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American Theft 80's
06/05/2022
Written by: Jack Phillips
Thief Simulator, but in the 80s! If you played thief simulator, or just liked the look of it, then American Theft 80s' may just be the game for you. After a couple of hours in the prologue I think that I have a fairly good idea of how the game functions.
Which brings me to my first point, despite being hand-held, I do struggle sometimes to understand exactly what is going on. Between general jank, including; weird movement, clipping and so forth, there is a general sense of 'unpolished'. Not just unfinished but a general sense that some things need to be adjusted and changed, that a few more animations need to be tweaked and fixed. The bloom is the big one, I checked steam reviews to see if there was a fix but it doesn't seem to be, where it becomes extremely hard to see exactly what is going on in some situations.
The camera is also rather funky; where you can stare at an item and peer into the very soul of the inanimate object but still be unable to interact with it. It has, one a couple of occasions, taken me two attempts to look at what I am trying to pilfer from the building I very much do not belong in. Which, to be honest, doesn't matter as the AI seems to be rather accepting of me lurking around... provided that I am not dressed in the game's equivalent of a thieves' guild attire. This strange forgiveness means that I often found that changing clothes wasn't really something I needed to do; but perhaps that is something that would bite another person in the arse.
As for the good; the 1980's vibe is absolutely wonderful. I was not alive in the 80s but the nostalgia is there for me, a lot of the gadgets and gizmos from back then are very much present; I will admit a bit of shame that most of the things I spot and see make me sit up and go "I Saw that in stranger things!". The nostalgia is still handled well and the general atmosphere of the game feels, somewhat, lighthearted in that regard. Light, breezy and it can be very easy to simply get carried away and end up wasting time on one of the arcade machines you can find.
Sadly in the game there is only one neighborhood to explore; which means there isn't terribly much to write about without spoiling the entire prologue. I highly, highly recommend that you give it a try if you're even minimally interested in the game.
I do have high hopes for the game; there is a huge variety of mini-games that certainly were able to hold my attention for a while. Lockpicking was, absolutely, a highlight of the game for me and was incredibly rewarding; it felt great to crack those doors open.
Worth a try, hopefully I will be able to review the full game when it releases.
Written by: Jack Phillips