legacy

It’s been 11 long years since its underwhelming reboot, but finally the Thief series is back with Thief VR: Legacy Of Shadow, and this time wannabe burglars will be using virtual reality to make their trinket yoinking even more immersive than it was before. Legacy Of Shadow is fifth entry in the series and, according to its developers, it’s set 200 years after the third game in the series, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and 200 years before the events of the 2014 reboot.

Thief VR

• Developer: Maze Theory
• Publisher: Vertigo Games
• Platform: Played on PSVR 2
• Availability: Out 2025 on PC VR (Valve Index, Meta Rift, Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 Family via Steam) and PSVR 2

Legacy of Shadow features a player character called Magpie, a newcomer to the series who, at some point in the game, gets her hands (or I guess maybe that should be eye sockets) on Garrett’s legendary mechanical eye that he received after the climax of the very first game. This eye not only allows Magpie to activate something called Glyph Vision which highlights nearby enemies and points of interest, but also has the added bonus of allowing series fans the rejoice in the dulcet tones of Stephen Russell, making a welcome return here as the voice of the original Garrett, who Magpie begins to hear in her head after gaining the eye.

Recently, I played two levels from the game on PSVR 2, starting with the tutorial level Stonemarket. There, players get introduced to the game’s new protagonist Magpie, and reintroduced to The City and its eagle-eyed guards. After completion of that I was skipped forward a few levels to Ravencourt Manor, a much more traditional Thief-style heist level in which I had to infiltrate said Manor to pinch a mysterious treasure known as the Glyph Stone.

Watch on YouTube

Visually, Legacy of Shadow looks really nice, in a gloomy, oppressive, probably smells real bad, Steampunk kind of way. The PSVR2’s HDR works great with the dark environments and there’s a high level of detail to not only the exteriors, with some lovely views across the City, but also in regards to the interiors and props too. There is a sort of semi-realism to the visuals – detailed but with a cel shaded vibe to them – but this suits the setting and it makes the game look comparable to the modern Thief reboot rather than the early noughties originals.

The lighting was great too, especially the way roaring fires in the street cast the shadows of guards against nearby walls so I could tell which way they were moving without having to leave the cover of darkness. Just like the rest of the world, Magpie’s hands and gloves have that highly detailed comic book styling to them too, but lovers of full body rigs will be disappointed to hear that you’re limited to controlling a couple of floaty hands only here.

Oh eye, what do we have ‘ere then? | Image credit: Maze Theory/Vertigo Games

On the subject of hands, how do the all-important virtual interactions fair? The amount of things you can pick up, play with and touch can either make or break a VR game in my opinion – thankfully there’s plenty of things to interact with here. There are drawers to slide open, foods to eat, candle flames to pinch out, vents to open and of course loads of props to pocket, smash or throw for handy distractions. Alongside all of this you’ve also got a physical inventory pouch which you pull out to access things like keys and quest items, and there’s a fairly satisfying lockpick mechanic which utilises gentle twists of the wrists in order to find the sweet spots of the lock.

The illusion of having a solid world wrapped around you isn’t pulled off quite as well though as, say, Batman Arkham Shadow. That was a similarly stealthy game but one with extra attention paid to the littlest details. In it, for instance, your virtual fingers would react to the rough surfaces you ran them across, following the contours and edges of ledges or walls. In Legacy of Shadows, when I tried something similar Magpie’s hands barely registered a difference which, while hardly game-breaking in any way, did reduce my immersion a tad.

I’m not sure how good the dark environments will look on headsets without HDR capabilities, but they looked lovely on the PSVR2. | Image credit: Maze Theory/Vertigo Games

The Thief reboot is almost unanimously regarded as the weakest game in the series and a lot of that has to do with its level design that focussed more on linear, parkour action and less on tightly designed playgrounds for pilfering. Series fans wanted to spend time casing joints and stealthing around looping interiors rather than pelting it from A to B across wooden beams and up climbable walls. But how does Legacy of Shadow compare? Well, there’s both good and bad news here. The first tutorial level wasn’t just visually reminiscent of the fourth game, but its level design was also very similar. Sure, there was no parkouring, there weren’t as many walls to climb and there were a couple of small looping areas and a sewer to waddle through, but it still felt fairly linear in its design.

To give the game the benefit of the doubt, this level was probably simplified in order to better ease people into the experience as the later level that I played, Ravencourt Manor, was much more intricate in its level design, echoing those of the classic Thief games. There were multiple routes of entry into the Manor, various paths to take both inside and out and the building itself was a multi-floored structure that encouraged stealthy exploration and careful planning. I will say that this level felt smaller than the classic Lord Bafford’s Manor level from the first game but as a counter to that, the modern day visuals meant that Ravencourt felt like a much more realistic location to inhabit.

