OtherSide Entertainment has announced a second update for its stealth-em-up title, Thick as Thieves, scheduled for release in the middle of next week. This follows an initial patch that introduced an FOV slider, an option to disable motion blur, and several other technical adjustments. The studio stated, “While we are quite pleased with your thieving prowess and how much you are enjoying the game, we also know that there is continued room for improvement and we intend to keep serving that up.”
The upcoming update will include rebindable keys, a feature highlighted by PC Gamer as essential for the stealth genre, noting that key rebinding is a standard expectation for players of foundational titles like Thief: The Dark Project. Despite these additions, critics have pointed to a significant gap in the developer’s current roadmap: the lack of adjustable or optional mission timers. Thick as Thieves, which supports both solo and co-op play, currently utilizes a rigid structure where missions have overall time limits of 30 or 45 minutes.
Complicating the experience is an eight-minute countdown that triggers immediately upon the completion of any single objective. If a player fails to reach a randomly spawned exit door before this timer expires, the mission is marked as a failure. Because the game originated as a multiplayer title, it lacks mid-mission saving, forcing players to restart the entire session if they fail to complete all multi-step objectives before the timer runs out. This mechanic can lead to situations where players are penalized despite efficient performance, particularly if an exit door spawns in a difficult location.
While the second update will address some UI concerns by making the long-form mission timer visible whenever the map is opened, industry observers suggest this does not resolve the core frustration regarding the timer's design. Previously, the longer mission timer remained invisible until the final moments of a run, leaving players with little warning. The persistent nature of these timers, combined with the lack of save functionality, continues to be a point of contention for players who feel the current system is overly punishing. Whether OtherSide Entertainment will eventually allow these timers to be toggled or adjusted remains uncertain, as the studio has yet to signal a departure from the game's current design philosophy.
