Daniel Schmidt the Lead Level Designer of Thief has sat down with IGN at E3 to give a level preview of the up-and-coming reboot of the popular stealth game!
Opening the level and setting the scene, Shcmidt said: “There’s a revolt at the city.” And there we see a burning, beautiful city – a landscape of towering stone buildings on fire in a jet-black night. As we run around as the Thief, it is entirely up to us what we choose to do in this scenario. “You take the opportunity to slick through the cracks and steal the heirlooms.”
So just who is the ‘Thief’ exactly? Well, as Schmidt says, “he’s an anti-hero.” He also makes a comment about the fact that you can choose which way your moral compass points – you can steal from virtually anybody in the game – rich or poor, and it’s completely up to you whether or not you do! “Most people have a pocket you can steal from.”
To steal you have to stay out of site, like any true Thief should, use your weapons to help ‘unlight’ your path to treasure. With water arrows you can turn out the lights, and make your path of shadows bigger, and more deadly to your enemies – in Thief you have to pick your battles – which means knowing when you can win, and knowing when you should just walk, or should I say sneak away…
Thief is of course a stealth game, but you can choose to play aggressively if you think you can handle it. “You run into the light, you’re not gonna last very long.” According to Schmidt you really need all the help you can get by using the environment to your advantage. In this game, even choices that would seem insignificant , such as taking a stone path over grass, can all lead to your detection. But the environment is interactive to help in aiding your stealth, as well as hindering. Things like turning off a tap of water will dry off the ground - helping you to make less noise and sneak past those pesky guards undetected.
Part of the game includes being able to choose whether or not to ‘focus’. ‘Focus’ being an ability which allows the Thief to basically power himself up, and see escape routes, heavy pockets and potential dangerous areas. Of course, it doesn’t come without a cost – and focus can be replenished by picking up items, the item in the demo being a poppy. “Picking flowers is always a pretty thing” jokes Schmidt as the Thief caresses the poppy in his gloved hands, before continuing on his way.
And there is plenty to do. Each level is packed full with lots and lots of loot. But Thief doesn’t dangle it in front of your face, oh no… If you want that loot, you’re going to have to work for it. Which means looking under every rock, into every basket, and in every little cubby hole - you have to be creative to find your jewels.
Until the IGN video of the Schmidt interview is available, have this similar gameplay interview with another Level Designer Adam Sessler to keep you satisfied. Or alternatively, you can check out another Gameplay interview here.
These were the main talking points of the level shown at the IGN interview, but I’m sure we’ll see more of it in the coming days before E3 draws to a close. What I happened to see was very impressive, and stealth is something I love in videogames, so if this is as good as it looks in this promising little snippet, it may be another game that’s won me over at E3. My list is certainly growing, and I’m simply dying to see what is unveiled at the Murdered interviews…. What do you think? Is this game simply a steal? Or would you rather not be robbed?
Thief is expected to hit stores 31.12.14
06-12-2013, 01:43 PM
Loony BoB
I've played the original Thief a little bit to get my head around how the gameplay works and it seems that they've stayed true to a lot of it, so that's pretty great. I'm looking forward to this - I don't know if I'll definitely buy it, it depends on my finances and how much time I'll have to play it when it's released. But I'd like to.
