I look at this game from 25 quintrillion years ago and think why can't stealth games have this awesome level design anymore? seriously. As much as I love MGSV's mechanics and openness to different approaches, all the infiltrate-able bases are little camps like Kojima did the modern artist thing of getting a canvas and just flicking random colors onto there, but instead of paint, it's little tents where enemies stand. Thief, in comparison, is like a collaboration between Leonardo da Vinci and the guy who drew the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. Rooms, corridors, tunnels, and it's not just so you can navigate it. There's verticality that you can scale with the rope arrow, or torches you can douse with water arrows. The best part is the variety of the areas themselves. Not just castles and mansions, but tombs that are better than any modern tomb raider, jails that you have to break a buddy out of, a house specifically designed to make you go insane, everything. And it's all pure awesome.

Would honestly have been 5 maybe if not for some specific levels being bad—thieves guild. Yeah, I took a full star off for thieves guild. Worst level ever. I don't even want to get into it because this level feels like it was lifted out of another game it's so uncharacteristically bad. If I was a thief and I had a guild, I would not make my guild's base hidden under a casino that is under a password-protected restaurant, connected by sewer tunnels just to hide an ugly stupid vase. But seriously if you even have a passing interest in the concept of video games you have to play this.

Reviewed on May 30, 2022


3 Comments


1 year ago

We might never get another stealth game on the same level but at least there will always be an infinite amount of fan levels to play through.

1 year ago

yup gonna try a lot of the fan made levels once I finish thief 2

8 months ago

A bunch of people painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.