Thief 4 Leaked 30-Second Trailer

Mr Freeze

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-LG5lKK5E

Ok, big Thief fan here, almost definitely my favourite game series of all time, really hope we see some sort of an announcement from Eidos soon about this game, is it happening or not.

Hopefully this leak is a sign the game isn't binned and will happen at some stage.

Source: X360A

Footage of Eidos Montreal’s Thief 4 has leaked onto the net, featuring the return of what would appear to be series regular Garrett.

The footage comes from a demo reel belonging to lighting and compositing artist Eric Wong. It features a number of familiar elements, including lock picking and a bow with custom, speciality arrows. More than likely not meant for public consumption, it's also frustratingly brief at just 30 seconds long. We want more!

Thief 4 was announced in May 2009, but has been largely silent since. Worryingly, since that time a stream of the game’s talent has left Eidos Montreal, leading to fears that it may be trapped in development hell.

jungleman

Major Thief fan here also. I live in hope that they'll release it soon, apparently it's well underway! I must have played every game hundreds of times, they never get old. They had such personality, and were without a doubt the coolest stealth games ever

Sarky

Collapsible bows are f*cking stupid.

Still, here's hoping it won't be crap. By which I mean there'd damn well better be swimming, rope arrows and none of that pathetic sectioned-off-level stuff they brought in with Thief 3 because the original XBox just couldn't handle full levels.

balkieb2002

Which was the best of the Thief series? I've heard good things about the third bar the level called

the Cradle

i think.

I do remember playing the original but never really got into it as found it very frustrating though I feel I've gotten better with stealth games over the years so would like to give this a go again.

Mr Freeze

^ Agreed.

I could live with collapsible bow though.

Any new Thief game would have to do done the same style as 1 and 2, imagine if they turned it into a corridor shooter. :pac: I've go f**king mental.

Mr Freeze

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Which was the best of the Thief series? I've heard good things about the third bar the level called

the Cradle

i think.

I do remember playing the original but never really got into it as found it very frustrating though I feel I've gotten better with stealth games over the years so would like to give this a go again.

One and 2 are the best.

Thief Deadly Shadows was good, but definitely suffered from consolisation. The Cradle was the best level by far.

That Banging Door near the start of it, wow. Class.

balkieb2002

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Which was the best of the Thief series? I've heard bad things about the third bar the level called the Cradle i think.

I fixed my post

So Thief 3 = OK game, Crade = Good level

Haha I got that mixed up badly so

Mr Freeze

balkieb2002 wrote: »

So Thief 3 = OK game, Crade = Good level

Ah I got that mixed up badly so

Yip, but The Cradle is an excellent level. Up there with some of the great levels from the 1st 2 games.

I hated The Bank level in Thief 2. Think that's the only level I didn't like in the first games.

Sarky

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Which was the best of the Thief series?

I'd go with 2. Sublime as the original was, Thief 2 had much improved visuals and lighting, some really nifty gadgets, staggeringly big levels and a great wee plot. Also the villain was voiced by Droopy, how could that be a bad thing?

Thief 3 was still good, but a lot of the charm was lost- The levels were broken into small separate chunks, with entry only through this corridor or that doorway. That's a restriction that never applied to the huge, unbroken levels of the first games.

Combat was dire, in the first 2 games it was really difficult to hold off more than 1 guard at a time, but if you were really good you could beat them, whereas here the dagger was pathetic and only included to satisfy those creepy retards who don't like non-lethal takedowns. The bow was like a tacky child's toy compared to the bow in the first 2. Even the blackjack became clunky.

Water higher than your knees killed you instantly, whereas in 1 and 2 you could swim (leading to some lovely clever ways of getting about and hiding from guards). Rope arrows disappeared, further restricting freedom of movement. A bunch of interesting gadgets were removed, like the remote control eyeball.

The story was still good (at times, even great), the stealth was still mostly there, but the player lost loads of options regarding movement, tactical awareness, exploration and such. All to fit it on a console that wasn't able to handle the game as it should have been. I think Thief 3 was a major reason "consoleitis" has become a popular word.

Also, the beautiful moody mission cutscenes where Garret outlined the plan mostly disappeared.


