Yes, it is clearly the single most influential stealth game of all time, as shown by how its biggest rivals all swallowed its ideas. Is there anything left to say? It would be easy to just do the usual hagiography or trot out the usual stories about its troubled development. And then I wrote ten pages about that single level. Which I was then the first person to play and review.
He proceeded to put that theory into practice in The Cradle in the third game. I got a developer to codify his theories in an endless e-mail discussion for an interview for a feature. When Graham asked me to write this, he asked “is there anything else you have to say about Thief?” The implied story is that, over the years, I’ve said a lot about Thief and games of a similar aesthetic and made them central to my journey as a player of games and critic. You’re likely good at math, unless you’re John Walker, who is bad at math AND healing. Today, I will be your friend from back in time. “He bought a Commodore 64 the day it came out” he said, with clear wonder and delight, “I have a friend… from back in time.” One was talking loudly about an old guy he had befriended. Two guys in their early twenties were standing next to me.
