by Lucas Schmidt
Hide in the shadows, steal a gold watch. Climb up the side of a building, steal a silver pendant. Put an arrow through a guard's head, steal some gold coins from his corpse. This is how nearly every mission in Thief plays out. Your goal is to pass through a dimly lit area filled with guards, while collecting as many valuables as you can without getting caught in the process. Then you do that again, and again, and again. There's a story and characters to tie all these robberies together, but they won't even come close to capturing your attention. The real fun in Thief comes from running across rooftops, going house to house and stealing every shiny object you see.
You play as Garrett, a master thief whose life-long passion has been to steal from others. Garret resides in a city that is apparently suffering an eternal night. Roaming stealthily through the streets and rooftops, Garret looks for various jewelry, gold coins, and other objects made of silver and gold. These valuables can be found in the buildings you break into and on the bodies of the guards you kill or knock unconscious.
The prologue introduces us to Garrett as he dashes through the city with one of his fellow thieves, Erin. They are on their way to complete a job, but when they stumble on something more dangerous than they can handle and things take a turn for the worse, Erin is injured and Garrett blacks out. He wakes up one year later and the remainder of the game is spent figuring out what happened that night one year ago and what became of Erin, who has been missing since.
Both Garrett and Erin are mildly interesting to listen to, but I never grew to like them a whole lot or worry about their futures. The antagonists only make things worse. They're your generic villain: balding, greedy, old men who care only about themselves and protecting their treasures. You won't remember anything these people say, and you won't understand its silly plot that's centered around ancient magic and told through melodramatic cutscenes.
Sneaking around the city, solving puzzles, and picking locks is enjoyable, but doesn't offer any thrills. In fact, the biggest problem with Thief is that there are no moments or features of the game that make it exceptional. Combat could have helped make the experience more exciting, but is unfortunately not a fundamental part of the game and isn't always that fun. Picking guards off with your bow from the shadows is always satisfying, but getting in close and fighting them hand to hand feels robotic and can be frustrating at times.
+ Bow gameplay
+ Replayability
+ Sneaking around the city
- Uninteresting story
- Boring characters
- Bland setting
Final word
There are dozens of hours of thievery and mischief to be had in Thief, but without an enticing narrative or exciting combat the whole experience plays out as a game about collecting objects. The completionists of gaming will enjoy the hours they can sink into it, and those who love a good stealth game will surely enjoy themselves. Everyone else though wouldn't be missing out on much if they decided to just skip playing this game.
6/10
+ Replayability
+ Sneaking around the city
- Uninteresting story
- Boring characters
- Bland setting
Final word
There are dozens of hours of thievery and mischief to be had in Thief, but without an enticing narrative or exciting combat the whole experience plays out as a game about collecting objects. The completionists of gaming will enjoy the hours they can sink into it, and those who love a good stealth game will surely enjoy themselves. Everyone else though wouldn't be missing out on much if they decided to just skip playing this game.
6/10
