Topic: Thief (2014) -> Update: Ion Storm's cancelled modern-day Thief game info

[MysterD]

NEW -> 08-31-2015:
Eurogamer -> Article on the modern-day Thief game that was canned - Thief 4: A Dagger of Ways.


OLD:
Thief (2014) -> REVIEWS.
Polygon -> Eidos Montreal (makers of Thief 2014) have laid off 27 employees
GameSpot -> E3 2013 Stage Demo.
Youtube -> "Garrett The Master Thief" Trailer (E3 2013)."
Youtube -> Thief (Reboot) - "Teaser Trailer".
OXCGN -> Thief 1 vs. 2 vs. 3 vs. 4 Screenshot Comparisons.
XFire -> 4th Thief game is actually...just called THIEF and is a total reboot.
GameSpy ->T4 Trailer released; a bunch of dev's at Eidos-Montreal that worked on T4 have recently left - lead level designer, composer & two senior concept artists.
EGMNow -> Eidos says Thief 4 will be MORE than just a stealth game.
Destructoid -> First Thief 4 screen.


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OLDEST:
Eidos-Montreal is working on another "AAA" game, which begins w/ the letter "T."

Let's hope it's Thief 4.
And that the series will be done justice by Eidos-Montreal, if it is true.

I really liked Ion Storm's Thief: Deadly Shadows A LOT.
Thief 4 w/ Garrett back in medieval times would be great news to me.

And w/ the success of Assassin's Creed on consoles and its upcoming PC release, a Thief 4 would make sense to Eidos.

   
Thief 4 Hint? [April 04, 2008, 3:32 pm ET] - Viewing Comments

A news blurb from yesterday on the Eidos Montreal Website teases the fact that they are working on another project besides Deus Ex 3: "Eidos-Montréal is proud to announce the recruitment for our 2nd “AAA” project. … A hint! The title begins with the letter “ T ”… " (thanks Kaz).

If we speculate that this will be for an existing franchise (otherwise it's not much of a hint), knowing that the TimeSplitters series has moved to EA and that Tomb Raider: Underworld is being developed by Crystal Dynamics, this leaves us with reason to hope this may indicate a return of the stealthy Thief series. We're just sayin'…

[MysterD]

Eidos Montreal is teasing an IP that they'll be resurrecting is going to be announced soon.

World-class Studio

Our ethos here at Eidos-Montreal is ‘People come first’. It’s simple – the diverse and talented people that work here in the studio are the key ingredient to our success. What’s the number one source of motivation and inspiration for our developers and testers? It’s the exciting projects that they work on: AAA games, with high quality licenses that offer new challenges. The two games currently have in development will resurrect successful franchises like Deus Ex and our next project soon to be revealed...

Working on such high profile titles is hugely challenging and so we draw upon the other vital factor that is paramount to our success – you, the gamer! With your continued support, feedback and through our close work with the communities, we plan to deliver these titles safely back to you with a bang!

 



TTLG Forums is already speculating about it, of course...

[MysterD]

It's official. Website is up.
Thief 4 has been announced.
Eidos-Montreal is working on it, as expected.

Official forums are up for this Thief 4 game, as well.

Now, BluesNews has the announcement, but not too much is said there really on the game.

EDIT:
Thief 4 Interview w/ Stephane D'Astous of Eidos-Montreal, who says a whole lot of...pretty much nothing, basically

[Pugnate]

Awesome news. Hope it is good! Thanks for the update D-Diddy.

[Xessive]

I'm already itching for some stealth games.

[MysterD]

I'm already itching for some stealth games.

We ain't had a Splinter Cell, Hitman, or Thief game in some time...

[Pugnate]

The new Splinter Cell (Conviction) is out in a few months too.

[Xessive]

The new Splinter Cell (Conviction) is out in a few months too.

Oh I forgot about that! I wonder what changes they made since they restarted the project in 2007.

Last month I reinstalled Thief 3 just to try and sate the stealth hunger, man it's a good game but I completely forgot how bad the textures were! Thankfully John P still has his hi-res texture packs online!

It was good to go through the game again. T3 is my favourite of the Thief games, as much as I liked the first one it had some annoyances that weren't resolved until T3. I played about 3-4 hours worth before I uninstalled it again.

