Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow Review – Immersive Stealth Done Right

Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow Review

Considered a classic of the stealth genre, Thief tasks players with lingering in the shadows, pilfering valuables, and escaping without ever being seen. While the original trilogy offered a sense of freedom and open-ended exploration, the 2014 reboot stripped away many of the elements fans cherished, opting instead for a more linear approach. After an 11-year hiatus, Legacy of Shadows takes the franchise in a new direction, placing you firmly in the shoes of a master thief once again. But will the leap from traditional screens to VR be the perfect way for Thief to steal players’ hearts all over again?

You play as Magpie, a thief who moves through the dark streets of The City. Under Northcrest’s oppressive rule, its citizens live in constant fear. Stealing to survive, you eventually uncover an artefact that allows you to communicate with the series’ former protagonist, Garrett. Even though the story takes place 200 years later, you’re able to speak with the master thief and learn from him as you dig deeper into Northcrest’s tyranny and uncover long-buried secrets. The story is delivered cleanly through in-game notes, overhearing guard conversations, and the occasional cutscene. However, like its predecessors, the game leans into supernatural elements without offering much explanation, resulting in a tale that sometimes feels underdeveloped. Even so, mission objectives are always clear, and the strong voice acting quickly pulls you into each task, giving every heist a solid narrative frame.

In The Dark

Stealth is at the heart of the experience as you must avoid detection and steal the many items that you encounter on the path towards your objective. Creeping in the shadows works perfectly in VR. The deeply immersive platform allows you to lose yourself in the universe as you silently scurry past guards to your destination. It’s always a thrill to peek around corners, study guard patterns, and plan your route before making your next move. Each dense map has a variety of paths to reach your target, while it lacks the scale of early titles in the franchise, it maintains the spirit. The game encourages you to explore, open shortcuts, and choose the optimum way forward.

Environments house many interactive elements. You can collect, or rather, steal most items, which increases the money you earn during a mission and helps tick off additional objectives. The side missions add replayability as they challenge you to earn a certain amount, stay undetected, and more, all while still attempting to achieve your primary goal. Doing so allows you to purchase upgrades, improving your abilities to help you achieve your objective. Small puzzles are also embedded within the world, such as working out the order of books to interact with on a bookshelf to reveal a hidden item, opening picture-frame locks, and, of course, picking locks. The latter triggers a mini-game that mimics the act itself, further anchoring you in the world and its premise. While none of these challenges are particularly difficult, they capture the spirit of the franchise and succeed in making you feel like a master thief.

A Vision From the Past

The Glyph Vision helps you on your journey by highlighting enemies and key points, guiding you toward your objective. It’s a great way to nudge you in the right direction in an implicit, unobtrusive manner. This is particularly helpful for tracking the location of guards, which is vital when sneaking from A to B. While stealth takes the forefront, you can knock out unsuspecting enemies on patrol with melee attacks and even block or parry when spotted. This, however, should be a last resort. You should also consider hiding bodies, as guards on patrol may discover them and begin searching for the culprit.

You also have a bow and arrow, which you can use in numerous ways to support you on your quest. Water arrows let you put out fires so that you can sneak through the shadows, whereas blunt arrows can knock out foes from a distance. Fire arrows can light up areas, whereas rope gives you the option to explore vertical options. Designated areas let you climb walls and move across pipes, opening up more opportunities and routes to reach your destination.

Finders Keepers

Interactivity is vital for a VR game and Thief nails this aspect. You are constantly reaching into the environment to collect loot or interact with an item in order to progress. Lifting shutters and grabbing ledges to vault through windows feels great, capturing the idea of being a burglar. You can blow out candles thanks to the microphone, creating further darkness so that you can sneak up to unsuspecting guards and pilfer a key from their waistband. You can even challenge yourself further by allowing the microphone to pick up your voice, alerting the guards when you speak. Although patrolling officers follow fixed routes, you can divert their attention by tossing a bottle, letting them investigate the noise while you scurry past.

While the VR elements are well implemented, I did encounter a few odd issues that broke immersion. At times, environmental assets loaded incorrectly, leading to moments where a door floated in mid-air, a guard I’d bonked on the head levitated instead of collapsing to the floor, and a couple of treasure chests failed to load, leaving their valuable contents visible but impossible to collect. Hopefully, the developers will patch these small bugs soon, as they hinder an otherwise deeply immersive experience.

Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow captures the spirit of the franchise and implements it into the VR realm. While smaller in scale, the tight, intricate design makes use of the platform to create an exhilarating stealth adventure. The interactivity anchors you in the world; however, small bugs can quickly break the immersion. While the franchise has stepped away from its origins, it’s found new life in VR.

***PSVR 2 code provided by the publisher for review***