Posted on April 4, 2013, Ian Miles Cheong Everything We Know About The Thief Reboot
The team at Eidos Montreal has had a lot to show of their newest game, Thief, in recent days.
Fresh off the success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Eidos Montreal began work on a reboot of the Thief series of games, originally developed by Looking Glass Studios. The game was initially called Thief 4, or “THI4F”, and advertised as such early on, but it got a snappy name change at some point during its development to become Thief.
With the cat out of the bag, here’s everything we know about Thief.
Perspective
The game is played from the first-person perspective, occasionally shifting to the third-person during Garrett scales walls or enters into combat. The first-person perspective is inherently limiting of your awareness as it allows you to only see what’s ahead of you. The switch to the third-person view provides the player with more awareness of their surroundings, especially in combat. Garrett is an agile acrobat, and the viewpoint provides the player with a keen appreciation of his capabilities.
For the most part, you’ll be playing the game in first-person with a full view of Garrett’s hands with only occasional switches to the third-person view.
The Character
Like the original series, the new Thief stars Garrett, a master thief who only looks out for himself. It’s not yet known who voices the character, but Stephen Russell will not be reprising his role as Garrett. He was considered, but the studio ultimately decided upon a performance capture of Garrett with the casting of Romano Orzari.
“Yes, it was actually very early during development at that time that we had him involved, before we made the decision to record our actor’s voices and their movement at the same time using a full performance capture technique,” says audio director Jean-Christophe Verbert.
The developers say that with the new game, the voice actors would have to wear a full mo-cap suit to record their facial animations, voices, and movements all in a single take.
His Abilities
Garrett is armed with lockpicks, a deadly bow, a host of elemental arrows fit for every situation, and a blackjack to knock out unsuspecting guards. The inclusion of a bow in his arsenal isn’t a “flavor of the month” decision by its developers, as the bow has always been an armament original to the character.
New to Garrett’s arsenal is a grappling hook called “The Claw”. It works like Corvo’s Blink ability in Dishonored and allows Garrett to travel to hard-to-reach places.
Also new to the series is Garrett’s ability to Focus, allowing him to slow down or speed up time or improve skills like lockpicking, pickpocketing, and combat. While lockpicking a door, Focus will allow Garrett to open it faster and get in before he’s detected. Likewise, the ability also serves to highlight important objects, much like Assassin’s Creed’s Eagle Vision or Lara Croft’s Survival Instincts. When used in combat, Focus will allow Garrett to highlight weak spots on his opponents so he can dispatch them quickly and escape. It’s not unlimited, so you’ll have to use it sparingly—or not at all.
Garrett can throw objects to distract guards, avoid detection by sprinting across rooftops, and using water-based elemental arrow tips to extinguish flames. Garrett can also spy through peepholes and eavesdrop on conversations in his vicinity. In other words, he’s the Garrett we know and love with a bit of extra spice.
Progression and Mastery
Garrett is a master thief, but there’s still room for improvement. The developers at Eidos Montreal intends for players to accumulate (and later sell) items of considerable value for the purpose of upgrading his gear. He will also be able to improve his skills, although the developers are hesitant to reveal to what extent that will come into play.