Thief proposes many great and fascinating additions to the stealth genre of gaming. Unfortunately, it seems to do them at all the wrong times and places. Where sneaking is best done in the shadows, it seems that this entire game is at nighttime. Where knockout takedowns can be entertaining, the game far too often gives you the Game Over when spotted by select individuals. And my least favorite blunder: the AI doesn't do anything fluid or natural. Neither does Garrett for that matter. Save for his "Swoop" ability, Garrett's movements are simple: stay crouched the entire game, hold Ctrl, and pray for a time that this game implements the run-and-duck maneuver that we so love from Square-Enix's Deus Ex (among others).
The enemy AI, however, is what disappointed me more than anything. I distinctly remember a time that I should have been killed six times over if not more. I had accidentally fallen off a wooden beam in front of three armed guards. They noticed me in a heartbeat and I ran. I stood hidden in a pantry for a few minutes and decided that I ought to grab a soda. When I returned, I was still happily hidden, with no one even dreaming to find me in a man-sized pantry, but even so, these guards wandered for no more than a few seconds and then stood in scripted locations and....well, posted like basketball players. They posted just in those locations where their torches were a nuisance and their eyesight pointed directly at you. They didn't ever move again, forcing me into combat again. After that bout, they moved right back where they were before and the process continued until I ended up killing everyone I saw until the end of the map.
It's amazing how a game of such hype can be no greater than its cloned predecessor. With a comparison that I hate to give but must needs be, Dishonored is a game that far surpasses Thief in every way. The milieu is more intriguing, the characters more engaging, and the plot more involving and much less predictable. For those who haven't, go buy Dishonored. For those who have, don't waste your time here. It was a game that meant well, that fell on every caltrop with the exception of encouraging kleptomania.
