Thief 4?

joe123

Burgo wrote: »

Here's some gameplay footage from E3

Really disappointed with the look of it so far. This and Final fanasy 15 are the biggest disappointments for me this E3.

Zero-Cool

I think the top comment sums it up

Headshot 40xp"... sigh...

Awful AI when he gets caught, enemies and gameplay look last gent, don't mind this or next gen!

McSasquatch

All is not well with this game. Such a shame

pixelburp

I love the Thief franchise, though I wouldn't call myself a zealot in the sense that I am unwilling to see the series modernised (within reason) or try new things, so I watched that video with an open mind & hoping to see some cool new ideas in the world of stealth

This is another Syndicate, I can feel it. A dead but cherished IP dragged into modernity, its heart stripped out and packaged as a slice of bland gaming. As soon as the Dev spoke (with slight discomfort in his voice, dunno if others picked up on that) about how more action choices would be present, rather than the game be purely stealth-driven, that rang immediate alarm bells. Again, not because I'm a Thief puritan, but because clearly this game is going to be a game by committee. God forbid a First-Person title has the courage of its convictions and commits to a singular, specific angle. No no, we must include some sops for the action junkies cos we clearly have no vision or faith in this product.

The horrendous AI & muddy visuals didn't help either. Oh and the 3rd person take-downs. Blimey. I hated them in Deus Ex:HR, I hate them here. Again it smacks of a design by committee; where they're going for something that looks cool to wow people in video presentations and marketing, rather than focusing on a consistent aesthetic & experience.

I am wondering though: there were strong rumours that a 'gameplay' video seen at a previous expo was a massively choreographed, half-broken build, because the Thief project had fallen apart at that point & was teetering on the edge. I wonder if this is the same video.

Mr Freeze

I hate the DISHONOURED floating FPS hands.....we don't need that...

Anyways, I was always going to be slightly disappointed with the game, being a Thief purist. I replayed I & II countless times and could never pull myself away from the TTLG site, I was completely engrossed in the game, and its mythology.

From what I have seen so far of this Thief game, its Thief in name only. There is loads wrong, as already pointed out.

Bringing back Stephen Russell could salvage it, or make it bareable but having that generic american voice from the trailer or a silent Garrett, there is no forgiving that, imho.

Oh, it doesn't even have 2D arty cutscenes! Those were amazing. Im off to watch the Trickster reveal from Thief one now, just thinking of the sounds and stuff from the scene really brings me back.

Mr Freeze

What's the cloudy FPS view too???

Makes no sense.

Also, absolutely hate this new "Focus" feature, not needed, and is far from respectful to the franchises "DNA" as that fella said.

Mr Freeze

No Pagans and No Hammers!!!

If true, this so isn't a thief game. I can't watch any of the vis from Eidos about the game, when they say they know the thief DNA, I wanna puke.

Zero-Cool

That is brilliant! :pac:

The nuThief will not be.

pixelburp

Lol, if that's true, then Thief4 can officially go to hell. It's not like I ever thought for one moment this new game would do the franchise justice, but I'm still amazed at how the studio have successfully managed to miss most targets and drop the ball at every turn. But hey, I don't blame the studio here, they're just keeping their heads down & doing what's asked of them by the bean counters and marketing drones.

Nody

pixelburp wrote: »

Lol, if that's true, then Thief4 can officially go to hell. It's not like I ever thought for one moment this new game would do the franchise justice, but I'm still amazed at how the studio have successfully managed to miss most targets and drop the ball at every turn. But hey, I don't blame the studio here, they're just keeping their heads down & doing what's asked of them by the bean counters and marketing drones.

It's Syndicate all over again

pixelburp

Nody wrote: »

It's Syndicate all over again

Yup, pretty much. Probably all the talk about Dishonored and the Ex-Thief devs working on it reminded someone in Square/Eidos that they had the license gathering dust. Figured they could knock out an identikit game to pay lip service to the original games, latch onto a bit of goodwill generated by Dishonoured, yet spectacularly missing the point of what made the franchise so cherished to begin with. Cue mediocre reviews, less than stellar sales & the inevitable round of redundancies when the metacritic score doesn't reach the required target. Modern game development everyone; can't believe I nearly got into that industry...

Mr Freeze

Like losing Stephen Russell was a massive blow to me, I would probably have suffered a more actiony Thief game with him in it. I played Deadly Shadows after all :pac:

But, this focus thing, quick time events, and No Hammers or Pagans, this is too much.

Next we will hear that there is no undead walled off quarter of the city, I have to admit this is what I remember most from the Thief series, that and Cragscleft prison and the Cradle.

Those missions in the old quarter, and haunted catherdal, and prison's, were the most engrossing moments I ever played in any game ever.

This new game, doesn't even look to be making an attempt to capture what made the originals so good.

pixelburp

On the upside, all this depressing Thief 4 news does make me want to replay the old games for the umpteenth, bazillionth time; it's just a pity the engine looks so horrendously creaky now. I'm too lazy to search, but was there ever any projects to upscale the GFX in Thief 1/2 (ala the stellar work done on the System Shock 2 models / textures)

gizmo

pixelburp wrote: »

Yup, pretty much. Probably all the talk about Dishonored and the Ex-Thief devs working on it reminded someone in Square/Eidos that they had the license gathering dust. Figured they could knock out an identikit game to pay lip service to the original games, latch onto a bit of goodwill generated by Dishonoured, yet spectacularly missing the point of what made the franchise so cherished to begin with. Cue mediocre reviews, less than stellar sales & the inevitable round of redundancies when the metacritic score doesn't reach the required target. Modern game development everyone; can't believe I nearly got into that industry...

