Thief: The Dark Project Remastered: What’s New and Where to Start

Thief: The Dark Project Remastered is the 1998 stealth classic rebuilt with modern conveniences attached: a mission selector, a weapon and item wheel, up to 4K at 120 frames per second, and built-in support for community campaigns. Nightdive Studios rebuilt it on its KEX Engine, and it lands on December 3, 2026 for $29.99 on Steam, alongside PlayStation and Xbox versions.

What is new in the Thief remaster?

The remaster keeps the original campaign intact and wraps it in the housekeeping tools a 1998 game could not have shipped with.

The source for all of that is Nightdive Studios’ own page for the game, and the same feature list appears on the Steam store page.

How does the stealth work?

It is a first-person stealth game about light and sound rather than combat. Light and sound are the two mechanics the original is remembered for: hiding in darkness and moving quietly are how you stay alive, and open fights are usually a last resort.

The levels are large and maze-like rather than scripted corridors, and the people inside them react to what they notice. They can hear you, speak to each other and raise an alarm when you make a wrong move, which is why a noise you did not plan for can end a mission as surely as an arrow.

You play Garrett, and the official description keeps the toolset deliberately small: a blackjack for knocking guards out, a sword when you have no choice, and an assortment of arrows for the rest. Each mission carries three difficulty settings, and those settings change the objectives instead of only the damage numbers.

Where should you start in Thief?

The remaster is a rebuild, not a redesign, so the campaign still runs in order and the mission selector is for going back to missions you have already finished.

1. Read the difficulty line before you commit. Three settings per mission with different objectives means the easiest version is a different mission, not just a softer one.
2. Keep to the dark and learn the patrol routes. The original is built around unscripted behavior, so the safest route is the one the guards do not watch.
3. Look for the Vault early. It collects behind-the-scenes material and it is the one thing in the game that rewards exploration rather than mission progress.
4. Try a custom campaign when the credits roll. The remaster has built-in support for player-made campaigns, and the publisher puts the figure at thousands of hours of additional content.

How much does the Thief remaster cost?

The standard edition is $29.99 on Steam, where it is already open for pre-purchase ahead of the December 3 launch. Steam also lists a Digital Deluxe Edition bundle that adds the Thief: The Tarnished Mirror soundtrack, a preview of the novel based on the game, and an in-game diary about the remastering process. Steam has not published a price for that bundle yet, so the extra cost is still unknown.

Nightdive’s own page lists the game for PC through Steam and GOG, and for PlayStation and Xbox. Our Thief PC specs and Steam Deck guide covers the hardware: 2 GB of RAM and a 5 GB download at the minimum, and a Verified rating from Valve on the Steam Deck. The Thief page on Pixel Herald keeps the date and the platform list in one place, and the release calendar carries every December launch.

Is the remaster faithful to the original?

The content is the original. It ships with all 12 missions from Thief: The Dark Project plus the three extra missions and five new enemy types that arrived with the 1999 Thief Gold update, which is 15 stealth levels in total. Nightdive Studios is the developer on the remake, with Looking Glass Studios credited for the original, and Atari and Eidos Interactive as publishers.

We counted what the publisher lists and the differences are smaller than the feature list suggests: 12 original missions plus 3 from Thief Gold, three difficulty settings each, and a handful of convenience features on top. The remaster is a rebuild, so the decision is not whether the game is different but whether you want the original in one place with a selector, a Vault and a community-campaign browser. At $29.99 on Steam, with a 5 GB download and a Verified Steam Deck rating, it is a cheap way back into a 1998 classic instead of a new game to learn.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report