Eidos Montreal has dumped a load of new information on the Thief website including some long-awaited looks at Garrett’s equipment, his foes and the city in which he lives.
Garrett has changed. For one thing, he’s a lot more poetic about his chosen profession: “I am the shadows, the dark and deadly, the velvet night,” he says on his website. “You will not see me coming.” But it seems that quite a bit remains the same, too. He still has those ever-so-useful water arrows at his disposal, for one thing, and while rope arrows remain out of the picture, the “climbing gloves” that debuted in Thief: Deadly Shadows appear to have been replaced with a closer-to-home grappling hook.
Garrett’s stomping grounds are familiar too, but not necessarily to fans of the old Thief titles. The City is ruled harshly by the unforgiving Baron who relies on his militia to keep the citizenry in line, while the people suffer and die from the ravages of a great plague. Basso the Boxman, previously an arsonist, is now apparently the proprietor of the Crippled Burrick Pub (or maybe he just hangs out there a lot) and uses Jenivere, his magpie, to deliver messages to Garrett in his clock tower hideout. Another prominent location in the city would seem to be The House of Blossoms, an opulent and discreet place of carnal distractions.
And here are some screens, which I am reasonably certain are reasonably new:
It doesn’t look bad, it just doesn’t look very “Thief.” I readily admit that my bias (and advanced years) may be keeping me from seeing this objectively, but at this admittedly early point the parallels with Dishonored are way too obvious to overlook. Dishonored was a great game in its own right, yes, but as the old saying goes, if I wanted water, I’d ask for water.
Anyway, your mileage may vary, so don’t take my word for it – have a look for yourself at thiefgame.com.
