Thief

The Good
There are a lot of variable and detailed difficulty settings. I wish more games would offer that.

The Bad
- The level design is a joke. Did you think the levels in Thief: Deadly Shadows were small? You will be surprised. The best you'll get here are four small rooms at a time until the next chokepoint. And of course there is no free movement so we don't miss the next awesome cutscene.

• I don't think I have ever encountered worse writing in a video game. Early in the game there is a cock ring conversation, but this is only the top of the iceberg. Every conversation is bad. I would bet money that this unsympathetic girl from the prologue turns out to be the predictable main villain. Garrett is no longer the man we love, a thief who only steals to survive and gets drawn in problems too big to chew - now he is a wannabe-Batman who lives in a clocktower, does not sell his loot and spouts out idiotic one-liners.

• As you may remember, one of the best thing of the Thief series was the magnificent sound design. Well, say goodbye to that, here you get a non-functional turd. A few minutes before I quit I solved a (bad) puzzle while hearing the following: "SLAP ME HARD! OOOOH! YOU ARE THE BEST (one second pause) SLAP ME HARD! OOOOH! YOU ARE THE BEST (one second pause) (repeat indefinitely)." Sound plays practically no part in stealth anymore; you can drop down directly behind a guard without him noticing. With the exception of broken glass, the flooring makes no difference.

• The stealth mechanics are broken. In the old games, being in pitch black meant that guards won't notice Garrett unless they directly walk into him. Now guards can randomly see Garrett in the dark. The old mechanics were probably not "realistic", but they were predictable. Now it is trial & error.

• It is nice that you can disable focus and other indicators, but this does not help much. The game was obviously designed with the assumption that the player has everything turned on. By the way, I did not mind the loot glow in Deadly Shadows, but here it is ridiculous.

• The city hub is awful. It is completely nonsensical and especially the lack of free jumping makes it a chore to navigate. For most side missions, the challenge is not to steal stuff, but to reach the window. Loading screens are frequent and mostly require the player to hammer the use-key.

• The game rips off Dishonored at every opportunity. For example, they copy the blink mechanic and there is an exact copy of the Granny Rags character. I love Dishonored, but both series have very distinct differences. Thi4f slaps together too many elements from both which results in a mess.
  
  The Bottom Line
  Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of the original Thief trilogy and played Thi4f shortly after release. I only made it until chapter three (about 14 hours of playtime), then I could not take it anymore. I heard the game becomes even worse later and even features a bad Shalebridge Cradle knockoff level. Fortunately I missed that one.

The fact that I feel the need to write my first MobyGames review after almost six years should tell you something. I have to admit a big part of my hate is because I am a disappointed fanboy, but Thi4f is not only a bad Thief game - it is a failure on every level. Do yourself a favor, pretend Thi4f does not exist and (re-)play the original Thief trilogy and the Dishonored series instead.