🕵️ American Theft ‘80s PC Review 7/10 "I’ll never get bored of going out nicking" 🕵️ @NobleMuffins @Play_Way #GameDev #IndieGames

I have been LUCKY whenever I dive into the PC goody bag of The Mighty Games Freezer. As I primarily focus on console releases, twice now I’ve been in situations where I can cover some PC action, and it’s been just the ticket! The first game was Aground - one of my all-time favourites - and now I get to talk about the follow-up to Thief Simulator, American Theft ‘80s. Good.

There will always be a part of me that runs on ‘unusual’ PC games. Boiling Point, Hard Truck Apocalypse, Autobahn Police Simulator, Precursors - there’s something about these technically troubled and yet far-reaching games that really resonates with me on a primal level, the impressive and characterful underdogs that they are.

When I first played Thief Simulator, the absolute lack of handholding, janky controls and bonkers layout instantly set my trousers flapping. Yes, the game wasn’t technically dazzling, but there was clearly something there, the basic fun of having a goosey through someone’s window, dashing into their house, clumsily putting an old telly into a car and driving off clunkily to flog it at a pawn shop had a simple, visceral thrill – it was a wonderfully low brow experience (and only about £2 on Switch at the time, if memory serves).

Fast-forward a couple of years and here we are with Noble Muffins’ follow-up, American Theft ‘80s – as the title suggests, this is set in the decade of decadence and will have your character prowling around a town in the US, ‘re-homing’ everything that isn’t nailed down.

After an introductory tutorial sequence that lays out the foundations of the game, you are off to pilfer at your leisure – and a few improvements instantly stood out from the previous game – Thief Simulator.

The animation, whilst not as smooth as I’d like, is an improvement over the original, as is the atmosphere, driving controls, and overall general game mechanics. There are some idiosyncrasies that remain, such as the menus, layouts, and issues with using a controller in the in-game menus.

As a budget game, however, I found that I could mostly overlook these and just have a good time as I upgraded my skills and kit, knocking off the door handles to houses with a hammer and nicking all of their hi-fi equipment to flog at the dodgy pawn shop down the road. Or perhaps, scope out the simple character routines in the daytime before waiting it out in the car until all is dark, popping on my burgling togs and sneaking my way into someone’s basement to rob them of their footwear.

There are moment-to-moment thrills that veer from surprisingly tense to just outright silly and laughable, all tied up in gameplay that feels wonderfully loose, exploitable, and just plain fun.

Developer – Noble Muffins

Publisher – PlayWay