I needed to rub my eyes and test I wasn’t dreaming when Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow was introduced throughout State of Play earlier this yr.
Thief is a collection that I maintain expensive to my coronary heart. The basic video games developed by Trying Glass Studios stay as in all probability the very best stealth video games of all time, delivering a kind of expertise in 1998 that plenty of trendy stealth video games nonetheless can’t actually appear to perform. Significantly, go play Thief: The Darkish Challenge, and when you recover from the dated visuals, I promise you’ll have a good time with it.
That may’t be a terrific begin to a overview if I’m already recommending you to go play one other sport that isn’t the one I’m reviewing, however there may be some essential context wanted right here—Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow isn’t a foul digital actuality sport, however I don’t assume it’s a terrific continuation of the collection.
Over 10 years after that quite botched reboot from Sq. Enix, I hoped that whoever was accountable for the subsequent Thief revival may need been in a position to take further care to pay respects to the unique video games whereas additionally with the ability to carve it as a worthy trendy reboot.
After enjoying by way of Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow, I’ve to say that this isn’t the revival long-time followers are hoping for, however that doesn’t imply it’s one thing we must always fully write off. That may be doing a disservice to what is on show right here.
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow places you within the function of Magpie, a younger orphaned thief who was raised on the streets of The Metropolis, performing numerous odd jobs simply to get by. When she comes throughout the mysterious Mechanical Eye of legendary thief Garrett (with Stephen Russell coming again to voice the character after 21 years), she’s thrown into a bigger conspiracy that looms over the metropolis.
I’ll say it: Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is an honest VR sport. What which means to me is permitting a sport to have intuitive movement controls, with extra emphasis on controls that imitate real-life motion with out feeling janky or relying an excessive amount of on button presses, together with good spatial sound design and a way of place to assist immerse me in that world.
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow does precisely that. Constructed from the ground-up as a VR title, the sport is clearly making an attempt to do its personal factor utilizing the Thief setting as set dressing. And whereas I closely dislike this technique contemplating the franchise hasn’t had an honest entry in a long time, I’ll say {that a} sport like this does work fairly effectively as a standalone VR title.
For starters, Thief’s premise isn’t a horrible thought for a digital actuality expertise. Sluggish motion, manipulating the atmosphere to hide your presence, and having full management over how one can disguise from enemies is a good match for VR. These are all points of the collection that really feel immersive whenever you’re all of the sudden utilizing movement controls and monitoring to symbolize them.
And Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow does that actually effectively. You bodily pull open drawers to look them, use each your palms to lockpick doorways, and need to slowly and silently pickpocket guards with out them noticing. I like how effectively these mechanics work in VR in comparison with merely urgent a button in your controller, and it makes you are feeling a lot like a badass thief in the identical method the unique video games did.
And I completely love utilizing a few of these mechanics. Utilizing the bow, the place you might want to bodily nock your arrow and draw the bowstring again, can really feel actually satisfying when attacking from the shadows. With restricted ammo, you might want to make each shot depend, and ranges really feel designed round avoiding enemies quite than taking all of them head-on.
I’m in two minds in regards to the openness of Thief VR’s ranges, although. The primary few missions are quite linear, the place for probably the most half you’re on a set path with little or no selection in the way you need to proceed. Every stage is rigidly structured to maintain you on this path, and also you don’t actually get an opportunity to discover. To me, Thief is all about scouting out a location, discovering hidden passageways or areas, and tackling an goal in a number of methods.
This adjustments about midway by way of the sport, and also you’re given just a little bit extra freedom on find out how to transfer round every stage. You begin getting missions the place you may have a number of methods of getting into and exiting, and are introduced with totally different alternatives to take care of guards. In the event you’re delay by the linearity of the sooner missions, a few of the later ones could fulfill your want for extra different stage design.
It’s not good, after all. The degrees nonetheless really feel quite missing when it comes to depth, they usually do function some unlucky carryovers from the 2014 reboot, like solely permitting rope arrows to be hooked up to mounted picket beams, or guard AI being quite wonky (why do they reset to their default positions, even after being alerted?).
The sport is a VR expertise at the start, designed for shorter classes by maintaining you on observe, and I wasn’t anticipating it to have the identical depth that the unique Trying Glass Studios titles supplied. However even with it being constructed for VR, I can’t assist however really feel just like the complexity of Thief as a collection is one thing that will nonetheless translate fairly effectively to digital actuality.
I imply, please let me try to break the degrees, let me pull methods on the AI, let me discover quite a few methods to take advantage of the sport’s methods in fascinating and surprising methods. Placing the novelty of VR apart, there’s nonetheless a relative simplicity to it that appears like untapped potential, and there isn’t actually as a lot complexity to Thief VR’s ranges as followers could count on.
So, maybe Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow isn’t the triumphant return the collection wanted, even when the sport itself is considerably high-quality. In essence, digital actuality followers could take pleasure in it, whereas long-time followers hoping for a comeback within the vein of the unique collection could also be disillusioned. I hope whoever at Eidos is accountable for the Thief model doesn’t shelve it for an additional decade, as a result of I’m nonetheless holding out hope that the franchise could have an honest revival worthy of the Trying Glass Studios titles.
Professionals: intuitive VR controls, glorious mechanics, immersive sound design
Cons: downplayed immersive sim components, lacklustre enemy AI
For followers of: Hitman VR, Espire 2, Murderer’s Creed Nexus VR
Rating: 7/10
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is out there to play on PlayStation VR2 (model examined), Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and SteamVR. A overview code was supplied by the writer. Learn a information to our overview scores right here.