Highly doubtful since Thief 4 was announced in 2009 and Dishonored wasn't announced until 2011.

As the Polygon link earlier in the thread described, I'd imagine one of the principle problems with its development is the large amount of senior and lead design turnover the project has suffered from. There could be a bunch of reasons for this but my money is either they weren't allowed put their own stamp on the game or they objected to the influence coming from higher up or the always loathsome marketing departments. Neither are particularly positive situations to be in obviously.

gizmo

Stephane D'Astous, Eidos Montreal general manager, has resigned it seems.

Not good.

Mr Freeze

So from that, can we assume that Square Enix are pushing for the safer Thief game with mass appeal, (by getting rid of that that made it so good in the first place).

McSasquatch

This is going to be terrible.

Wossack

just gonna discount and ignore it entirely, and hope to be surprised down the line

Mr Freeze

Comments on TTLG forums about the E3 Demo.

Nobody there seems impressed, and you can't comment on the Eidos forums about whats wrong with this new Thief without being banned.

Let me summarize what I see:

- Gaining experience
- Edge of the screen dark fog filter
- Flashy 3rd person takedowns
- Headshots
- Playing aggressively is supported more than it should be
- Lack of any real dark corners and shadows
- Flashy 3rd person takedowns
- Dishonored 2
- Flashy 3rd person takedowns

More Comments:

So his hands actually DO float around on screen all the time? Even when a weapon is equipped? What the heck? Is he walking like a zombie? It gave me flashbacks to the Doom3 fists. Completely ridiculous.

That "cloak" is incredibly obtrusive. Takes up almost a third of the screen and looks ridiculous.

What is with the pop-ups over the guard's heads? Please tell me that is some kind of dev mode and that AI don't have words floating over their head while you play the game.

Giant, unnecessary wheel that takes up 50% of the screen every time you want to change weapons? Ridiculous.

You can block a sword with your blackjack?? Ridiculous.

Blinking red lights on the screen tell you WHERE the AI are even when you can't see them??? Fcking ridiculous.

This game is so fcked. Or its just not for fans of the original.

Mr Freeze

February 2014 release date supposedly.

Save the date, and prepare for the reviews saying how great it is, but it won't be a Thief game.

pixelburp

Yup, and the announcement came with a new trailer; it's all CGI of course, so it's next to useless really, but I suppose it at least gives a sense of the flavour & what the general plot might be. The apparent lack of Hammerites, Druids or anything supernatural is disappointing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3QQHurZrrU

Mr Freeze

Haven't see the trailer.

But no hammers, pagans, or keepers is not really keeping with the original.

I dunno, I think its gonna be sh1te.

Sierra Oscar

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Haven't see the trailer.

But no hammers, pagans, or keepers is not really keeping with the original.

I dunno, I think its gonna be sh1te.

It is sounding like someone just nicked the Thief title and is trying to stick it on an action game with some stealth here and there.

Terrible stuff, its not sounding good.

humanji

Well from the trailer we get that there's an oppressive regime, so that could still be in line with the older games. But it's also set long after the original trilogy, so it's possible the old factions have been enveloped or wiped out by this new faction. I can't imagine they'd wouldn't at least try to tie the story in with the original trilogy.

As for the game itself, I'm expecting something like the new Splinter cell game, as in it being a good game, but not like the old ones at all.

Mr Freeze

The voice in the trailer is so bad....

They found the most generic american accent they could. Its instantly forgettable.

Maximilian

It's going to have quick time events.

Sarky

I see nothing of Thief in that trailer. New Garret sounds like a mopey whiner instead of a world weary cynic. The city might as well be Dunwall, there's nothing unique about it. And the theme of "Yay progress, nobody should cling to the old ways" sounds like a very unsubtle way of saying "Don't like new Thief? Tough, that means you're a stupid old fart". The music is nice enough, but it's indistinguishable from the music of any other generic title. Where's Eric Brosius? Where's the beautiful unique sound that made Thief stand out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppV2EMfbk0w

Even without the well-dodgy in game footage I've seen, I'd have been damn wary about this. Not going to bother holding my breath.

McSasquatch

As above. I don't see this as a real Thief game, and it's now completely off my radar. I'm of course open to being proved wrong (it'd actually be fantastic to be wrong about this) but I'll be very surprised if reviews/user feedback manage to sway me.

Mr Freeze

McSasquatch wrote: »

but I'll be very surprised if reviews/user feedback manage to sway me.

Reviews these days can't really be trusted....well in my opinion!

I see this getting great reviews, and them even saying its a worthy entry in the thief series, none of which might be true to us 30something year olds who grew up replaying Thief I & II, but to the wet behind the ears reviewer, it might be all the Thief they know.

McSasquatch

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Reviews these days can't really be trusted....well in my opinion!

I see this getting great reviews, and them even saying its a worthy entry in the thief series, none of which might be true to us 30something year olds who grew up replaying Thief I & II, but to the wet behind the ears reviewer, it might be all the Thief they know.

Agreed regarding most of the big name sites like IGN, Gamespot et al - wouldn't trust them at all. But there are a few sites who still know what's what.

Specifically though, I meant player reviews - I should have emphasised that.