Overall score: 7/10

=> If you're here, then the game has at least piqued your interest, so you'll probably be willing to look past certain flaws that come with age. I guarantee you'll have a blast if you accept the game as it is and take your time with it!

=> PROS:
- GRAPHICS - love 'em. It's that crisp, charming early 3D modeling that I am a sucker for. But this is an acquired taste, so be warned!

- SETTING - a truly unique mix of medieval and steampunk that grabs your attention right away. Never seen these two settings meshed together, and Thief Gold does it beautifully

- WORLD BUILDING/EXPOSITION - suitable to all players. If you don't care about the lore, that's cool. You'll still get the basics of what's going on. If you ARE interested, the lore is great and is there for you to discover

- ARSENAL - Garrett gets a wide array of tools/weapons to play with. You can approach levels in many different ways

- LEVEL DESIGN - the levels that are unique are well designed and make you want to explore them

- DIFFICULTY SCALING - done perfectly. Instead of arbitrarily strengthening your foes as the difficulty increases, the game simply adds more objectives for you to complete. Hell, I'd recommend Hard for your first playthrough.

- VOICE ACTING - 10/10, superb/charming for all characters, even the guards. Especially Garrett

=> CONS:
- (For some) GRAPHICS - charm aside, they are pretty dated and can be repetitive at times. My advice: go in with adjusted expectations to avoid being disappointed

- STEALTH/AI - by far the worst con. Understanding the stealth/detection 'rules' can be infuriating. It takes a while to understand how the AI works and what constitutes being invisible/visible to the enemy. Even after the first missions, don't be surprised if it doesn't work like you thought it should. I actually rage uninstalled the game during the first mission because of this and gave the game another try later (and loved it).

- SETTING UP - the game is old, so you gotta install a couple extra things to get it working as it should. Watch MandaloreGaming's video for more info

- BACKTRACKING - a couple maps are recycled for some missions and can get boring once you encounter them the second time

- COMBAT - if you get into combat, which should be rare, good luck lol. The parrying mechanic is janky and infuriating. Honestly not worth mastering; you're a thief, after all

- GENERAL JANKINESS - sometimes you'll get stuck on terrain for no good reason. You also won't be able to climb things that would otherwise seem climeable

Great immersive game, easily one of my favorites now. Somewhat steep learning curve and TFix mod needed for widescreen support, among other things. I used TFix with no game-play or graphics enhancing mods (except for widescreen). My first play-through was ~40 hours. I loved that you can get parts of the story by paying attention to what NPCs are saying and by reading the notes left around.
The game has had a big modding community so there are plenty of fan missions if you're itching for more. I, so far, haven't played any.
Overall, just a fantastic game.

Still a great game, definitely get the Tfix patch, and get the FM (fan made) installer, play some fan made missions like "Thief 2X" (requires thief 2) and "the Black Parade".