Reboots are tricky beasts, for every genius, innovative and inspired reimagining of a franchise , there are a hundred stayed, broken or just plan dull remakes that are just there to cash in on the originals success.To put it another way, for every Tomb raider there is a Turrok.
Let’s start with a few of the stinkers before we look at the nuggets of gold in this steaming manure pile. Thief, I love the thief franchise. From “the dark project” and “The metal age” all the way through to “deadly shadows”, Thief has created a rich and complex steam punk universe that was as beautiful as it was dangerous, it had a rich lore and amazing arty cut scenes that gave it a feeling all its own, and what did the 2012 reboot do? They through the whole lot in bin, and ruined one of the most interesting characters in gaming!!
Don’t get me wrong, the city local remains as dark and gothic as ever; it’s just that it is now reduced to small and cramped boxed off areas that look like streets but offer nothing in the way of the hustle and bustle of a large middle ages metropolis- they are empty and with the exception of 3 or four wandering guards there’s not a soul out in the night.
The on-going plot of Garret’s relationship with the brotherhood of watchers who raised and trained him and his destiny to save the city has been replaced; he now has a generic by the numbers raised on the streets and school of hard knocks origin that is as dull and uninspired as the conspiracy he finds himself tangled up in.
The other people in the world are flat and uninteresting- there is his unwanted partner/pupil who, apart from the odd hint in dialog at trouble in the past between them has no back story at all.
The main antagonist the baron of the city barley says a word in the entire game and apart from a plot to get several bits of primal stone together to get more power- has so little back ground that its hardly worth caring. Couple this with a leading screen that sees the main character pushing his way between the same boxes time and time again no matter his location and you get a rush game with an incoherent plot and a messy presentation This game was released at the same time as Dishonoured, a game that does all the same tricks just better, larger and with so much more style, that thief just gets lost in the dark.
hub42 