Edit: I understand you can get the lot on Steam for a pittance now, so there's no reason not to pick them all up. While the mechanics of 3 were a big disappointment, the story ends brilliantly and brings the whole trilogy to some excellent closure.

Mr Freeze

Sarky wrote: »

staggeringly big levels

The scale of the levels in Thief 2 were unreal.

Remember having to break into the Mechanist tower, and it was way across the city, so thus ensued a lot of roof top travel dodging guards heading for the tower, reached the tower and expecting it to load a new level for the interior. Not so, off you went and the whole thing was explore-able nearly.

Sarky

Jesus, the Thief's Highway was one of the best missions out there. Such massive scope. It was thrilling to be sneaking about the rooftops of half a city, leaping fatal drops and hoping to god you made the jump, taking shortcuts through someone's apartment, walking the tightrope banner over a huge plaza with human and mechanical guards...

I really loved the second level, too. Right after an impressive tutorial level where you're sneaking through a reasonably sized mansion, they drop you in this gigantic dock warehouse district with guards and security cameras and moored ships, all of which you can break into and fleece in a variety of clever ways.

Also, taffer is the best word in the history of anything ever.

Mr Freeze

What a great memory you have Sarky.

The Docks level was great, but I think one of the stand out moments in Thief 2 for me was when you were following the Pagan fellow, and then there is a big surprise attack by the Mechanists (man I missed the Hammerites) and the Pagan flees through a secret passage or portal after being wounded, anyways you end up in a dark wood totally unprepared for a new level, I thought that was great. Especially at the end of the level when you find the body of the Pagan and these monsterous noises closing in and turns out its the trees, and they suddenly started attacking, it was mad, but class.

Stand out level from the 1st game, was the 2nd level, breaking into the prison to break Cutty out, savage stuff.

Edit: Actually The Old City and Haunted Cathedral are probably the stand out levels in the 1st one.

balkieb2002

Cheers Sarky for that reply.

I'll have a look out for Thief 2 so. Was there a Gold Edition released of that like there was for the first one?

I also noticed there was Thief Enhancement Pack which improves visuals for the first two games as well.

From what I did play of the original I did enjoy the emphasis put on using the crossbow and its assortment of arrows and the open way of completing objectives.

Sarky

Those arrows were ingenious. Moss to mute your footsteps, water to put out lights and clean up blood, and the noisemaker to draw someone away from a door you mightn't be able to otherwise sneak through.

Thief 2 never had a gold version as far as I remember, although I do remember a patch that was a couple hundred megs (outrageous at the time!), that added loads of cool stuff, including extra dialogue.

Hadn't known about the enhancement Packs, I'll have to check those out. Really, the only thing letting Thief down these days is the dated graphics, redo those and you have games that beat the pants off anything current.

And oh, I just remembered the opera house level from Thief Gold. That was stunningly awesome.

wench

Join us, join us now!!

Sarky

Those things terrified me.

Duggy747

I had a horrible habit of knocking the butler out in the kitchen, throwing his body into the fire and then hear him moan in pain as I carried on my way :pac:

Great games, have to get back to them sometime.

wench

I settled for arranging inappropriate trysts in dark corners

Mr Freeze

wench wrote: »

Join us, join us now!!

Sarky wrote: »

Those things terrified me.

Man, those guys were nasty, one of the scariest enemies in a game ever.

They don't look so tough now though:


I'd be happy with a HD remake of 1 and 2 on the current gen, never mind a Thief 4.

ShadowHearth

So is dual wielding bows with fire arrows ( for more stealth ) confirmed already?

wench

Mr Freeze wrote: »

They don't look so tough now though

It was never so much the look of them, as the excellently creepy sound effects & crazed mutterings, while you cowered in the dark, hoping they wouldn't find you and explain the sign-up policy with their hammer :eek:

Sarky

Like so. Combined with the dark lighting and the fear of discovery, the haunts were f*cking scary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5vnl90zB74

wench

Sarky wrote: »

the haunts were f*cking scary.

Amen to that!

Mr Freeze

wench wrote: »

It was never so much the look of them, as the excellently creepy sound effects & crazed mutterings, while you cowered in the dark, hoping they wouldn't find you and explain the sign-up policy with their hammer :eek:

Absolutely, the fear came 100% from the sound of them.

