In the summer of last year, during Day of the Devs, immersive sim legend Warren Spector said that at his studio OtherSide Entertainment, “we don’t play it safe. We take chances.” He was talking about his upcoming game Thick as Thieves, a multiplayer immersive sim that’s basically Thief, except other people are trying to pull off the same heist as you on the same map, with all of you racing to get the loot first. Except it’s not going to be that game anymore.
No, instead, as detailed in this Steam blog post, it’ll be a bit closer to a traditional immersive sim. “When we first revealed Thick as Thieves we intended to focus on PvPvE gameplay. However, as development progressed and the world of Kilcairn has come to life, we found that we were having more fun with solo and co-op play,” the post explains. “So, we’ve taken a decision we feel is right for the game: Thick as Thieves is now focused on two-player co-op and single player.”
According to OtherSide, this has allowed them to “double down” on the thing that they believe makes the game special, its “dynamic stealth gameplay.” They didn’t have much more to say than that, other than the fact that a gameplay trailer is planned to be shown off at next week’s Triple-I Initiative showcase. So, it won’t be long to see how worth it this change will be. Mostly this post feels like some pre-emptive damage control ahead of said trailer.
I’m in two minds about this change. To be frank, as cool as it sounds, I do have to admit that this is probably the right financial decision. Making a competitive multiplayer game in an era where live service games are dying on the daily where said game’s genre is notorious for not selling well doesn’t sound all that great. It just also sounds really conceptually cool! Incredibly difficult to pull off well, obviously, it’s just the sheer ambition of it makes me want to see what it could have been. A shame! Hopefully that stealth is as good as they claim.
