Thief pioneered the stealth-action genre starting in the late ’90s, and now the storied franchise is finally coming to all major headsets in its first made-for-VR game.
I had a chance to go hands-on with the latest build of Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow on PSVR 2 at the first VR Games Showcase live event, which took place in London in September. It’s also coming to Quest 2 and above and SteamVR headsets at release, which is expected sometime later this year.
I walked away impressed with my hour-long hands-on, and here’s why: in short, it’s built from the ground-up with VR immersion in mind, from scaling buildings and sneaking around hulking armored guards, to the sort of smartly designed object interaction you’d expect from a VR-native.
It also does something I love in VR games, namely it shies away from exposition-heavy narrative drops in favor of rewarding your curiosity.
Beyond finding notes and clues around the game’s steam-punky environments, you’ll also eavesdrop on guards as they gossip about what the higher-ups are ordering, or how the City is changing in response to the new threat in town: Magpie, a scruffy Artful Dodger-type turned Super Thief with the help of a magical relic. That’s you.
Note: you’ll also probably recognize a familiar voice from the original flatscreen games: voice actor Stephen Russell is reprising his role as Garrett,
Like other Thief games, combat really isn’t the focus here. While you’re armed with a bow, which includes multiple arrow types that you can craft and expend in different ways, and a black jack for up close and personal takedowns, sneaking around guards is usually the preferred move.
If you do bash a guard’s head in, they aren’t dead either—they’re just taking a nice little nap. But once a patrolling guard detects a fallen comrade, they can wake up, which puts the squad on high alert—not only putting you in danger as they scramble around searching for the intruder, but also damaging your chances at nabbing the mission’s highest stealth score.
So, it’s more about hiding in the shadows and not trying to take on the armored guards face-to-face. I learned that the hard way a few times during my one-hour gameplay session. A borked assassination attempt will easily alert guards, changing the diamond above their head to increasingly angry shades of red. Once you’re in striking distance, it’s back to the autosave.
Instead, you’ll be more focused on slinking around and getting your sticky fingers over all manner of loot, some of which is locked in chests need of picking. So far, it feels like one of those low-level skill checks that’s more about creating the right atmosphere than something truly difficult, but fun just the same.
That said, collecting loot isn’t a must, but it does increase your end-mission score, and helps with upgrades for your next mission too.
Those upgrades are important, since arrows are usually in short supply. Having more ammo could mean the difference between traversing the most difficult route through a mission, or getting to do more emergent gameplay stuff, like lighting a blaze with a fire arrow far away to distract a guard, or grapple-arrowing your way up to a higher vantage point or secret area. You can also shoot far away guards that might otherwise see you sneaking around a garden. There are multiple ways to skin the hypothetical cat, Maze Theory tells me.
That said, you can’t just skirt around (or shoot) guards the entire time. Pickpocketing is also a requirement in some missions, meaning you’ll need to carefully sneak up on guards and lift a needed door key or important item. You can, of course, smack them down with your trusty black jack, although it’s less ideal when there are multiple guards about.
One of the key additions to Thief VR is its Glyph Vision, which helps you identify unseen things, like power cables coursing through a building. Hold your hand up to your temple, and a short amount of Glyph Vision leads the way. Yup, there are puzzles too.
Following the cable, I find it leads behind a locked door, which means I need to pickpocket a key, scale the building from behind, get another key hidden in a puzzle, scale back down and follow the cable to a room, which, you guessed it, is an environmental puzzle requiring me to climb up pipes and deactivate a security gate.
From what I’ve played, it seems Thief VR is all about these sorts of multi-step, nestled objectives, all of them peppered with stealth interactions. And so far, Thief VR seems to be the full package: excellent visuals, smart object interaction, immersive storytelling, excellent voice talent, and missions that feel like lived-in places.
I’m really looking forward to exploring it all in our full review when the game launches sometime later this year. In the meantime, you can wishlist Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow on the Horizon Store for Quest 2 and above, the PlayStation Store for PSVR 2, and Steam for PC VR headsets.
Disclosure: VR Games Show covered travel and lodging expenses for one Road to VR writer to attend the event.