What would you get if you mixed Robin Hood, Assassin’s Creed, Prince Of Persia and threw them into Dishonoured’s incredibly immersive world rendered and powered by NextGen graphics?
Well a team at Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) wanted to find out when rebooting the Thief franchise and they’re well on their way to creating a masterpiece. Speaking about the environment Thief’s main protagonist Garrett exists in, producer Joe Khoury said: “The world of Thief is a cauldron of anguish…you can almost feel the hatred in every stone in the city.”
And he’s not exaggerating, the main city hub that I had a chance to play through is a dark and dank squalor with beleaguered folk cowering in the shadows of every corner, suffering from a sickness that is slowly gripping the city known only as “the gloom”. Looking through Garrett’s eyes first-person style you can engage with the city and it’s inhabitants in some very interesting and unique ways, and it’s in this interaction that the obvious Dishonoured comparisons end.
In Thief you have no superpowers to get you out of trouble and across the terrain, instead you have to use cunning, planning and a keen eye for detail to spot ways to overcome any obstacles in your way. Your aim is to steal items of worth for trade (some just for trophy) and then you use the money you’re given to buy upgrades, tools for improved sneaking around and thievery and regens. You get missions from the game’s answer to James Bond’s “M” – Basso, a fat, greasy looking type – and I managed to work my way through the first five that were playable during the hands-on session.
The world of Thief is a cauldron of anguish…you can almost feel the hatred in every stone in the city.”
Each mission tasked me with thieving prized trinkets, a golden hair brush, a luxury pen, a treasured time piece for example, but there were no specific instructions as to how to go about it. Garrett is armed with a bow, complete with various different arrow types (Fire, Water, Blunt, Sharp), swift stealth movement and his focus ability (similar to that seen in Hitman) that will highlight points of interest – these, coupled with the environment provided a multitude of ways to approach my targets. The shadows provided great cover as I scoped out my next line of movement, or guard takedown.
Thief provides some serious depth in terms of exploration opportunities and rewards them handsomely. Whilst skulking around, dipping and diving into people’s homes and business, and catwalking across rooftops I found a couple of clues as to where hidden treasures may lay. Now we’re used to clues coming in the form of notes and journals being careless left around, but Thief goes one step further by rewarding you for eavesdropping. For example, whilst doing my ninja thing by an open window, I overheard a conversation between two ladies discussing a divorce and one revealed she had hidden a family heirloom behind the chimney, I had a look, and sure enough, there it was!
We’re used to hearing conversations between the AI as we pass through in-game environments now, but it’s particularly encouraging when occasionally paying attention to seemingly random conversations can provide you with in-game rewards. Other titles have employed similar devices but this was the most seamless effort I’ve seen yet and just another reason why I quickly found myself increasingly engaged by the world of Thief.
Eidos Montreal have spent a lot of effort in order to really put you in Garrett’s shoes, using his hands and great camera work to (mostly) strong effect, for example, when you peer around a corner, his hands delicately grab the wall/door frame and the camera leans as you tweak your analogue stick. It’s so effective that I caught myself and some of the other journalists at the hands-on tilting our heads and mirroring Garrett’s movements a number of times.
Nit picky things at this stage include the inability to quite tell friend from foe when moving around the city, people who were obviously not guards would either ignore you or scream for the guards’ attention alerting them to your presence – but it wasn’t always easy to tell who gave a damn and who was too sick and poor to care. It led to a couple of irritating confrontations that could have been easily avoided – Lesson? Trust no one and stick to the shadows – stealth in Thief is most definitely my weapon of choice as taking guards on in hand-to-hand combat is frantic and rarely left me unscathed, although the cinematic finishers were skull-crackingly awesome.
I also think Eidos Montreal have slightly overdone it with the Garrett animations showing his hands snaking out to pick up each and every item you pickup. Whilst this may not sound annoying at first, imagine picking up five coins and seeing his hand come out every time you press X to interact, surely it would be easier to add the ability to “grab all” by holding down the X button?
Whilst it’s the little things that have got me really excited about Thief, it’s the little things that could ruin all of the awesomeness I’ve seen so far. But with a pencilled release date of February 28th 2014, Eidos Montreal have almost five months to work out the kinks, so hopefully they do.
So far – we’re loving what we’ve seen and Thief is looking like a serious contender for 2014. Check out the latest gameplay trailer:
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