Which is all to say that, as well as being the first-ever PC stealth game, Thief: The Dark Project is a surprisingly effective horror experience.Instead, the many guards who threaten to bring their blades to bear on your crouched arse are almost always obscured by the mazelike, monk-punk world around you—the u-bends of tight, Italian-inspired streets and sewers; the close walls of boudoirs and pantries; and that ever-present blanket of gloom.That way, you can create a mental map of the patrols you ought to be avoiding, or interrupting with a blackjack to the back of the head.In that context, developing a detection model as detailed as the Looking Glass one could be considered needless extra work—not to mention confusing for players who only periodically engage with it.Perhaps it’s for the best that AAA games today serve the needs of the majority, allowing them the frisson of slipping by a patrol or triggering a takedown on a clueless guard without demanding mastery over multiple fiddly systems."