Perhaps I’m showing my age, but I maintain that the late ‘90s and early ‘00s marked the creative height of PC gaming. Half-Life, Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Fallout – the era gave birth to some of the greatest shooters and RPGs of all time. Thief and its two sequels are arguably the greatest works of this period. Stylish, challenging, and early pioneers for a type of environmental storytelling that dominates games to this day, the influence of Looking Glass and Ion Storm’s Thief trilogy is hard to overstate. And now, spiritually at least, it’s making a return. From PC legends Warren Spector, Greg LoPiccolo, and Paul Neurath, whose collective credits include Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima, and of course Thief itself, this is a new stealth heist game built on the shoulders of Garrett. Welcome to Thick As Thieves.
Created by Otherside Entertainment, a new studio founded by Spector and Neurath, Thick As Thieves is a stealth, heist, and multiplayer game just revealed at The Game Awards. It’s the early 1910s and you’re a sneaky, sly ne’er-do-well trying to eke a living on the streets of a burgeoning steampunk metropolis. Technology and magic are at war. While the poor starve and die, the rich live in disgusting opulence.
Your goal is to track down, break into, and pick clean the most sumptuous stately homes and bloated bank vaults. Stay in the shadows, outfox the guards, and eavesdrop on gossip to find your next heist. Once you’ve got a target lined up, you can go in tactically and quiet, or wade straight in and play it loud. As well as Deus Ex and Thief, Dishonored, Payday, and Assassin’s Creed also feel like influences here.
The world is emergent and variable – the city changes over time, and random elements make each mission feel unpredictable and different. Similarly, as well as sentries and soldiers, you need to be watchful for other players, who might be vying for the same plunder, and could be waiting in ambush once you successfully make your escape. Boasting an alternate-history setting and a supremely convincing developer pedigree, Thick As Thieves is currently slated for 2026.
While we wait for launch to arrive, you might want to try some of the best stealth games, or, if you’re suddenly nostalgic for the PC heyday, the best old games you can still buy and run today.
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