[MysterD]

I thought T3 was severely underrated. Really enjoyed it, to say the least.

I did like T1 quite a bit, though never finished it. Never installed T2.

I'll have to eventually try to get T1 and T2 going on Win XP here, sometime...

[Quemaqua]

I enjoyed the games.  Hopefully this one doesn't suck.

[iPPi]

Thief 3 had some good stuff going for it but suffered from being 'console-ized'. 

[W7RE]

I've always loved the idea of a hardcore stealth game, but I've never played one that did it to my satisfaction. (though I've barely touched any of the thief games, so I'm probably missing out) I did play the demo for Thief (2 I think?), and just remember sneaking around for a while and then beeing seen by guards and getting assraped. My biggest pet peeve in stealth games is when beeing discovered means you're gonna get bent over and might as well reload your last checkpoint/save the moment you're caught.

So, how was the Thief series in this aspect? I thought I had heard some were more lenient than others?



Either way I'm excited about a new hardcore stealth game coming out and I'm itching to try it out.

[Xessive]

Stealth games in general penalize you for breaking the sneaky approach but sometimes they give you the choice in the matter.

In the Thief games you are strongly urged to adhere to the traditional stealth role, however if you do stumble and wind up getting discovered you do have a chance to make the best of it. Garrett is a capable swordsman and can handle parrying one guard, even two guards if you're good enough to handle it. If you are overwhelmed it's gonna be real hard to fight them off and your best option to survive is by running, breaking the line of sight, and hiding until the heat goes off.

It's become a common tactic among stealth games with the exception of a few odd missions where detection = failure.

Comparing Thief with Splinter Cell I felt the latter was more open to the player's style of play. I found it more forgiving for players who were compelled to just pull out a gun and blast their way through some scenarios, indeed in some it is the faster option. What I liked about it is that if you chose to take this path you had to be good at it, you couldn't just shoot the first guy and think you were gonna cakewalk it right past the rest. If you wanted to do it you had to be a sharp headshot pro.. At east until they added the shotgun add-on to the game.

Another series I think fit in with the stealth genre but took with a more puzzle/strategy approach is Commandos. It was an interesting take on it and it appealed more to players who weren't big fans of manual camera control or 1st-person shooters. Basically Commandos is to Diablo as Thief is to Quake.

[W7RE]

Yea my issue is with how hard a game is on the player when he's discovered. Even in Splinter Cell (first one, never really messed with the others), I felt at a disadvantage when I was discovered, unless I managed to pull off a quick kill and no other guards were alerted. I actually tend to play games stealthy when it's an option, just because of paranoia. When the enemies don't see me, I'm safe and have the advantage. I used to play HL2 deathmatch against my brother like this, and he played the same so it was fun listening for him to make a noise.

[Xessive]

hehe Quake 2 DM ended up like that for us too! We'd keep our ears open for footsteps. Apparently I was the only one who knew about the walk and crouch keys

[MysterD]

Garrett in his 4th outing here might be ALSO coming to the PS3.

[MysterD]

Destructoid -> First Thief 4 screen.

[Ace_O_Spades]

Thief 2 was the pinnacle. Thief 3 was a watered down, console bastardization. I hold out little hope for this one to be any better. But I will play, oh yes. I will play. But that's just because I need to support stealth games in hopes that someone will make a good one eventually that doesn't just pay lip service to stealth and instead rewards the misanthropic loner who has nothing better to do than spend 95% of the game hiding and listening.

[edit]

Why do I get the feeling from this screenshot that I'm going to have to do some bullshit Assassins Creed-esque "douse 12 lanterns in 1:30 to gain a meaningless token or unlock a new area of the map" quest. Too early to tell, but I'm artificially lowering my expectations after 3 shat all over my bright and shiny hopes.

[MysterD]

EGMNow -> Eidos says Thief 4 will be MORE than just a stealth game.

[idolminds]

I don't really like the sound of that.

[MysterD]

I don't really like the sound of that.

I don't either.
I have this bad feeling, that T4 could turn out to be TOO much like Assassin's Creed series...

