Thief is a game that received genuine mixed reviews. There were those who seemed to really enjoy it, while others — many of them fans of the original games — were extremely disappointed. What were your thoughts?
It seems as though many were disappointed by its appeals to a broader audience, at the expense of what made Thief such a unique proposition to begin with. It’s a predicament for sure. A game like Thief, with a big budget and massive teams working for years on its creation, really needs to justify its existence with raw sales figures.
But does that justify removing its points of difference? It’s a tricky business and the balance shifts from title to title. Sometimes it’ll make sense to make adjustment, on other times relying an a unique quality of gameplay works better. It appears as though Thief really struggled with that balance and feels a little confused as a result.
What are your thoughts on the game? Which side of the fence do you sit on? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments
21 responses to “Community Review: Thief”
I like it, but yesterday I found myself very frustrated with it.
It seems you can access missions before requiring the items needed to be be able to do everything in the mission. There is no warning for this in game
*spoilers?* I found myself without a razor to steal a painting, and that was the only thing i missed on this particular mission. Very frustrating.
Not sure if i can replay the mission or not. I can probably go back to the building and get the painting, but that is probably not going to update my mission score.
Good game but it definately doesn’t hold you hand.
“Thief manages to sell 5 million copies.
Considered a colossal failure by its publisher and the franchise is replaced by another FF13 sequel starring Lightning.”
I’m really enjoying it, playing with the custom settings.
There are some silly things, but they are easily overlooked.
I’m currently on the 3rd last mission of the game playing it on Master level.
Overall, I’d have to say it’s an average game. Not great, but not terrible.
Been a Thief fan since the original a long time ago and whilst this game has elements of the franchise which make it feel like a Thief game, it’s clear their own spin on it was made to appeal to a wider audience.
A lot of bugs, AI glitches, repetition of content and a pretty weak story plot makes the game playable, but not memorable IMHO.
I’ll play to the end and clear up the sidequests and likely shelve this game, never to play it again.
I give it a 6.5 out of 10.
Im really enjoying it. Out of all the negatives ive seen about this game, all id agree with is dodgy AI sometimes. Combat complaints? You’re a THIEF, this isnt Dishonoured or Skyrim, you aren’t supposed to fight. City not being a sandbox? It wasn’t in any other Thief game either.
Im only jusy past the second chapter, but im having a fun time playing it.
8/10
I AM A MASTER THIEF.
I WILL STEAL ALL OF YOUR CUTLERY!
I’m actually pleasantly surprised by this game.
Sure, it’s not as good as Thief 2 or the high parts of Thief 3 – but it’s better than the worst parts of Thief 3.
Level design is very “modern” in a bad way – it’s virtually impossible to get lost (haven’t even tried to look at my map in a mission) and there’s no backtracking or circling a place to scope it out. The levels are all very obviously linear which is mostly the opposite of earlier thief games – although the best level in any game ever (Life of the Party) was relatively linear, the linear path was wide enough that it was kinda hard to tell. Plus it offered a lot of freedom in how to go through the mission, if not a ton of freedom in the actual path taken.
Atmosphere is good, but the sound design is a HUGE let down compared to the earlier Thief games. A very small tweak like making footsteps more obvious and louder (seriously, footsteps were terrifying in earlier titles) would help a lot. You also have to be quite close to hear anybody (and they have to be quite close to hear you), which is very unrealistic and removes quite a bit of tension. I feel like if sound had’ve been nailed as well as earlier Thief titles, this discussion wouldn’t even be happening.
The implementation of rope arrows also totally sucks. The whole point of them is to be creative, but now they can only used in proscribed spots – you will use them everywhere they can be used and nowhere else. They add exactly zero to the game and would be better off being removed altogether.
Not being able to freely jump is also a bit annoying, but not as bad as I had feared it would be.
Oh, the story is f***ing terrible also, but I’m less concerned with that.
Overall, despite being easily the worst Thief game, it’s still quite good.
7/10 for being occasionally brilliant and occasionally shit.
EDIT: Also, I’ve seen lots of complaining about bugs, but haven’t experienced any glitches at all yet. Perhaps I’m just lucky, or perhaps the bugs are specific to the console versions?
Agreed with the rope arrows. Half the time, I only notice they are an option in an area after I’ve already found an alternate pathway.
The story is fine. Nothing remarkable, just average. People keep saying its a jumbled mess, but I’ve been able to follow it without having to think about why I’m going here or there.
I don’t think it’s hard to follow, just crappy :).
Too many “Open world” whiners recently 🙁
Just fix the damn sound and I’ll be happy.
My copy is currently in the mail so I haven’t played it yet, but I decided to retain my preorder after watching TotalBiscuit’s “WTF is?” video on youtube. It seems a lot of the complaints levelled at it are from people saying it’s not like the originals, which despite loving I barely remember the mechanics of or anything, so I’m going in with a basically fresh perspective.
Oh and I haven’t played Dishonoured yet (it came out when I didn’t have a TV lol) so based on the complaints that’s also a plus…
Stephen Roy and the whole team need to be sacked for making this crap and then having the audacity for calling it Thief. Did they even play or look at Thief 1 and 2 at all ?? Un-***ing believable.
How far have you gotten in it?
I’m going to guess he hasn’t played it.
I’m genuinely enjoying the game so far and I’m disappointed by the harsh reactions being levelled at it.
The custom difficulty settings are a much appreciated inclusion and render much (not all) of the arguments about dumbing-down moot. While the game excels at cultivating a great atmosphere, it does stumble in its storytelling.
Gameplaywise I’m appreciative of the new swoop mechanic though I admit it could be easily abused as you can dash around seemingly unheard (bar animals and glass covered ground) but in concept its great and a fitting inclusion to Garrets moveset, contextual leaning and jumping are perhaps the most controversial changes to the game and I’ll admit one I’d probably change myself if I could, though with some tweaks it could be alright, as it is now its difficult to tell what you can climb or jump over and some cover can’t be peered around.
Aaaaandd the Focus ability… look if you dont like it just turn it off.
All-in-all I feel it’s a good game and moreover a good Thief game. My advice, try and look past fanboys criticising the lack of Hammerites and Pagans or the change of voice actors and give the game a chance, wait for a steam sale or buy it preowned. Bottom-line, if you like the Stealth genre try this game
I got a refund this morning. The story was boring and did nothing to draw you in, the setting and overall atmosphere were okay, the characters were boring, the voice acting felt uninspired and didn’t fit them at all and as a result I didn’t care for them at all.
The only redeeming part of Thief is the gameplay but when that gets stale that just kills it all. There’s no motivation to keep playing it when the gameplay gets stale because of the poor narrative and characters. Overall it’s a mediocre game. Definitely not worth full price. Maybe pick it up when it’s cheap as chips if you’re curious.
The games fine, it just needs a little more freedom and a little less hand holding. However how many games can you say that about nowadays?? It’s like developers don’t trust us to play their games correctly anymore??
I’d pay $9.95 for a mission editor dlc though.
Imagine dishonoured, but you can’t freely jump.
Not terrible, not great. I can’t actually imagine anyone hating the game who isn’t just being an asshole.