14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Eidos Montreal says that it is making the stealth mechanics in its upcoming Thief 4 difficult to master, with players only able to escape guards if they know the level layout and can find a solid hiding spot.
Daniel Windfeld Schmidt, a lead level designer, tells ShackNews that, “There are hiding spots where you can go where guards are less likely to search. […] You don’t have to be perfect. Guards will give up after a while if they can’t find you. You can also use focus combat to take out a guard or two as needed.”
Players need to explore all the areas they are getting through in order to make sure that they know where they can run to in order to get away from the attention of their enemies.
The developer also says visibility will be crucial to stealth and that Thief’s engine will evaluate a lot of variables in order to decide whether a player is visible or not.
He adds, “And peripheral vision is involved. If a guard sees something move out there, he is going to look in that direction. It is a much more slow reaction if they aren’t sure, but if you are right in front of them, they will react much faster.”
Thief 4 will offer gamers a new way of getting out of danger, with Garrett able to generate a short burst of speed at certain times in order to evade an enemy and get to a safe place.
The ability will be limited and will not be enough to get the thief out of a general alert, but it can be used to make sure than an initial detection does not escalate in a negative way.
Thief 4 is set to appear on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony and Xbox One from Microsoft in 2014.