Thief of Thieves: Season One, by Rival Games and Skybound Entertainment, for the Nintendo Switch puts you in control of a skilled thief named Celia. You start by arriving at the United States by airplane, but are quickly corralled and asked questions about your stay in Italy. Using these questions as markers, the game brings us through the events and stealth missions that occurred chronologically during Celia’s trip to Italy.
I would say the main thing this game has going for it would be its art style. The characters and environment are drawn in a cool comic book-esque fashion, with UI overlays looking like graffiti on the walls. The world felt like I was looking into a comic strip that had already been written and I was just acting it out. Each mission took place in a new location, so I got to see new content around every corner.
In terms of gameplay, though, this game was lacking a bit. The controls were unintuitive – I don’t think I’ve ever had to push in the right analog stick before – and it sometimes interfered with gameplay. I would pick up a throwable object and not know how to throw it, or try to do an action without focusing properly using the right stick. Even disregarding my fight against the controls, there were lots of times where I would just get lost in a level, and not in a good way. Searching for some way to complete an objective without any hints would leave me walking around places I’d already been just hoping to trigger some new dialogue. This ruined the stealth aspect for me, which was the whole point of the game. There were also points where I would disregard stealth completely and still make it through unscathed. At one point, I was having trouble sneaking past a guard, so I just picked up a can, sprinted past him, and threw the can in the other direction. The AI seems like it needs a bit of work; all your standard stealth AI cliches apply here. This made the game less intimidating than it should have been. Also, if you do get caught, your body just ragdolls on the floor, which was funny, but killed the mood of the chase.
Overall, as a stealth game, Thief of Thieves: Season One feels like it takes itself too seriously for the wonky mechanics it has, with unintuitive controls getting in the way of gameplay. While the art did look pretty, it felt like a chore having to play this game. I wouldn’t recommend picking it up, even if you like stealth games.
Check Out the Thief of Thieves: Season One Trailer:
For more information, please visit: https://rival-games.com/tot/
I am an aspiring game designer looking to explore the philosophy behind game creation. Some of my favorite games include Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, Portal, and Beat Saber.
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