I began at the very beginning of Thief with the most up-to-date build of the game (so near final quality) and played for four hours straight. I’m going to say right at the start, I could’ve happily played more. While I do have a couple of concerns which I’ll get to I thoroughly enjoyed my time and I’m looking forward to the final game. The Thief series is my favourite gaming franchise and I know the first three games intimately, however I am open to change (ladders for example being Garrett’s true nemesis) and will say that older fans who dislike Thief: Deadly Shadows might well feel the same about this. On the other hand those that liked the erstwhile Thief III should find a lot to love about the game formerly known as THI4F.
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| The Crippled Burrick. Home to the gassiest beers this side of Markham’s Isle |
The first and most obvious fan-bait is just on the menu screen. Eidos Montreal have added an amazing number of customisation options to make Thief either harder or easier in a lot of areas. Every feature added to assist players, like a target reticule, glowing loot or even the new Focus Mode can be turned off. In a chat at Eurogamer Expo last year someone asked the developers if Garrett’s comments during missions could be turned off, even though they were a staple of the original games, and that is now an option on the menu. Any type of hint can be turned off, the UI scaled down to nothing or put to fade after a couple of seconds (I like that), and even the Light Gem can be removed. Rather coolly there’s even a Custom Difficulty mode with plenty of options for a more realistic, more Classic, or just plain harder Thief (stealth takedowns only, no health items, failure on detection, these kinds of things). Oh, and there’s an Iron Man mode too.
The first mission, ‘Prologue’, is basically a linear tutorial mission to introduce you to Garrett, the world, the controls, a few subtleties of stealthing (such as moving slowly around caged birds and on certain surfaces), a few basic pieces of equipment and Erin, Garrett’s young ex-apprentice. I particularly liked how I was forced to go slowly, rather than just crouched, through water or on broken glass, which was something the first two games had and the third (and Dishonored) didn’t. Garrett begins in a sleeping noble’s bedroom, goes across the “Thieves Highway” of the rooftops where he meets Erin, and towards the Baron’s manor. One of storyline things I did notice is that it’s rather hard to work out whether this is actually Thief 4, a direct continuation of the series, rather than a reboot. There are a number of hints towards it (not the least of which is Erin, who was introduced at the end of Deadly Shadows), but also some potential suggestions towards a “hundred years later” remake of the first game with a different Garrett. I’ll get to all of these.
The main purpose of the Prologue in story terms is introducing Erin, who Garrett has a strained relationship with. She has taken a lot of his teachings but not all, so she’s skilled but makes rather too much noise and kills without a second thought, and Garrett makes fun of her for the first and thoroughly chastises her for the second. The point to the player is clear: don’t kill if you don’t have to (Eidos Montreal have even removed Garrett’s sword/knife), and keep out of sight and sound. Erin doesn’t agree, she just wants to get the job done. The job, incidentally, is the theft of a gem of Baron Northcrest’s, which it turns out he is using to conduct a strange ritual on behalf of a new religion called the Awakened. Despite Garrett’s warnings Erin interrupts the ritual and is seemingly killed, and Garrett awakes one year later to find the City under the grip of the Baron’s Watch and under siege by a plague called the Gloom, which is almost certainly related to whatever the Baron unleashed during the ritual.
Garrett’s return to the City wasn’t after a vacation, he really has no idea where he’s been. The first mission, ‘Lockdown’, begins with Garrett being hauled into the City in a cart and then having to make his escape to his Clock Tower hideout after being rumbled by the fuzz. As the Watch searched for me through the streets I made my way through bedrooms, rooftops, and a quick sojourn through a jeweller’s shop towards my goal. There were numerous paths I could’ve taken, and even just to get into the jeweller’s (which I could avoid entirely) I could’ve climbed through a side window, gone in a door in the back, snuck through a vent from an outside alley into the rafters, or lockpick the front door and barge in like a chump right into a guard and get hacked to bits, which is exactly what I did the first few times.
The AI’s a lot more alert now, I have to say. There’s no black/white “hidden or not”, there was several times where my Light Gem said I was hidden but as I’d just opened a door in front of a guard and dived across the room into a dark corner he naturally noticed me. I’m relieved to say that patience is often the watchword in Thief, which many series fans dissatisfied by the early videos (or Dishonored) will be happy to hear. I was very aware of my time limit so I was a bit impatient, and even on Normal difficulty with barely any of those customisable options tweaked I was regularly discovered and killed. It is possible to fight back with a blackjack with one opponent, or use a Choke or Flash Arrow on a couple (which only stuns them so you can take them down), but any more and you better run and get lucky or reload. Oh, and incidentally there’s no Deus Ex-style fancy takedowns here, except during combat (which can be turned off). Thump, hide, done.
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| Don’t trust him Garrett! He’ll pluck your eye out! Again! Probably! |
After finally getting to the hideout, where you can check out all the special trinkets you’ve collected, I found out my fence Basso was looking for me. Out the window and back down to the City proper, the free-exploration hub at last. If I so wanted I could go thieving around the City and just explore, which is great since Deadly Shadows attempted it but the world wasn’t sizeable enough to make it worthwhile… but here is where my big concern comes in. Unfortunately I have to report that Thief’s open-world areas aren’t particularly large either. They’re bigger than Deadly Shadows’, often with several levels, but they’re not much larger than Dishonored’s hubs and definitely not the open City Thief fans have been hoping for. Frustratingly just like in Deadly Shadows there’s also loading points so the City isn’t one big free-roaming area as hoped, which I’m pretty sure forcing Thief onto 360/PS3 as well as PC/next-gen is to blame for.
