Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is disappointing. This newest from Vertigo Video games, even if advanced through Maze Idea, had some actual promise at the lead-up to release. However having rolled credit, we don’t really feel a lot past reduction that it’s over.
Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow is the continuation of a franchise that we remaining noticed in 2014. Right here, you play as Magpie, a crafty thief who’s by accident merged with the ability of historical Keeper generation, and because of this, has the voice of former protagonist Garrett in her head.
Narratively, you’re tasked with pinching historical artefacts from a ruthless ruler who plans to accomplish a dodgy ritual throughout the blood moon, all to do with stated Keeper generation. Sounds ominous.
You’ll sneak round previous manors and pubs repurposed into faction strongholds, nicking near to the whole thing that isn’t nailed down, while fending off guards and sticking to the shadows.
Upon first impressions, Thief VR is amazingly thrilling. Like Vertigo Video games’ earlier PSVR2 titles, Metro Awakening, and Arizona Sunshine 2, Thief VR has an ideal sense of position, with that dour Dishonored-like aesthetic.
We in point of fact loved the vibe of the ones early ranges, as you scale pipes and succeed in for chocolates in unlocked home windows, and the method of sneaking via hidden passageways or discovering new keys is slightly amusing.
Each and every stage most often items you with more than one tactics to get inside of, and whilst it’s nowhere close to as expansive as a full-blown AAA liberate, it’s amusing to find those by yourself.
Thief VR’s controls and interactions are very fluid, too, whether or not you’re hiking, interacting with doorways and drawers, or lining up a shot together with your bow. All of it feels nice.
We specifically loved the lock-pick mechanic. The default settings have UI to line up with to release doorways, however we became this off, going for the extra immersive environment the place you flip the choose to really feel the locks lining up with the Sense controller rumble. It by no means will get previous.
There’s simply sufficient to mess around with, too. Your bow comes provided with other types of arrows, from water to rope arrows. This lets you douse fires or scale the aspect of constructions, encouraging you to go searching maps and in fact engage with them.
The darkness mechanic approach you’ll be able to stick with the shadows unseen, and your visibility is famous through a sparkling gem to your proper hand. We’d have liked a brightness slider, regardless that, because it’s by no means slightly darkish sufficient.
And because of that to hand Keeper generation, you’ll be able to use Keeper sight, which can spotlight probably hidden pathways or treasures. There are false partitions, robotically sliding bookshelf doorways, and even footage with gem stones crammed at the back of them. There’s all the time a explanation why to have a handy guide a rough look round a room.
As you delve a bit deeper into the sport, alternatively, that’s the place increasingly more of the problems begin to get up.
For one, enemy AI is horrendously dumb. They are able to take endlessly to note you now and again, and feature cat-like eyes the following. Sticking to inflexible pathways, they’re going to no longer chase you down, nor will they notify different guards in the event that they spot you.
They’ll run in opposition to you, the place you’ll both disguise for a second and so they’ll omit about you, otherwise you’ll have interaction in a rudimentary parry interplay ahead of unexpectedly knocking them out.
You’ll be able to take care of guards quietly through sneaking up at the back of and knocking them out together with your truncheon, too, however that in point of fact is the level of your interplay with them.
You’ll be able to drag our bodies to cover them within the shadow, however until there may be some other guard that overlaps with their set trail, there’s no level, as a result of no person will in finding them.
Clearly, stealth is the secret in a Thief access, and we wouldn’t be expecting full-blown battle right here. However we additionally anticipated a little bit extra from enemies to stay us on our feet.
To make issues worse, we additionally got here throughout a lot of system faults throughout our playthrough.
On a couple of events, we couldn’t in fact scouse borrow pieces or use our truncheon, which required a complete restart every time. Different instances, we randomly changed into in point of fact brief, the place crouching and status made 0 distinction to our peak, making it not possible to achieve positive ledges or handles. Once more, that required a complete restart.
Having besides up the sport on more than one events additionally highlighted a large flaw within the checkpointing device. Each and every time we booted up, we had been compelled to rewatch an unskippable cutscene and restart the extent from scratch. You’ll be able to’t simply soar in the place you left off.
What this did give us the chance to try, regardless that, used to be the replayability of its ranges. As we discussed, every stage has more than one front issues and more than a few secrets and techniques to discover.
Upon nearer inspection, we didn’t in finding that the degrees had the density had to in point of fact warrant replaying. Maximum of what its ranges have to provide can also be observed in one playthrough.
Each and every stage comes with a collection of demanding situations, a few of which can give you everlasting perks if finished, like beginning every stage with 3 water arrows or making much less noise while you drop from upper ledges.
The entire exact thievery (all the trinkets you gather) is type of tied to this. You are tasked with amassing part of a degree’s loot, however past that, it is only for the completionists in the market. The accrued foreign money can’t be spent on the rest to improve your personality or purchase provides while you go back in your base.
And whilst, sure, the range in missions approach you have to sneak in an open aspect window as a substitute of the underground sewer pathway, the real conclusion to every venture handiest ever has one answer.
It’s disappointingly skinny, and the sport fizzles out through mainly repurposing two of its previous ranges for the belief of the tale.
