{"id":93499,"date":"2019-05-14T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/switch-eshop\/thief_simulator"},"modified":"2019-05-14T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T11:00:00","slug":"review-thief-simulator-a-brief-robbery-of-your-spare-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/14\/review-thief-simulator-a-brief-robbery-of-your-spare-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Thief Simulator &#8211; A Brief Robbery Of Your Spare Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a2686a1d69761\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/a2686a1d69761\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div id>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96398\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96398\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 1 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>As illegal as it is in real-life, there\u2019s something oddly satisfying about larceny in the digital world. From countless questlines for the Thieves Guild in <strong>The Elder Scrolls<\/strong> to the procedural heists of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/swindle\"><strong>The Swindle<\/strong><\/a>, few things get your blood pumping in equal parts fear and elation quite like scoping a joint, filling your swag bag and legging it before the fuzz turn up. So when a game as cryptically titled as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/thief_simulator\"><strong>Thief Simulator<\/strong><\/a> sneaks its way onto Switch, it\u2019s already in a good position to steal our attention (and our wallets) from the get go.<\/p>\n<p>A few \u2018missions\u2019 in, and it soon becomes clear that Thief Simulator does exactly what it says on the tin. There\u2019s no deep storyline full of double-crosses and elaborate heists, so don\u2019t expect the kind of narrative tour de force you get with the <strong>Uncharted<\/strong> games. There aren\u2019t huge open-worlds to a steal en masse in the vein of the <strong>Grand Theft Auto<\/strong> series, either. What you <em>do<\/em> get is a handful of neighbourhoods full of unsuspecting citizens and their precious valuables. You\u2019re playing a character literally called The Thief, so you shouldn\u2019t be expecting anything other than straight five-finger discounts.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96439\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96439\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 2 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>In practice, Thief Simulator works like a cross between the <strong>Thief<\/strong> games (the good ones on PC, not that godawful reboot from 2014) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/payday_2\"><strong>Payday 2<\/strong><\/a>. A sandbox sim is spent entirely in first-person, you\u2019re slowly introduced to the easy-to-learn mechanics at play and how best to use them. You\u2019ll start by using a crowbar to crudely smash a window and steal some kettles and saucepans. But later you\u2019ll learn to pick a simple lock so you can gain access to a property without making so much noise. Not so long after you\u2019re learning how to scope out a house, tagging the occupants to learn their routines and how to get away with more cumbersome items.<\/p>\n<p>Thief Simulator has a lot of little systems running alongside one another, but it does a brilliant job of slowly introducing them to you at a pace that shows you just how many options you truly have. Pulling off simple jobs earns you XP, which in turn enables you to purchase better skills. It\u2019s here you\u2019ll learn how to pick tougher locks or identify items of interest faster. When you\u2019re out on a job and you reach a climbable fence you can\u2019t clamber over \u2013 because your agility isn\u2019t high enough \u2013 you\u2019ll know where to focus your skills next time you reach a new level. Stealing items and selling them at the local pawn shop will gain you cash, while more specific items can be sold off on a black market marketplace on the PC back at your garage HQ.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96396\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96396\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 3 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Occupants you\u2019ve tagged will appear with white silhouettes, so you can track their movements when you\u2019re nearby, which makes for some tense moments as you\u2019re slowly opening drawers and cupboards in search of jewellery or cash. That same sense of intense fear comes into play when you accidentally trip an alarm system by smashing a window on a more expensive property, or walk out into a street and get spotted carrying a stolen TV. Now you\u2019re driving away to outrun the cops or hiding in a nearby dumpster while the rozzers try and find you.<\/p>\n<p>This is where Thief Simulator starts to trip itself up. Because when you\u2019re slowly building up the details of a target location \u2013 building up a set of notes on routines and potential valuable locations before taking the risk to break in during the day or in the dead of night when they\u2019re asleep \u2013 the game comes together like an illegal dream. But when you have to jump into a car and actually \u2018get away\u2019, you realise you might as well be driving a wet cardboard box. Even the cars in the <strong>Far Cry<\/strong> games drive better, and they have <em>terrible<\/em> driving models. It basically renders escaping utterly pointless, so you\u2019ll always have to hide when things go awry.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96438\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96438\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 4 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>There\u2019s plenty of ways to enhance your jobs, including missions given to you by a cringe-worthy contact over the phone (complete with a knock-off New York accent) and intel you can buy on a certain location. These tips are expensive, but knowing a particular property has a high-tech security system or that there\u2019s a key to the front door hidden outside can completely change the outcome of a thieving run. You can buy new gear as you level up and earn more cash \u2013 including mini cameras that can fit into mailboxes for some handy surveillance or cutters than remove planes of glass in a window \u2013 and some of those later skills effectively turn you into a silent god of theft.<\/p>\n<p>The AI at play in Thief Simulator isn\u2019t brilliant, which can make them both easy to avoid if you\u2019re hidden in enough shadow, but also difficult to predict when a pedestrian just seemingly appears out of nowhere at the most inopportune time. It\u2019s also odd that you can hit the same handful of properties in a row, but there\u2019s no repercussions. If a house with plenty of valuables suddenly had bars on the window after you smashed one the night before, or had a dog patrolling at night because you entered the property during nightfall, you\u2019d have to adjust your tactics for the promise of even better loot. Such systemic elements aren\u2019t here, but the art of theft is still an addictive one.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture embed\"><a title=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96395\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/screenshots\/96395\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Thief Simulator Review - Screenshot 5 of 5\"><\/a><\/aside>\n<p>As a short term experience, Thief Simulator is a lot of fun. But once you spend more than a few hours, you begin to find yourself repeating the same missions over again. With certain story quests locked behind certain character levels, you\u2019re forced to hit the same set of houses over and over again. That initial thrill does briefly reappear every time you acquire a new skill or level up high enough to earn the ability to drill locks or hack security systems, but the grind becomes a little too much at times.<\/p>\n<p>As a port, Thief Simulator is a decent effort on Switch. Despite the basic character, car and location designs, there are some moments of slowdown and pop-in becomes a fairly regular occurrence. It should be said that this is a game that doesn\u2019t look amazing on PC either (something the developer intended in order to focus entirely on the craft of its gameplay), so this shouldn\u2019t be mistaken as being entirely the product of poor optimisation for Switch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"conclusion\">\n<h2 class=\"heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re tired of Payday 2\u2019s often loud and at-large robbery antics \u2013 and you\u2019d like to take a detour into the more quiet vocation of thievery \u2013 Thief Simulator has the new career for you. While it\u2019s not the prettiest of games and it soon starts repeating itself, the sense of freedom you\u2019re given to rob neighbourhoods full of unsuspecting victims is still an intriguing one. He might not be Garrett, but The Thief has plenty of skills to steal a place on Nintendo Switch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As illegal as it is in real-life, there\u2019s something oddly satisfying about larceny in the digital world. From countless questlines for the Thieves Guild in The Elder Scrolls to the procedural heists of The Swindle, few things get your blood pumping in equal parts fear and elation quite like scoping a joint, filling your swag [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}