I just finished the game and am left wondering what happened during the concept and development phase that led to this blob of a game.

I played 1,2 and 3 as they came out, before gold versions, or Steam, or any other modern game enhancement. Sure the original character backstory story was sparse, but the character didn't need to have a convoluted back story to be cool.

I'm really confused as to why the writers felt it was necessary to create a whole new "broken home/brothers at odds/apprentice lover kidnapped" back story for Garrett when his original "orphan trained as a keeper turned top tier taffer hated by all factions" story was much more interesting. None of the original world was even a part of this new game. I played on the hardest mode possible, shut off all visual helps (why those existed, I'll never understand), and took my sweet time to play through without killing everyone. I never felt the need to ghost every level in the original games and so I tried to play this in the same way (adventurer style). At the end of this new Thief, though, I was left with three glaring issues beyond the fluffy console gamer additives. Also, why was his jumping and swimming ability stolen from Garret?

1: The music in the game pulled me out of the supspension of disbelief, so I shut it off. The original games had music in the title, the catacombs, the credits and one or two other atmospheric interludes, but never did it have a full-running, repeating, battle-themed score. I felt the score was an addition that cheapened the gameplay at the expense of production money.

2: The addition of ultra vulgar curse words, nudity, and sexually themed conversations was stupid. Never did a player of the original games say to themselves, "gosh, I wish their were topless chicks in this game that said the F- word all the time and performed BDSM themed scripted actions when I peered through a keyhole." Instead we all focused on stealing loot and not getting caught by guards, zombies, and ratmen. I miss the ratmen and bug creatures BTW. Cut the "real words" vulgarity and make your scripting less vulgar. BTW, why was "Taffer" dropped? I loved that euphamism.

3: Stop trying to make partial RPGs out of single player action games. Each level needs clear singular goals that drive profit or plot. Explain and answer all the plot points by end of the game. Start each level with a store for getting gear purchased with previous leveling loot cash. Eliminate the "wandering through town in search of random side quests and loot" bit. Bring back the storybook cutscenes between levels to drive the story. And, for the love of Pete, stop trying to make up a new origin story and faction rules for a world that already existed. The Hammers, Keepers, Zombies, Ghost Priests, Mechanists, Pagans, Ancients, bug people, ratmen, etc had more believeability and intriguing conceptualization than any of the crappy angry mobs and homeless people in this new iteration... Grrrr Arrrgh.


There is no replay factor in this game for me. Replay should be story driven; not multiplayer, stupid goals, and trinkets driven. I wouldn't watch a movie over and over again if its story sucked, and single player games are the same kind of entertainment for me. Make the story interesting and I'll play it again and again and again, because I love the story. I would also recommend it, if I loved the story. I recommend Thief 1 and 2 very highly.

I wish someone could take the original gameplay from 1 and 2, the original cutscenes, voice acting, footstep sounds, and story lines; and put them into this beautifully rendered game engine. That would be the coolest thing that could possibly happen to the Thief franchise at this point.

Make it and expansion pack and I'd pay for the stories all over again. Just don't kill an existing fanbase with crap like this ever again. Shame.

Regardless of how important the series is to you, Thief is just a fundamentally flawed game.

I finished a ghost run on Master Thief difficulty with most of the UI switched off. It's a massive, generous game that plays like it was rushed out the door. When it works, it can be enjoyable but it has too many bugs, design flaws and questionable decisions to recommend to anyone but the most desperate of stealth fans.

Thief is a broken, tragic, rewritten mess of a game. The plot has clearly been reworked multiple times. The Baron and Orion standing in for the Mechanists and Pagans respectively, is fine on paper but it doesn't work in execution. Since they have barely any screen time, they have to scream their motivations to the player in an awkward, rushed manner. Erin feels like a holdover from an earlier iteration of the game, when it was a straight sequel to Deadly Shadows.

The Thief Taker General is hilarious. I love it when he happens to find Garrett, who has just returned from a trek through a long forgotten ruin, underneath his bed at the brothel. I like the idea of Garrett having an antagonist but TTG is just awful; a bald, mustachioed villain who walks with a limp, drops f-bombs, kills his underlings over trivial matters (so you know he's bad!) and has a crossbow affixed to his arm. There's way too much going on here. He feels like a one of the grotesque characters from Hitman: Absolution. Why Eidos Montreal thought he would be a good choice for the Thief universe is baffling.

