Thick as Thieves

Thick as Thieves is an odd game that suffers from its barebones campaign and questionable launch content, but its incredible stealth gameplay and low price tag at five dollars easily carry the experience. Between its immersive atmosphere and layered heist levels that reward patience and experimentation, there’s still something to appreciate in its moment-to-moment gameplay. Still, it feels like a game that needed more time to properly reveal its grander vision, showing its cards too sparsely, without the kind of prep-time you’d expect from a master thief’s plan.

Thick as Thieves is a solid stealth steal-em-up that will probably be elevated by finding a few sticky-fingered friends to play with.

Thick as Thieves annoyed me more than I wanted it to, because the good parts are easy to see. The atmosphere is strong, some escapes really do get tense, and the idea of learning a location piece by piece fits the thief fantasy well. But the game keeps getting in its own way. Too many objectives are vague, too many systems are left half-explained, and solo runs start to feel like you are wasting time rather than pulling off a clever heist. Co-op might help with that, but it was not available in the review build, so I can only judge what I played. And as a solo stealth game, Thick as Thieves has promise, but not enough direction or variety to make that promise pay off.

Thick As Thieves is a charming co-op stealth experience with clear caveats, that despite its flaws leaves you hungry for the bigger, bolder heist it could become.

With updates, Thick as Thieves has the potential to deliver a more exciting heist simulator, but it won’t do that with just two characters and two maps to choose from. For now, all it provides is mindless repetition and half-baked stealth.