I saw more of the game, but only in the form of an impressive tech demo. It’s worth noting here that Thief is being made for PC, PlayStation 4 and 'other next generation consoles'; it won’t straddle generations like a lot of upcoming games will choose to do, clinging to the safety of a huge install base. This is proper next-generation world building, and it shows. The tech demo, which is remaining behind closed doors for now, showcases some of the impressive lighting and environmental effects EIDOS has created for Thief using a heavily-modified version of the Unreal Engine 4. From dynamic shadows to combustible surfaces to fog that spills around objects, it’s all being used to give Garrett’s home an incredible atmosphere.
I’ve never been so excited by fog (and I live in London) – does it mean that Garrett will be able to stay hidden during the day? But technology isn’t what's driving the project. “It’s not a question of polygons, particles or tech,” promises the game’s producer Stephane Roy. “That said, the next generation of PC and consoles helps with the immersion. If you don’t believe in our universe, it’s really difficult to convince audiences that they are Garrett. So the next-gen is a really powerful tool to build worlds. For instance, the ladies in the House of Blossoms – they’re not cloned ladies. They wear different clothing. On an older platform, they’d be cloned with different coloured hair just because it wasn’t possible to have that density of variation. It helps us to convince you that you’re in our universe.”
Welcome to The City.
It’s evident that a big aspect of the game is The City (respectfully, they haven’t given it a name), likely to be one of the game's main characters in itself. It’s a grim metropolis – the poor are placed in gallows, bunting sags miserably into puddles of mud – but also full of mystery. It’s not fixed by time: medieval stone structures stand next to newly-constructed Victorian town houses. The industrial revolution is still erupting, yet advanced technology has already found its way into the some hands. Propaganda is plastered on the walls, as the Watch Faction desperately tries to maintain its control of the people. The politics of The City are sophisticated and substantial, the stuff of real social science fiction. And while it isn’t an open-world experience, Garrett will be able to roam around a large district of The City freely which will function as a hub.
So now for the awkward part. Are you thinking this all sounds a lot like Dishonored? The abundance of choice, the emphasis on stealth with the option of combat, set in a retro-futuristic city beset by plague and warring factions? The parallels with Bethesda’s critically-acclaimed game are inescapable, and Eidos Montreal knows this. Thief had been away for so long it was only natural that a spiritual successor would emerge. But has this created an unfortunate situation in which the original now looks to its progeny for inspiration? It’s something that’s clearly on the minds of the development team, but they remain confident there are key differences and that Thief is the rightful king of this type of game.
“I would be lying if I told you that, ‘No, no, it wasn’t important. What is that game?’ We have to work very hard to make sure that some people know we’re not taking inspiration from Dishonored,” says Roy. “Dishonored was inspired by the original Thief. We have to teach them that we are the grandfather of that type of gameplay.”
The camera will shift to third-person during traversal.
“We played Dishonored. We had fun playing it,” says lead level design Daniel Windfeld Schmidt. “But at the same time, when we were playing it we realised it was a very different type of game, even though the inspiration and the source is the same. In terms of game mechanics, they have a very strong arcade feeling over their magics. They’re very magically inspired – our direction is more mystical, more immersive, more realistic feel.” Mystical, not magical – it might sound like a subtle difference, but realism is a big part of the game’s design. The supernatural remains but it’s been diluted by a believable world. “Part of immersion is that the player can relate to environments. So if everything is fireballs and rainbows it’s going to break that immersion. We still continue the lore and the fiction of the universe, so there’s a strong mystical aspect – it’s a big foundation of that story – but without making it so magical that it becomes abstract.
“We want people to relate to the environment, relate to being in a place, versus teleportation and so on. We had fun playing Dishonored, and they did an awesome job, but that’s not what we wanted Thief to be.” Schmidt is very clear on what his game is about: “Thief isn’t about revenge. It’s not about killing people. It’s about stealing, and being places you shouldn’t be. That’s what made Thief stand out in the old days. It was about everything else but killing.”
EIDOS Montreal has pedigree when it comes to reawakening long-dormant franchises. It succeeded in bringing back Deus Ex from its slumber, with a game that respected the history of the series but made smart concessions to modern audiences. The same sensibility has carried over into Thief – stealing is still a focus, but combat is there if you want it. Many fans of the series will be happy to know that there's no multiplayer whatsoever. Perhaps most reassuring to fans of the series is the presence of Garrett – still weary, still mercenary – and The City, which was a particularly strong presence throughout what I saw. The time has finally come for Thief to step out of the shadows.
