I vaguely remember playing one of the earlier Thief games when I was a kid, although for the life of me I can’t remember which one. Whichever it was, I know I didn’t make it very far! After liking what I saw when watching a friend playing this Thief on Twitch, I decided to give it a try. Fortunately it was already in my library, so it must have been nicely discounted or I got it in a bundle at some point.
The game started off very strong, catching my intrigue with the prologue. While the graphics aren’t anything special, the initial setting still looked awesome, the voice acting sounded great, and I really enjoyed it as an introduction to the story and gameplay mechanics. The initial gameplay was pretty intense too, while teaching all of the important aspects of the game. Sneaking around, stealing (who’d have thought!), interacting with different items and objects. It was all carried out in a rather impressive manner, drawing me into the rest of the game!
Character progression in Thief is alright, but not much more than that. There are a few different tools you can purchase once you progress a little into the game. These make for different gameplay, allow access to different areas, and give more reason to visit previous areas if you didn’t have the tools previously. The thing I don’t like about this is that you are supposed to be a “master thief” already, so why the heck don’t you have these rather basic tools? There are a number of different arrow types, making for some potentially interesting and different playthroughs. There’s water arrows to snuff out torches, blunt arrows to turn off light switches from afar or simply distract enemies, sawtooth arrows for deadly take-downs, rope arrows to allow climbing in certain areas, along with several other arrow types, each with their own uses.
You have a focus mode which can be activated for a number of benefits, like easily locating items to steal. You can find and buy “focus” points which can be used to upgrade different traits or abilities, making focus mode an invaluable asset the further you progress. You can invest in things like combat, which will allow you to stun or knock out opponents more easily, or stealth, which allows you to move quicker while making less sound, along with a few other traits. I’m terrible at taking stealthy routes in any game, so I mainly invested in combat, marksman, speed and sense, allowing me to keep track of where enemies were and quickly take them down.
The main reason I became so invested in the game was due to the story, and I enjoyed the voice acting and cut-scenes too. I was always compelled to find out more. I was often distracted by the various side-quests too, of which there are plenty of! The various documents and items found throughout the game were pretty interesting too, and unlike some games, the information contained in some of documents are actually of value for other interactions, such as figuring out combinations to safes. These clues aren’t always as obvious as they first seem either, which is an aspect I really enjoyed. Naturally it frustrated me a little at times too, but that just led to a more satisfied feeling once I managed to put the clues together.
As with most games, there were aspects I really didn’t like or appreciate. One of these was the lack of jumping. It’s generally something I’d expect to find in most games of this nature, but the fact that you’re apparently this nimble thief who can’t jump? What’s all that about? Another issue I had is with the city. While pretty large and impressive, it’s also very restrictive in where you can and can’t go, and a big chunk of the gameplay is spent trying to navigate around the map. Then there are windows and wooden beams that require opening or pushing to the side to access certain areas. This required constantly tapping keys or buttons. The needless constant tapping of buttons, along with forced repetitive scenes such as when buying focus points, which you can only buy one at a time, were the only things I truly despised about the game.
Despite its flaws, I’m glad I decided to give Thief a try. For the most part, it’s a really fun and intense game. The story was intriguing and compelling, complemented by the voice acting, and the gameplay often had me sitting on the edge of my seat as I tried sneaking my way past guards, ultimately failing, and having to fight my way out. It’s just let down by some minor, but rather impactful flaws. It’s certainly worth a playthrough, and it’s a game that’s regularly on sale, so there’s little to lose from doing so.
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