The sound-mixing is atrocious. The worst I've ever heard in any AAA game. That's not hyperbole. It's broken. Sound cuts out frequently, guards across a courtyard sound like their yelling into the players ear, npcs yell ambient dialogue over Basso repeatedly during cutscenes, and Garrett's voice actor frequently pauses to his read lines. The lip-syncing is horrid. I really miss the sound propagation from the earlier titles. Unless you're walking on glass or water, it's doesn't matter where you walk, Garrett won't make a sound.

There are some really cool additions including blunt arrows (must-have for all future Thief games), some instances of impressive a.i. (noticing open safes, lights switching off etc...), knocking over bottles, real-world alarms (birds, dogs), the lockpicking game making a noise when you fail. It's quite enjoyable, but not without reservations. Some of the best parts of the game are undermined by, I suspect, poor play testing. For instance, after cracking a safe in tailors shop, Garrett refused to stop examining the silly earring I just nabbed. The animation was unskippable, so when the guard rounded the corner, I didn't have time to shut the safe, and he went on alert. Not cool.

While the city looks gorgeous, its pretty much empty. The sidequests are neat, but most of the time I'm just exploring an vacant apartment; no one's home. If I mess up the lockpicking or set off a trap 9 times out of 10 it doesn't matter since it's empty. All these cool additions to the game are underused. Also, there's so many loading zones! Enter a one room apartment. Pick up a letter opener and a ring. Leave in under 20 seconds. Load for just as much. This content just slows the game down. Then there's a lack of abilities and gadgets. I like Swoop, but it's basically a grounded Blink and the rest of Garrett's abilities are essentially uniquely skinned door-openers.

Garrett's movement has a nice heft to it. He feels present. But moving through the world is about working out exactly what the designer wants you to do, not using your instincts or experimenting. If a rope arrow is just out of reach, don't bother trying to grab it. You need to look for a crate, or a ladder or a walk way to reach it. It's a discrete puzzle that was made for that specific instance. I wish it was like Assassin's Creed or Mirror's Edge. Instead it's an awkward compromise that isn't very enjoyable. Unlike Dishonored, where the designers have a set of rules that you can rely upon, Thief is about instances. These guards will patrol in this pattern no matter what. This object can be leaned around, while another identical object cannot. You can climb this crate, but not this one.

It's such a frustrating game! It doesn't have the same love Eidos Montreal had for Deus Ex. That team got the brand. Thief doesn't play like the rest of the series. That's fine. It's been a decade since Deadly Shadows. Time moves on. But Dishonored is Thief's competition and that game, as a stealth adventure, did a better job in every respect of capturing the essence of Thief. Thief plays like it was made in 18 months. It simply wasn't ready. I hope they get the opportunity to take a long look at what happened here, evaluate and take another stab at the licence.

I was a fan of the original Thief game and found this to be a terrible update for it. The lock picking mechanics maybe the only improvement. The linear style of the world and tons of loading screens is quite frustrating. I think the last two nails in the coffin for me (with this game) was how there is a loading screen combined with a closed window every time you move from area to area. Travelling between the areas is a nightmare and quickly gets frustrating. The final nail in the coffin was how closed the world felt. It seems like 90% of all the doors and windows you cross cannot be opened and are basically invisible walls. You can only jump up on certain walls and fences. It sort of feels like what a tablet version of Thief should have been, but it runs on PC. The game is to linear and has lost that open sandbox feel the original had.

I've never felt so conflicted about a game in my whole life. On the one hand, there are so many elements I really like about Thief, but then there is a lot that I really dislike. I am a newcomer to the Thief series and intend to play the originals (just started the original) so I cannot really give comparisons, and I know that many die hard fans of the originals disregard this reboot. But I will offer my honest opinion as a gamer.

Things I like:

• Gameplay.
Engaging, fast-paced, satisfying, responsive, fairly varied.

This is the number one element that makes or breaks it in a game for me. Thief, I feel, nailed it pretty well.

I found the controls to be very responsive, so playing with Garrett literally feels like you are a thief sneaking around. I enjoyed the way Garrett interacts with the environment, whether it be to provide cover, create distractions, access secret areas, douse lights, reach new parts of the town, eliminate noise, etc. etc. Very fun and kept me engaged. Plus, I'm a sucker for open world and looting.

I personally felt very anxious anytime there were a number of guards in the area, and did my best to stay hidden which was really enjoyable for me. I thoroughly enjoyed pick pocketing, luring them away, performing takedowns (both on the ground and aerial). Very satisfying.

I quite like the variety of items, even if I didn't use some of them much/at all. I felt like it offered a good choice of actions, allowing me to proceed however I chose. I also appreciated the stock limits in shops; later in the game, I found myself running out of stuff a lot and trying to conserve stuff for when I really needed it, which offered a bit of a challenge.