Image credit: Maze Theory/Vertigo Games

A Thief game isn’t really a Thief game if the stealth is done wrong, which is yet another reason why the reboot didn’t land too well with fans. Thankfully, Legacy of Shadow looks to be going in the right direction, mainly thanks to the inclusion of VR, which makes the feeling of crouching behind boxes and popping your head up from sewer grates feel so much more immersive. Sure, the Thief reboot had a ‘Peek’ button, but in Legacy of Shadows, your neck is the peek button and that makes every moment of sneaking and spying feel way more true to life – you’re actually there after all!

Staying in the shadows is once again the order of the day if you want to sneak past guards successfully. There’s a light meter on the back of Magpie’s glove which will tell you if you’re illuminated, and there’s a few nifty tools at your disposal that will help you extinguish light sources, like water arrows and the ability to pinch out candle flames. One of the coolest little additions to the game is that you can also physically blow out the candles using your headset’s microphone, a feature that also doubles up as a potential distraction tool. Turn this setting on and the microphone will pick up your voice, meaning you can shout at guards to cause distractions or lure them towards you, but it’s probably best to leave this one off if you’re a streamer and want to commentate on your playthrough, given the constant babbling will broadcast your location at all times.

It’s a good job you cant feel pain in VR because you’ll be doing a lot of this in game. | Image credit: Maze Theory/Vertigo Games

There were a couple of very cool moments of stealth that stood out during my playthrough. One involved sneaking around a room with a sleeping guard in it, quietly opening drawers and reading notes until I worked out how to unlock a cell door to gain the loot inside, and the other was when I accidentally alerted a pair of soldiers who were guarding the level exit as I tried to climb out of the sewers. This drew them to my location, so I jumped back into the sewers, climbed out of another manhole, and legged it through the now-unguarded exit.

Other stealthy mechanics in the game include pickpocketting, a bow-and-arrow for long range kills or takedowns and, if you’re feeling cheeky, there are plenty of objects lying around that you can throw at sleeping guards if you want to troll them just before you escape.

Time for this guard to bow out. | Image credit: Maze Theory/Vertigo Games

If you’re trying to leg it to the exit of a level after some top notch shop lifting, it’s important that you can get around accurately, and the movement schemes for Legacy of Shadow were all pretty responsive. There’s no teleport to move here, only smooth movement, but you can choose between click turning and smooth turning if you’ve got a slightly wobbly tummy. That was the only movement option in the menus of the demo I played, so crouching had to be done with a button press rather than physically crouching which, to be fair, is probably a wise choice – playing this game without click to crouch would be murder on the knees. I had no issues with wandering around the environments, but there’s also a fair amount of places to climb, be it ladders to reach vantage points or handily placed bricks which inevitably lead to a lovely little loot stash. Whenever I did have to climb anything, my grip felt accurate and I had no problem pulling myself up from things or vaulting through windows.

Of course, just because the movement works well doesn’t mean you won’t accidentally bumble around a corner and into the full view of a patrolling guard, and that’s where combat comes in. Although, I actually didn’t get to try much combat because I was told that it’s best to avoid being spotted altogether, seeing as death comes at you fast once you are. You do have a blackjack weapon, which will be familiar to series fans, and you can use this to knock enemies out from behind, but it’s useless in face-to-face combat. The only lethal weapon I tried was the bow which, to me at least, felt a bit clunky to aim with. It’s definitely not useful at super long range, and it doesn’t seem to do a huge amount of damage, so it might be best to limit its use to a tool that aids your stealth, because it seems like a fairly unreliable murder weapon.

All in all, Thief VR looks like a worthy addition to the series, combining the gameplay stylings of both the originals and the remake into a meaty VR stealth game that should please the hardcore, whilst also giving the series a modern spin for newcomers. The return of Garrett is also going to be music to fans’ ears, and I can already envisage non-VR-owning Thief fans lamenting the fact that they won’t be able to get their mechanical eyes on this one without shelling out for a headset first. In terms of the absolute level of execution, it’s definitely behind Batman Arkham Shadow, which really is the gold standard of VR immersion for me – especially considering that was a Quest 3 exclusive – but it’s still looking like it’ll be a well-assembled, challenging Thiefy experience. And, in my opinion, the stealth game genre is way more enjoyable and exciting in VR than it is in standard flatscreen anyway. If you, like me, want to put your face inside a Thief then, you’ll be able to do so on PlayStation VR2, PC VR, Meta Quest 2, 3 and 3S sometime this year.

Source link