nnovation is everything. It’s a sad fact, yet something that this industry is madly obsessed with. Developers strive to achieve it, consumers demand it, and if you don’t have it at the end of the day, you’re dead in the water and bound to hit bargain bins in a matter of weeks. Over the last few years, the stealth genre in particular has exploded, and with each new release that hits the market, innovation is the driving force. Although the Thief series has had a large hand in the modernization of stealth games and is considered one of its pioneers, name recognition will only bring it so far. It has a huge hill to climb to make another significant impact in this rapidly growing genre.
With Ion Storm replacing Looking Glass Studios at the development helm, I found myself wary that Ion wouldn’t understand the vision of the series, yet at the same time exuberant in the expectation that it could breathe new life into this highly renowned franchise. As it turns out, both angles of my prediction hit the nail directly on the head. Ion Storm’s involvement can best be viewed as a double-edged sword. In such, this game can best be summed up as both slick and slight.
First the good: This is a stunningly gorgeous game that will often have you staring at the screen in disbelief. The realism of texturing, extensive use of shadow casting, incredible character model details, and beautiful lighting effects paint a masterpiece of a picture that has a look and feel all its own. On the gameplay front, Ion is definitely well versed with the tools of the trade for stealth titles. Throughout every second of play, you’ll find yourself ducking in and out of shadows, trailing enemies on patrol, and using the environment to your advantage – whether it be firing a water arrow at a chandelier to douse the lit candles or ducking behind furniture to avoid detection. The game also takes a tip from the Splinter Cell series with a nifty rumble/sound-based lock picking technique. Later in the game, you will obtain climbing gloves that let you scale walls and get a jump on your attackers.
Now the bad: While it achieves a staggering level of brilliance on many levels, it also hits new lows in other areas. For instance, the intelligence of your adversaries is so pathetic that it’s often laughable to the point of drawing comparisons to the Three Stooges. In one such sequence, I had an enemy chasing me in circles around a pillar in the center of a room. After five or six laps, the enemy still hadn’t caught on to what I was doing and eventually became fatigued. After catching his breath, he forgot that he was chasing me. I just walked up behind him and impaled the guy with my dagger. The same goes for hiding behind boxes. The enemy will eventually lose any thought that he or she really wanted to slit your throat. Stealth kills are also poorly expressed and often deliver the sensation that you simply tapped your foe on the shoulder. As if it could get worse, bow targeting is wildly unpredictable.
Despite sensationally attractive visuals and familiar gameplay techniques that have worked for other games, Thief doesn’t have the innovation or sound mechanics that gamers demand and can easily get from titles like Splinter Cell. It’s a decent play, but it didn’t steal my heart the way that I had hoped.