14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Thief series laid the groundwork for first-person stealth titles back in the early 2000s but, ever since 2004's Deadly Shadows, Master Thief Garrett has been sorely missing, allowing other series to take the lead in terms of stealth.
Now, after quite a lengthy development cycle, Eidos Montreal has returned with Thief, a reboot of the series with a new version of Garrett and his native City, as well as with plenty of fresh adventures for the sticky-fingered protagonist.
Promising a high degree of customization in terms of the interface and the actual mechanics, not to mention missions that can be completed in many different ways, the new Thief is looking like a great comeback for the series.
Does it deliver on these promises or should Garrett just stick to the shadows? Let's find out.
Story
Quite a heated debate appeared when it was revealed that the game reboots the whole series and introduces a slightly darker version of protagonist Garrett. After going through the game, however, it's safe to say that Garrett may look a bit more brooding but his trademark dry wit, his clever riffs on society and morality, and his principles about thieving in general are very much intact.
Thief starts with Garrett exploring his native City on a job but, after a series of mysterious events, he wakes up one year later as he's been brought back to the City, which is now plagued by a disease called the Gloom and is ruled with an iron fist by the Baron, the Thief-Take General, and their aggressive guards.
Garrett must uncover what happened to him before, all the while stealing all sorts of things and hopefully shedding light on the mysterious Gloom that's killing most of the City's inhabitants.
The core plot is quite interesting and Garrett shines as an anti-hero. Full of dry wit and clever observations, he certainly comes across as the straight man in a twisted world, and players will be able to shape his behavior through their play style.
Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, Thief keeps the core first-person mechanics, only jumping into third-person during ledge climbing sequences, where you need to see what's around Garrett. Besides those moments, however, you are in the shoes of the Master Thief, guiding him in his new journey.
As always, you can steal all sorts of things from many different places. You can also lockpick certain safes, display cases, or lockboxes in order to get even better loot. Pickpocketing is also possible, although you need to be wary of your surroundings.
One element that's not so well done, however, is when you have to deal with the special lockboxes used by certain characters in the story, like the Thief-Take General. Their puzzles are a bit annoying, and solving them mostly involves trial and error until you find the right combinations.
Besides his hands, Garrett can use a variety of weapons, including his trademark blackjack club, but also a special bow that can be outfitted with a wide array of arrows, from regular broadhead, to water or fire-based ones. The system through which Garrett chooses his arrows or throwable items, however, takes some time to get used to and can prove a bit tricky, especially when engaged in heated battles.
Garrett is a thief, not a fighter, but he can still brawl with the best of them, if the situation calls for it. You can take down opponents from behind but also beat them with the blackjack until they fall down, and then perform a stylish execution. All situations, however, can be solved in a non-violent way and even through one that ensures no interaction whatsoever with your opponents, thereby gaining the "Ghost" rating at the end of a mission.
Enemies are pretty smart and observant in the game. Depending on their degree of alert, they'll also vary their patrol patterns in order to take into account other factors. Pay special attention to creatures like birds or dogs in cages, as they can easily detect Garrett if he makes noise or is in their line of sight, respectively.
Upgrading your abilities is also a crucial aspect of the game, as you can opt to improve your tools, use trinkets, or augment the all-new Focus mode that allows Garrett to spot different helpful things in his vicinity.
Bear in mind, however, that the game has an absurd amount of customization options when it comes to the actual mechanics or its heads-up display. As such, you can turn on or off things like navigational clues or the Focus mode, or allow only stealth takedowns and other such things. Hardcore players can choose from three difficulty modes, and they can also enable special options, including an Ironman mode with just one life.
After completing the single-player story campaign you can engage in a special Challenge mode that offers experiences like Chain & Gain, which tasks you with constantly stealing objects, or Special Loot Hunt, which uses a "Hot and Cold" method to point you in the direction of a valuable object.
While the game certainly offers something for everyone, it has a few problems when it comes to the platforming, as Garrett might not always go where you want him to and can easily drop from ledges despite the fact that you were going in the right direction. Enemies can also behave a bit erratically sometimes and sound glitches with their voices happen pretty often.
Visuals and Sound
Thief is a great-looking title on the Xbox One, taking advantage of the extra power in Microsoft's new console to render some pretty great-looking visuals. There are some cases of pop-in textures, not to mention a few character models that don't look so great when zoomed in on. Even so, the game looks quite good for a title that's rendered natively at 900p and is upscaled to 1080p. The framerate is locked at 30fps but it doesn't hamper regular gameplay.
In terms of sound, Thief's soundtrack is rather good, but sometimes the volume fluctuates a bit, pulling you out of the experience. As always, there's a huge amount of dialog that gets passed between non-playable characters like City citizens or guards, some filled with information about the actual area, while other encounters are just hilarious. Voice acting is pretty neat, with Romano Orzari pulling off a cynical Garrett.
Conclusion
Thief is a great return for the classic series. Thanks to its open-ended missions and the big amount of customization options, not to mention the great visuals, it can delight fans old and new alike. While it has a few problems with platforming and some erratic enemy AI, it still manages to deliver a memorable stealth experience.
