Thief Review
Developer Eidos Montreal (Nixxes Software BV PC Port)
Publisher Square Enix
Platform PS3, XBox360, PC ,XONE PS4 (PS4 and PC Reviewed)
Release Date Out Now.
Reviving a dormant franchise into today’s market can be especially difficult when that series has a rich history of stealth gameplay where you are free to complete the mission as you want. Modern games tend to simplify these kind of features to be more marketable to the mass market and Thief 4 (or as it is called Thief) has taken the hit to be more accessible. Despite this Thief is a very well built game, there is no doubt about that and the PC version is well optimized to run smoothly with plenty of graphical options to tinker with.
Before you start you have the option to tweak the difficulty, the standard Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties exist but if you want more of a challenge there is a custom option where you can alter certain features of the game such as broad head arrows, bow crosshair and even the option’s to fail the mission if you hurt anyone or if you get seen. There are plenty of options to turn on or off, but be sure you want to use these changes for the entire game as any changes made here will require a full restart of the game to remove.
You play as the “Master Thief” Garrett and the game starts out pretty straight forward until you get to the city hub where it really begins to opens up. The hub is where you can complete optional side missions and buy supplies for the next main mission chapter.
Most of the game is about stealth and it is slow paced but I loved that feeling. There is a lot of loot and collectibles dotted around the game and it can be a bit difficult to find all of it. To help you gather these items you are given plenty of equipment to assist you. It is not until you unlock the claw that items in the higher places are obtainable. You can also unlock a wrench to help open vents and remove plaques, and a Knife which is used to remove painting collectibles from their frames.
A big flaw of the game is that there isn’t much of a combat system when you encounter enemies and it boils down to attack, dodge, and repeat. You can kill enemies from a distance with arrows but they are costly. The game does try to push the stealth aspects so they might have wanted to limit the up close combat but it still comes at a cost to the overall experience.
The city setting is nicely crafted with a Gothic Victorian world with some steampunk elements mixed in. The level design is good but are much more linear than expected. You have a traditional start and end point that never alter but the game does offer a few ways to approach mid sections of each mission but it is still nothing like what the series is renowned for.
Overall: I like the new thief game it isn’t a groundbreaking experience and compared to the series it isn’t even that difficult if you play as a thief, the game has had some bad reviews but my honest opinion is that this is a very well built stealth game and if you’re a fan of the genre I recommend giving this at the very least a look and even a buy if you like what you see.
Score 3.5/5
Reviewed By Daniel Finn
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