It's been ten years since the last Thief title hit the shelves and they were far less digital back then. We were also living in a world without the emergence of new survival horror experiences, or the abundance of games that have done stealth and combat mixes really well, like Dishonored and the Batman: Arkham games. So how does a new Thief title stand up in 2014? It doesn't really.
While the reviews have been quite polarising, some saying that it's worth all the problems to have a new game in the genre with plenty of plus points, others are hailing it as one of the worst games of the year already.
Something they can all agree on though, is that the plot is really bad. It's cliché, plodding and has very anti-climactic solutions, especially so in the two big side-quest trees. However, the world you move about in to conduct these missions is huge and that's a big plus point in a gaming landscape that has a lot of big open worlds to explore. Unfortunately that world never really feels alive like many others though, so while you have a lot of room to move about in, none of it is particularly memorable.
Which is a shame because ironically, environment design is something the game does very well, but only in small set pieces, or indoor missions. At those times, the attention to detail is often staggering, with lots of elements to interact with that really showcases how pretty the engine can be - at times. The characters you interact with however, have horrible facial animations and the lip syncing is beyond bad according to quite a few reviewers.
The AI's 'intelligence' is way off too. They'll often stand in place in default animation poses, walk into walls or forget what they're doing. While there's sometimes a hint at innovation in the way some guards will notice an unusually open door, the rest of the time they'll laughably dawdle about letting you slay them or slink past without too much difficulty.
The entire game in-fact can be quite easy, since Thief really holds the player's hand as much as it can. There's now context sensitive movement, so pressing space near a ladder will have you climb it, doing so near a gap will have you jump it etc. This removes a lot of the freedom of exploration for the game, since you feel like you're just doing what the programmers wanted rather than finding your own way.
There's also a big glowing icon in the sky to tell you where to go, another glowing gem to show you how illuminated you are and a "focus" mode which works partly like Batman's detective mode and partly as a slow-motion combat enhancer.
However, several reviewers give Square Enix a solid thumbs up for not making these difficulty dampeners compulsory. You can turn them all off in the menu, essentially eliminating the HUD if you so wish. This ups the difficulty and also gives you a score based on how hard you make it for yourself. Iron man mode for example turns it into a roguelike, giving you a single life with which to play.
Also, the general action of stealing from unsuspecting guards and civilians is very satisfying and has some tense moments as you slit a purse string or quietly open a chest while the owners are downstairs, but it's not enough to save the game.
Combined with the fact that the game is sluggish and choppy, sometimes even during pre-rendered cutscenes, and bugs that break the game or leave you with a corrupted save file, Thief has so many poor elements that it's hard to see what some liked about it. However, the fact that some reviewers hate it and others love it, should show that this is a game that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. If you can find it cheaply and are a sucker for stealth mechanics and digital theft, then this might be worth picking up.
Otherwise, it's probably best left in the shadows.
To read a few full reviews, look here:
