Eidos Announces Thief 4 102
An anonymous reader tips news that Eidos Montreal has confirmed recent speculation by announcing the development of a new Thief game. They've set up a website, but the project is still in its early stages, and details are scarce. In an interview with IncGamers, Eidos' Stéphane D'Astous said, "We're keeping our ear very close to the ground. As you may have noticed, we now have a forum up and running for Thief 4, and I said to my guys 'I really want to have a forum at the very early stages,' because I want people to have a medium with which they can express their wishes, their expectations, and what they would like and not like to happen with the next Thief. Obviously we've started work, but it's always very important for the developers to be close to the community. We're listening to these people because they are very hardcore fans, and we want to bring the Thief 4 franchise to a new level, so the challenges are huge!"
Re:Re-make Thief 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
The end of Thief3 paved the way for a sequel. Garret more or less came full circle, taking an apprentice in almost exactly the same was he himself was when he was a child. It has a lot of potential - personally, I'd like to see the new girl have more of an acrobatic lean with perhaps not quite Garret's godly skill at hiding in shadows (which is undoubtedly even more impressive now that he is essentially THE Keeper).
Re:Re-make Thief 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
Exactly. Thief 2 is my favourite of the series, and its gameplay mechanics are far superior to Deadly Shadows, except for maybe one or two improvements like the new lock-picking system which I believe should be kept for T4. The movement and body awareness in DS felt really sluggish, as though Garrett was stumbling through knee-high water. Blackjacking enemies, and the associated 'snap' to position the bodies was also a downside. Obviously the compromises made for the Xbox, e.g. the loading zones, were a huge disappointment.
I agree that Garrett's story arc has been completed, so a prequel with him as main character could be interesting, if you could fit a storyline between the beginning of his training and the start of The Dark Project. Failing that, a sequel focusing on his female apprentice could also work, and you could still have Garrett (and his awesome voice provided by Stephen Russell) involved in the storyline. A healthy mix of looting environments - city-based, mansions, churches, tombs etc. - as well as their associated enemy types is a must.
Ditch the climbing gloves and re-instate the rope arrows. Also get rid of the stupid loot glint, or make it an optional feature or part of a 'noob mode' that is off by default. The original method of using loot was far better, as well as highlighting frobbable objects (make them brighter, as opposed to giving them an atomic blue glow).
I won't keep my hopes up, I was somewhat burned by Deadly Shadows and I'm not expecting any miracles to occur this time round either.
Re:Re-make Thief 2 (Score:3, Interesting)
Thief 3 was the best of the series for me. Why? Because of the free-roaming segments between missions. For the first time, you could actually go where you chose to go when you chose to go there.