Thief

[Ayen]

Meanwhile over in Montreal, the stealth game Thief is set to come out for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One the final week of February. I thought it'd warrant its own thread. I found out about it through the 2014 Video Games wiki page and since I love stealth games I'm interested to see how well it does. I'm unfamiliar with the other games in the series, though. Would one have to be in order to play this?

Anyone plan on getting the game when it comes out?

[BlueD]

It looks like a good play im going to get it but since its close to lighting returns im gonna hold off from buying it right away.

[NeoCracker]

Have my copy paid off already.

[Bolivar]

Square Enix's Western division has been on such a streak of hit games lately I'm actually starting to have high expectations on this! Like I said in GG, I'm waiting to see its reception, but I might just grab this one on PS4.

[Quindiana Jones]

If you're the type of playing who enjoys creeping through the world and stealing things without anybody noticing, then imagining how angry the guards' bosses are when they find out that nobody even noticed Priceless Artifact X was missing, then you'll like the Thief games (2 is best).

And if SE manage to give this reboot that feeling of "tee hee, I'm a total dick, hee hee hee", then I will definitely be getting it.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Y'know the majority of us Thief fans were so looking forward to this 4th installment, but there are so many things that have already let us down.
Let me list a few:

- They changed Garrett's voice actor because he "couldn't do stunts" (????)
- Word is they've removed a lot of the good old Thief lore, including ghosts, zombies, Hammerites, Pagans, Keepers, the whole nine freaking yards (in favor of brothels and hobos!) because they want it more mainstream (???)
- a dumbed down stealth system with only 2 visibility levels it seems as opposed to seamlessly fading levels of visibility. Taking away your ability to lean and pivot freely, crouching before you jump to soften the impact sound and such, in favor of scored headshots and quick-time events and hands on-screen, a hand-holding "focus mode" and "dashing" mechanics...

In short, I'm dubious about this. It makes me angry at this disappointment. I'm going to hold back and see what happens before I even touch it.

[EDIT]

Oh, and here's something you might need to know as well.
And then the interview with Eidos Montreal following this incursion of information was quite the treat.

And let's not forget that they're trying to say Thief Fans, which have access to all the older games, are remembering the Thief Franchise wrong.

[Del Murder]

What other game series is Thief most like or is it a completely unique series?

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Well, to be quite honest Thief is of its own. Many would say that it was the first stealth game to exist, but really that was Castle Wolfenstein. But it WAS the first 'first-person' stealth game.
The most important thing is that, while it's possible to kill, it's very much frowned upon. Only a crummy thief would have to kill.
With all other stealth games, like the Metal Gear franchise, the incentive to kill is there, and is rewarded.
Another bit about Thief that I'd all unique is the lore. It's a Golden Age steampunk with two religious groups butting heads (Hammerites and Pagans), an undercover group that tells the future and keeps records of history (the Keepers), zombies and other such undead walking around, unique monsters like Burricks, Craybeasts, Kurshocks, and apemen, and the need to steal steal steal steal. You even steal from ancient crypts like Tomb Raider (which in my opinion has been horribly watered down since 2006.)
The whole series has a sort of supernatural, mysterious feel to it that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I suppose the closest to Thief you can get is Dishonored, but that's only because of the first-person aspect and the importance of lighting and shadows.

[Quindiana Jones]

Thief 2 dropped the mystical nonsense and dinosaurs and focused on the thievery, and was the far superior game because of it.

[Ayen]

There were dinosaurs?

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

There were dinosaurs?

What, no

Thief 2 dropped the mystical nonsense and dinosaurs and focused on the thievery, and was the far superior game because of it.

There were no freaking dinosaurs. You must be thinking Tomb Raider.

and how the hell does a lack of 'mystical nonsense' make it superior? I think it only did a better job because the levels were more expansive and fun to explore. The lore pretty much stayed the same.
It had the Hammerites, the pagans, the Keepers, and the added plot device of the Mechanists. Zombies and ghosts were still a thing, as was the 'mystical nonsense' that Pagans toted around. Especially since they began to play an important role in the story near the end.

[Quindiana Jones]

I was being facetious, you sausages.

The first game was excellent, but against the less human enemies you were vastly outmatched if something went awry, and the writing - despite being generally excellent - often didn't connect the world to its inhabitants particularly well, I felt. Thief 2 remedied both these issues with far more character-driven writing and far fewer instances of zombies and monsters.

I think that the key aspects of a Thief game are a deep world with a well-developed backstory, sprawling non-linear worlds that promote open-ended exploration and clear and precise stealth gameplay. As long as these things remain the focus, I disagree that changing the world to better suit a different audience somehow ruins the magic of the series. Looking at the gameplay videos, the latter certainly seems to have been taken care of, and the levels I've seen looked at least reasonably open. I'm not completely convinced, but certainly enough to be willing to give it a chance.

[Ayen]

I'm kinda disappointed now that there weren't dinosaurs.

[Quindiana Jones]

I'm trying to list games that weren't improved by the existence of dinosaurs.

Genuinely got nothing.

[Pete for President]

Even though I haven't seen anything about this new Thief I'm intrigued by it anyway because

A: whenever someone talks about any Thief game I'm like: "hey that sounds like a game for me"
B: It's developed by Eidos Montreal and if they do as good a job as they did on Deus Ex: Human Revolution we're in for an awesome experience.