Review: Thief

What a long, strange trip it has been for the fourth game in the Thief franchise. After years of a confused, tumultuous development, this sort-of reboot is finally on store shelves. With new ideas and a new developer come new challenges and successes, but the industry has changed quite a lot since 2004’s Thief: Deadly Shadows. The stealth genre is far from what it used to be, and sticking to the shadows instead of blowing the bad guys away has become dangerously passé.

Is there room in this industry for a true stealth game? Is Thief a true stealth game at all? And, most importantly, is it any good?

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Release date: February 25th, 2014
Platform(s): 360, PS3, PC, Xbox One, PS4 (reviewed)

Robes Are Always a Bad Sign

Garrett, Master Thief, has a problem. After a heist gone wrong, he found himself down one protégé and a whole year of his life. In a city is gripped with disease, poverty, and civil unrest, he must venture out to solve the mystery of this missing year and find out what happened to his possibly-deceased companion. Things escalate dramatically, and Garrett eventually finds himself right where he never wants to be: square in the middle of a conflict larger than himself, with the whole city hanging in the balance.

Let’s get one thing straight: there is nothing wrong with a familiar premise. Amnesia stories may be a little easy, but it is very possible to do them well and use the forgotten memories as room for some neat twists down the line. And treading familiar ground can make a protagonist easier to connect with. Garrett wants to know what happened to him and he wants to find his friend. Who wouldn’t, in his shoes? He is kept grounded and relatable due to the nature of his motivations, and as a result, Garrett remains a strong protagonist throughout the plot. 

He is also the only thing that remains strong throughout the plot. Things start out generally okay, but at about the midway point, a frustratingly unexplained plot device is introduced and the player is asked to become awfully forgiving as the plot rolls ahead. By the game’s end, I was wholly unsatisfied by the rather fractured telling of Garrett’s missing year, still in the dark regarding the central plot device, and totally perplexed by the main villain’s vague motivations. Certain characters are given development and the spotlight but thrown aside at about the halfway point, the tone and focus were subject to change at a moment’s notice, and any room for taking things slow and learning more about the characters and world were quickly shown the door.

In the end, I wasn’t even mad about the story- I felt bad for Garrett, whose wry humor and consistent motivations made him a likeable protagonist in a story far worse than what he deserved.

You Do Still Steal, Right?

The big question throughout Thief’s development has been “is Thief a Thief game?” I don’t consider myself enough of an expert to make a call on that and I won’t dare to try, but I can say this: for a chunk of the game, Thief isa true stealth game. It’s been too long since I was hiding behind objects in the dark, memorizing guard patterns, and taking that heart-racing step into the light for just a moment to get my work done before slinking back into the safety of the shadows.  And speaking of slinking, the raw feeling of playing the game is strong. You can feel Garrett’s movements as you move, to the point where the first few minutes of the game can actually take some getting used to. It really does make for a great playing experience, moment to moment.

The combat is awful, which is fine- you’re not supposed to be doing it, and there is never a time when the plot forces it on you. Unlike previous Thief games, Garrett doesn’t even have a sword any longer and relies on his blackjack when things get violent- but again, so long as you play it safe, you’ll never really have to get violent. I made it through the game only knocking people out when I felt like it, and even then the number was in the single-digits. You can kill foes with your selection of arrows, but I still made it through only killing one character for plot reasons- by choice, I should mention. Your selection of arrows ranges from gas grenade-type gadgets to a water arrow for extinguishing light sources to just normal arrows, and it is an essential utility. I appreciated that arrows were scarce on missions: you are the master thief. It is on you to manage your resources and get your supplies ahead of time.

Now, halfway through the game, there is an asylum level- this game’s response to Thief 3’s Shalebridge Cradle. It is an intense, terrifying level, hitting all the right notes in true horror: excellent sound design, a slow unfurling of fear instead of mindless jump scares, and a looong path before the reveal of your foes. I am man enough to admit I let out at least one yell, and discussing it any more specifically would run the risk of spoiling a truly great level.

But. Following this shift in tone, the game never really shifts back. There are periods of stealth and infiltration, sure, but explosive scripted events begin to creep up with greater frequency and the horror elements come back in a way that ends up being more frustrating than surprising. By the end of the game, I kind of just wanted it to end- and it really drags things out. Side burglary missions around the city and larger client jobs are more than deserving of note, as there are quite a few of them and they all stay true to being an honest to god thief- these are where the puzzle-solving, safe-cracking, shadow-skulking missions stay throughout the game. It shows that the designers are capable of doing thievery right, but as far as half the main story is concerned, they just chose not to.

You Walk a Path Few Would Wish

Thief’s color palette may be limited due to its necessary love of darkness, but the game’s art direction must be mentioned in any critique of the game. The blend of fantasy and industry on display here is so strong and so well-realized, and it’s such a shame that the open world of The City is diced up into countless loading screens. Starting from Garrett’s base of operations in the clock tower, I more than once had to get throughfiveloading screens on my way to the next quest-giver. That doesn’t even start the count of how many I needed to go through in order to go from district to district to complete the sidequests, and after a while I got so tired of it that I stopped doing the sidequests entirely.

The divided up sections aren’t made  clear, either, so until you start to get a feel for the City’s structure, you’ll find yourself cracking open a window to do some random thievery and accidentally throwing yourself into another loading screen to a section of the City you didn’t want to even head to.

Character models are strong and the environments do look quite good save for a few disappointing textures, but the Playstation 4 version provided a very attractive experience- but man, I wish it could have run at 60 frames per second.

The audio design is phenomenal. From footsteps on cobblestone to some amazing work in the asylum level, the audio team really deserves a hand. Or they would, if it wasn’t bugged to hell. See, when two NPCs speak in an endlessly looping conversation, or one line of dialogue starts up and then a separate track starts playing the same line over what you’re hearing, or noises pop up right in your ear despite being across the area, you’re not thinking about the great design. You’re thinking the game needed a bit more time in the oven. Though this one’s been in the oven quite a while already.

Nobody Likes My Answers

Thief is a game of contradictions. Garrett is a strong protagonist, but the story he’s wrapped up in is a mess. The gameplay feels good, but the level design is only good half the time. The City is great, when you’re not sitting through loading screens to traverse it. The audio is amazing, when it actually works. 

I’ve never played a game with such a strong core foundation that I have so many problems with. I hope Eidos Montreal takes another shot at this series because they’re so close to true greatness. But for now, this is one heist that might not be worth your time.

Final Score: 5/10