I remember on the grounds of the Haunted Cathedral when I first saw one, I was doing the usual, crouched creeping, sticking to the wall and shadows, heard chains rattling. Stopped, waited, Haunt comes around the corner, rattling gets way louder and you hear all those horrible whispers around you, it was amazing.

Then same level in the library, still hadn't alerted one, I was on the 2nd floor, and lowered down to the 1st floor using a rope arrow, looting and searching around, I hear the door open behind me, and the chains and whispers get really loud, leg it for the rope, and all I hear is the JOIN US, JOIN US NOW blarring through the speakers, it was flipping terrifying scuttling up the rope, hearing a sword whack off wood beneath me.

They have a huge task ahead of them recreating Thief again, hopefully we will still be taking about Thief 4 15 or 16 years after its release.

ironictoaster

Shalebridge cradle :eek:

Worth playing playing thief 3 to play that level. Thief 3 is an ok a game, the only thing I remember that pissed me off was the number of loading screens as the levels were huge.

I picked this up for a 4 quid on the original xbox on ebay. Works on the 360.

funky penguin

What I loved about the Cradle was realising there was what.......3 enemies altogether? I felt like a right tit, skulking in the shadows and crying in the corners....loved it every minute of that level.

pixelburp

Screw the Cradle, this news inspires fear in me. I hate to say it but I hope this 4th game is indeed vaporware: face it, it's extremely unlikely a new Thief could successfully capture the perfection that was the original 2 games, or even live up to the hype it would generate. Impossible in fact.

Although that said, given the industry's current love for sandbox-games, and considering Thief liked to give the player large semi-open environments to explore, it's an enticing thought that a new game might involve a truly open city to explore, pillage and sneak around.

Though having seen a classic franchise treated shoddily with Starbreeze's Syndicate, I don't hold out hope a Thief4 would be much cop.

jaggeh

Aristocrat 1: We're lucky to have him. With Inspector Drept taking offices so close...should keep the riff-raff at bay.
Aristocrat 2: I haven't noticed any difference in the level of riff-rafferty...in fact...I don't feel safe walking down my own street. And Wilson says there's an absolute throng of Pagans that've taken over the park.

Riff-Raferty entered my vocabulary, i remember i busted out laughing at that for whatever reason seemed appropriate at the time :P

pixelburp

Bloody taffer.

Mr Freeze

pixelburp wrote: »

Screw the Cradle, this news inspires fear in me. I hate to say it but I hope this 4th game is indeed vaporware: face it, it's extremely unlikely a new Thief could successfully capture the perfection that was the original 2 games, or even live up to the hype it would generate. Impossible in fact.

Sadly this is my fear too. I'd hate to get another Thief 3 (even though we kinda forgive it, and its still a good game), or something even more watered down.

That fact that a new Deus Ex game out should give us some hope, and it was a good game, ok it was no Deus Ex 1, but it was still good, and should give us some hope that Eidos won't sh*t all over the game.

As for Syndicate, could not bring myself to play the new one, that's not a Syndicate game! :pac:

Mr Freeze

Source X360A.org

Report: Thief 4 Slips to Next-Generation Consoles

Thief 4 will now launch as an Xbox 720 (or whatever it'll be called) title, following a protracted spell in development for the current generation of consoles.

That’s according to the latest reports, which suggest that the game will hit towards the end of next year alongside next-gen hardware.

Thief 4 was announced in May 2009, but it has been as illusive as its sneaky protagonist ever since. Dribs and drabs of information has dripped through, but nothing official.

Eidos Montreal are in charge of development. The super-studio currently has separate teams working on Deus Ex and Thief, plus a playtest team and a quality assurance team.

At least it aint binned.

Sarky

Why does that not fill me with confidence?

Zero-Cool

A few screens leaked

[http://www.computerandvideogames.com/394433/thief-4-headed-to-next-gen-consoles-in-2014-first-screens-leak/?page=1#top_banner

Agricola

So reminiscent of Dishonored which itself is reminiscent of Thief! Can't wait for this

Mr Freeze

Hmmm, is it a sequel or a remake?

If only we could see his right eye properly in that pic.

