Thick As Thieves review: A small criminal holiday, with no expansion booked

The big picture

Thick As Thieves gives you two thieves, two replayable maps, sixteen contracts and six pieces of gear. OtherSide Entertainment's paid introductory campaign, published by Megabit, commercially launched on May 20, 2026, for Windows. It is not labelled development Early Access. More importantly, further content development ended in July, so the compact campaign now needs to be appealing on its own. Do not buy the small burglary expecting a much larger criminal empire to arrive afterward.

The current game supports solo play or two-player online cooperation. Megabit describes at least four hours for the introductory campaign, a publisher estimate rather than a measured promise. Its value lies in revisiting limited spaces with different objectives and tools. If your favourite part of stealth is learning a place well enough to become a problem for its security, small can be useful. If your main reward is constantly seeing somewhere new, the boundaries matter sooner. Launch scope

The other human is supposed to help

Older descriptions emphasised competitive PvPvE. OtherSide changed direction in April towards solo play and two-player cooperation, and that is the design released in May. Do not expect a rival human thief to be part of the current campaign. Your accomplice may still make a terrible decision, but competing against you is not the intended arrangement.

Cooperation gives the job a clearer shared purpose. A pair can discuss a route and divide attention, while a solo player retains responsibility for their own mistakes. Both approaches suit a compact campaign. Two people can arrange a limited run of jobs without committing to maintaining a permanent squad and discovering that the real missing treasure is an evening when everyone is free.

The game cannot provide a reliable partner, of course. If your preferred plan involves quiet observation and your friend's preferred plan begins with immediate activity, discuss that before entering. A stealth game gives differences in temperament an unusually efficient way to become visible.

Familiar places still need new problems

Replaying two maps puts weight on knowing the routes and experimenting inside them. Familiarity can become a tool: you stop merely looking for a way through and start considering which way serves this particular attempt. That is a legitimate source of satisfaction, provided repetition is something you actively want.

June's Increased Security update added interactable Slithertaps, vehicle-noise distractions and breakable glass, alongside changed guard responses. Mission and escape timers also depend more on difficulty, with Novice allowing more breathing room and Master Thief providing a shorter exit window. A noisy shortcut and a quiet route can therefore become competing answers rather than one route simply being the obvious choice. Released security update

Timers deserve particular attention if you chiefly enjoy leisurely reconnaissance. Even with the gentler setting, the structure includes pressure to finish. Knowing a room thoroughly and leaving it efficiently are related skills, but only one involves stopping to admire the room for another few minutes.

What the July decision means now

On July 23, OtherSide confirmed the end of further content updates following major staffing losses. That supersedes the earlier plan to expand Kilcairn with additional stories. The campaign available now is the purchase proposition, with no implied queue of extra districts, modes or missions waiting to make it complete. End of content development

The August 19 update introduced peer-to-peer co-op with friends-only or public hosting and removed random matchmaking. It was described as the final planned technical update, although a September 14 desync hotfix subsequently followed. Peer-to-peer capability preserves a route to cooperative play without constituting a guarantee of indefinite service or perfect networking. Peer-to-peer update

Thick As Thieves is worth considering for players who enjoy compact stealth spaces, repeated jobs and experimenting with an accomplice. Its magical gadgets give the limited setting personality. The small scope and ended content development are central qualifications, not footnotes. If the available campaign sounds sufficient, Kilcairn offers a contained criminal outing. Just keep the return ticket; the longer stay is no longer being built.