When it comes to narrative, this game has a Lovecraft feel to it. It’s a dark and dreary world that is ruined if anyone dares speak. The majority of monologue is dry and flat, and mostly wasted since the character development and plot are almost nonexistent. When Garrett speaks it’s like listening to the wise older man in a B movie with terrible writing. There is an option to turn off Garrett’s speech, and I highly recommend doing this if you want a better experience. Otherwise the guy babbles on nonstop, and none of it is worth hearing.
You expect the game’s storyline to ramp up as you go along, but alas, that never happens. You start the game off buy stealing stuff, and that’s all the game is about. There is fun to be had in swiping things off people’s belts and out of their houses whilst they slumber, but it’s very repetitive in Thief. It lives up to the title, and nothing more.
The graphics are another matter. You notice quickly that the fog of the city is incredibly realistic. The lighting system in the game plays a direct part in gameplay. Getting caught in the light is a big no-no for Garrett, and he does a fantastic job of finding ways to avoid light from torches and lamps. Thief feels like a historical/fantasy retelling of Metal Gear, except that you do nothing good for the world and only want to steal stuff. But I’m okay with that.
When it comes to gameplay, Eidos took liberties with the controls like most game makers do. Rather than being able to jump in place, you can only jump while running. The world is set up to comply with Garrett’s style of moving from place to place, which usually consists of short running bursts, then jumping over stuff and climbing up onto ledges. Watch any advanced parkour video online and you’ll see what I mean.
Like I said before, the point of the game is to steal stuff. Garrett doesn’t like to kill anyone if he can avoid it, so the majority of arrows that you come across for your bow are made to douse torches (like the water arrows), or to get to higher places (like a rope arrow). I think they could have done a much better job of naming these things.
