Thief of Thieves: Season One Volume 1 review

With the closure of Telltale and Skybound taking up development duties on the final season of The Walking Dead, we now have a void left in the form of visual storytelling. Well, Skybound could just be the one to fill that hole left by Telltale’s closure as it released comic-based, Thief of Thieves.

The comic of Thief of Thieves is a monthly series created by the well known Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics’ Skybound. The comic centers on Conrad Paulson, a highly successful thief who quits the business and begins a new life stealing from other thieves. A Robin Hood if you will. Whilst the game has you play as a burglar called Celia, as she transgresses from Conrad’s apprentice to master thief.

“The stealth sections are drawn towards shadows and using the environments such as cars and desks to remain undetected.”

The gameplay is episodic and more “off the rails” than most Telltale titles, with a deeper focus on stealth as you’re tasked with entering a house party to steal a beloved motorbike from a rich tyrant. This section is actually told as a flashback and has two scenarios that play out for taking the bike. The first being a smooth grab and ride away story told by Celia, before her not so believable story is relived as the truth. A bussling party filled with guests and a plan as you go approach.

It was also nice to see hints shown through scribbled white text on the game’s environment which you can pop up with the push of the trigger at any time. It isn’t essential but it’s nice to see the option if you’re struggling to solve what to do next, which is likely on later volumes in the season.

The stealth sections are drawn towards shadows and using the environments such as cars and desks to remain undetected. Once you work around the slightly rough camera angles offered, then you’ll be sneaking past enemies in no time and putting your master plan into action.

Volume 1 was a brief introduction of what’s to come in Thief of Thieves and the narrative storytelling combined with the stealth gameplay was a balanced mix of playing and watching character dialogue. There’s plenty to look forward to in terms of how the story progresses from here in Volume 2, which should be out in December. According to devs Rival Games there will be monthly releases up until February.