Thief Simulator 2 – Review

Thief Simulator 2 first released on PC last October, but with the recent release of the Xbox version, I’ve spent most of the last week, stalking neighbours and hiding in the trash to get all the details on the sequel to the rough but impressive original released back in 2018.

Fans of the original will be pleased to hear, Thief Simulator 2 follows a similar system to the last game, you’ll need to stalk the neighbourhood to work out when residents are home, asleep or relaxing in their back garden to unveil the best time to break into their house, where you can earn your living and work on more upgrades to venture further through the story.

When you start off, you’ll discover you’ve screwed-over the local mob, so you’ll have to perform a few simple errands such as testing your lockpicking skills on an abandoned house, before venturing across the neighbourhood to steal certain items and perform specific tasks.
No matter where your progress lies, you’ll be able to venture off at any points and free-roam your way into any house to steal belongings to sell and increase your bank account, but most will find sticking to the storyline is the best way to unlock various upgrades via a skill tree and the techniques requires to target the most complex and rewarding locations.

Initially you’ll be limited to basic lock-picking, but you’ll soon gain the abilities to jump over fences, open safes and carry more items, as you progress further rather than houses with just a tenant or two, with predictable schedules, you’ll soon find yourself breaking into family homes where someone’s always hanging around which leaves you targeting set areas, there’s plenty of objectives besides the basic storyline as you’ll have black-bay requiring specific values to sell for extra profit, or special tasks such as stealing a specific item, planting a package or damaging specific property.

Soon enough you’ll have a run in with the law, so while you’ll soon be used to disappearing into a hiding spot, there’s always the option to intentionally go to the police station and rob them blind, while discovering a new apprentice you can call on to help with jobs, such as carrying out large items.

Besides ransacking every home across the two main neighbourhoods, there’s also large-scale heists which will require a certain set of skills and are much more difficult, but reward a greater payday. Even after dozens of hours, I found myself constantly engaged and for those times I wasn’t feeling like a complicated job, I could always return to some of those easier houses, where new unlocks like the binoculars and night-vision goggles would help me make sure I picked up every item of value.

Unlocks seem well balanced at a steady rate meaning most users will be looking at around 15 hours to work through the main storyline, with about another 5-10 hours for most extras and easily the same again if you want to complete every contract and get near calling the game 100% complete, but even then there’s such a unique loop, you’ll happily dive back in to commit one more crime, knowing even old homes you’ve long burgled have items respawn after a number of days, to make sure you can keep your virtual crime spree running long after the games completed.

Outside of the main storyline, there’s also a free-roam mode that allows you to work through both neighbourhoods without the (very slight) confines of the story-mode, but most will find more than enough from the main storyline, which does a great job of holding your hand without holding you back.

Graphically Thief Simulator 2 isn’t quite as much of an upgrade as the overall depth, while your immediate surroundings are well done, houses look realistic and it’s easy to spot things like open windows or security cameras, but the more distant textures like trees and the sky sometimes leave a little to be desired,
Overall though it all works well including the day-night cycle that runs 24 hours in 24 minutes, which works incredibly well.

Sound is a little below par, the game centralises around you being as quiet as possible and there’s enough ambience and atmospheric sounds to stop things being too silent, but with a few obnoxiously loud and repetitive soundbites from the radio and some not-so-great voice acting, the sound doesn’t quite deliver in line with the overall gaming experience.

Coming in at just over £15 and a fraction more on PC there’s definitely some great value, not just because most players will find more than enough engagement and gameplay to keep them going for 15-20 hours+, but also because it’s a pretty unique gameplay loop, that rewards stealth and planning as much as brazen bravery.
The other appealing aspect is, for most people, unlike many simulators such as Lawn Mowing, Driving or Power Washing, becoming a thief waltzing the neighbourhood robbing houses sometimes multiple times in a day, isn’t the best career path, but virtually you can experience the life of crime with nothing more than a virtual jail cell.

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