Thief Review

Thief has been out for a good while now, and most reviewers have already given a verdict. I took my sweet time, and tried to really asses how good or bad the game really is, in the context of being a long-time fan of the previous titles, as well as a modern gamer with moderately high standards. Knowing that a Thief reboot was coming, I went out of my way to re-play the previous titles before the launch date. So when I booted up the new Thief for the first time, a grin settled upon my face. Garrett was back! Or was he?

It’s hard to answer. Sure, Thief’s protagonist is still Garrett, the rugged master burglar of past games. He used to be a memorable character, with a unique charm of his own and an unforgettable voice actor. The fact that the same voice wouldn’t be returning was known to everyone for a long time, and I didn’t think much of it back when the first previews started popping up. Sadly however, the truth is Garrett has become a bland character, with a particularly weak voice actor behind the pixels. And it’s not just the voice acting that is lacking – in fact, Thief’s main drawback is a poorly written and confusing story-line. I just couldn’t get into the story-line, and the characters of the game all felt bland and lacking in personality. The entire experience felt like watching a B-class 80’s movie in an evening when there’s nothing else to see on TV.

Garrett’s adventures take place in The City, a dark setting with definite potential, a potential that sadly the main campaign doesn’t exploit well enough. In fact, side-quests are often more interesting and intriguing than the main quest-line, which is a shame. The atmosphere of the game is commendable however, and the dimly-lit alleyways or an eerie asylum make for some great locations. It can become repetitive due to its dark nature, but then again, that’s to be expected in a game that relies heavily on lighting, darkness, shadows and stealth.

Your enjoyment of the city is severely limited by several aspects though. First of all, because of their frequency and length, the loading-screens almost completely kill immersion. Perhaps the negative aspects of the game wouldn’t become so obvious if you wouldn’t have the time to think about them while waiting for a new area to load. Second of all, the city feels somewhat limited in terms of what you can or cannot explore. Thief provides you with some great tools (such as Rope Arrows or the ability to leap over significant distances) that would normally allow you to explore every inch of every single building, but the level design somewhat limits this ability, and it’s truly a pity.

But I guess I’ve been focused on negative aspects so far, and perhaps that’s unfair. Thief does get some things right. The stealth system can be challenging and fun, and with the use of an impeccable lighting system, it should really please fans of stealth-games. When it works, it does so remarkably well. Shadows actually look realistic and feel polished, and you often feel one with the darkness. One false step into the wrong type of light and guards will react promptly. Blend with the shade however, and you can get close enough to your victims to literally breathe down their necks. It’s extremely satisfying to carefully plan your route and use the environment to your advantage to relieve a sloppy guard from his weekly wages, without ever raising an eyebrow.

In moments like this, Garrett truly feels like a master thief. At other times though, he seems to be nothing more than a kleptomaniac, as you can plunder at will without any real limitations. It’s one thing to cut a coin-purse or relieve a noble from a priceless necklace, it’s another to haul away anything from cups to forks. There’s no real incentive to pick up everything either, as most of the upgrades feel pointless after awhile, and tend to take away from the challenge of the game. Upgrading your melee fighting skills or armor for instance can easily turn you into a brutal melee combatant, taking away from the great part of the game (stealth), and tempting you to go down the less-satisfying route of head-on combat. I’m saying less-satisfying not because it’s a crime to become a warrior instead of a rouge burglar, but because the combat system in itself is severely lacking.

The game suffers from other aspects as well. The AI sometimes works well enough (with guards taking notice of an uncovered trail you leave behind), but more than often is infuriatingly weak, with guards continuously walking into walls. This is especially frustrating when you’re planning to slip between the patrol routes of guards and you end up watching one trying to break the rules of physics by walking through walls. Audio-wise, the game also suffers from numerous bugs (such as dialogue being inaudible or lines being stuck on a repeating loop) and the voice acting in general is mediocre at best.

Overall, Thief isn’t a bad game. In truth, it’s fun to play, and while not extremely long (depending on how stealthy you’re trying to be and how many side-quests or challenge modes you’re doing), it can offer between 10 and 30 hours of gameplay. Perfectionists might even get more enjoyment out of it, but if you’re playing it for the main story alone, you’ll most likely end up with a short and relatively unsatisfying experience. It just feels rushed.

I wanted to love it, I really did. I was hoping it would be a worthy reboot a great franchise truly deserved. I was hoping Thief would do justice to Garrett in the same way 2013’s Tomb Raider did justice to Lara Croft. Sadly, this isn’t the case. The main feeling I got from Thief was the feeling of a rushed development and a rushed game. It has potential and it actually looks good and plays good, but with multiple bugs, poor level design and sub-par writing, it just isn’t good enough.

Is it a bad game then? Certainly not, but it isn’t great either. It launched with the price of an AAA game, and it definitely benefited from the marketing of one, yet it fell shorts on multiple aspects. If you’re dying for a stealth game or you simply owe it to yourself as a Thief fan to give it a shot, by all means, go for it. Otherwise, I can’t warmly recommend Thief, despite wanting to.