Stay in the dark, listen for footsteps, and rob a whole city one piece at a time.

On gut feeling, Thief: Deadly Shadows sits right in the middle, ahead of about half the games. And the criterion profile is sharply split. This is the game people take to a desert island, ahead of 86% of titles, and the one they start for a quick session before looking up at 3am, ahead of 84%. But attachment falls hard, ahead of only 21% of games, art direction ahead of 24%, the soundtrack ahead of 22%, and the wish to rediscover it for the first time crashes to 7%. That is low. Really low. The tension is clear: people want to play it, again and again, but it does not hook the heart. Several of those lines rest on a handful of duels, so read them carefully.

A 2004 classic measured on emotion and aesthetics always pays for its age. Its shadows and textures no longer compete, while its stealth loop has not aged a day next to modern sneaking games.

So, who is it for? For you if you love silence, patience, a system that rewards you for thinking. Much less so if you expect a game to move you or to stay in your head for its music.