Thief (The "Reboot")
My Verdict:
Ok I'm going use the 1 to 10 star system on this game because its the only way to help folks understand what I'm trying to show, both as a lover of sneak-em-up and RPGs which Thief dark age, metal age and deadly shadows were classed as RPG-Sneaker-em-ups So to try to be fair to this game because its all I can do for it, is to split into a double review seen from two angles. To start with this should have been Thief 4 something that should have taken place after deadly shadows, however Eidos pulled the team part way into the development of this game for Deus Ex and then had to do a MASSIVE call out for a Dev team to pick up where they were forced to leave off on Thief (THAT was the BIGIST MISTAKE EVER) because that New team didn't understand the game they had been asked to take on and instead of continuing with this Thief ended up suffering one of those god awful "reboots" where they take everything that makes Thief franchise throw it all away and then make some random half assed game and stamp the Thief franchise name on it and think we wont notice or treat us like we are stupid. So to TRY to give this game a fair review I am braking it into two.
I posted a kinder tamer version of this on the Thief FB, got their mods basically blackmailing me that if I didn't change my big review of it to show the game in a pure positive light they'd ban me and delete my post. I said I will not lie and took the ban over Lying to other gamers. it was the same on many review pages that seem to have been paid off regarding this game as well and even on steam where they would Troll you, it was utterly disgusting, trying to blag a AAA game like Thief, but if the fans spoke up they abused you when all you wanted was for them to fix it or explain why they messed up SO BADLY!
As a random game: now if I take Everything Thief out of it and look at it as a whole other game and pretended its some game not linked to a franchise I have grown to love over years of gaming, I'd give it a 3 out of 10 This is due more to how the game plays its self. There is a huge number of glitches, the AI isn't even an AI and makes the stuff we had in the 80s and 90s look like state of the art now. There are a number of Improvements and fixes the game still yet needs, and they did promise to fix those issues, but only ended up making WROSE. The swoop ability, where you dash a few feet ahead almost invisibly, makes Garrett feel something like a badass ninja, Sadly one of the too few good things about game, It comes in extremely handy for crossing gaps in the shadows where guards would easily spot you, and more handy for quickly backpedalling out of danger when you nearly bump into an enemy, But most of the other movements feel clumsy, Stiff, Clunky and inconsistent. Cinematic are possibly the worst I have seen in some time, they speak without lip movement, and then the movement and actions happens some time later, the syncing of the whole thing is off, this is what’s lowering its score for me.
As a Thief franchise Game: I can only give it 1 out of 10 and even that I feel is too high. As a Thief game the game FAILS, The Devs set a high standard for themselves and they fell flat on their face because they didn't bother to go and learn what the game was about, If you are a true Thief old school fan you will be deeply disappointed, you will be annoyed at what they have done to it, you'll HATE the feel of it, and you'll want to know why they even put the name Thief on this game.
Most of movements feel clumsy, awkward, and inconsistent. For example, if the level designers didn’t specifically say “Yes, you can climb this,” then you can’t climb it, even if it looks like you should be able to. So the freedom of movement we would expect in a Thief game is gone, even jumping down off a ledge or a rope is a nuisance. Sometimes you can just walk off the edge and die even on the smallest of drops, other times you have to push a button to drop, and others you can’t drop down at all. then there's places where in other Thief games you would have climbed up to stay out of the way of an enemy, or get a vantage point to work out a sneaky way past an enemy or even a higher up out of the way path past an area. That has all gone and replaced by some over flashy cosmetic rubbish that barely works. you can finish the game in about 8 to 9 hours or LESS (not counting time spent restarting the game after a crash, or waiting forever on load screens or something to happen). Deadly shadows which I'm still play from time to time well at my current play though I'm not even done with the hammers and pagan quest yet, I've only just done jacknels Paw and still have to go get the cup from the hammers, and OH I've already played on it 42 hours! and I'm still at the start of the game, and deadly shadows was seen as one of the worst Thief games until this lump of junk they call thief came out!
For some reason they decided not to just TROLL the existing fan base and slap you in the face at just about every turn on this game. Apparently now Garrett is an opium addict, the Thief games NEVER used drugs or promoted the use of such drugs, but This one pushes it in your face, shoves it down your throat and forces you to swallow it! its just awful!
The beloved 3 factions from the Thief franchise are now missing apparently "banned and had hands removed" so the Keepers, Hammerites and pagans are no more. After deadly shadows the ONLY faction that should have been having issues would have been the keepers, because the Hammers and Pagans were doing JUST fine and were set to take over and would NOT have bowed down to any hare-brained law from anyone outside of their factions, those two factions had been at war long before the events of Thief the dark age, so some "city head" or "non believer" would NOT have phased them one tiny bit. Instead we are presented at the end of the game with the remains of the OLD keeper library where we go to fight Erin who has taken to much "primal energy" (Because the new Devs don't understand what the Glyphs in thief are!) and is basically set to become the next Victoria (a Wood nymph who was one of the leaders the pagan faction and Garrett had a soft spot for) the story just gets more and more illogical the more you get into the game. They take Old enemies that we KNOW died in the first 2 games and twist them into messed up people (to continue the slapping you in the face while trolling you theme) it's just keeps condemning its self more and more all because the "new devs" were to DAMN lazy to do a little bit of reading or watching or a quick play of the old games to learn and understand the franchise they were not messing with.
Stephen Russell is NOT the voice of Garrett because they claimed he was too old for using a technique called full performance capture to make the game, which apparently requires the voice actors to do all their own stunts. (Yes the same system Ubisoft use for Assassins Creed use and their voice actors don't have to do stunts they record stunt guys for that!) In this so called game I did not see anything a random man strapped down in a hospital bed could not do while half asleep! instead we got some guy named Romano Orzari who sounds like a teenager whose voice has just started to brake while trying to make Garrett sound like "the god father". The whole game just feels WRONG! So as one Thief fan to another. I'm telling you to do yourself a huge favour, save your money for a decent game and Do not bother with this game. I have now uninstalled Thief "Reloaded" sadly I've played it to long to get my money back.
Just so you can see for yourself that I am NOT alone in how I feel about this! Here are 2 reviews from two totally un-related to us or each other reviewers.
Thief : FAIL (RANT) By Gopher https://youtu.be/0PZbrYVlzzk
THIEF 4 Insults Classic Thief Fans *Contains Spoilers* By Homdray
https://youtu.be/v7e91zzb1M0