I found that it sometimes got a little repetitive, but there was enough of a variation of areas and required play styles between chapters to keep me engaged.

• Visuals

I kind of go back and forth about how I feel about Thief's environments. They are quite samey for the most part, but there were times when I'd look out of a window or across from a roof and see all these really awesome environments and think "Wow, this is pretty cool." The visuals are, I must say, very immersive.

The graphics are great, but I had a LOT of frame rate issues.

I customised my lighting a bit to get it nice and dark (and always played with dimmed lights) to really immerse myself, which worked well for me. There was a particular part (chapter 6 I think) where you escape from X location, and the escape sequence is really great visually. Fire everywhere, crumbling buildings, floor, wood, etc.

Most importantly, I'm a sucker for Garrett. His character model is really cool and, again, immersive. Anytime I'm sneaking around, picking a lock, opening a safe, searching for trick switches and you get a look at his chipped, dirty fingernails and leather gloves, I really feel like I'm a thief looting in a dirty, degrading city. Plus, those aerial takedowns when you catch a glimpse of him fully masked in his black leather suit are awesome. "That's me, being a badass!"

• Difficulty
I have often heard people say that the game is too easy. Perhaps, but I played on Thief difficulty (medium) and I still found it to be a challenge. I became immersed in Garrett's character and like him opted to never kill (unless it was those certain enemies...people who've played far enough will know what I mean :P). Hence, I played purely stealthily, which offered a nice challenge for me personally. I found myself often reloading quick saves to make sure I was satisfied with my play through and that I had found all loot. If you blaze through the game aggressively, then yes it is easy. Play the game how it urges you to - stealthily - and it's a good challenge.

Things I dislike:

• Story
There is SO much freaking missed potential here. I cannot give the story any praise because it's just so choppy and awkwardly told. It expects the player to assume things and fill in the gaps - gaps which were obvious, but should be told by the characters to give character development to Garrett and other characters.

As I said, there was potential for something really interesting, but as soon as it starts picking up speed, it comes to an abrupt halt. I cared nothing for any of the characters, not even Erin. Only Garrett, and that's because, as I said earlier, I felt like I was really him.

I can't say more of course, just in case there are people who want to play and experience the story for themselves, but don't expect anything fantastic there. It's a let down to say the least.

• Repetition
As I've said earlier, the visuals and gameplay are sometimes very samey. I don't really have more to say there, but it can make the game a little tiresome at times. Fortunately, I had the patience and the gameplay gave me enough enjoyment to keep playing.

• Immersion-breaking bugs, glitches, cheapness. Aggravating AI.

The number one bug I kept experiencing was repeated dialogue from NPCs nearby. If I have to hear about how this guy rolled with Polly Addler one more time, I'm seriously going to put an arrow in his skull. It really got on my nerves, especially because the subtitles kept playing on the screen over and over, or the dialogue came up at the wrong time when Garrett was talking and I'd want to hear him rather than some repeat conversation about how some guy is worried he's getting the Gloom.

I had a few instances of enemies lagging and appearing next to me, being hit by projectiles through walls, being seen through walls, glitches in the AI, character model getting stuck and having to reload the game, falling off/through platforms when I shouldn't have, NEVER being able to get on damn ropes until I was at the precise angle, and other little annoyances.

Sometimes I'd close a door by accident when trying to peek, alerting a nearby guard to my presence. Very minor, but very annoying.

• Side quests
Because the world is pretty open, there was a lot of potential here for some varied side quests. Unfortunately, this did not happen. They are VERY samey - go to X, get this loot, done. All of them, with a slightly different description of why you're doing it. The only side quests I got vaguely interested in was the client quests, where there are actually characters talking to you about what to do, why they want you to do it etc. But there were only 6, and that was just between 2 people. Huge let down. As a completionist, I finished all side quests, but was very let down.

• Chapter 5
I can't say much for those who want to play this game, but let's just say the tone of the game takes a very dramatic turn and it's really jarring. It was technically a really great chapter, but I suddenly felt like I was playing a different game. I also felt that there was a massive difficulty spike here (in the later part of the chapter) and I was just simply not prepared ammo-wise.

Overall comments:
I really do recommend this game, purely because the gameplay is really fun, and to me that is the purpose of a game. I can overlook poor storytelling, issues with graphics, and some minor glitches if I ultimately have a great experience and feel immersed in the world, which I truly did.

