Thief: The Dark Project Remastered is the Dishonored replacement we've been waiting for

Thief: The Dark Projectis one of the most influential immersive sims of all time. If you’ve played any game that has you lurk in darkness as you sneak past enemies or findclever ways to use the environment to dodge or attack enemies, then it owes something toThief. Unfortunately, the series has been relegated to underwhelming reboots or VR games for decades at this point, and the stealth genre as a whole has a void left by the lack of a new Dishonored game.

That’s why I was elated to learn thatThief: The Dark Project is the next remaster from Nightdive Studios, modern masters of the retro first-person PC game remaster. FromSystem Shock 2 toSin toStar Wars: Dark Forces, many absolute classics of PC gaming are playable and run better than ever on modern hardware thanks to Nightdive’s efforts.

Thief: The Dark Project, which was originally developed by Warren Spector’s Looking Glass Studios and released in 1998, has been one of the studio’s most-requested remasters for a long time, and Atari representative tells Polygon, and now Nightdive finally has the opportunity to do it. If you’ve been yearning for a smooth way to play Thief on modern PC or consoles, then this version is for you.

At Summer Game Fest, I recently played a hands-on demo ofThief: The Dark Project Remastered, covering the game’s first post-tutorial level, “Lord Bafford’s Manor.” In it, master thief Garrett has to find a way to sneak into the manor and steal a jeweled scepter.Thief: The Dark Project isn’t the kind of game that holds your hand; instead, the level design subtly teaches you to do things like put out torches with water arrows or avoid certain floors because you make more noise walking on them.

As an early immersive sim,Thief: The Dark Project set the standard for offering players immense gameplay freedom within a tightly designed stealth sandbox. I even surprised the developer sitting alongside me by going off the beaten path from his direction, exploring some parts of levels he doesn’t usually visit, and taking out enemies in an unconventional way. That speaks to how, 27 years later,Thief: The Dark Project’s immersive sim sandbox continues to impress.

Like usual, Nightdive Studios isn’t really messing with what made the original game special. Instead, it’s upgrading the visuals to look more crisp and making it feel much better to play on a controller. Being able to quickly bring up a weapon wheel and change weapons or items doesn’t ruin the stealth experience; they just gave me more ways to mess with the remaster’s sandbox.

Polygon confirmed that, as with other recent Nightdive remasters,Thief: The Dark Project Remastered will have a Vault mode — a separate showing of content from the development of the original release. That’s always a treat for those of us who like to learn about the development of retro games, so it’s nice to see it included here.

Image: Nightdive Studios/Atari

While my demo was just one level, the remaster will include all content released through 1999’sThief Gold, a spiffy new mission select screen, and the ability to play custom campaigns natively in-game (just on Windows PC).

Visually, lighting and textures have been improved, although the stark shadows remain because they are so necessary to Thief’s stealth gameplay. There were some frame rate issues when I played, but the developer credited them to an issue with the PC that Atari was using at the event. They noted that Nightdive’s goal was to have the remaster run at up to 120 FPS and said it runs great on their Steam Deck, even if Valve has not given it the Steam Deck Verified seal of approval yet.

Nightdive rarely misses in terms of performance with its remasters, so I have faith they’ll get it right. And if they do, I would not be surprised ifThief: The Dark Project can play a role in reigniting this franchise and the first-person stealth game subgenre as a whole. There’s no brand-new Dishonored or Thief game coming to consoles anytime soon, so why not check out this well-made remake of one of the most influential stealth games of all time?

Fitting for a game about sticking to the shadows,Thief: The Dark Project Remastered’s release window is vaguely “this winter” right now. It will be released for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.