Game Informer recently revealed a cover story all about Eidos Montreal’s upcoming Thief revival in the works. In the aftermath of the new “Meet the new Garrett” video Game Informer posted, wherein which the development team discussed making Garrett more “mainstream”, fans expressed concern at the potential of giving the game’s protagonist broader appeal; thereby taking away his core roots and not remaining faithful to the original franchises’ vision. To assuage series loyalist’s concerns, Adam Badke took to the Eidos Montreal community forum to explain the situation. In a blog post titled, “Going Rogue”, Badke speaks with Thief Game Director Nicolas Cantin, who explains exactly what he meant when he called this interpretation of Garrett more “mainstream”:
“Hey guys, I think I might not have illustrated some of my points clearly on the video. It’s not correct to say that we’re trying to make Thief ‘mainstream’, or that we’re trying to make Garrett ‘less gothic’… This isn’t the case.
I was referring specifically to a previous Garrett design we tried out internally and not Garrett from the previous games. Our early design went a LOT more gothic – with black nails etc – but we thought that this wasn’t true to the legacy of Garrett so we pulled it back a bit. Returning to something more true to the original Garrett is what I meant when I said we made him more ‘mainstream’, this wasn’t a comment about the direction of the game.”
So there you have it. The team behind the project is committed to staying true to the original Thief concepts and designs as closely as possible.
The blog also makes another important note about the upcoming project: The game can be completed without killing. Keeping in line with other recent games of the stealth –action persuasion, including titles such as Dishonored and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the new Thief will allow players the option to complete the game without killing their targets. I personally love this decision, as I prefer to kill as few people as possible during my playthroughs of any game. Hell, I’ve never even been able to convince myself to harvest a Little Sister in BioShock once just to see what it looks like. Hopefully this time I’ll actually be awarded an achievement for my no-kill playthrough, as both Dishonored and Deus Ex left me with zero way of proving my pacifism to the world.
The team has plenty more Thief coverage to roll out in the coming months, so if you’re interested you might want to follow them on their Facebook page if you want your info straight from the folks at Eidos Montreal, or stay tuned right here at IGXPro for all the latest Thief news as it develops.
Are you folks excited to see a new Thief game? Do you prefer a pacifist playstyle, or do you like the thrill of virtual combat? And were you concerned about the possibility of a less-gothic Garrett? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Moogle
Sounds fun, but I hope it improves where Dishonored failed (mainly with a lack of free-roam). I do miss these games, and the many hours spent playing them on PC lets hope its not a let down.
Also I remember there being an achievement in dishonored for killing zero people. [Clean Hands] – Complete the game killing no one (whether this is an xbox only achievement I cannot say). But this means they die as a result of your actions (this includes you turn off a wall of light and rats eat them, you sleep dart them and they fall into water or off a high ledge)
There is another one, but that involves not alerting enemies as well.
Vinny Parisi
Yes, both Dishonored and Deus Ex had achievements for completing a no-kill run. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned in prior posts but didn’t explain here, I completed both games without killing; being very careful to avoid all known glitches and “cheap” deaths the game’s hand out, but to no avail. Dishonored even goes so far as to show the accomplishments listed for each stage while in the Stage Select, and even though every stage has the “no killing” box checked off, I am left without the achievement.