Thief is back. After a long period of waiting and hopes we finnaly got a new Thief game but will you want to play this or stick to the classics ? In Thief you play as Garret. Garret is the master Thief. One day when you and youre friend Erin are hired to steal a stone from a secret cult everything goes wrong. Erin dissapears and Garret falls asleep for 2 years. When you wake up you find that the entire city has gone to hell and its up to you to figure out what happend when you went into the coma. So how is the new Thief ? This game is Bad and it pains me to say that. Thief has done so much to the stealth genre but this time i can only say bad things about this title. Lets begin with the gameplay. The gameplay is a way more clunky version of the stealth you see in Dishonored and you have the ability to quickly go to a place without getting spotted just like Blink. The Visuals are bland and depressing to look at. The Story is probably one of the worst i have ever seen period. The story is all over the place and never focuses on one thing and it throws in too much so its all over the place. The charecters are all boring and dull and you dont care who dies or who lives. The game also has horrific level desing and its probably the most confusing layout i have ever seen. Overall theres not much good to say about Thief. Its Boring Dull and repetative. Only get this on a sale if youre kinda interested. Otherwise just stay away. I give Thief a 4/10

I loved, and still love, the original Thief series. That said, I'm not beholden to the original series so much that I'm closed to new interpretations, as long as they're done well. Sadly, in this particular case, the mark has been missed by an incredible amount. The game is beautiful, and the aesthetic is very well-realized. Beyond that, it's a travesty. The story is a mess: either they cut out a sizable portion of it or they changed the story at the last minute and struggled to make the existing pieces fit the new narrative. Either way, it's a hodgepodge of half-baked ideas and huge leaps of narrative logic. The sound design is all over the place, with characters being far too quiet in cutscenes, over-repeated incidental dialogue from NPCs, and sound positioning seems to be wrong most of the time.

I wanted to love the game, as while there are quite a number of stealth action games, very few really focus on the experience of being a master thief: sneaking around and stealing things. Most focus on assassination or some other kind of objectives. While it doesn't meet the criteria of playing a thief, I still would highly recommend you play Dishonoured instead of this if you're looking for a great Thief-like, even if it primarily concerns itself with being a sneaky killer more than a sneaky stealer.

This game is very difficult to review. If you are looking for a game that is a continuation to the original series then leave right now, but if you are looking for a fun stealth then this is a great recommendation. This is one of those games that has great gameplay but a bland story(like battlefield) except the story isn't bad. I would give more details but I believe showing the pros and cons would be easier.

Pros:
Beautiful Graphics
Great Gameplay
Great AI
Decent Voice Acting
Made by Square Enix

Cons:
Not really a thief franchise game
Boring story
Hardware Demanding
Got lost a couple times
Items are too cheap compared to how much money you get

Recommended Price: $9.99
Final Verdict: Thief players:5/10
Stealth players:8/10

I spent a couple of hours in Theif, playing through 3 missions. I picked this game up on a sale because I enjoyed the studio's previous game, Deus Ex, and despite reviews, I felt my like for stealth would put this game in my wheelhouse.

The stealth is disappointing, no real 'upper' or 'lower' paths to take make traversal uninteresting. It's all sneaking by guards on the ground level, and when they do see you the combat isn't fun.

Slide mechanic is like Dishonored's blink but less fun. Weapons aren't interesting. Environments do look good. Can't muscle through this one, even on sale.

Like stealth? Like a basic, noncomplex storyline? Like being able to have an open, uninterrupted world for each mission you play? Enjoy having a choice between being sneaky or brutal? Nonlethal, or lethal?

Buy Dishonored! That's right, Dishonored! Not this game, which has failed aspirations to be Dishonored. Compare the games, and you'll find this falls extremely short of the game it tried to take the fame from.

The story will leave you confused, the missions will find you unable to actually decipher where you're going, and the clunky mechanics will cause you to make countless errors that end up being fatal.

The best this game has to offer is a good title in the Stealth games series. Even then, it's beaten by Dishonored (again), or Deux Ex, for example. There's better games out there.

Still want to buy it? Wait for a sale, otherwise, you're buying this game for its snazzy graphics and recent publish date, not its quality.

