Trophy hunters will absolutely love this game – within twenty minutes and twenty-five levels, I had platinumed the title. I’m not sure why there wasn’t a proper reward for completing the game – I actually felt a little let down by that, especially when the end game screen just says “congratulations”.
At its heart, Tricky Thief is a single-screen puzzle game, where the objective is to steal all gold coins – usually about five – and then head towards the exit which unlocks upon collection of the final coin.
Movement is similar to tile-based sliding games, where your slippery burglar can only stop by running into something, whether that’s a wall, box, or a red sticky spot. You can only be caught if you hit a red zone, whether that is the small arc of sight from the half-blind security guards or the pulsing security installations.
The controls are reasonably tight, the tune is great – happy and jolly and doesn’t grate. Visually, the graphics are smooth but minimalistic, and it certainly looks better in action than it does in screenshots.
I found myself playing in short twenty-minute bursts. Early levels and levels that teach you new mechanics can be over within seconds, whereas more complex ones take a little bit of brain power to work out – but it’s never overly taxing. You’ll come across boxes that stop you once, and are then destroyed – a one-time use mechanic, more advanced security systems, and even a pink spot that somehow temporarily stops all red zones, but also severely restricts your visibility.
The game is single-player only, and I think they missed a trick(y) here. It could easily be extended with a two-player couch co-op mode, where you work together on a different set of levels, perhaps even getting in each other’s way.
Each stage can be three-starred, however, I’m not sure exactly how to get just one or two stars, as that never seemed to occur – I assume it’s to do with time taken or movement efficiency. Within an hour I’d got to the fiftieth chamber, which was the first that I found to be quite taxing. I came back to it the next day, applied some grey matter, and finally conquered it – which to my surprise was the final level of the game. It would have been nice to have another 10 levels of this difficulty I feel.
Tricky Thief is available March 15 on Xbox One/Series, PS4 (reviewed), PS5, and Nintendo Switch for £4.49 // $4.99 // €4.99.
