Sunday, 29 June 2014

Thief Review- A Game of Shadows

Thief 2014




Thief the 2014 reboot of the popular game that defined its genre reminds us of the 2012 hit Dishonored. However it is much different from the latter. Here you find yourself in the city of despair where sickness rules the streets and the rich rob the poor. Thief is all about stealing for a cause, a noble concept indeed.

Story line

You put on the shoes of the master thief Garrette. The missions take you from one part of The City to another. You and Erin are on a misson to fulfill a contract. However that night an accident causes the death of Erin and you wake up to find that you can't remember anything of that night except a ritual taking place and Erin falling. Her memory continually haunts you. She seems to be speaking to you in your mind compelling you to believe that she might still be alive. That's the farthest I can go without giving any spoilers.


Gameplay

The stealth mechanism in the gameplay is mainly dependent on darkness, line of vision and sound. Let me explain further. On the left corner at the bottom of the screen is a circle which shows you how visible you are. A dark circle means you are in the shadows and have the least possibility of getting spotted by any of the patrolling guards, even if they are nearby. A lit circle indicates that you are fully visible and might get noticed by the patrolling guards even if they see you through there peripheral vision.

If a guard is too near you or you need to go near one of the guards to maybe check the contents of a drawer or to blow out a candle you can't afford to just walk up to him because that would create noise. The slower you move, the harder it is for you to get detected. So there are5 ways to move about! Run when there are too many guards after you and you are pretty confident that you can beat them like Usain Bolt and hide until the heat level finally goes down, or maybe you want to cover some distance quickly when there are no guards nearby.

Next comes the 'crouch mode' which you are going to use most of the time to stealthily move about. However remeber to keep to the shadows. Then there is the swoop another silent yet quick movement that is used to quickly change cover or shadows when there is an illuminated portion of the middle. Lastly there is this 'sneak' where you move unbearably slowly with the least possibility of detection (as long as you keep to the shadows that is).

Oh wait! Did I miss something? Ah yes! The fifth way; Simple walking. I don't know where that fits into.


Erin



The missions are divided into chapters.. With completion of each chapter you get rewarded according to your play style: Ghost, Opportunist and Predator. The first one requires patience, especially in the later stages. You need to give up all your urges to put out lights and taking risks to gain more loot. It thoroughly tests your stealth skills and requires a considerable number of quick saves and save file reloads.

The Opportunist is all about using your environment to your advantage and requires strategic thinking.

The last one, i.e. Predator is probably the easiest play style as long as you have decent inventory management skills.

There is a huge number of collectibles in the game, from unique loots to documents that provide useful information and the game keeps a tag of how many of them you are collecting.

Thief in no way makes you feel superhuman despite your newly acquired 'focus' that helps you pick locks faster and highlights intractable objects. The guards are as much powerful as you and in the ones in the later stages are more powerful. You are bound to lose to them when they come in a pack and will leave you feeling like a poor boy humiliated by a bunch of big bullies.



Sound

The background sound is inoffensive and somehow blends with the gameplay quite well. I like the sound that notifies me when a guard is becoming suspicious.


Verdict




Thief as a game is a little above average. The story is pretty interesting. The environment is claustrophobic and the guards sometime speak out your mind, "The night's going on forever." Hiding in a closet to create a checkpoint might appear feasible but appears absurd when you find a closet in the most unlikely place like the garden of some place. The game is true to its genre and pretty challenging. There is some fun in playing the same chapter again and again to complete your collection of unique loots or maybe to give it a different approach from the last time you played. The pseudo-open-world is also an interesting part of the game where you can break into several houses in The City or pay a visit to Basso for side missions or the merchant who takes care of all your 'nefarious needs'.





Story 8
Gameplay 7
Technique 6
Sound 7
Value for Money 9



Overall Score: 7.5

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