A good sneaking game with great stealth mechanics is hard to come by these days.I have been a fan of the Thief series since the original game, Thief: The Dark Project by Looking Glass Studios came out in 1998. The games were great fun finding your own way to sneak into a building or residence, and taking the target loot from them. The Thief games have always made shadows your friend, and in many ways was a pioneer with lighting in games. Players use shadows to hide from the guards and hoping they don’t see you. The series for the most part has almost always been about stealth and not confrontation, and this is no different in Eidos Montreal’s take on the game.Players take the role of Garrett, a master thief, and he has been hired to steal the Primal Stone. Along the way we run into Erin, another thief, and discover that stealing the Primal Stone is a two person job. Once you reach the location of the stone, however, some bad things happen and Erin is presumed dead. During this mission players are given very easy to follow and understand tutorials, helping players to understand how the game mechanics work.Once the prologue mission is over, Garrett must make his way to the clock tower, and there the game truly begins.The world of Thief is a fully imagined fantasy world with a dash of industrial revolution. It’s a dark, very compact city making traversing the roofs fairly easy and fun, making you feel like an actual thief. Garrett’s handler, Basso, sends the master thief out to steal various objects around the city. At this point Garrett can make his way to the mission point in the city any way he wants or just break into a house to steal some trinkets — just make sure the watch isn’t around. Once Garrett reaches the starting point of a mission, there is a brief cut scene and then the mission starts.Garrett has many tools to use while sneaking around. Tools for making distractions, putting out light sources, stunning guards, etc. Aside from his hands, he can use items like his bow with water arrows to put out light sources from a distance, or rope arrows to help him climb. His blackjack is used to knock out guards, the claw is used to hook onto ledges and help pull him up out of range of guards. As items are taken during missions, they are automatically turned into gold, and then can be used to upgrade or buy new tools.Sneaking around during missions is extremely satisfying, especially when sneaking up on guards and relieving them of their wallets, keys, or whatever else they have in their possession. Players will feel very satisfied when successfully avoid particularly well placed guards by using all the tools in their arsenal. When guards think they see you an eye appears over their heads, the eye slowly fills up as long as you are in their field of view. Once it fills, the guard has seen you and he alerts other guards around him. Once guards are alerted, Garrett can run and try to hide, or fight the guards. Combat in Thief is extremely clumsy and difficult and for the most part if you engage in more than one target at a time, which makes it obvious that Garrett is a master thief not a master swordsman.One of the tools that Garrett has in his arsenal are empty bottles. They can be found in the environments and thrown to distract guards. But be careful, if you do it too many times in the same area, the guards will be alerted to your presence. A big complaint with this mechanic in the game is that more than once I have come across a couple of empty bottles that I could not take, and Garrett can only carry one bottle at a time.A nice touch within the game’s environment is the placement of notes and other objects that can be used to find loot. For example, early in the game players come across a note written by a voyeur detailing where a safe in a house is. Overhearing conversations can also reveal details on where valuables can be found in the city.This Thief review is based on the PC version of the game, so the issue may not be present in other versions, but there seems to be issues with the audio.When ducking out of the rain, such as breaking into a jeweler’s store to relieve them if their product, the noise of the rain gets dulled just like it should. The annoyance comes from if there is a window open there is no gradual increase in the sound of the rain the closer you get to the window. The sound of the rain is either there or not depending on how close to the window you are. Similarly, when eavesdropping outside a window, the conversation happening on the other side of the glass is heard clear as day, even across the street.When spotted, a tense music theme starts playing to create a sense of urgency to get out of sight and hide. However, the music can be a burden, also popping up while you are sneaking around keeping your ears open for guard’s footsteps. A stealth game like this should be quiet with no music unless spotted, as a thief’s ears are one of his best assets.Overall Thief is an enjoyable experience that deserves to be played and explored if you are a fan of stealth games.

Do you like quicktime events? How about stealing from blind people? Maybe you're a fan of inane dialogue and terrible voice acting! If so, this game is the game for you! If you don't though, do yourself a favor and pick up Dishonored when its on sale.

Thief is an Action/Adventure/Role-Playing/FPS (First Person Sneaker) game, set in a Victorian Gothic world but, with primitive electric lights and machinery typical of the early 20th century, as well as some unique and very imaginative devices. The characters are a blend of aristocracy, soldiers, commoners and beggers, some with British accents and, some who sound like they came from the streets of Brooklyn. The theme casts a hint of paranormal hope in a disease-ridden city of despair. The player is a thief named Garrett, who lost his female counterpart, Erin, in an accident which resulted in Garrett's near death. After his recovery, amnesia swallowed most of his memories of the past year. So begins his search to find out what happened to him and, to learn Erin's fate.

Much of the city hub is hidden in darkness. Dark alleys and dimly lit streets dominate Stonemarket. There are paths above ground level that take you past flats, through balconies and over rooftops, providing alternate routes across town. But, many of the ground-level streets and alleys shown on the game map may look like a clear path with no walls or doors but, they sometimes bring you to a dead-end. Trying to follow the map is confusing, until you get to know your way around town.

