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.
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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