There are a variety of routes through each level and players are able to utilize a variety of playing styles to traverse them. The game contains a variety of ways to distract or kill guards, such as barrels of oil which can be set alight. Levels also contain money and valuable objects which Garrett can steal; these are immediately converted into money which can be spent on equipment and upgrades. Garrett is also able to pickpocket guards and other characters. The player may evade guards by hiding in shadows or around corners and is able to peek around edges and through keyholes in order to track the movements of enemies. Once Garrett has been spotted, guards and other non-player characters will attempt to hunt him down. The developers have stated that the game's artificial intelligence is aware of the level design, and as such guards will know in advance of potential hiding spots that the player may be utilizing.
Players may enter a "Focus" mode, which provides several advantages. It enhances Garrett's vision, highlighting pipes that can be climbed, or candles that can be put out to make the area darker. Focus can also slow down time, so that Garrett is able to steal more effectively while pickpocketing. Garrett can also use Focus to push enemies or perform debilitating attacks. It can be further upgraded over the course of the game.
Garrett carries a blackjack, used to knock guards unconscious; a collapsible, compound bow, which can be used for both combat and non-lethal purposes such as distracting guards; and a claw, which can be used to grapple onto higher ledges.
An XP system for the in-game growth of the character was meant to be used in the final game, but was later scrapped after negative feedback from fans, and to reflect the fact that the character was already a master thief.
Synopsis
Setting
Thief is set in a dark fantasy world inspired by Victorian, Gothic, and steampunk aesthetics. Garrett, a master thief who has been away from his hometown for a long time, returns to it, a place known only as The City, and finds it ruled with an iron grip by a tyrant called the Baron. While The City is ravaged by a plague, the rich continue to live in isolation and good fortune while the poor are forming numerous mobs against the authorities. Garrett intends to use the volatile situation to his favor.
A reboot of the series, the story is set several hundreds of years after the original events in the same universe, with clues to the backstory being hidden among documents, letters and plaques. The original master thief Garrett's (known as the legendary Sneak Thief) iconic mechanical eye is one of the hidden unique loots in the game that can be found inside of a prison complex. Other references to the original series include the Keepers, Hammerites and the Old Gods, with ruins relating to them being visitable locations throughout the City and beneath.
Plot
During a night of revelry in the City, Garrett, a thief of exceptional skill, finds himself hired by his contact Basso to steal something from the estate of Baron Northcrest, the ruler of the city. To assist him on the job, Garrett finds himself working with Erin, a fellow thief who tends to be reckless in her actions. While seeking a way up to the roof of the Baron's manor, Erin kills a guard with her claw, causing Garrett to chastise her for doing so without a legitimate cause. Upon coming across a skylight on the roof overlooking a large hall, the pair witness Northcrest leading a group of men into conducting a magical ritual. Having a bad feeling about the job, Garrett calls it off, only for Erin to disagree and attempt to complete the task. Upon noticing that Garrett stole her claw to prevent her from using it to kill again, a struggle breaks out between the two, resulting in her falling through the skylight and disrupting the ritual while being influenced by the energy being channeled. Garrett, who fails to save her, soon falls into the hall and is promptly knocked out.
Garrett awakens one year later to find that the City is being plagued by a disease of unknown origin called "The Gloom", and that the city's guards are maintaining a lockdown on the various districts as a direct result of the situation. Returning to his hideout in an abandoned clocktower to consider his next move, Garret receives a message from Basso requesting his presence, whereupon after expressing his concerns over the incident at the manor, he hires Garrett to steal a ring off of a noble's body at a foundry that is being used to deal with the victims of the Gloom. Despite being nearly caught by the Baron's right hand man, the Thief-Taker General, Garrett successfully completes the job and soon finds himself introduced to a man called Orion, the leader of a resistance movement working to bring down the Baron as a result of his tyranny, who hired him to steal the ring. Agreeing to help him, Garrett ventures to a hidden brothel to find a book, visiting Erin's hideout in the process and experiencing a vision of her mentioning a place called Moira Asylum. Shortly after completing Orion's job, Basso is arrested by the General, prompting Garrett to rescue him, while also breaking into the Baron's most secret vault and recovering a piece of a mysterious stone called the Primal, which he had witnessed being used in the ritual at Northcrest's manor. With this piece in his possession, Garrett experiences another vision, revealing to him that Erin is still alive, but under the influence of the power from the stone.