Basso was waiting for me in the Crippled Burrick inn, which I was relieved to discover had Burrick heads mounted around the bar so those giant gassy lizards definitely still exist in the Thief world, hooray. Anyway, Basso sent me off on my next mission, ‘Dust to Dust’, where I had to recover a priceless ring from the corpse of a nobleman from a charnel house. Basso also provides side-missions apparently, but this was the next major one. After popping to a merchant to purchase some supplies, including Water Arrows (for putting out fires), Choke Arrows (gas, can knock out enemies or stifle fires), Rope Arrows (which I never used because they still can only be used in certain points and the game never makes it clear where), Flash Arrows and a few equipment upgrades to my lockpicks (to make the little minigame easier, which has changed completely since I last saw it) and bow. I could also buy a Wrench and a Wire-Cutter, which you can use at certain points to open up new opportunities or paths Metroid-style.
‘Dust to Dust’ was an excellent little mission, introducing me to such delights as dogs, hanging from meathooks for a quick but dangerous shortcut, the dastardly moustached Thief-Taker General, and the rather pointless third-person Uncharted-style climbing. It’s a really minor part of the game as I only encountered them twice in four hours, but it’s a wonder why Eidos Montreal bothered putting it in at all. I’d rather have just jumped over a wall. Oh, Garrett’s little “Swoop” move that lets him quickly dodge now has its own button, with Sprint/Clamber separate (they previously were the same thing). There’s no just jumping anywhere, no way to fall off ledges or wooden beams without choosing to (although there may be an option to enable this), but sadly not everything can be climbed up and not every door opens. The game doesn’t have invisible walls, but it occasionally restricts your freedom, something none of the other games did. That’s my second concern. At least it doesn’t have QTEs anymore aside from hammering a key to lift a window or bar.
After the mission and a thankfully entirely sneaking-focused escape I met up with the intriguing blind Queen of Beggars seen in the recent trailer and Orion, the leader of the revolution, who was the one who paid me to steal the ring and now wants me to find a book hidden under the House of Blossoms, that den of ill-repute I saw in my last preview. As someone who played Thief: The Dark Project the “mysterious man paying me to steal strange artifacts for some unspoken purpose” thing sent my alarm bells ringing. After a quick spooky visit to Erin’s old apartment, which was covered in excellent traps, I picked up the rune-covered Medallion that I’d seen before and headed for the House of Blossoms. The House had been totally redesigned since the last time I saw it, and it was definitely a place where patience was required. I failed it so many times, but Garrett’s new ability to hide in cupboards (Outlast-like) proved useful – until a guard checked and stabbed me.
After viewing the runes hidden in certain rooms I used them to open a secret door with the Medallion to, and here is where the Thief fan in me leapt up and screamed, the Keeper Library from Deadly Shadows. While there was so far no sign of the Hammerites or the Pagans (a newspaper I picked up said that the Baron has been ridding the City of all the old religions in favour of his own) it was great to see the Keepers get acknowledged. This was the part that made me wonder if the game is actually set a few hundred years after the last game. The ruined Library is actually a bit of a puzzle room with sliding staircases, and as I was running low on time I tried to rush it and got incredibly stuck. And just as my session ended, I caught sight of something scurrying away in the shadows... something definitely not human.
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| The House of Blossoms, and it looks like I’ve been rumbled. Taff |
While I was a bit dismayed by the City hub not being as huge and open as I wanted, as well as the occasional restriction on player freedom which rankled me, I still left Square Enix’s offices thoroughly excited about Thief. Yes there are compromises for a new audience, not to mention the damn last-generation consoles (it looked lovely though fortunately), but it still felt like Thief. The AI had improved, the areas had multiple routes and plenty of hidden goodies (70% of which I didn’t find), the QTEs are basically gone, Focus Mode and any other type of realism-diminishing assistance can be turned off, there isn’t any sign that XP was ever in the game, and there were unnatural things lurking in the dark. Best of all was the absolute focus on stealth, stealing and sneaking, with no super-powers, no fighting if you want to live, and no big action-focused escape scenes. Oh, and yes, while there’s still no compelling reason for Stephen Russell not to be Garrett new guy Romano Orzari actually does a really good job in my opinion – I got used to him fast. He even cracked some dry jokes like Garrett would.
Some Thief series fans may still be worried, but this fan is optimistic. The story and the overall experience will be key to whether the game succeeds or fails, but I get the feeling that Eidos Montreal are pulling out all the stops to make Thief a great game. Just remember: everyone expected Deus Ex: Human Revolution to fail too and it ended up superb. Thief may well do just the same when it’s released for PC, 360, PS3, PS4 and XB1 on February 25th/27th. Assuming it doesn’t slip, of course. That Garrett’s a slippery customer.
Most Anticipated Feature/Element: The scary wet-your-pants horror level, which I might have just been about to stumble into. That and finding all the different ways to sneak into that jeweller’s shop.
