Thief

Thief from 2014 is a reboot of the classic stealth series, whose first installment defined the genre back in 1998. Eidos Montreal returned to the master thief Garrett and moved him to a dark, steampunk-infused city full of guards, mechanical traps, and wealthy houses waiting to be robbed. The core principle remained the same – avoid the light, sneak through the shadows, and solve every situation with wit rather than a sword, or at most a short, silent bow. The game was published by Square Enix and is the first entry in the series after a nine-year gap since Thief: Deadly Shadows in 2004.

Compared to the older installments, the reboot is visually much more elaborate and more linear, with an emphasis on atmosphere and the story of Garrett's return to the city after years away. Between missions, the player returns to a semi-open city hub, from which further jobs can be chosen and where houses can additionally be robbed outside the main story line. The game also introduces optional "ghost" challenges for players who want to complete missions without a single kill or detection, and offers several difficulty levels tailored to purists of the original trilogy. It was released simultaneously on PC and both the then-current and incoming console generations, making it one of the titles of the transitional period between PS3/Xbox 360 and PS4/Xbox One. Among fans of the original trilogy, the reboot provoked mixed reactions – they praised the atmosphere but criticized the missions' reduced openness and simplified mechanics compared to the originals, which in the nineties and 2000s gave players much more room to solve each mission their own way.

Why play: For players who enjoy well-thought-out stealth, a dark atmosphere, and a game that places strong emphasis on sound and light as its core mechanic. A decent entry point into the world of Thief even for those who never played the older games, though seasoned series veterans should expect a more accessible and more linear take on the same idea rather than a faithful continuation of the original trilogy.