[Xessive]

Tough to say at this point. I'm not against Thief getting new features as long as they're appropriate to the franchise as well as the genre e.g. I wouldn't want an on-the-rails vehicle/turret sequence.

I'm optimistic. Considering that the devs have seen how Deus Ex evolved, they have a benchmark to gauge their standards. The core of Thief's gameplay is stealth so they can't compromise it as the staple of the franchise. Well, they could it would just be a profoundly stupid move.

[MysterD]

GameSpy -> Some T4 news...
T4 Trailer released.
Also, a bunch of dev's at Eidos-Montreal that worked on Thief 4 have recently left - lead level designer, composer, and two senior concept artists.

[MysterD]

XFire -> 4th Thief game is actually...just called THIEF and is a total reboot.

[MysterD]

GameSpot -> Stage Demo on Thief (Reboot)

I did ask @CTWatters & @GameSpot on Twitter if there would be Rope Arrows...
...Around 10 minutes in, my Rope Arrow shows.
And GameSpot noticed I asked about it...and there they are showing it!
They mention me (Derick).

Boo-yah!

[MysterD]

THIEF (2014) -> REVIEWS

METACRITIC -> PC; PS4; PS3; XB1; X360.

Out of 100:
GamingTrend -> 85
PC Gamer -> 79
Play UK -> 70%
VentureBeat - GamesBeat -> 70

Out of 10:
InsideGamingDaily -> 8.5
GameInformer -> 8
The Globe And Mail -> 8
CVG -> 8
God Is A Geek -> 8
Destructoid -> 7.5 (review); "PC Port Report" on the technical stuff + the actual PC port itself.
PSU -> 7.5
GameTrailers -> 7.5
Edge Online -> 7
OXM UK -> 7
XBox One UK -> 7
LazyGamer -> 6.9
IGN -> 6.8
ActionTrip -> 6.3
GameSpot -> 6
Polygon -> 6
GamesTM -> 6
Eurogamer -> 6
PlayStation LifeStyle -> 5.5
AusGamers -> 5.1
Metro UK -> 5
EGM Now -> 3.5

Out of 5:
Joystiq -> 4 stars
DarkStation -> 4 stars.
GamesRadar -> 3 1/2 stars
GameRevolution -> 3.5
Rev3 Games -> 3 stars.
PC World -> 3 stars.
OC Mod Shop -> 3
Giant Bomb -> 2 stars

No score:
TotalBiscuit -> WTF is...Thief? (approx. 51 minute look at the game)
RockPaperShotgun ->  "Wot I Think" Article -- "It may be the fourth best Thief game, but it’s a damned fine game in its own rights."
Ars Technica -> "Thief reboot should have stayed hidden."
Kotaku -> "Should You Play This Game?" "NO."
Forbes -> Erik Kain: "'Thief' Reboot Is A Calamitous Disaster Of Epic Proportions."

[Xessive]

Wow, these scores are all over the place!

[Pugnate]

Brutal! DOA!

[scottws]

You know a scoring system is completely broken when 6/10 means it sucks.

[Cobra951]

You know a scoring system is completely broken when 6/10 means it sucks.

In school, a 60% test score means failure.  It takes 80% to get to good.  I've always looked at 10- and 100-based game scores the same way, and I'm guessing that's the norm.  Yeah, it's a waste of a lot of range, but as long as we all understand the skewed weighting of the scale, it works.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I don't see that as broken. A game at like a 1 or a 2 is completely screwed up, probably ugly, has horrible sound design, a non-functional UI, lame plot, terrible gameplay, whatever. A 5 or 6 isn't like that, but the game itself is pretty average. It might look good, generally, or be a little rough around the edges. Might be sorta fun, but not great. An 8 is great but missing a few things. A 9 is close to perfect. A 10 either doesn't miss much of anything at all, and is just well-crafted in general, or is so astoundingly good to make up for whatever few flaws it has. Those bottom ranges are only for games that truly suck, and while it does skew the scale, obviously more games are going to be at least middling rather than completely terrible.

[Pugnate]

You know a scoring system is completely broken when 6/10 means it sucks.

Actually, the problem isn't with the scoring system. It is with us. We are more picky when it comes to expensive games. Well, I don't see it as a problem. It is just how it is.

