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- If you're having trouble with the undead and can't figure out a reliable way to fight them, consider that they can be harmed by throwing holy symbols at them in addition to the standard fire arrows, flash bombs, and holy water. Now ask yourself, what common belonging to the Hammerites happens to be just sitting around on the ground all over the place, just waiting to be lobbed into your foes.
- If you're having trouble with the undead and can't figure out a reliable way to fight them, consider that they can be harmed by throwing holy symbols at them in addition to the standard fire arrows, flash bombs, and holy water. Now ask yourself, what common belonging to the Hammerites happens to be just sitting around on the ground all over the place, just waiting to be lobbed into your foes.
- Hammers, anyone?
- Thief is a first-person sneaker, not a first-person shooter.
- Many people gave up on the game without ever getting past the first level, all because they tried to play the game like a shooter. It sounds ridiculous now, but at the time Thief came out stealth-based elements in first-person games were a new concept to many gamers. Anyone used to the likes of Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake defaulted to plowing through levels, taking enemies head-on. I lost count of the number of otherwise intelligent gamer friends who simple gave up on Thief, complaining, "The sword fighting is just too hard! I end up with a million guards chasing me through the level and it's impossible to kill them all!"
- Seriously, if you're constantly getting into sword fights with enemies, you're not playing the game the right way. You could technically muddle through the game on the default "normal" skill setting if you choose the "sword & plow" method of gameplay, but you won't really have much fun. On the "expert" skill setting it's almost impossible to play this way, because you're not allowed to kill human NPCs.


- You play Thief by sticking to the shadows (there's a light meter that indicates the ambient lighting of your current location), moving quietly (different surfaces create different sounds, speed is a factor), finding safe havens to evade enemy patrol routes, etc. If you want to take enemies out, sneak up on them, render them unconscious and hide their body. Enemies are intelligent enough to react if something looks out of place -- i.e., they come across a body, discover a locked door open, find an object missing, etc.
- You play Thief by sticking to the shadows (there's a light meter that indicates the ambient lighting of your current location), moving quietly (different surfaces create different sounds, speed is a factor), finding safe havens to evade enemy patrol routes, etc. If you want to take enemies out, sneak up on them, render them unconscious and hide their body. Enemies are intelligent enough to react if something looks out of place -- i.e., they come across a body, discover a locked door open, find an object missing, etc.
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- If you're buying this game on eBay (or anywhere else really), make sure it's the Thief Gold edition, not the vanilla Thief: The Dark Project. The former's the most common, but be careful. You can't patch vanilla Thief into Thief Gold. Thief Gold basically adds three new missions (which are interwoven into the existing story and not tacked on as optional extras), overhauls a couple of others and generally tweaks, optimizes and removes bugs in all of them.
- If you're buying this game on eBay (or anywhere else really), make sure it's the Thief Gold edition, not the vanilla Thief: The Dark Project. The former's the most common, but be careful. You can't patch vanilla Thief into Thief Gold. Thief Gold basically adds three new missions (which are interwoven into the existing story and not tacked on as optional extras), overhauls a couple of others and generally tweaks, optimizes and removes bugs in all of them.


- The game's a complete bitch to get running on modern systems, but it's well worth it. You'll have a (slightly) easier time of it if you're running Vista and an 8x or 9x NVIDIA card (or ATI equivalent). It seems to be a lot more problematic on XP and older NVIDIA cards. The TTLG forums are full of knowledgeable people who can help solve most compatibility issues.
- Install Thief (from GOG, Steam, or disc), then download and run [TFix http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733]. It will handle all the technical stuff, including installing NewDark and configuring it to play nice with modern video cards.


- There's a very active fan community that still continues to churn out exceptionally well-designed levels. You'll need a front-end GUI called Dark Loader that makes the process painless. Keep an eye out for T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age. It's a full-length sequel to Thief II that borders on Looking Glass quality in places. Also look out for The Seventh Crystal, which features the best-designed/most atmospheric mansion mission that anyone's ever created for Thief. (Plus there's a great scare moment that will require you to be peeled off the ceiling.)
- There's a very active fan community that still continues to churn out exceptionally well-designed levels. You'll need a front-end GUI called Dark Loader that makes the process painless. Keep an eye out for T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age. It's a full-length sequel to Thief II that borders on Looking Glass quality in places. Also look out for The Seventh Crystal, which features the best-designed/most atmospheric mansion mission that anyone's ever created for Thief. (Plus there's a great scare moment that will require you to be peeled off the ceiling.)
- Many people on Thief's development team went on to work on System Shock 2 and BioShock. What more of an excuse do you need?


- Play at the highest levels. It adds more content and the game is more fun that way. At the highest difficulty you won't be allowed to kill any humans. That's okay though because if you have to kill anyone you are playing the game wrong. When you are playing the Haunted Cathedral and Down in the Bone-hoard always keep a couple of fire arrows spare until you see a specific use for them: Lighting a couple of torches in order to open a door.  Your equipment and cash doesn't carry over between missions so don't be afraid to use the tools you are given.  
- Play at the highest levels. It adds more content and the game is more fun that way. At the highest difficulty you won't be allowed to kill any humans. That's okay though because if you have to kill anyone you are playing the game wrong. When you are playing the Haunted Cathedral and Down in the Bone-hoard always keep a couple of fire arrows spare until you see a specific use for them: Lighting a couple of torches in order to open a door.  Your equipment and cash doesn't carry over between missions so don't be afraid to use the tools you are given.  
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