To get to the upper areas, you climb crates, walls, ladders or ropes but, only as the game permits. The game restricts where you can climb, e.g. you can climb one set of crates but not a nearby identicle set of crates. Most climbable spots are identified by a faint blueish-white glow, which is a big help, when in a hurry.

Thief is comprised of 8 main chapters that will each take from a half hour to as much as 2 hours, depending on how much exploring you do. Plus, there are 6 optional client jobs with specific items you must retrieve, and are somewhat smaller in scope than the main chapters. Additionally, there are 25 side jobs that usually involve only one or two rooms and also have a specific item that you're after.

The promise of a fully stealthy play style prompted me to try Thief. If you want the frontal assault gameplay of a good, old fashioned First-Person-Shooter game, Thief is not for you. The main character is not a skilled CQB fighter and will often lose in hand-to-hand combat.

To play exclusively with a stealthy approach will require a great deal of time and patience. However, a mixture of stealth, non-lethal takedowns and kills from a distance is common and a more fun way to play. Remaining undetected will often depend on how you move and where you hide. Swoop past a caged bird it becomes agitated by your sudden movement and will alert hostiles. Dogs have keen senses and will see you when you get too close and give away your presence by barking. Staying in the shadows and moving low and slow is your best practice for a stealthy approach.

There are a few DLC's that often come with Thief or, are available for a buck or two each. They are very much worth the small price. One is an added mission called, "The Bank Hiest". Not as large as a normal chapter but, introduces a new component to the challenge. Three others are "Ghost", "Opportunist" and "Predator". These provide scoring of the three different play styles you can choose from. You can play them exclusively or in any combination you like. You decide as you progress. There is no penalty for using one over another or, all three for that matter. At the end of a mission, the game statistics will show a rating of your play style.

- Ghost: Requires great patience. Your intent is to avoid any interaction with hostiles or the environment. Stealth is your primary concern. Remain undetected and don't alarm anyone.
- Opportunist: Interacting with or exploiting the environment, you try to remain undetected. Putting out flames or dousing candles, will help you get past hostiles unseen.
- Predator: Use any means necessary to acheive your goal, taking out whoever is in your way.

A fourth rating of Hybrid is given if, "You equally blended a range of traits from all three play styles."

Thief has three difficulty levels...Rogue, Thief and Master, in successive order of difficulty. There's also a Custom Settings menu that you can use to limit many of the features of the game, such as types of resourses, upgrades, HUD display features, abilities, tools, etc. These self-imposed restrictions can make the game especially challenging.

Scattered throughout the game are a few puzzles that are moderately challenging. However, I must confess, one of them was a little more so than I had patience for. I ended up looking to a walkthrough for the solution and still didn't understand the logic of it. All the rest, if you're paying attention to the story and reading the documents you fing along your way, will not be so hard.

I should warn you that, if you're trying to Ghost the game, you'll be challenged at almost every turn. Especially if you're trying to grab all loot and collectables that are available. Thief employs the usual scripted traps and...well...some cheap tricks as well. And, many tasks require very precise timing to accompish successfully. The devs have devised quite a repertoire of situations to foil your progress. Occasionally, the game sets you up for a fall. If you try to go slowly and, carefully watch for the hostiles and how they patrol, it will only postpone the inevitable. In those situations, logic, reason and patience is of little help. Basically, it's a game of surprises and a few seemingly impossible situations. As in many games, getting through each chapter is generally a matter of trial and error. So, until you learn the devs' tricks, frequent use of the Quick-save and Quick-load keys, is a necessity.

Then, we come to the Boss Fights. As for the first one, you have two choices. One; you can try to fight the Thief Taker General which will usually end in your demise, until you learn his patterns. (More trial and error.) Or, two; you can avoid confrontation entirely. All you have to do is open the exit door and escape. Well...of course it's not quite that simple.

The second Boss Fight is the last challenge of the game. But, it's not so much a fight as it is a matter of evasion. Not as difficult as the first one but, still not easy. Fortunately, those are the only two Boss Fights in the game.

As for the story...it's kinda weak and convoluted. I was never drawn into the plot as I have been in some games. During the early chapters, I felt it had good potential. Although, as I progressed, the plot began breaking down, changing and taking new directions. For me, it was a tremendous let-down.

