Thief Reviews
The three major strengths of past Thief titles - wide open mission design, sound propagation and narrative - are this game's biggest weaknesses. That is a fundamental problem it cannot hope to overcome.
Actively unpleasant to play, embarrassingly buggy, and wholly devoid of any personality, Eidos Montreal's Thief reboot certainly isn't the worthy continuation fans waited almost a decade for.
It's perhaps unfair to compare and lambast Thief against games that the series itself has spawned. Yet ten years in obsolesence is a long time in the gaming world, especially one bustling with the likes of Splinter Cell, Deus Ex and even Assassin's Creed. Long-term fans may gain more enjoyment from this revival, but in the main, Thief seems unlikely to steal many hearts.
A prolonged development has not been kind to this reboot of the classic Thief series, making for a game stitched together from disparate parts of better contemporaries.
Thief feels like a game that couldn't even get the basics right, let alone offer anything new and interesting. It will almost certainly be a let down for fans of the series, and new comers will likely expect much more from such a respected series and developer.
Thief offers up moments of stealthy satisfaction, but not nearly enough of them to make up for its many rough edges, bland level designs, and god-awful plot.
Thief feels more like a blatant money grab during a game drought than something polished enough to warrant a $60 price tag
Ultimately, Thief is a victim to the issues contained within it. These are things that could have been easily resolved, as well. Erin's capture should have been due to poor circumstance or even a legitimate failing on Garret's part; not his own self-righteous attitude. He should have had a better dialogue. The guards on the overworld should only arrest Garret if he gets caught stealing/doing thief activities, instead of on-sight, and the glitches should have been ironed out. Had those few aspects happened, Thief would have been a decent, if rather slow, game. As-is, it's just frustrating and tedious to play.
You can't help but think Eidos Montreal have been caught between reverence to the original but the need to incorporate everything good in modern-day AAA titles. They setup some wonderful moments in the game then take control away as it's not really a Thief moment at that point. They do include some boss-type battles - with feedback from Deus Ex understood - still when it's just not needed. They give you half of what's good about Dishonored and forget the rest and they model their storytelling on Lara's latest or Drake's series of adventures but forget to actually write the story to tell. It all adds up to the most frustrating of games. It looks great and plays smoothly. It encourages you to play in a certain way and sets up some wonderful moments only to drop you into a world of frustration, failure and insouciance nigh-on immediately. There are glimpses of wonder but this is the top layer of gold only. The bulk of the game is a frustrating, irritating, random mess. In itself this is frustrating, as what could have been great struggles to be merely average.
"Thief" is an easy game to make excuses for all its shortcomings: "The combat is lacking, but it's OK because it's a stealth game. The world is dreary, but it's OK because that's the style. The A.I. is moronic, but it's OK because it would be too frustrating if they worked harder at tracking you down." None of this is "OK," and the summations of these sub-par gaming experiences make for a sub-par game. It excels at nothing. Not even blind nostalgia can save it. Don't let Garrett steal your time.
Uninspiring, if solid enough.
There is the idea of what a Thief game should be here, and it's not complicated. Strip it down, get back to the essentials, and this game may have played something more like Arkane's excellent Dishonored. As it stands, however, it's neither itself nor, really, anything else.
Series fans may view it as a disaster but the problem is that Thief isn't even interesting enough to get angry about, despite the well hewn stealth gameplay.
A poorly-designed outing that might, in another continuity where the previous Thief games never existed, have earned itself the heady accolade of 'barely average'. Unfortunately, we all know that it could be - and has been done - so much better.
Thief isn't a bad game, but it's not a good one either.
At one point Garrett once again risks his life to steal more riches. His friend and employer, a ruddy faced scoundrel named Basso, says, "Garrett, no one is paying you to do this." Expressionless, Garrett turns to Basso, blankly retorts "it's who I am", and runs off into a night as inert and emotionless as the game itself.
I wanted so much for Thief to be fun, and in the beginning I did have a lot of fun with it. But, due to no sense of impact in the story and its unrewarding gameplay, it degraded into a chore well before the final act. While playing Thief I couldn't help but feel like I'd done this all before, and often in a better setting. Thief may be a throwback to the early days of stealth games, but this reboot really feels aged and dated. While there is some fun to be had, you will have to sift through a mess of problems to find it. Now, this is the part where I insert the obligatory "Thief didn't manage to steal my heart" line, right?
I'll be blunt: if you loved the original Thief series, you won't enjoy this game. If you have never played the original Thief games, there's some enjoyment to be had, but there are other stealth-heavy games around that are a far better overall package than this one. Thief has a few good ideas, but they're dragged down by the game's design as a whole. With available games that let us freely scale the outside of those wooden castles of old, why should we settle for one that sticks us on a plastic kiddy playground?
Thief effectively retains the series' focus on stealth and compelling atmosphere, I just wish it had retained the quality.
The biggest issue with the execution of Thief is that the stealth genre has evolved much farther along and left behind the series that started it all. For instance, 2012's 'Dishonored' is vastly more capable at melding stealth and action than 'Thief,' a game that was released 18 month later. Of course, the tedious supernatural narrative, Garrett's dismal fighting abilities, numerous graphical issues and audio glitches aren't doing the game any favors either. Reviving an old franchise while targeting five platforms with "a heavily modified Unreal 3 engine" may have been more than the team could reasonably be expected to contend with. I can't recommend 'Thief' to anyone beyond those who have invested lots of time in the series more than ten years ago and simply want to take Garrett for one more spin in the shadows. For everyone else, revisit 'Dishonored' with all the DLC packs during the next Steam sale.