I love a good stealth game. Games like the classic Thief, Splinter Cell, and even more modern titles like the fantastic Shadow Tactics and Shadow Gambit. They really make you feel like a stealthy badass. Thief Simulator 2 is the latest in a ridiculous amount of games that has simulator in its title, but it’s also one that really does try to stand out.

I don’t know what to really say about the story. You play as a thief who has lost everything and is indebted to a crime family. You have to pay off your debts before they come looking for you by doing what you do best: stealing everything in sight.

The prologue drags on for what feels like forever before finally giving you a solid heist to go for. Progression is a matter of stealing things until you level up. Early hours are super limiting in what you can do or where you can go. In this regard, it is very much still identical to the first game. It’s not until around five hours in when you’ve levelled up a little bit and have much more equipment where it begins to show potential.

As the name suggests, playing as a thief means sneaking into a variety of houses and taking anything of value, from watches to tablets, to even bigger things like TVs and cars. Infiltrating is done by a variety of means by cutting through glass windows, picking locks, or climbing buildings. You will need to pay attention to the house residents and other NPCs in the area.

NPC schedules feel very rigid and forced. There’s no natural dynamics. If an NPC is in the living room from 1pm until 3pm, that is set in stone. They will sit in the same space for that allotted time and as soon as the clock ticks over to 3pm they will move to their next spot. There is no dynamic to this. If an NPC is leaving their house, they will just pop out of existence as they leave their property. Then if you do get detected, all you need to do is find a spot to hide and you are golden. Searches don’t last long and there’s almost chance of facing any repercussions. If the AI gets improved, this would be a significantly better game for it.

Where Thief Simulator 2 shines is where it lets your own planning and heists run wild. Scoping out places to stealth from and uncovering residence schedules can be thrilling. At its best Thief Simulator 2 can be an exciting experience, it just doesn’t come often enough. Despite its shortcomings, it can be really hard to hate this game, and if you are looking for a solid stealth experience, then this absolutely provides.

Heist areas up the ante with some great level designs and feel like the big focus of the game, even if it often takes you out for the open world. You can’t really save scum in these areas, so messing up  big time means you will lose more progress. Discovering the routines of a new house to break into with new mechanics. There’s a surprisingly varied amount of stuff to do in the game.

The graphics certainly won’t blow you away. It looks and feels like a solo project, and that’s mostly because it is. There are animations that look very stiff, and environments that just look generic and lacking in detail. It certainly does the job well enough and it is hard to be too hard on the solo developer because of this. Just don’t go in expecting the best.

Same applies to the sound, which is just passable. Driving around in the car you will get a series of royalty-free music tracks. It’s hilariously bad and I found myself simply just turning off the radio. Elsewhere sound design falters, with some lacklustre voice acting and not much else going on.

Thief Simulator 2 is not a bad game, per se. Far from it in fact, with it’s engaging central premise and core ideas giving a satisfying stealth experience that we don’t see often. However, everything feels surface level and just a little too janky. It reuses way too much of the original and doesn’t making any significant improvements where it was really needed. But there is still some fun to be had with it, if you’re looking for a basic stealth experience.

 

Graphics: 5.5 Looks and feels janky, but in a charming way.	Gameplay: 7.0 Sneaking into places to steal loot is a compelling gameplay loop, but it feels bare bones.
Sound: 3.0 Royalty-free music and bad voice acting. It’s not great.	Fun Factor: 7.0 Thief Simulator 2 has a bunch of great ideas that often feel undercooked.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Thief SImulator 2 is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070.

A copy of Thief SImulator 2 was provided by the publisher.