There’s some definite potential that can be found in Thick as Thieves. Launching for just £5 on May 20th, 2026, the upcoming successor to Warren Spector and Paul Neurath’s Thief: The Dark Project feels largely unfinished, despite a severe lack of an early access sticker. However, there’s also a sense that this could be something special if the team sticks with it.
Originally devised as a PvPvE multiplayer game set in a dynamic, open map, the upcoming game has been cut up piecemeal into level-by-level shenanigans with no rival players in sight. Instead, Thick as Thieves is playable either in single-player or two-player co-op with multiple looters working together to take out guards, bypass ghosts, and nab some treasure, but the scars of its previous life still show clearly.
From the moment you load into its colourful 1910s version of supernatural Scotland, you’re aware that this experience is far from finished. Just days before launch, human guards are often found floating in the air, treasures are nested in inaccessible walls, and there are frightfully few tools on offer to use. Customisation, as well, is lax with just a few options hats and differently coloured calling cards to choose from, although its worlds are very well detailed and built out from a level perspective.
The reality is that Thick as Thieves is thin. Yes, it’s maps are built to be replayed, but the currently available four-hour campaign and limited tools show that the available game is merely the bones on which something else can be built. In its currently available form, you can see what the game will and should be, but that future depends on how long the game can last in an industry more troubled than ever.
In comparison to Thief, or a more advanced imsim like Deus Ex, apt comparisons considering the game is advertised on the pedigree of those games’ creators, stealth currently feels subpar. Yes, noise and light play a factor in your detection, although the game’s AI often shift from one to one hundred in a split second. Additionally, whereas Thief’s sandbox felt intuitive and freeflowing, allowing you to constantly react to your surroundings, this game’s small selection of tools feel less so, and it’s hard not to wish you had Garret’s arsenal instead of The Spider and The Chameleon’s.
It’s disappointing that, in a class-based, loadout-based system, there is actually little in the way of multiplayer ingenuity, especially as the back is built on the names of one of gaming’s greatest creators. With lacklustre AI, only decent mission design, and a lack of useful items, the game is largely left to survive on its unique level design, which is admittedly pretty good and varied.
Due to the game’s inconsistent guards, Thick as Thieves’ greatest challenge instead comes from the sheer size and complexity of its labyrinthine levels. While the introductory Guildhouse can be quite easily manuvoured around after a while, Elway Manor is a different story. The two maps are sprawling and look quite fetching with eye-catching skyboxes and some clever use of light sources.
After finding your primary objective in a mission, you’ll have just a few minutes to find the door to escape. An obvious leftover from the game’s previous life as an extraction-shooter-like experience. This is where the game requires you to have knowledge of your surroundings, to have paid attention to the stairwells, corners, nooks and crannies. As guards start to wake back up, it’s often a challenge to get out with all of the loot, although the lack of the game’s original PvP elements is still felt.
The reality is that, in a world where there’s been no Thief game for well over a decade, Spector’s offering here is, at the very least, unique. At times, it can scratch that Thief itch, even if it lacks that games depth, story, and overall quality. With that said, for fans of the series, or for someone looking for a decent co-op time for a couple of days, it’s hard not to recommend simply because of how cheap it actually is.
With that said, Thick as Thieves comes alive in its harder difficulties. It is undoubtedly more engaging the more it throws at you, although its rudimentary AI still traps you with some unsatisfying takedowns. It can be fun, but it is often merely interesting, although there are much worse things to be.
At just £5, barely more than a Tesco meal deal (likely the same if you’re Clubcard-less these days), you might as well give the game a go if you’re even vaguely curious. It’s unfinished and a little buggy, but it’s the closest we’ve had to a new game in the iconic stealth series for a long, long time.
