Thief Simulator 2 Review (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, GeForce Now, & PC)

Become a criminal mastermind of your own solo operation in Thief Simulator 2. If you’ve played the first game, Thief Simulator, whether on the respective platforms it has been launched on, including VR, then you should have a pretty good idea of what you can expect in the sequel. 

Not much has changed in the sequel. It’s all familiar gameplay you have likely seen before. But the difference is also pretty apparent, from a smoother gaming experience to quality of life improvements. Come along as we explore everything you can expect in the sequel in our Thief Simulator 2 review below.

Cycle of Burglary

Thief Simulator 2 lets you choose between two game modes: career and free mode. In the former, you explore the game as a thief trapped in a cycle of burglary. You start the game owing a hefty sum of cash to some pretty dangerous crime syndicate. They want you to pay their money back now, leaving you with no choice but to find a way to come up with tons of cash in a short time frame. And so, your journey as a thief begins.

Thief Simulator 2 casts you into the role of an upcoming thief, tasking you with easy jobs to build your skills. While you have two distinct neighborhoods and a resort you can steal from, the game only gives you access to a handful of houses that are easy to break into. 

It’s the same gameplay you may remember from the first game: break into a home, steal as much loot as you can, and escape before the police arrive. It, of course, gets more complex than that, with the early stages of the game giving you access to an empty house to break into. But as you progress, you’ll begin to explore houses that have tenants, dogs, and even security cameras.

With time, you’ll grow more confident in your skills, enough to steal more valuable loot like TVs and sports cars. But with greater rewards comes a higher risk of the police catching you. The career mode, in fact, has a story beat where the police arrest you and you have to plan your escape. 

Plan Ahead

After diving deeper into Thief Simulator 2, you begin to realize the gameplay has so much more to offer. You’ll often engage in something spicy, keeping yourself busy even in free mode. To minimize risk, for instance, you have to pour precious time into scouting your target house. You’ll need to study the tenants’ schedules to identify your window of opportunity to steal from them. 

Indeed, a huge part of the gameplay requires utilizing stealth mechanics. You’re encouraged to avoid getting spotted by the neighbors, or else they will call the police. And sometimes, you’ll run into a few Karens who call the police even when you were simply hanging about the sidewalk. But in some other clever instances, it can be a hidden camera that tags you.

Thief Simulator 2 has a handy tool that shows you the schedules of different tenants. That way, you can know the exact times that they will leave the living room to go into the kitchen, perhaps giving you the opportunity to sneak into the living room and steal the TV. It’s all very tense gameplay that can quite easily pump adrenaline through the veins. At times, you’ll have to creep inside the bedrooms of tenants while they are asleep to steal the key to the safe.

It’s in those moments that Thief Simulator 2 truly shines. You genuinely feel like you’re walking in the shoes of a burglar as you move around the house as quietly as possible. And when you get spotted, the gameplay grows even more intense as you scamper out of the house to safety.

Make No Sound

Again, Thief Simulator 2’s UI comes in handy to show you the best places to hide. You can hide under the bed, in the wardrobe, or in the trash bin outside. It only takes a few minutes before the police leave, and you can then emerge from your hiding place to resume your burglary or move on to the next objective. 

In that sense, the AI feels lacking. It needs to feel more natural when the police make a genuine effort to track you down. If you’re hiding under the bed, perhaps, and the police are searching the house, you can pay attention to their footsteps or their conversations and make a break for it when they are in the kitchen, for example.

The same goes for the tenants whose schedules are too rigid. If a tenant is slotted to be in the living room for three hours, they will hang tight. They won’t even leave to go pee or fetch a snack. And if they leave the house, they just disappear and only return when their schedule says they will. But in real life, people can return home prematurely if they forget the car keys, for example. 

A more dynamic AI is only one of the few things that can elevate Thief Simulator 2 to even higher levels. Because, at its core, it captures the feeling of sneaking in and out of houses pretty well. The fact that you have dogs and security cameras to keep track of also adds to the level of caution you must exercise to escape from heists unscathed.

There’s More

But it keeps getting better. The more you play, the more tools and equipment you unlock. You’ll, at some point, unlock a drone that can disable security cameras. At a much higher level, you’ll unlock a tranquilizer gun that can incapacitate tenants who spot you. From hacking tools to crowbars and screwdrivers, Thief Simulator 2 will keep unlocking new equipment that makes your work easier. 

The upgrades go hand in hand with leveling up your character. You’ll have a skill tree that draws out a blueprint of which skills you need to gun for. From lockpicking to pickpocketing to carjacking, your thieving profession will only grow deeper and more profound the more you play. 

Moreover, the gameplay has a structure. You’ll scroll through different houses with descriptions of the heists you can pull off and the recommended level to take them on. That way, you can work your way up to the toughest jobs, climbing up the ladder as you progress. 

During moment-to-moment gameplay, you also have objectives that guide you on where to go to complete missions. The objectives vary immensely, from assault to vandalism and much more. With all the loot you scoop up, you can sell it from your home through Blackbuy or at Crazy Joe’s Pawnshop. The excess items can be stored in your backpack, car, or storage locker. 

What’s Changed?

You won’t need to play the first game to make sense of the sequel. Thief Simulator 2 stands on its own two feet with a strong premise that will capture newcomers and veterans alike. However, the sequel builds on the first game’s foundation. So, you’ll find plenty of familiar gameplay elements. But you’ll also find a smoother gaming experience that takes advantage of the power of next-gen consoles. 

If anything, the sequel adds more missions to complete. They keep you busy for longer while also improving the controls and visuals. Speaking of visuals, they are better than the first game. The environment looks cleaner and more polished. But the graphics aren’t there yet. The character designs and environment details won’t win any awards. They are simply solid enough to get the job done. 

As for the audio, it’s not too bad either. Sound effects not only immerse you into the game but also inform your next move. For instance, you can hear footsteps suggesting a tenant is close by or sirens to alert you to the police. The music also grows more tense when you get spotted and have to escape. But the music score isn’t quite there yet, either. Sure, you can listen to the radio while driving, but the music won’t particularly awe you. 

Driving can be shaky at times, but at this point, we’ll be nitpicking issues that aren’t terrible enough to detract from the overall gaming experience. 

Verdict

Thief Simulator 2 follows in the footsteps of the first game to bring you yet another venture into the life of a burglar. You have an outstanding debt to some dangerous people and have no choice but to steal to pay them off. But even thieves hone their skills over time, and the game is determined to prove to you that none of it is as easy as you may think. 

You’ll often spend time planning your next heist, whether scouting the target area for security cameras or the nitty-gritty, like a door that is frequently left ajar. Then, you’ll decide between robbing houses in the night, taking advantage of stealth gameplay, or forging into the house guns blazing. In all your missions, though, Thief Simulator 2 maintains a consistent stream of tense gameplay that keeps you returning for more.