6/10 still means the game is slightly above average, but for our $50, anything less than a 9 or an 8 isn't worth it. So while the scores aren't saying the game sucks, and are saying it is only above average, we as consumers feel it sucks and is DOA.

Basically, the thing is that when it comes to 'AAA' games which are sold at $50-$60, anything less than excellent is not worth buying, and thus 'sucks'.

So essentially, while 6/10 might be a very just score for this game, to be fair, anything less than an 8 means the same thing for an AAA game.

The game actually doesn't suck. If you read the reviews, the game is OK. The problem is that we just expect AAA games to be so good that they deserve a score of 9/10. If not, they are a disappointment.

I think the reason is that unlike movies, where you can still happily pass the time for $5-$10 at an average movie, a triple A game is a bigger investment in terms of money and time, so it has to be amazing.

The reason I don't think this is a problem is because the gaming landscape has changed. Thanks to PSN, XBL, Steam, and mobile gaming, you have a ton of indie games that cost a few bucks and are worth buying even if they are a 7/10 because they are so cheap. This means that developers who don't want to take a risk can freely make games for such markets.

On the other hand, you still have big budget games like Thief 4, and the risks the studios take with these is that they have to make the games really awesome, or risk failure.

[Xessive]

Half of those reviews don't seem to know what the heck they're on about. I finally got a taste of the game and I'm really enjoying it.

It's clearly a Thief game and a worthy successor. The story is not strong but it's certainly not as convoluted as some of those reviews make it out to be. If anything most of the complaints seem to based around misplaced expectations e.g. the world is not as open as they thought it would be.

If it's a question of the price to enjoyment ratio I'm definitely having a blast even if I had paid $50 for it. I grabbed it with the pre-order 10% off + a 30% off voucher on GMG, so I only paid about $33 for the Master Edition. That said, I really don't like the "bang for your buck" argument because the quality of a game shouldn't really depend so much on the price unless it's an extreme: exorbitantly high or ridiculously low. With that argument, would you pay $60 for a multiplayer-only game like Titanfall?

Anyway, coming back to Thief, it's a solid game so far. It's certainly in better shape than Deus Ex HR was on release, froma  technical standpoint.

By the way, I'm having the same sort of reaction regarding Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. I cannot comprehend the criticisms in some of the negative reviews I've read so far. I'll discuss that in the respective thread though.

[Cools!]

I'd like to add two points to the issue of scores:

First, gaming is already filtered: not every game gets made or published. So what we end up seeing already tends to be "good", at least by our current standards, hence in part the reason why the scoring scale is skewed towards the upper half. Even when we do see really bad games they tend to come from other countries or indy companies and they are mostly reviewed not for the sake of completeness but just as a joke.

Second, I still think that most if not all of the large gaming publications and websites are biased when it comes to big titles in order to maintain good relationships with the developers and publishers so they continue receiving whatever benefits (early access to next games, etc.) they currently get from them. Since gaming scores are so subjective and consist of many parts it's not hard to bend things around so a big title still gets a high score even it if has issues.

[MysterD]

Half of those reviews don't seem to know what the heck they're on about. I finally got a taste of the game and I'm really enjoying it.

It's clearly a Thief game and a worthy successor. The story is not strong but it's certainly not as convoluted as some of those reviews make it out to be. If anything most of the complaints seem to based around misplaced expectations e.g. the world is not as open as they thought it would be.

If it's a question of the price to enjoyment ratio I'm definitely having a blast even if I had paid $50 for it. I grabbed it with the pre-order 10% off + a 30% off voucher on GMG, so I only paid about $33 for the Master Edition. That said, I really don't like the "bang for your buck" argument because the quality of a game shouldn't really depend so much on the price unless it's an extreme: exorbitantly high or ridiculously low. With that argument, would you pay $60 for a multiplayer-only game like Titanfall?

Anyway, coming back to Thief, it's a solid game so far. It's certainly in better shape than Deus Ex HR was on release, froma  technical standpoint.

By the way, I'm having the same sort of reaction regarding Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. I cannot comprehend the criticisms in some of the negative reviews I've read so far. I'll discuss that in the respective thread though.

