Comrade_Oily
2021
Filcher is a solid and honestly underrated Thief-like. Aesthetically it trades in the smog and candlelit masonry of Thief in favour of what I’d describe as “Batman The Animated Series” energy; where the city is a sea of art deco skyscrapers and all mobsters are legally required to wear a fedora.
Visually, the game’s use of fairly chonky 3D rendered sprites for the guards was initially off-putting, but was something I grew to appreciate. There’s something surprisingly tense about hiding under a table while a malevolent cardboard cut-out stands two feet away. I also found that it did help with working out guard line of sight, although it could make bonking them with the blackjack fairly awkward. I also really liked the graphic novel cutscenes between missions and I do wish there’d been more of them.
The game does have one major complaint you will see levelled at it, which is the lack of saving during a mission. Personally, I’m in two minds about this. The missions are shorter affairs than Thiefs, generally lasting half an hour to complete (not including failed attempts). As someone who chronically quicksaved when I played Thief, this took some getting used too. However this forced me to improve at the game and experiment with finding alternative pathways to complete missions. The downside to this however is the repetition of having to repeatedly retrace your steps, especially when you actively can’t proceed due to guard chatter. Please stop talking about Alexi’s number skills, guard at the start of The Swordfish, I wish to acquire sick loot. Maybe a single save per mission or a check point system could have helped with this, but your mileage may vary on how much of an issue this is.
The lack of verticality with regards to movement was also a surprising choice. While the levels are obviously designed without climbing in mind, playing games like Thief has given me an ingrained love of clambering up things. Our protagonist also isn’t that great at jumping large distances, although thankfully most situations that could require jumping in-game can be traversed by sliding. Still had a few awkward initial incidents of jumping towards a rug and landing on a tiled floor in front of a surprised (and trigger happy) guard.
I think what really impressed me though is that there wasn’t a single misfire over the nine mission campaign, with my favourites being Club Misterioso and Blackburn House. When the game plays well you’ll be sliding from shadow to shadow, picking pockets and shiny things as you go.
Overall I really enjoyed Filcher and it does feel like a shame that the game appears to have slipped under the radar. The lack of in mission saving definitely seems to be divisive for some, but if you can look past it I’d heartedly recommend.
Visually, the game’s use of fairly chonky 3D rendered sprites for the guards was initially off-putting, but was something I grew to appreciate. There’s something surprisingly tense about hiding under a table while a malevolent cardboard cut-out stands two feet away. I also found that it did help with working out guard line of sight, although it could make bonking them with the blackjack fairly awkward. I also really liked the graphic novel cutscenes between missions and I do wish there’d been more of them.
The game does have one major complaint you will see levelled at it, which is the lack of saving during a mission. Personally, I’m in two minds about this. The missions are shorter affairs than Thiefs, generally lasting half an hour to complete (not including failed attempts). As someone who chronically quicksaved when I played Thief, this took some getting used too. However this forced me to improve at the game and experiment with finding alternative pathways to complete missions. The downside to this however is the repetition of having to repeatedly retrace your steps, especially when you actively can’t proceed due to guard chatter. Please stop talking about Alexi’s number skills, guard at the start of The Swordfish, I wish to acquire sick loot. Maybe a single save per mission or a check point system could have helped with this, but your mileage may vary on how much of an issue this is.
The lack of verticality with regards to movement was also a surprising choice. While the levels are obviously designed without climbing in mind, playing games like Thief has given me an ingrained love of clambering up things. Our protagonist also isn’t that great at jumping large distances, although thankfully most situations that could require jumping in-game can be traversed by sliding. Still had a few awkward initial incidents of jumping towards a rug and landing on a tiled floor in front of a surprised (and trigger happy) guard.
I think what really impressed me though is that there wasn’t a single misfire over the nine mission campaign, with my favourites being Club Misterioso and Blackburn House. When the game plays well you’ll be sliding from shadow to shadow, picking pockets and shiny things as you go.
Overall I really enjoyed Filcher and it does feel like a shame that the game appears to have slipped under the radar. The lack of in mission saving definitely seems to be divisive for some, but if you can look past it I’d heartedly recommend.
If I had one critique about Pert-em-Hru it’s that the game is too short. From what I gather (and looking at the cut content on The Cutting Room Floor) the game was going to be bigger and scope, but was deemed too be to much work to take on by the small dev team, which is pretty fair. I think the most interesting side effect of this is that all of the possible party members and can learn new skills through levelling up, but due to how infrequent encounters are it’s something you’d only really see if you stick with a single party member.
The game itself though is still a fun and breezy experience with some killer sprite work, especially with regards to the enemy design. As a horror experience it’s hardly going to keep you up at night, but the devs aren’t pulling their punches with regards to the violence.
As a final note, I’d definitely recommend going in blind on a first playthrough; a big part of the appeal is just seeing how well you do in keeping the cast alive and seeing if you can do better next time.
The game itself though is still a fun and breezy experience with some killer sprite work, especially with regards to the enemy design. As a horror experience it’s hardly going to keep you up at night, but the devs aren’t pulling their punches with regards to the violence.
As a final note, I’d definitely recommend going in blind on a first playthrough; a big part of the appeal is just seeing how well you do in keeping the cast alive and seeing if you can do better next time.