14 DAY TRIAL // After an official confirmation yesterday, more details have appeared about the Thief reboot, currently in development at Eidos Montreal, which will apparently have a more realistic approach to gameplay, allowing Garrett access to plenty of gadgets and only very few abilities.
Thief titles have delivered some great stealth experiences many years ago, but for quite some time Garrett and his adventures entered an actual cone of shadow.
Fortunately, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix revealed yesterday, through Game Informer magazine, the simply titled Thief project, a reboot of the series.
After hearing an official description for the game, the first gameplay details have surfaced, thanks to the GamingEverything which has taken a look at the cover story in the magazine.
In the list below, you can learn quite a few things about the AI system, Garrett's abilities, which include a special mechanic called Focus, but also his various gadgets, tools, and weapons, not to mention Eidos Montreal's approach to the game's development.
[admark=1]AI - Garrett isn't a fighter - Fighting against four or more guards in combat won't go well - Guards and other NPCs are aware of the level design, so they know where a person might try to hide - Guards understand the topography of the level and which areas could be useful for hiding - Different NPCs will look for Garrett in different ways
Gameplay mechanics
- Navigation beacon shows players where to go - Dev team wants players to explore environments as they see fit - Multiple entrances and exists in each room - Multiple options available for stealth approach - "Focus" mechanic: has many uses, including being able to aid Garrett's vision as he navigates through open levels - Focus lights up the screen and highlights pipes you can climb + candles you can put out to make the room darker - Can upgrade Focus - Doing so will give you a bigger radius of things to see - Fingerpints system: gives you hints on which drawers are best to look in - Every drawer is accessible - Can pickpocket - Use Focus while pickpocketing to slow time and swipe up to three times as many items from others - Can spend money to upgrade supplies and equipment at the end of each mission - Various artifacts are scattered throughout the game's levels - Can use these to decorate Garrett's hideout - Garrett is motivated by the thrill of stealing something that others can't take - Focus will show a number of attack points on enemies - Can select a point (like the chest) to do a quick push that will buy him more time to dash off into the shadows - Can also string together a number of points to perform a more debilitating attack - Team is trying to find a balance between making combat enjoyable and allowing players to enter combat if they want - Major mechanics are in place
Tools
- Blackjack: use when sneaking up behind guards to knock them unconscious - Bow: powerful, can be used outside of combat (ex: fire at a bottle in another room to lure a guard away, trigger a switch to lock the guard inside) - Specialty Arrows: different uses; dry-ice arrow can be used to snuff flames from far away; smoke-starter arrow: cover and a distraction - Claw: grapple attaches to certain points
General
- Garrett design made by game director Nicolas Cantin - Garrett's scar represents that his past has left long-lasting effects on his life - Eidos being vague about how faithful the team is remaining to the original Thief lore - Many of the series' magical elements will be toned down - "Eidos-Montreal compares game development to a high-speed train collision between art and technology." - Team was kept small and "stayed within the concept phase of development for a longer period of time." - The staff experimented with featuring a new character, making it a third-person game involving either tactical gameplay or environmental clambering (like Assassin's Creed) - "At one point in development, the game had so many third-to-first-person transitions that the constant camera shifting was making people sick." - Many experiments during first three years of development.
The new Thief game will be released in 2014 across platforms like the PC or PlayStation 4, but also on "other next generation devices," like the oft-rumored Xbox 720.