Of course, what game is complete without bugs. And Thief has its fair share of them. Aside from a few technical problems of crashes and hangs that have been reported by a small percentage of players, there are some bugs during the gameplay that can be really annoying. e.g. there are a few times, when you've figured out a guards patrol pattern, you'll try something that doesn't work and will reload a Quick-save, only to find that the guard now stands still in a spot that prohibits your further progress, and never moves. When attempting to Ghost a chapter, this can be particularly frustrating, as you'll have little choice but to take action that causes a penalty. Either that, or start the chapter all over again from the beginning. Poor quality control.

In conclusion, I have to say, this was a fair attempt at a stealth type game but, they could have done much better. For me, Thief comes in only a little above average. It offers variety in gameplay but, while claiming to be an open world, is still rather linear and restrictive. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 7. It has pretty good graphics, a lot of atmosphere and a great deal of replay value. I think it just needed more time in developement and testing.

Garret, also known as The Master Thief, is getting well-known through the city. Story about supernatural power and Garret's friend's death is as bad as it sounds neither interesting or well elaborated. The other side is the gameplay, if you enjoy hiding in shadows and silently killing one by one this is game for you. There are few challenges, for example I played on normal difficulty, but i didnt need to use focus ability, also not to kill or knock out someone, disarming traps and I didnt even found a use in stealing stuff for money, and still I finished the game in 14 hours with spent 1/7 earned gold. Sometimes it was nerve-wracking, but I think if you accept the fate of predator, it won't be hard to finish the game even on master difficulty. Another thing, this is first game I wasn't desperadly after all collectibles, because there wasn't nothing more in it, except just the act itself. Eventhough I liked some parts, sneaking around in the middle of well guarded places.

Overall 6.5 /10

Not even half as good as the older games in teh franchise. Still enjoyable, because it is, but if you want the true Thief experience, hit up the original thief games.

Worst thief game. I've played them all, own them all.

Pros:
Great graphics, easy to find loot (shimmers), large cityscapes, darting between shadows, new items (screwdriver, wire-cutters, etc.), semi-non-linear maps, Good remake of Thief 3's Asylum, new inventory/arrow selection menu, a few good twists in the plot.

Cons:
Worst plot to date, loss of wall cling for hiding (closets are only hiding spots), rope arrows only work in suggessted spots, other arrows are weaker-usless, blackjack knockdown system is pointless, Nudity (a BIG Con for me),

Overall, I give it a 3/10

Horrible disgrace to the once amazing series called thief. First and formost, this game is a reboot of the series much like tomb raider. While both games were bought out by square enix and developed by the same team, the similarities end there. While tomb raider was a fantastic reboot honoring the legacy of tomb raider, thief decided to do a compete 180.

The mechanics felt sloppy and seemed that the game couldnt decided what it wanted to be. For instance throughout parts of the game there were the somewhat interesting climbing games from tomb raider which had some potential. However unlike tomb raider they were too short and too rare and really felt like filler. I almost felt like this game was a beta test for the much better tomb raider remake. Furthermore, Instead of relying on the old proven thief mechanics, some genius decided to try and rip off dishonored (rather poorly) and this can be clearly scene with the focus mechanics. While dishonored had relatively good ai and an excellent array of powers including the all too fun blink, thiefs focus abilities were rather linear with the stealth ability being broken. Being that the abilities were so boring or broken, there was little interest to upgrade. Dishonored on the other hand rewarded explorering with new runes ect .

Even safe cracking though a good concept got really old really quick as almost every sub heist mission was in the exact same cookie -cutter home/building and had the same old feel over and over again. Not that I needed the money as there really wasnt anything I needed to buy outside of the those damn shears which you could only buy around chapter 3 but were required in many sub missions to steal special art such as paintings.

Lets not even start on the AI. so stupid it's laughable. The worst gitch that I exploited was looking through the key hole right before an AI would open the door and instead of opening it, they kept on walking into the door indefinitely. I am not going to even get into the stupid idiots that tried to chase me while I was on a roof and they kept going in circles around the building even when I went back down,

Though by far the greatest travesty would have to be the story and the fail attempts at hijacking thiefs past legacy. without spoiling too much (what little there is to spoil) the story itself cant decide what it wants to be with various moments of garret lapsing to subconcious wtf moments that just make you want to uninstall this boring game and the ending being a overblown b rated mess at best as the dialogue was so bad. This game had two warring factions being the rioters and police much like the hammerites and pagans from thief 3. In thief 3, siding with a faction long enough they would offer you sanctuary and even fight on your behalf. sounds cool at right? makes you want to join a side and determine the fate of the city right? WRONG. the game doesnt allow you to make decisions like the past games did and even worse you never see or feel any of the violent conflicts between the factions. While in in thief 3 you would see back alley fights between factions, this new thief shows you some lame ♥♥♥ in game cutscene with a baddy and all the cops are replaced with rioters as enemies. why the rioters hate garret you are never told. COME ON! this is 2014 and you cant even have live action back alley fight or an explanation on why the rioters want to randomly kill you?

