With less than ten seconds on the clock, we sprinted toward the Magic Door, guards hot on our heels through the Constable Guildhall. We made it. The contract was ours, our pockets fat with stolen goods, our getaway clean. This is where Thick as Thieves truly sings: in those frantic final moments when careful planning collapses into instinct and desperation, when a last-second smoke grenade and a perfect sprint mean the difference between success and a trip to the respawn point.
The game casts you as a thief joining the Thieves' Guild in 1910s Kilcairn, a fictional Scottish city where magic and technology collide. Your entry exam is simple enough: steal the Vistara Diamond. Except the Diamond is far more than loot. It functions as a scanner, revealing nearby guards, hidden traps, buried treasure, and secret magic doors where the real scores hide. Following the Diamond's secrets eventually unravels the city's darker history and the tale of a family whose influence shaped everything. What began as a straightforward heist expands into a twelve-hour narrative arc that keeps pulling you deeper.
The story unfolds through text-based mission briefings and scattered notes scattered throughout each level. It's compelling if you search for it, though co-op players can easily miss details while coordinating with a partner. The narrative framework is thin compared to traditional story-driven games, but it works because the game never forces storytelling between you and your objectives. You're there to steal, and the loot is always the priority.
Stealth is the foundation here. You'll spend most of your time crouched, moving through darkness, snuffing candles and lamps to avoid detection. Trip wires, pressure plates, rotating turrets, and magical eyes all demand attention. Lock-picking minigames gate access to doors and secured treasures. Each mission presents two active objectives simultaneously: a contract requiring you to steal a specific item, and a heist objective like hitting a monetary threshold or collecting particular goods. Completing both is ideal, but either path counts as success.
Guards follow predictable patrol patterns, but they're alert to noise and will investigate any glimpse of you. They're not fighters you can defeat, just obstacles to navigate around. Sneak up behind one and knock him unconscious. Get spotted and you'll need either a smoke grenade to stun him long enough to escape, or simply legs fast enough to carry you to safety. As you complete contracts and level up, you unlock consumable tools like the Insult Fairy (distracts guards) and the Pickpocket Fairy (steals keys without close contact). The game never leaves you entirely defenseless, but it always rewards patience and planning over direct confrontation.
Two thieves are available: the Spider and the Chameleon. The Spider arrives with a grappling hook that lets you vault over obstacles and enemies alike, pulling yourself up, across, and down through vertical spaces. The Chameleon can copy guard uniforms and walk past threats in disguise. Both are excellent, though the Spider's mobility often proves the smartest option when you can simply climb over a problem instead of dealing with it.
Then there are Hauntstables. These are cursed constables, ghosts forced into eternal patrol duty. They can phase through walls, float through floors, and cannot be knocked unconscious. Get close and they hurt you. Get spotted and you're in genuine danger. The only reliable escape is a smoke grenade stun or a clear sprint to safety. They die to bagpipes, bizarrely, and they sometimes get stuck in endless loops when encountering unconscious guards they cannot pick up or move. It's funny when it happens, less so when it traps you in a dead zone for twenty minutes. Still, Hauntstables are the game's most memorable threat, even if they occasionally frustrate through poor AI quirks.
Only two levels exist: the Constable Guildhall and Elway Manor. Both are sprawling multi-story complexes packed with alternate routes, hidden passages, and multiple solutions to every problem. They shift slightly across playthroughs as certain pathways open and close. Difficulty settings add more guards and traps. Even with just two locations, the combination of level design, variable objectives, and playable characters creates enough variety to keep things fresh through multiple heists. Mastering these maps becomes its own reward.
The real magic emerges in online co-op. Splitting up to explore separately, coordinating guard takedowns, reviving each other at critical moments, and sharing loot all feel genuinely satisfying in ways solo play cannot match. It makes the game easier, certainly, but the experience feels so refined and fun that difficulty adjustments exist for players who want more resistance. Getting picked up by your partner beats respawning in a safe corner every time.
What holds Thick as Thieves back is its brevity. Two excellent levels cannot sustain indefinitely, and the game's twelve-hour story arc ends too quickly. You'll finish asking for more jobs, more cities, more reasons to return to Kilcairn. The charming art style, roguish character design, and genuinely clever puzzle design suggest this could grow into something even bigger. For now, it's a heist game that understands pacing, respects player intelligence, and delivers that perfect rush of a clean escape.
Author Emily Chen: "Thick as Thieves proves that sometimes the best games know when to end."
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