Remaster specialist Nightdive takes on classic stealth game ‘Thief: The Dark Project’

Nightdive Studios, based in Vancouver, Wash., has made its reputation from remasters and re-releases of dozens of out-of-print PC gaming classics. On Sunday, it announced its next project is the 1998 cult classic Thief: The Dark Project.

The news came as part of PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show for 2026, which was part of this year’s Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles. The Fest, meant to replace the now-shuttered E3, is a loosely organized series of livestreams, presentations, and broadcasts that sets the schedule for the rest of the year in the video game industry.

Thief, from the legendary Looking Glass Studios, is one of the most influential PC games of the 1990s. Even if you’ve never played it or one of its sequels, such as 2004’s Deadly Shadows, you’ve likely played one of its spiritual descendants.

Thief is one of the first games that didn’t rely on scripts to move its levels forward. There’s nothing that you’re “meant” to do to progress; you’re simply dropped into an elaborate environment and left to figure the rest out for yourself.

That open-ended approach made Thief one of the seminal titles in a sub-genre that’s become known as the “immersive sim,” such as BioShock, Deathloop, and 2017’s Prey, where the challenge and attraction is in coming up with your own solutions on the fly.

Thief puts the player in the role of Garrett, a professional burglar in a fantasy metropolis known only as the City, who takes a job to steal a magical gem. This places Garrett, against his will, in the center of a conflict between two warring factions of zealots, which will determine the fate of the City.

While Garrett can fight if he has to, he’ll usually lose. Instead, you’re meant to use stealth, wits, and evasion to accomplish his goals, with tools such as rope arrows, flash bombs, noisemakers, and a blackjack for stealthy knockouts.

“Thief didn’t just introduce stealth mechanics, it defined them,” Stephen Kick, CEO at Nightdive Studios, wrote in a press release. “With this remaster, we’ve preserved the tension and intelligence of the original while enhancing it for modern players, ensuring that its legacy continues to influence how stealth games are played today.”

The Nightdive remaster of Thief is planned to include everything from all versions of the game, including the extra missions from 1999’s Thief Gold re-release. It will also include a few quality-of-life bonuses such as a mission select, improved graphics, a weapon/item wheel to make it easier to use items in-game, and support for custom campaigns.

Kick co-founded Nightdive in 2012 when he discovered that he couldn’t play his own legal copy of System Shock 2 anymore. Since then, Nightdive has rescued and re-released dozens of out-of-print PC games, such as System Shock 2, Killing Time, Star Wars: Dark Forces, and Rise of the Triad, in addition to both publishing and developing a full remake of the original System Shock.

Nightdive’s Thief: The Dark Project remaster is planned for launch this winter on PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store.