I really think when there's a brand-name involved w/ something classic like Looking Glass's Thief games and even w/ how surprisingly great (I thought, at least) Thief: Deadly Shadows turned out, people have expectations through the moon - even if a game's been in development Hell forever like Thief 2014. We're talking about Thief series here - the game that, more or less, invented first-person stealth. I think people expect certain things, from playing Thief 1 + 2 - i.e. they expect a masterpiece in both terms of story and gameplay. I think people are putting so much stock in brand-names, "hype pieces" that (so-called) professional sites are putting out, reading piece that totally smash a game in a preview, and/or any things of that nature - they are already setting themselves up for disappointment and/or for not liking a game that much.

I still scratch my head, after playing games like The Bureau: XCOM Declassified & Dragon Age 2 - wondering why the hell everybody expected masterpieces (Dragon Age 2) or why people are hating a game before even playing it (The Bureau). I think this is why those 2 games scored so poorly. And when people play a masterpiece and the sequel or a game under the same brand-name isn't as great as previous said game, everybody just say, "This game sucks!" I'm sorry, guys - masterpieces only come once and a full moon; a lot of factors go into a masterpiece; and a lot of that does involve having a certain kind of timing (when the game comes along), as well.

And I'm sure when games by week of release and drop $60 on said product, they have this extra gamer-entitlement of "I dropped $60 - this better be a masterpiece."

[MysterD]

IGN -> Graphics Comparison - PC vs. PS4 vs. PS3 vs. XB1 vs. X360

Eurogamer -> Digital Foundry = Graphics Comparison PC vs. XB1 vs. PS4.
Specific comparisons from the Foundry:
PS4 vs. PC.
XB1 vs. PC
PS4 vs. XB1

[MysterD]

Anybody here have a PC w/ 4 Titans in it running Thief 2014 at Ultra?
PC Gamer does.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/03/01/thief-gameplay-video-maxed-settings-at-2560x1440-on-lpc/

[Xessive]

Anybody here have a PC w/ 4 Titans in it running Thief 2014 at Ultra?
PC Gamer does.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/03/01/thief-gameplay-video-maxed-settings-at-2560x1440-on-lpc/

No but I've got a 780M and I'm running it on Ultra at 1920x1080. I'm averaging about 40 fps.

It is a gorgeous game. I'm surprised none of the reviews are commending on its visuals at least.

[MysterD]

No but I've got a 780M and I'm running it on Ultra at 1920x1080. I'm averaging about 40 fps.

Awesome!

It is a gorgeous game. I'm surprised none of the reviews are commending on its visuals at least.

I think they (the reviewers) are so hopped-up on "oh, it doesn't entirely play like the OLD Thief games; and the story + characters in their opinion ain't so spectacular", they ain't looking at it for its graphics entirely. From what I've seen in reviews + videos showing-off the game (TB, Eurogamer/Digital Foundry, IGN) - this game looks stunning on the PC.
Even the current-gen and older-gen console versions don't look too bad - they just don't look like the PC version.

Even though I can wait for better prices, I can't wait for this game to drop in a sale at a nice price - like how I always often buy games.

[Xessive]

I'm further into the game. Story-wise, it's got a tale to tell though it's not quite as compelling as the previous games, particularly Deadly Shadows. It's not bad at all though.

The gameplay is traditional Thief, it's what you'd expect of a game in the franchise, let alone the genre. I especially love the context-sensitive traversal; there's no "jump" button per se, it's more a "traverse" button that acts depending on the environment: jump, mount, climb, drop, swoop, etc. It just makes sense. Kudos to Eidos Montréal for breaking tradition and dropping the generic "jump" and majorly enhancing first-person platforming, which is frankly irritating in other first-person games (except Mirror's Edge, BRINK, and Titanfall).

I cannot comprehend what the complaints are about. They're starting to sound like the rantings of a Call of Duty player who is abruptly thrown into a stealth game.

I'll agree that the "open world" is not quite as open as everyone expects when that label is thrown around but it's not a major issue. Honestly, I have never played a Thief game with that expectation in mind. It must have multiple solutions to problems but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a sandbox game. It is a bit more open than Dishonored in that you can explore the town and take on side missions more freely.