Thief's remaster brings four new missions from The Black Parade's creators
Garrett's next burglary follows the original ending, while Nightdive adds gamepad controls and custom-campaign support to the 1998 stealth game.
Garrett finishes saving the world and goes back to small-time burglary. The new job is a hand mirror. Naturally, the hand mirror has complications.
The Tarnished Mirror adds that job to Nightdive’s remaster of Thief: The Dark Project. The four missions take place after the original story, with the city going through political and ideological upheaval. The creators of The Black Parade mod are making the expansion. For someone who already owns Thief Gold, those missions are the most concrete reason to look past the familiar title on the store page.
The Steam listing also spells out what comes along for the ride: the original game’s 12 missions and the three added in the 1999 Gold release. This gives a returning player two separate decisions. There’s the convenience of revisiting a known campaign in a modern package, and there’s a new story to play after it. The campaign will have to give that returning player a reason to spend more time in Garrett’s city.
Thief’s particular pleasure still comes from making less noise. Nightdive’s description uses the old “first-person sneaker” phrase, which remains a pretty efficient explanation for anybody arriving from shooters. Guards hear things, talk and raise alarms. Light and sound affect whether Garrett gets away with being there. A sword is available, but having one doesn’t turn every room into an invitation to clear it.
The three difficulty settings change objectives, according to Nightdive. That is a useful distinction for anyone replaying familiar maps: a harder setting can change the job itself. Returning to a level with another objective is a different proposition from simply giving every guard a bigger health bar.
The remaster’s advertised changes include a weapon and item wheel, a mission selector and built-in support for custom campaigns. Modern gamepad support adds rumble and motion or gyro controls. Steam advertises visuals up to 4K and 120 frames per second; that is an upper specification, rather than a promise for every machine or platform. The game hasn’t launched, so the listing’s features are promises awaiting players.
Clear River’s physical range includes Trapezoid editions, as well as SteelBook and standard versions. Anybody who wants a box has another purchase to distinguish from Steam’s digital release. The collector packaging and the campaign answer different appetites, even when they arrive under the same title.
The unresolved detail is the one that matters once the resolution settings are out of the way. A hand mirror sounds like a modest theft. Four missions will show how much trouble Garrett can make getting it home.