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First off, why write a review for a ten year old game? Well, it's still being sold, it's being included in sales, and perhaps people want to still buy it. Also it's worth writing when the game is good.
I've been thinking about Sir, You Are Being Hunted on-and-off for a decade. My history with the game started in the year of its release, 2013. The then newish Macbook Pro I had wasn't up to the task of running the game properly, so I had to give up and let the game wait until I was in possession of some actual game playing hardware. Even though short, the time I spent with Sir back then proved me that the game in its sneakiness wanted to convey something similar to my then and present favourite Thief. But Thief it is not.
Looking at the game now with a decade worth of playing, thinking about, and making games I can more clearly see that Sir aims to be first and foremost about survival. Sneaking just happens to be something you need to do in order to succeed in surviving. It's also a game about its environment. The sense of place the game gives the player is strong, with definite love and interest to such real world places from the developers shining through.
As good as it generally is, some aspects of the game feel a bit off. Why for example give the player the opportunity to loot useless junk and even eat some of it, if the consequences are always just going to be bad? I get it in an aesthetics sense, in reality the world would be filled with junk and spoiled food and it's fun for the player to fail in finding something useful, but this leaves me thinking that more could've been done with these items.
Saving being possible only in certain places is good as it emphasizes the aspects of survival. The player has to take risks and when they pay off its well worth it. But it can get frustrating trying to sneak through an island for the fifth time after being helplessly murdered by the crack shot enemies. After gaining weapons and ammo battling the robots became more of a viable tactic of survival and I started to hope for silent ways of taking the enemies down. Something like this might take the game into a wrong direction tho.
Enemy spawns are randomized each time the player loads a save, disincentivizing planning. Killing the enemies feels a bit redundant too, as they will spawn back in, latest when you have to load. As the game progresses the enemies will start to patrol in higher numbers, making the sneaky retrieval of the game's MacGuffin pieces harder. About half-way in I had enough and lost all desire to finish the game. Perhaps I'll return to the archipelago one day or perhaps I'm finally done thinking about this game.
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During the years after Sir's release its mechanics of sneaking and survival horror have been both taken further and executed better by other developers. Sometimes in the same game, like Gloomwood! Compared to either older classics or newer indie games Sir feels a bit rough. Nonetheless it has a charming style of its own, the world is well thought out and the vibes of the English countryside are so pleasant that sometimes I forgot that I actually was being hunted.
If you're a fan of sneaking around, the tender pressure of constantly finding food to eat, and blasting robots into pieces you will enjoy your time with Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Just don't be afraid to call it quits when you've had your fill.