Of Guards And Thieves is an early access game with an awesome concept from the developer Subvert Games, released on steam on Dec, 2016.
Many game modes are available, Competitive ones and Casual ones that revolves on the game's unique mechanics such as its Light/Darkness mechanics and its Surround Sound system.
It has a unique gameplay that you can entirely discover while playing an original game mode, the GAT mode. Where two teams fight using light at their advantage, the Thieves and the Guards.
There's no centered weapons mechanics, instead, Characters hold their weapons and utilities on their Right hand which influences the process of peeking in a firefight.
The game supports several 24/7 dedicated servers on which you can vote the game mode aswell as the map you want to play.
Various tactical action in an Interactive environment. An Innovative Dynamic Lighting System.
6 Thieves and 6 Guards.
28 unique Classes for 12 Game modes.
SpecsUpdate
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro The GAT mode
The most original game mode of the game is the GAT mode (Guards And Thieves).
It's the essence of the gameplay.
In the GAT mode, there's two teams in a map, both of the teams have a distinct task :
The Guards' team that has to defend multiple objects scattered around the map (it's not randomized), by holding key areas against the Thieves attempts to gain territory and steal an object.
The Thieves' team that has to break the guards' defence by using cooperation and stealth in order to overcome the opposing team.
There's only one object that the thieves have to steal, it is diplayed on the screen of every thief (but not the guards) and the Guards are not aware of what object it is.
This creates a defense/offense gameplay for both teams.
Pro Light/darkness and sound
OGAT's gameplay is mainly based on light and sound. I personally like the sound of the game. You can precisely track someone by hearing his footsteps and it's definelty one of the core composant in the balance of this game.
OGAT's Lighting system, depending on the map you play on (There are maps with more open areas than others) balances with light-switches (coloured in red), few generators (blue boxes) and! and fixed lighting
The Lighting system of OGAT generates a gameplay where Thieves have constant vision in darkness. And the Guards can use the Flashlight of their guns to venture into the dark. This really adds an original aspect to the gameplay.
In a hallway ( let's say of an indoor map for instance ), Thieves can use darkness in their advantage by turning off lights with the Red switches. But in the same time for the guards, it symbolizes the footprint of a potential thief located in that area.
It is safer for guards to have lights on and safer for thieves to have lights off. Although depending on the situation :
- Letting lights off (as a guard) to strategically bait a thief encouraging him to push;
- Letting lights on (as a thief) to not center the attention of the guards in your direction
are good mindgames strats.
Pro Stealth
Pro Game modes
In OGAT you can either join dedicated servers with dedicated modes, or free voting modes servers where you vote for the gamemode you want to play. You can also create your own server and very easily.
There are game modes where the action happens in the night and where there's a Red Team with Thieves and a Blue team with Guards :
- GAT
- DE (Bomb Defusal) <3
- Capture The Flag (Guards vs Thieves)
- TDM (very competitive)
- VIP escape (The Guards team has a VIP that needs to reach one of the escape points of the map)
Next there are gamemodes that happen in the day but be careful of shades :
- IG (Insta kill gamemode)
- Mad ball :D
+other modes where only Guards fight as : - Gtdm (guards vs guards)
- Gctf (guards vs guards)
There is also the Soccer mode that has also a small competitive audience but is very fun to play aswell. And the Zombie Rush mode.
Of Guards And thieves has 2 exclusive game modes of which the access requires a premium DLC :
The Racing mode and the Map Editor mode.
The map editor has tons of content, it's worth to check it.
Cons
Con Lack of events
I wished there were a lot more of Tournaments and stuff. It only recently started to become more active on that part though.
Con Development Team
Poor game developers. Bans multiple people for simply stating opinions that hurt their feelings on a Discord server. Those people banned also happened to be one of the most active and top players offering good insight and critique on making the game better.
Con No party system
I've put this as a Con because many players complained about not being able to join a server with a friend without having the balance seperating them most of the time. But what other players usually do is pressing create server then they stack theirs friends on their team and wait for people to join!
Con In development
Of Guards And Thieves is not a complete game and it has only two developers, which means updates are sparse.