Oh and the game also tries to rip off the cradle from thief 3 in a very fail manner that makes me lose even more respect for this game. the monsters known as freaks seem scary at first but soon become laughable as any potential they may of had as something scary soon falls apart.

- final score 4/10 game is such a distorted mess that it wouldnt even be fun to play even at 10 dollars. only good things are the graphics and the bank heist mission.

As an original Thief series fan, I find it difficult to enjoy this new installment:

1. Opaque, over-used, slow-to-open, worse-than-loading-bar windows are the real plague.

2. None of that stop its texture pop-in, especially in zoomed view, it's high-res for sure but not seemless.

3. This is not the same Garrett, and arguably a less intriguing character.

Maybe Thief is trying to find new root in the Stealth genre (seems to be taking a lot of cue from Hitman, another SE product), but the little I played of it didn't seem promising.

First you'll cringe at Garrett's new voice. Then you'll wince at the new story. Then you blink, absorbing the visuals and trying to ignore the audio. Then you warm up to the game, starting to appreciate the reboot's new direction. Then you start to enjoy yourself, getting into the meat of the level designs and AI quirks. And then you facepalm, repeatedly, non-stop, forever, as the story erodes every last shred of goodwill, with cheese-bursting cutscenes about ghostly energy and Primals and megalomaniacal siblings unleashing cult members to change the world.

They could have scrapped the hub town, deleted the story, and just made ~10 large intricate sneaking levels, saving production money, and everything would have been fine, even without Garrett's old voice.

As a game, Thief is competent, even beautiful, and its apparent many people worked hard on it. Buy it on sale and get lost for a few weekends.

As a Thief branded game, its a disappointing mess, discarding old characters and methods for misguided AAA marketing ideas and can only be recommended for rubbernecking at the train wreck.

No Hammerites, no Pagans, no taffers. But plenty of expletive-laden spit-shined shlock.

Pro	Con
Gorgeous textures	horrible positional audio
Intricate level design	frustrating hub town
The simple pleasures of sneaky Thief gameplay	the convoluted abomination that is Thief's story
Garrett	The Thief-Taker General

“Thief” is so disappointing on so many levels.

Pros: Excellent visual aesthetic. Scenery looks phenomenal and the sense of dampness, filth, lighting, and props lend a lot toward immersion. Weaponry, though limited, is interesting. Sneaking around is quite fun.

Cons: Linear, closed world. Narrow, almost claustrophobic corridor for exploration. Climbing tools are made available and fun to use but you may only climb in certain areas related to the path you are forced to take in the game. No clambering up on random boxes, roofs or pipes even if they look identical to the ones you are allowed to climb on. The world is very static, with a limited amount of interaction. Most doors cannot be opened. There is one story and you have to follow it or quit the game. I knew the game wouldn't be as open as Skyrim but was expecting at least the level of freedom that was available in a game like Dishonored, or maybe even Assassin's Creed. The game is gorgeous to look at, but it feels pointless. Not what I expect a game to be like in this decade.

The game is called Thief, you play a thief... but stealing loot is merely incidental, whereas listening to conversations and looking through knotholes for clues that lead you through the story is far more important. At most the player is just a kleptomaniac. The game should be called “Voyeur”. The only sense of real accomplishment to be found is in not being seen – being a “Ghost”. There is no enjoyment in collecting riches because there is very little to purchase with your coin. As for loot, it's repetitive and placed is utterly illogical places. The city is in squalor, yet you can find a sterling brush just sitting on a crate next to a vagrant or a golden cup on a secluded rooftop. There are special items to be found but in the end it's all about how sneaky you are, not how much you were able to steal.

Finally, a word on violence. I like both non-violent and violent games, though I prefer the latter. This game provides many opportunities for violence and the overall violent atmosphere of the game actually provokes the player to act on it, yet he player is penalized for using violence, and ultimately for even being seen. It's like putting candy on the table and telling a kid not to eat it.

Summary: This game had enormous potential but pissed it away. You pay $50 to be teased and ultimately let down. Use your $50 to go on a date.

This game is good!

Have nice graphics, sound and i like the gameplay...
The story is poor! could be better though...

if you grab this game on steam sale yeah try it!