I adore games like hitman and thief (the original PC version from way back instead of the 2014 reboot). If I’m playing an RPG I’m surely picking the thief class if presented with one. In my normal life I’m truly a law abiding citizen but for some strange reason I’m a full on kleptomaniac in videogames. Thief Simulator by Polish Indie developer Noble Muffins currently on the Nintendo Switch sounds like the perfect game for me.
Plan your heist
In Thief Simulator you play as “the thief” who gets called by a guy named Vinny to do some thievery. Vinny acts like the obligatory tutorial voice who guides you on your first steps into successful burglary. Planning your heist meticulously will be key in this game. The more intel you gain on the houses you plan on breaking into, the more chance you’ll be successful. Scoping out the place and even using some spyware electronics can make a difficult heist easy as stealing candy from a baby.
Learn more skills
Each successful burglary in Thief Simulator grants you experience. The more loot you collected while not being spotted, the more experience you’ll earn. Gain enough experience and you gain a level which grants you a skill point. These can be spent on the skill tree to improve for instance your lockpicking skills. Raising your agility skills might open up the option to climb up to an open window. These smalls improvements make for more diverse ways to tackle a certain heist. On the opposite, this means grinding your way to levelling up is a big part of this game. Too big if you ask me.
All the tools at your disposal
Vinny will often call you too give you certain tasks while introducing the different tools at your disposal. The traditional lockpick and security scrambler are off course present. The computer in your hideout (which is ironically never closed) offers some great ways of variety. Here you can buy tools, look for jobs and sell some loot. A fourth option offers you intel on the houses. Apparently a whole gang of thieves is targeting the same neighbourhood your active in and decided to share their experiences. This might sound silly, and actually it is, but it all helps put some much needed variety in the game.
Not Grand Theft Auto
If you happen to overstay your welcome and get spot by a resident you will be chased by the cops. You can run back to your car and try to drive away but you’re actually better off hiding. The car should’ve been cut from the game all together. The driving is atrocious and getting away in it is way to hazardous. You might as well try to run with wet soap under your feet. I gather programming cars to feel good is not easy but doing it as bad as in Thief Simulator and still letting it in your game is a real crime.
Not the ultra-deluxe version
A lot of indie games start out on steam in an alpha state. Most of these gradually improve over time, based on the input of the fans. Looking at the steam page of Thief Simulator I noticed the programmer got really involved and the necessary improvements have been made. Since I only had experience with the Nintendo Switch version, I noticed a lot of difference with the screenshots on steam. Apparently the game got ported based on a very early version of the game and without the involvement of the original development team. This means that the game on Nintendo Switch is not the ultimate ultra-deluxe fully patched version we mostly get. Maybe this will be resolved with future patches, but for now Nintendo Switch owners are stuck with an unfinished version.
Conclusion
Thief Simulator for the Nintendo Switch has a great concept. The gameplay is fun but gets a bit repetitive after a while. The newly learned skills break that repetitiveness a bit but some more variety would’ve been welcome. My version on the Nintendo Switch looked way much worse than what the PC gamers got. Above all, my game crashed multiple times. If this gets patched correctly I would recommend as for now… stay away (or get the PC version on Steam).
