It’s hard to overstate the influence of Thief, Looking Glass and Ion Storm’s definitive stealth series, and one of the greatest games in PC history. Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Dishonored, and myriad other immersive sim RPGs and hybrid FPS games owe a debt of inspiration to The Dark Project, The Metal Age, and Deadly Shadows, but even in the age of remasters and remakes, Thief is yet to make a comeback – barring of course Square Enix’s attempt back in 2014. On the contrary, a totally free, unofficial sequel is still going strong. Whether you’ve already played it or it’s your first time, this is a notice to try the freshly updated Dark Mod.
On the surface, The Dark Mod feels like an abandoned Thief game that’s been brought back to life. All the fundamental mechanics are here: jump and tiptoe between the shadows, use a blackjack, shortsword, and bow and arrow to quietly eliminate guards, and pilfer everything and anything you can lay your hands on. From the enemies to the environments, the textures to the lighting effects, The Dark Mod seems like essential Thief. But there’s a twist. It’s actually built using the engine for Doom 3, and not a single asset comes from the Thief series directly.
Originally released as a Doom 3 mod, The Dark Mod has been a free-to-play standalone game since 2013. The base version provides a tutorial and a few tone-setting missions. After that, you’re set loose on a world of community-made material – players and fans make and share their own levels, and you can download and try as many as you want. Basically, The Dark Mod is a way to get the old-school stealth game experience, again and again. And now it’s got a vital new update.
The Dark Mod 2.13 introduces dozens of visual additions and fixes. The lighting is more sophisticated now, and allows for guards to react more believably to anything that they spot in full view – if you leave an unconscious sentry under a spotlight, expect the alarm to go up. There are new assets, geometric detail has been improved thanks to parallax occlusion mapping, stability and performance is better overall, and the initial training mission has been tweaked and redrafted. Most significantly, the mission-search menu has been drastically upgraded, making it much easier to find and save the best Dark Mod levels.
One of the best free PC games and a must-play for anyone who loves Thief, if you want to try the updated version of The Dark Mod, just head here.
Otherwise, enjoy some nostalgia with the best old games, or maybe try the best free Steam games instead.
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