25-year-old Thief: The Dark Project gets a new leash of life with this stunning fan-made expansion
Black to basics.
A gang of volunteer modders and developers have just released a huge expansion for the 25-year-old first-person stealth game, Thief: The Dark Project.
The Black Parade – a seven-year-long labour of love described as an "unofficial free expansion" for the game's Thief Gold edition – bundles 10 new missions, four new tools, and "30 minutes of gorgeous cutscenes and more" into this free-to-play add-on.
You can see it in action in the teaser below:
"In The Black Parade, you play the character of Hume, a hardened criminal who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes," explains the team. "The year is 833, and you are now back in The City, a sprawling metropolis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors.
"Lost and without a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery and must find your old associate Dahlquist. Shadows and silence are your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools. And the riches of others are yours for the taking."
As well as providing a new digital playground for Thief fans, the expansion also includes "a few tweaks to the classic Thief gameplay formula" to make things a little more challenging, particularly on tougher difficulty settings.
Arkane Lyon level designer, Romain Barrilliot, led the project as director and shared a quick teaser on X/Twitter: