You know the saying: when God closes a door, he opens a window, then fires a rope arrow through it and steals everyone's antiques. I might not have gotten the Nightdive Deus Ex remaster I've long dreamt of, but we are getting the studio's remaster of Thief, as revealed at the PC Gaming Show.
Allow me to be the first to express this sentiment in an official, editorial capacity: hell yeah. In the big 2026, there's no one I'd trust more to bring back Thief: The Dark Project—a bonafide classic—than Nightdive, which acquitted itself very well last year with a long-awaited remaster of System Shock 2.
We only got some brief glimpses—which I suppose is appropriate—during the game's PCGS reveal trailer, but I like what I see, folks. Much as it did with SS2, Nightdive looks like it's taken pains to preserve Thief's Thief-iness. There are no garishly uprezzed textures, no perversely bump-mapped guard models. It looks like the game I remember playing on a hulking Fujitsu in 1999, subtly tweaked to make sense on modern screens. You can check it out on Steam.
In other words: I approve so far, though I admit to some curiosity as to what work Nightdive has done on Thief's gameplay. The SS2 remaster brought with it some tactful tweaks: controller support, of course, but there were also balance tweaks to sand down some of the game's rougher edges and a repaired multiplayer mode. I'm very curious to see how deep-going the changes it makes to Thief are (with console versions on the way, I suppose controller support is one guarantee).
Part of me wants the studio to make Downwind Thieves' Guild less of a nightmare; most of me wants it to leave the level alone so posterity has to deal with that goddamn labyrinth too.
It'll be a treat to slip into Garret's soft-soled shoes again, anyway. Thief the first is, I'm sorry to tell you, 28 years old, a fact which carries troubling implications about my own age. Nightdive, once you're finished giving The City a spitshine, any chance you could remaster me?
Check out everything revealed at the PC Gaming Show.
