The Art of Thief Review

When you think of stealth mechanics in games, some popular series that come to mind are Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell. The one game I remember where stealth was a major component in gameplay was Thief: The Dark Project for PC.

It was only a couple of months ago, where publisher Square Enix released a new Thief game for this generation of gamers. The game received mixed reviews from critics with some people saying they didn’t like the story.

A common theme among games that are currently releasing is to have an art book that shows ideas and concepts involved in the development process.

The Art of Thief comes from the awesome people at Titan Books. The Game and Art Director Nicolas Cantin provides the foreword and is quoted several times, as he talks about his experiences with Thief.

One thing he says is, “The journey and challenge started in August 2008, at Eidos Montreal. It was an honor for him to join a small, but talented, core team as the Art Director. As the months passed by, the art team grew, so did the world we had envisioned.”

Cantin also mentioned that, “The team reached a new level of creativity and cooperation. Although we had carte blanche, we wanted to keep the main pillars of what a Thief game is all about: stealth, darkness and mysticism.”

The Thief games have always been about Garrett as the master thief. The way he’s portrayed in this game shows his evolution. The development team drew inspiration from Storm Shadow in the G.I. Joe universe for his mask and the outlaw side of the personality traits, says Cantin.

The book shows many pictures that give detailed information about the appearance of Garrett. They even go in-depth about his hands and several poses he makes in the game.

Though, Garrett is the primary focus of the book it also gives more information on other characters players will encounter.

One of the best parts about the art book is how it gives readers a terrific understanding of The City. This is where Thief takes place and it’s great to know that each place within The City has a story.

If you had a bad experience playing Thief, don’t allow those negative feelings to prevent you from picking up a spectacular art book.

Thanks, Titan Books