Sarky

I want to be excited, I really do. But experience is a harsh mistress. Dishonoured was not the stealth game I was looking for. And besides, Garret's story is done. They'll need to pull off something spectacular if he's to come back. And 'spectacular' is something that very few developers know how to do any more.

Sierra Oscar

Really looking forward to Thief 4 whenever it does eventually arrive. We have been waiting for so long!

Pixelbastardo

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/05/april-cover-revealed-thief.aspx

cant wait for this

Headshot

Bows are really in these days arent they

The novelty has kinda worn off on me now

pixelburp

Hmmm, so apparently this will be a reboot? If so, I guess that'll answer anyones question as to how it'll fit into Garrett existing storyline.

I'm definitely staying on the fence about this one; there's simply far too much good will & good memories of the previous games to lose the run of myself & risk disappointment.

Though my first wish is that Eidos remember the game is called 'Thief', not 'Assassin'. Garrett can't be the strongest person in the level, and the focus should be on stealth & escape, not confrontation.

valleyoftheunos

Agricola wrote: »

So reminiscent of Dishonored which itself is reminiscent of Thief! Can't wait for this

I'm really interested in this now, Dishonored was my favorite game of the last few years so something in that vein would really appeal to me. This is actually the first game that has me excited about next gen consoles, or possibly even some fancy PC hardware!

BizzyC

Deus Ex was pretty good for stealth.

If they use the stealth mechanics they had in place there as a starting point, they'd be well on their way...

Mr Freeze

pixelburp wrote: »

Though my first wish is that Eidos remember the game is called 'Thief', not 'Assassin'. Garrett can't be the strongest person in the level, and the focus should be on stealth & escape, not confrontation.

Absolutely.

There are no signs yet that they are going down the action route, I have hope they will stay true to the original, and the bow will be mainly used for water arrows, moss arrows, noisemakers etc, and swords and steel arrows could used (mainly as defense) down in those scary crypts and haunted parts of the city.

The haunted bits being my favorite part of Thief. They were scary.

Playing Dishonored at the moment, it does remind me of Thief, I am playing through trying not to kill anyone and avoid conflict, so it does feel like it (a wee bit).

Mr Freeze

From X360A, which is probably pilfered from the Game Informer article:

Following yesterday's reveal of Eidos Montreal's next-gen Thief title, known simply as Thief and not Thief 4 as we initially thought, there's a whole bunch of fresh details that have been extracted from Game Informer's big reveal, due to arrive on newsstands with the April issue.

Firstly, there's the obvious stuff. Thief marks a comeback for the first-person stealth series with the return of pilfering hero Garrett, who finds himself back in his old hometown after a long absence. Garrett finds that the City's prosperity is in steep decline as the nefarious Baron rules over the people with an iron fist, keeping its citizens compliant under military watch.

The Elite are still free to prosper, while the rest of the City's society succumbs to plague and poverty. Garrett sees this whole thing as a the perfect opportunity to make some money, enjoying the thrill of stealing items that others can't or dare not.

Garrett has a range of tools at his disposal, from the basic ability to throw bottles to distract enemies, hiding, climbing, lockpicking and of course, nicking stuff. He also has a Focus ability to solve puzzles and uncover secrets, as well as boost his combat abilities. In the demo, he uses Focus to brutally subdue one of the Baron's guards and locate their attack areas.

Guards are pretty smart too, and as Garrett isn't much of a fighter, combat encounters against four or more guards often won't pan out too well. They'll actively seek Garrett out when he hides, and they have a detailed knowledge of the City and its level design.

Thief will boast multiple paths through its missions, with a range of entrances and exits, and the Focus ability will highlight useful interactive objects that you can climb and slow time while Garrett goes to pickpocket enemies, enabling him to swipe up to three times more booty. Fingerprints show players which drawers are worth looking into and every drawer can be accessed.

Garrett can spend money on upgrading his equipment at the end of each mission and he can decorate his hideout with various artifacts he'll discover. Garrett has a range of tools at his disposal too, including the Blackjack that can be used to sneakily knock out unaware guards, the bow for firing arrows to distract or kill, specialised arrows such as dry-ice for extinguishing flames and smoke arrows for getaways. Garrett also has a Claw he can use to grapple certain points.

So its a sequel.