Thief review: a stealth game with actual stealth

Rebooting a popular series is always a difficult and dangerous task. Gamers are notoriously difficult to please and easy to offend. If you need any proof, check out the reactions to Sonic’s new look. However, if a reboot is pulled off, then new life can is breathed into a long-dead series and the approval of fans old and new is won.

The Thief series of games are based around, well, a thief. The thief in question is Garrett, who serves as the game’s surly, self-interested protagonist. Thief gained acclaim for its revolutionary first-person stealth mechanics and interesting settings, and earned itself a pretty dedicated cult following that continues to mod and update the older games. After the relatively unpopular Thief: Deadly Shadows from 2006, people have been wondering what to expect from Square Enix’s latest offering.

So with this in mind, how does Thief stack up?

Best sneaking ever!

Let’s start with the sneaking; after all, that’s why we are here. The original Thief was a full-on sneak-fest, and the reboot is no different. Thief makes it clear from the beginning that this is a stealth game. The prologue mission is an insta-fail if anyone spots Garrett. If you are expecting Sam Fisher or Corvo-style stealth, where you can massacre everyone in the room when things go wrong, this is probably not a game you will enjoy.

So how does stealth in Thief work? Well, it works exactly like it did in the previous games. The light gem has made a return, so you will be able to see exactly how visible you are at all times. You also have an assortment of equipment to help you distract, incapacitate or kill the guards around you. Need an area to be dark? Put out the fires with a water arrow. Want to distract someone? You can set something on fire with a fire arrow, or hit a wall with a blunt arrow to distract enemy patrols. You can also choke people with unfortunately named “choke arrows” (why not gas arrows?), stun them with bombs or, if you want to be boring, you can simply put an old-fashioned pointy arrow through their throat.

Swoop, swoop and swoop some more.

All this is made possible by the use of a new move called “swoop.” Swoop sounds simple enough but it makes Thief’s stealth mechanic much more dynamic. Swoop is basically a stealthy dash and crouch. This allows you to extricate yourself from tricky spots or get from cover to cover without attracting attention. Swoop changes the whole game dynamic because it allows guards to be much more diligent in their searches.

In most stealth games, guards are lazy beyond belief and give up after a pretty short search. They don’t have a choice, because in most stealth games the character can only move at the same speed as an arthritic tortoise. A decent search by the guards would mean inevitable capture/execution, leading to the potentially premature (and much protested) end of a game.

Garrett’s swoop allows him to escape quickly and quietly. This means that even during his stealthiest moments, he never feels sluggish. Considering the fact many games substitute actual stealth for moving slowly, this is a big step forward.