Thief (4) Review

A few weeks back I purchased a copy of Thief 4 confusingly titled "Thief" yet still a continuation of the series. At least the other games had individual titles that distinguished them from each other but I guess they couldn't think of one, "Thief - Conspiracies" or "Thief - Why so serious?" could have been contenders but I digress from the topic.

Thief 4 is a stealth game that requires the player to take on the persona of Garret a Thief (Spoiler) who lives in a fantasy city the name of which I can't remember hearing in the entire game. The story can be good at points but falls down in more places than one which was quite annoying to someone who is a fan of the series. At first the player starts out by trying to break into a mansion to steal something valuable, so I thought we were off to a good start. It turns out that the baron was in the middle of a support group session or an occult ritual whatever seems right to you and it goes wrong. From here the player is dropped into Dishonored, I mean a world filled with the plague, corrupt guards, corrupt officials... oh wait.

In all honesty however despite the obvious similarities to Dishonored Thief easily surpasses the stab everyone mentality Dishonored had. It even goes more in depth and shows the player what has become of the city that they have called home in previous titles. One level involved Garret having to steal from a body of a man who died from the plague which involves having to go to where the infected bodies are disposed of. There the player sees that the bodies are strung up from meat hooks and are examined before being burned in furnaces. The level while not exciting does give a small insight into how badly the city has been affected.

Where you will end up after listening to the Graven Dawn

The image above is from a level in the game where Garret has to infiltrate an abandoned asylum to discover what experiments took place there. This level was mostly devoid of enemies but is so atmospheric it can have a better effect on the player than other levels. It is not the promise of conflict but the threat of it that makes this level stand out for me, every second I thought some kind of creature or mechanized security bot was around the corner. It was more of an incentive to be stealthy than direct, you'd make sure the area ahead was clear before venturing on.

I also noticed among other things a few small shifts in the game world that I wasn't that fond of, one such change was the guards. In previous titles they were drunk lazy morons who didn't care much for their job and dragged themselves through it to just get to the next pint. It was because of this that they had dialogue that was somewhat entertaining as well as informative in terms of the game world. In this edition to guards weren't drunk and appeared to carry out their jobs with more dedication than the last lot, what happened did the members of the previous watch die of alcohol poisoning ?

As I went through the game I became somewhat used to the guards even though I missed the old ones. Then as the story progressed to the point of open revolution I found a group of people that made the guards look like saints. The "Graven Dawn", a resistance group that has emerged to fight the evil baron except these guys came off more evil. Even the dialogue was boring as well with every line being related to revolution and a better tomorrow, don't these people have other pursuits ? Personally I got the feeling that these were the type of people who would call for revolution after being over priced for a pint of ale.

If Batman and Green Arrow had a son...

Garret is the main protagonist of the game series but is quite a different person from the Garret that I remember. It used to be that Garret was a sarcastic fellow who every now and then would crack a smile or something close to one. He would never take what he is doing too seriously as he does it out of enjoyment and for a challenge. This Garret however is more of a Bruce Wayne figure as he always seems to be brooding in the shadows over everything that's happening. Occasionally the old Garret would return in his encounters with the Thief Taker General but these moments were few and far between. Not only that but he also plays a sort of father figure to one of the other characters in the game which does add to the story and isn't out of character but was rather under played in the game. There were things that the creators of the game could have included like back story, better dialogue and so on.

As linear games go this was one of the longest with the story lasting around seven to eight hours. Regardless however this isn't long in the era of the open world which is why there are so many side quests to choose from/ Instead to going from one chapter to the next the player can drift from quest to quest earning money with which to buy resources and upgrades. Not clear at first but upgrades play a big part in the way that the player progresses and not all can be unlocked through the income received in the campaign.

I want normal arrows not water arrows!

My last point is the control scheme that is used for the game which in my opinion had an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage was that the running and jumping were all added together in one button which made it easier to traverse the environment and escape from guards. The disadvantage however was that they tried using the PS4 touch pad as a means of interacting with the inventory which while creative was somewhat of a failure. When spotted by an enemy the option to run became more preferable than quickly disposing of the guard as the player would be selecting everything other than what he wants out of blind panic. 

Overall I think that most of the elements that are needed to make the game earn the title of Thief are present but far to many aren't.

7.5/10