Thief
Review
The Dark Thief
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
Combat
Although the developers have designed the game with stealth in mind, there are times when Garrett must take down guards that stand in his way. Most of the time the sentries can be bypassed by working out their patterns or by distracting them whilst you scuttle from one hiding place to another. As mentioned previously, arrows can be used for a variety of activities. Some of these can distract patrolling sentries. But some enemies will not budge from the route required for Garrett to pass. It is in these cases where Garrett can use his piercing arrows or his handy blackjack (a small club) to knock out the unsuspecting foe. Having said that, taking on more than one enemy at once is dangerous, as Garrett is rarely equipped to battle multiple opponents. Again, with Garrett's limited melee ability, Thief does push you down the stealthy, sneaky gameplay path.
Visually, Thief is superb. The Dark Knight would be proud of the dark, sombre locations of The City. The darkness fits in perfectly with Garrett’s occupation, and I guess the designers would have made a point of ensuring areas of darkness were prevalent. Considering most of the locations are gloomy due to the storyline of the deathly disease which has stuck The City, they fit perfectly. There are indeed some interesting locations such as the eerie asylum and the gentleman's club (or brothel, if you prefer). Audio too, is reasonably good, with decent voice acting and background music. Garrett seems to be somewhat of a loner, and his voice furthers that impression with a rather bland portrayal. I'm not entirely sure that was the goal of the voice actor or not, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The background music sets the mature tone for the game, with its dark, brooding tunes.
The Dark Thief
Overall, Thief is a quality game, particularly if you take the time to explore the side missions. If you go in expecting the game to be a solely stealth game or a remake of the original, you will probably be disappointed. But if you take Thief as a stealth action game that has its own narrative (albeit a somewhat strange one) then it does a more than adequate job despite the small issues with the linearity of the main story. The gameplay functions run smoothly, the visuals are marvellous, setting the scene of The City perfectly, and the audio works a treat. I unfortunately had a crash to desktop error early on in the game during a point where I was required to steal a key from a guard. It was quite frustrating to have to reload the game only for it to crash again at the same point. This, of course, caused a few concerns. Not so much because of the issue itself, but because I was worried that it would be the first of many. Thankfully, the error was the only one I encountered. And because it was early on in the game, I simply restarted from the beginning and the replay seemed to solve the problem I was having. But apart from that little issue and the sub-par story, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as a Victorian-era Batman-esque Thief.
7.4
fun score
Pros
The designers have done their best to ensure the game is played as a stealth game
Cons
Story is a little bland
