy it). Unfortunately for the game, in rating it, I need to take in consideration how many hours I have spent enjoying it and how many being frustrated by it. The second took a rather big slice of the time cake in my case, resulting in a breakdown that made me stop playing it. But this is just my personal feeling about - according to me - poor level design choices that completely spoiled an otherwise masterpiece. Still, the reasons for playing Thief: The Dark Prophecy are plenty: an original game concept, a revolutionary gameplay, top-notch sound effects and voices and beautiful visuals can but make me recommend this game to anyone out there. I am grateful to Looking Glass' (R.I.P.) talented developers for this game because despite the one fault that made me give up on it, it gave me many hours of sheer pleasure. If you don't mind overly much (like in my case) long and repetitive sessions of hacking and exploring or if you can satisfy yourself with playing it at easier levels, then it's sure that Thief: The Dark Prophet will become an extremely rewarding experience. If not, buy it and play it anyway: the success won't be as complete but the pleasant memories won't fail to stay with you for a very long time.