April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 68

review

Thief
It’s been a long time between jobs for
Garrett, master thief from the iconic
Thief video game series. In fact, it
was almost ten years ago that Thief:
Deadly Shadows was released on
the original Xbox and PC, and while
the announcement of a new Thief
game got old-school pickpockets excited, the excitement was also met
with caution. Was rebooting Thief really necessary? How could Thief be
brought back after such a long hiatus? Worry not gamers, for this is indeed a new breed of Thief, but it also
happens to be one that any gamer
can enjoy, despite a small amount of
bland features.
‘Thief’ once again casts players as
the master thief, Garrett, as he steals
from the corrupt rich and gives to...
himself. Garrett is not your classic
hero, in fact, he is more of an anti-

While it may sound like a stealth fans
murky cup of tea, it does in fact feel
rather bland, thanks to a repetitive
design and an extremely limited colour palette. Where other developers
have realised that if a game is predominantly made up of greys, blacks
and browns that it pays to have
some unique design choices (such
as a unusual palace, factory or the
odd trip to an asylum), Eidos Montreal have chosen to stick with a dark
and grimy theme, which works, but
doesn’t “wow” the player, not even
for a second.
The game’s story also takes a backseat to the stealthy gameplay (which
I will address in moment), and while
the Thief series has always felt more
gameplay-focused, I couldn’t shake
the feeling that Garrett bares almost
no redeeming or unique qualities of

gether, or even get along. Instead, it
feels like a race, which is ultimately
very silly of two master thieves to be
doing when there is delicate work to
be done.
After successfully obtaining the
item, the two witness a supernatural ritual being practised by a mysterious cult. Erin’s curiosity gets the
better of her, and in an attempt to
stop her revealing their presence,
Garrett steals her climbing hook. As
one would expect, the two begin to
wrestle for possession of the hook,
with Erin falling into the ritual area
itself. A large explosion decimates
the area, with Garrett and Erin both
being enveloped in the arcane destruction.
A year passes, and Garrett awakens
on the back of a beggar’s cart, with

“..OTHER RECENT STEALTH GAMES HAVE MANAGED TO PRESENT INTERESTING
ENVIRONMENTS, CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINES AS WELL AS ADDICTING GAMEPLAY”
hero, similar to Batman, although
with slightly less gadgets. Now that I
think of it, this newly-rebooted Thief
also bares a very Nolan-esque atmosphere. The city