Thick as Thieves review: Chaos on the cobblestones

A good stealth game should have you anxiously turning up your volume to listen for footsteps and checking over your shoulder to see if you’ve triggered any traps, while also leaving space for interesting storytelling and world-building. 

Thick as Thieves nails the balance of building tension and crafting an interesting world perfectly, making for a delightful experience that immersive sim lovers will get a kick out of. Here’s Kyusai’s full review of Thick as Thieves on PC, largely focusing on the solo content.

Watch Kyusai’s full Thick as Thieves video review

Atmospheric and gloomy

Thick as Thieves is a first-person, immersive stealth game, where players get to delve into the fog-drenched streets of Kilcairn, a 1910s Scottish town that merges magic with everyday technology. It’s a unique setting, with plenty of whimsy injected into its murky halls.

Players get to tackle heists in Thick as Thieves, either playing as The Spider or The Chameleon, two uniquely skilled career criminals. Completing a heist requires breaking into a target location, picking up a key item like documents or a statue, then making it safely back out via a magical door.

The magical doors add an almost extraction shooter element to Thick as Thieves, which is not something I expected when digging into the game for the first time.

It adds a slight level of panic to the end of a heist – instead of just winning when you get the target item, you have to make your way to the target location without being caught by the guards, all while a timer beeps at you. It added an extra layer of stress and excitement to the gameplay loop.

While you’re tracking down valuable statues and documents for your various Thieves Guild contracts, you’ll also be able to pick up extra valuables, ranging from ornate hippo statues to meticulously crafted writing sets.

Picking up extra valuables will, in turn, reward you with a currency called assets. Assets can be spent at the black market for special items, new difficulties, and extra cosmetics, making it well worth your time to sift through a library drawer or pick the lock on an office cupboard while working on a contract.

Something I loved about Thick as Thieves is the merging of the mundane with the magical. Regular guards are patrolling Kilcairn – armed with nasty stun batons – and robotic sentries that scan for intruders, but there are also magical, all-seeing eyes and forcefields to contend with. 

The city in Thick as Thieves feels like it’s been plucked from an alternate timeline where magic was discovered, but it was discovered decades ago, so it’s no longer interesting and simply fulfils security purposes. 

Short bites of gameplay

There’s a decent level of progression in place with Thick as Thieves, as you’ll level up your character and gain access to new items or new contracts, adding further depth to the core gameplay loop.

Players can expect to sit with the main game for around four to five hours if they’re focusing on the campaign, with further content set to join the game based on developer comments. 

Despite largely tackling this game as a solo player, I found there to be a good level of content on offer – although I would say this game is best enjoyed with a friend, as working together on a heist adds a new level of challenge and immersion into the mix.

In some mechanically-oriented games like Thick as Thieves, I find that it quickly becomes dull to sift through the same maps and objectives, but there was a good level of replay value here. Hazards and guard patrols changed regularly, meaning it’s hard to predict how a run is going to go, no matter how long you’ve played for.

Despite having a PC that feels like it’s held together with hopes and dreams, I found Thick as Thieves to be generally smooth performance-wise.

I did encounter a couple of minor frame drops and clipping textures, but these were largely expected on my end – the game ran nicely during my time with it overall, and I found the experience as a new player to be positive, with a clean interface and intuitive controls.

The visuals were a highlight for me. Thick as Thieves feels very confident in its aesthetic choices, with a cartoonish but vaguely intimidating guard model, intricately designed tech pieces, and atmospheric rooms dotted with fireplaces and oil lanterns. Exploring this game was delightful.

If you’re a fan of stealth games, ImSims, Thick as Thieves is one to keep an eye on. While the notion of an introductory campaign and the promise of content down the line may not be for everyone, I found the amount of content on offer in the game to be robust, with a solid experience for solo players to get stuck into.

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