Disclaimer: Before I begin, I need to say that I have not played any of the other Thief games. If you are an old school fan of this series, then your probably not reading this any more as the mere thought of someone unpure handling your game has already turned you off.
When the original Thief came onto the PC scene in 1998, I turned my nose up at it. I was eagerly waiting on Baldurs Gate and the thought of skulking around in the shadows didn’t interest me at all. I wanted to be the fantastical wizard firing all kinds of things at Orcs, Goblins and the ilk whilst on an epic quest to save the world. Yes, I was a proper geek when I was younger but 16 years later though taste in games change, and as Thief returned from the shadows once more, I took notice.
For the unitiated, you play the role of Garrett, a master thief and possible transvestite, clad head to toe in leather and buckles. He is a man of simple pleasures, namely taking anything that isn’t nailed down from the run-down houses that belong to ‘The City’ which is currently suffering from a mysterious plague. Hired to steal a item from a heavily guarded manor, things go south fairly quickly. Its a shame that things in the game went south fairly early on for me as well.
Instead of trying to tell the story using the player models, a cutscene began and it was a poor quality one at that, as the characters looked of a low quality and I could see horrible pixelation during some of the movement. It got worse in the next scene as the audio lost its sync. I had subtitles appear, disappear and 8 seconds pass by before finally the words were spoken. Initially I thought it might have just been an issue due the game downloading parts in the background, but it did exactly the same in repeated play tests and on different difficulty settings.
Once I got past that scene, things did settle down. The game dropsyou into the central hub of the game world to allow you to explore parts of ‘The City’ whilst trying to remain hidden from the guards who have an extreme dislike of Thieves (or possibly transvestites, its never clear). The best way to avoid them is by using the shadows. Ducking into a shadow makes you practically invisible to guards and gives you the opportunity to dart from cover to cover and avoid detection. If you cant find a way around them, you could always attempt to distract them with a thrown bottle or knock them out with your weapon. You also get a series of speciality arrows which you can put to good use such as the rope arrow to climb to a previously unobtainable area or a water area to put out a torch and plunge the area into darkness.
Don’t be fooled. Thief isn’t an open world game and sectors of ‘The City’ are all behind walls and the gates are usually the only way to the next area (followed by an annoying loading screen). Rooftops have areas that you can traverse, but only in certain sections and there have been moments when I spent a ton of time trying to find away onto an opposing roof that would easily allow me to drop down unseen, only to find out that its impossible. In a mission early on, you spy a jewellery shop which looks like it might have an expensive mask in the window, but that mask has got some guards attention and they are patrolling nearby. The front door is locked requiring you to spend time in front of it picking it and increasing the chance that you may get caught. I grabbed a nearby bottle, and threw it behind them causing them to turn and investigate. With them distracted, I dashed over to the door and fumbled with my picks. As I began clearing out the place, I noticed another way in and one that would have required far less effort. It does depend on the tools you have available and there is a good chance that in my play-through, I missed some of the more discreet methods of entry. It certainly pays to scout about.
For a stealth game, Thief throws discretion to the wind sometimes. There are a few parts of the game where it almost looks like its been turned into a Michael Bay film, with explosions rocking the screen around you and running for your life. These bits were particularly jarring, but they are fairly short and you get back to sneaking and stealing pretty quickly.
Now I’m not sure if its the effects of the plague on ‘The City’ or if they too are hiding from the guards, but it does appear that the majority of NPCs are nowhere to be found. Thief offers you many opportunities to break into some random persons house, but the majority of the time, the house is empty and ripe for the picking. You get the occasional wanderer walking down the streets and couples in the alleyways that could give you away if you’re up to mischief, but the whole place does feel a little empty.
One of the best features in Thief is actually is in its customisation. At the beginning of the game you get to set your own difficulty. The game begins by offering you a few premade selections, but then allows you to tweak your experience to your liking with a custom setting. Did you want to make it so the game only saved at the beginning of a chapter and removed any checkpoints.. Done. If you want to make it so that if your detected just once then the mission is over, then you can. This level of customisation extends to the UI as well. Everything that appears on your screen can be turned off to make it more immersive/harder depending on what sort of experience you want. Switching things off gives you a points rating and the game offers you an online leaderboard to brag about just how hardcore you can be. Thief also rewards you in-game for how you play it. At the end of a chapter you are given one of 3 different grades (Ghost, Opportunistic & Predator) dependant on what you did and extra objectives for that playstyle allowing you to complete optional Thieving Challenges.
Given the level that you can customise Thief, the game should cater well to most gamers. The hardcore fans can have the experience they want with everything turned off and gameover when spotted, while the very new players can use all their abilities to get around. The hardcore elite can even go for an ironman attempt that wipes your save if you fail a mission (that could be just from being spotted). While not being as open world as people would like, Thief does offer enough variation on entries to allow you to be creative in your approach, and enough side jobs to keep your pockets lined with gold. It may not be the Thief experience that some people had hoped for, but on the whole it is an enjoyable piece of stealth adventure in a genre that doesn’t get a lot of attention these days.
