And the gameplay is simply perfect.
Thief: Gold is a revamp of the original
Thief, with three new levels and 'revised gameplay.' As such, if you already own the original
Thief, it may not be the best deal to get (although you get a $10 rebate if you still have the proof of purchase or
receipt from the original one). But if you've never experienced the game,
Thief: Gold is something that you simply must play.
At first glance it looks like a first person shooter, but instead Thief: Gold is all about stealth. It's like Tenchu for the PlayStation, only with much more intelligent enemies that can actually notice opened doors on their routes and come looking, or bloodstains on the floor. You've got to use your brains much more than your brawn, because the sword slows you down and the arrows serve more for distractions and utility than real combat. You'll find that the blackjack you carry is terribly useful, as you bludgeon people on the back of the head and drag their bodies into the shadows. Great stuff. If you have an EAX sound card with positional audio, the game works even better, as you can hear just where everyone is in the level, and be quieter yourself.
There's no other game out there like Thief: Gold. The storyline, which starts out seeming like fetch-quest city, and ends up involving you in an intricate plot involving the supernatural and the fate of the world (as usual), is engrossing, and told between levels in great cutscenes that have seemingly random quotes from various 'books' in the world setting that make sense more and more as the game goes on. The gameplay itself is engrossing, making you want to get past every last guard without having to kill any of them. In fact, on the higher difficulty levels, that may be a goal of the level that you must follow. There are some quirks, like the fact that items and money don't carry over between levels, but it's nice to know that you don't have to conserve anything because you get to buy new stuff after you're done.
I could go on and on, but it's really simple actually. Buy Thief: Gold and you'll be very, very pleased. It's a totally new way to do a game (well, Thief was, and Thief: Gold is a sort of spruce-up).
