Somehow this content is more "Thief" than anything that has been "Thief" in the last twenty years by my reckoning. I have been playing Thief and its mods since it first came out and have all of the original games in a shrine in my office next to a custom-made 6th scale figure of Garrett and a custom made Hammerite. I walk around in a Looking Glass Studios t-shirt. It's safe to say that I love this series of games, yes even you Deadly Shadows (not you Thief 2014!)

The atmosphere is beyond reproach. It was genius to hint at the fully realized city beyond your apartment window when you first start the game, almost like a living cut scene seeing it in all its splendor ready for you to traverse and explore. The colors, the lighting, the level design, the lore and the atmosphere that these all combine to create is the best I've seen yet. This is quite literally a masterpiece. The only reason I didn't give it ten out of ten in every category is I have to believe that it's possible to do something even better but I can't imagine how. I haven't felt like I was in the real universe of Thief quite this much since I played Metal Age the first time.

It is genius how this mission does its world building organically not only through readables, which are all exemplary, but also clever level design. Everywhere you look is a story creating the atmosphere that there is a whole world going on around you whether you are there or not and you are simply living in it. This creates player agency in a way that no AAA title I have played in recent memory has done. Absolutely top-notch. It left me extremely satisfied.

The funny thing is I scoured it from top to bottom and in the statistics I was told I got zero of three secrets which I think is just fantastic. I also only managed to find about 10% of the loot even though I played the mission for hours upon hours which means I'm either a terrible thief player, which is entirely likely, or this mission is even bigger than I thought it was which is also entirely likely.

If the future of the Thief game series was in the hands of the people who worked on this mission I would say that it was extremely bright but I will have to settle for them keeping the flame of what made this once great series alive with this magnificent dark mod mission. Without spoiling anything I will say that the idea of making the character someone who is in his waning years resonated with me on a personal level as I am well into middle life with significant nerve and tendon damage. I felt connected to the protagonist as a result of this but also because one could simply feel that there was a heavy narrative just beneath the surface that ran much deeper which is the sign of an excellent storyteller.

Bravo all those involved and thank you so very much for giving me a heaping helping of something I have been so sorely missing.