[Originally written on 16th May 2020]
I was introduced to the Thief game series when I played
Thief: Deadly Shadows. Having abandoned it the first time because I just
couldn’t get the hang of lockpicking, I gave it another try when I got older
and more understanding of the game mechanics. This time I succeeded at
lockpicking and was totally immersed in the fictional city of the game. I loved
how the game provided actual feel of hiding in the shadows, sneaking literally
behind the back of the sentry guards and stealing loot, while a story mixed with
fantasy and folklore elements unfolded.
Unfortunately, the game started lagging as the story
progressed, and at one point it became unplayable. I abandoned it, but ever
since I got to know that the series was getting a reboot for the newer
generation platforms, I had my eyes on it.
Now that I’ve finished it, I can say the new game improves
upon the older ones as far as the overall experience of thieving is concerned,
but the story could have been penned in a better way.
Let’s start by looking into the better aspects of the game.
The graphics are, no doubt, a major improvement. The
textures and lighting are really impressive; the city comes alive. Though the
majority of the game takes place at night, when the city is quiet, it still
feels like its gears are slowly rattling in motion. This feeling of ‘being
silent, but at work’, as is fairly appropriate in a game such as this, is
further cemented by the hushed conversations that one overhears while traversing
the city and carving out a path through its narrow by lanes, vents and sewers.
This improvement in the look and feel of the game was a really big plus for me
as the level design is what got me hooked to this game, followed closely by
Garrett’s tools and sneakiness. Now that the graphics have improved, one can
enjoy his tools better, watching equipment such as the Wrench (which looks
nothing like we use now), the Wirecutter and the Knife at work as Garrett
unscrews vent entrances, disables traps and cuts valuable paintings out of
their frames, respectively.
As with all its previous games, the player can get a good
idea of what is not actually being shown in the game, the backstory, so to
speak, from all the documents that Garrett finds lying around. If only everyone
had the patience to go through these bits of paper…
Despite such meticulous writing, Thief still fails to serve
an effective storyline to its players. As many online forums about the game
point out, the final product feels like an amalgamation of multiple storylines
that were all planned for production at some point but were eventually merged
into one in order to keep everyone at Eidos Interactive happy. Not to mention,
the ending definitely felt like a cliff-hanger to me. Then again, that scene
might have contained subtle hints as to what really happened, and I might have
missed them. There was this one explanation of it I read in one of the forums
that really made sense, so I think the final scene might not be that bad. The
rest of the story, though, could have been better. It felt crammed in, just
like those cramped spaces filled with furniture that Garrett always manages to
slip through to reach inaccessible places.
Special mention for the chapter The Forsaken, that takes
place in Moira Asylum. This is an abandoned asylum on an island some distance
away from the city, and is devoid of any guards. After evading so many guards
in The City, this at first felt like a wave of relief. But as I got further,
the lonely, secluded environment of the asylum really started getting on my
nerves. It just felt so empty, and when the dark setting started suggesting
that the place was haunted, I just wanted it to end. There’s a hallway in the
Men’s ward of the asylum where you can hear heavy footsteps banging on the
floor, taking rounds of the wing, but cannot see anything. From a notice on the
wall that seems to appear out of nowhere, you come to know that it’s the night
warden. A wheelchair starts moving towards you by itself. Mere description of
these phenomena may not be enough to scare people, but when you pair these
occurrences with the atmosphere in the asylum that the designers have created,
it makes for a spookier gameplay experience that many movies will fail to
deliver.
Overall I think Thief is perfect for players looking to
steal things, swoop undetectably in the shadows and learn secrets about the
city around them while remaining a ghost, it will disappoint those who are
looking for a good story woven around thieving. No doubt, it is the brainchild
of very creative and imaginative individuals, but there’s a fine line between
imagination and coherence. Thief’s storyline is abundant with imaginative
elements, but lacks coherence. Some blunt edges sharpened out could have made
it a masterpiece.
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