Thief Introduces the Thief-Taker General

[Andy Chalk]

Thief Introduces the Thief-Taker General

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The Thief-Taker General is the mustachioed villain in command of the Baron's Watch who's determined to see Garrett swinging from the end of a rope.

The latest installment of Thief: Stories From the City introduces the top dog of the Baron's Watch, the Thief-Taker General, who doesn't seem to have an actual name but is nonetheless a very bad man. Because in The City, the thieves are the good guys and the cops are the bad guys, which makes a certain amount of sense in a vaguely Les Miserables way, because life is miserable for all but the most privileged elite and people have to do what they have to do, right?

Anyway, the Thief-Taker General, who for lack of any other name we'll call, to pick something completely at random, Norman Druart, has apparently cut a mad swath through the ranks of thieves in The City, but the one prize he's missing is the greatest thief of all: Garrett. But not for long!

It's interesting to note that, according to the press release accompanying the trailer, Norman is also completely corrupt and extracts a "black tax" on members of the criminal underworld, which might lead one to wonder why he's so hell-bent on exterminating his taxpaying constituency. But do recall that he's a Very Bad Man, and bad people sometimes do bad things without really thinking them through first.

Will Norman get his man? Can he maintain his iron grip on The City? Or will he fall victim to the murderous schemes of a babbling madman at the head of an apocalyptic religious cult? I'm just spit-balling on that last one, of course, but all will be revealed soon enough - Thief comes out on February 25 for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.


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[weirdee]

The assumption being that he cracks the skulls of those who aren't able to pay in order to both uphold his image as a lawman and to "encourage" the others to pay out.

 

[Doclector]

This is such a blatant rip off of witchfinder general that I really can't decide whether I love or hate it.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Does every game need to have a main villain? How interesting would be to oppose a character with understandable or even benevolent motivations, say, this Thief Taker could have been an honest law man with principles, dissatisfied with state of affairs in his city, but still sticking to code of laws which he is supposed to uphold. Instead we get a mustachio villain who looks like he is going to MWUHAHAHA at any moment.

Better yet, how about a game where you start of as a revolutionary of some sort, fight your way to power, and are subsequently forced to make increasingly difficult moral choices, until ultimately you are revealed to be the main villain of your own story? That would fuck with so many people's minds, it would be priceless and unforgettable

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Better yet, how about a game where you start of as a revolutionary of some sort, fight your way to power, and are subsequently forced to make increasingly difficult moral choices, until ultimately you are revealed to be the main villain of your own story? That would fuck with so many people's minds, it would be priceless and unforgettable

Fable 3 did pretty much this if you attempted a Good playthrough but wasn't too keen on über-farming gold. In that case you ended up looking kind of like a kind-spirited revolutionary that wound up becoming a greater failure of a monarch than the previous tyrannical despot.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Fable 3 did pretty much this if you attempted a Good playthrough but wasn't too keen on über-farming gold. In that case you ended up looking kind of like a kind-spirited revolutionary that wound up becoming a greater failure of a monarch than the previous tyrannical despot.

Not really, Fable 3 never had the balls to take it to the logical conclusion. I am talking about building up to, and then crossing the moral event horizon, not choosing between preserving a really pretty lake or stopping a goddamn apocalypse

 

[Seydaman]

Well, Garrett wouldn't pay a black tax, seeing to the extent that he avoided joining any guilds and even going so far as to rob them. So I can see why the general would go after him.

Otherwise, this looks stupid, shallow, and unoriginal. My hopes continually die with every new piece of information regarding Thief.

 

[Rad Party God]

*Sigh* Goddamnit Thief, the more info they release, the more I'm convinced the story will suck... reaaaaaally bad.

I think I'm holding for scraps here, I still hope the gameplay will be decent at least, please don't fuck that up.

 

[Absolutionis]

No doubt, there's going to be a contrived mid-story instance where Garrett gets captured by this guy and you have to escape from the gallows in an action-packed scene.

 

[ProtoChimp]

The city being called "The city" was enough to make me cringe at this shit, but the "Thief Taker General?" Did their fucking kids write this? This is pathetic, the laziest example of writing. I actually cannot think of something else that it lazier. David Cage is less lazy than these bastards. Thief Taker General, really? Prototype had better bloody writing than that!

Granted we haven't seen the game, so maybe this is just awful marketing, but even then this stinks of "We're so smart and clever!" when they're actually no better than children in reception class writing stories for teacher.

 

[ProtoChimp]

The city being called "The city" was enough to make me cringe at this shit

It was always called that.

Really? I never played the old games, but that's still a stupid name for a city. Why not call your main character "Man" then.

 

[teebeeohh]

they really hired the crackdown naming committee, didn't they?
how fucking hard can it be to think about the name you give stuff and think: would that sound stupid in the real world?
scifi gets away with that shit because when you start settling planets giving the star a name and numbering the planets makes sense, in fantasy that shit is supposed to be shrouded in mystery and have some ancient meaning in a rare dialect or some shit.
you can fill your world with so much backstory just by giving people cool names, this guy could be named after a district of the city that in the past was a hive where thiefs would lay low and fence their stuff until one guardsman burned the whole place down and because everybody was so grateful they made up a new position within the guard, for a guy that deals exclusively with thievery and is allowed bend the laws to their breaking point.

 

[ForumSafari]

Does every game need to have a main villain? How interesting would be to oppose a character with understandable or even benevolent motivations, say, this Thief Taker could have been an honest law man with principles, dissatisfied with state of affairs in his city, but still sticking to code of laws which he is supposed to uphold. Instead we get a mustachio villain who looks like he is going to MWUHAHAHA at any moment.

It reminds me of the Confused Matthew review of the third Pirates of the Caribbean film. The start of the review points out that, regardless of the characterisation of the East India company in the film, a crackdown on pirates is a good thing. Garrett being hanged for his crimes would also be a good thing. Garrett is a prolific criminal, including having committed crimes like murder. There's no reason the thief catcher should be a bad person and a good chance he's in fact a good person.

 

[Mutie]

I don't care who you are or what you're working on, but absolutely no combination of [Criminal]-[apprehend]er-General is ever gonna sounds as cool as: Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General.

 

[Quellist]

No, no, just plain fucking NO! This crappy, vaudeville moustache-twirling moron has NO FUCKING PLACE in a Thief game! What little interest i had left in Thief 4 just got drained away by this ludicrous video.

Its like the people behind this dont just not get Thief but are actively trying to piss all over what it was.

RIP Thief, you will be remembered.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

.....really? I'm...not impressed.

He's mustache twirlingly evil. Cartoonishly evil.

I'd much rather their evil feel understated until we get to know them better. I mean, the mechanist guy from Thief 2 was downright insane and diabolical, but...Well, he didn't get a dramatic CGI cutscene to show him off, so I can't really judge, I guess.

Also, I REALLY hope they don't do some over the top "oh noes garret got caught and he needs to escape the gallows via a super action packed set piece moment!".

I'd much rather he get caught, be tortured briefly, get tossed in a cell...And then, in gameplay, proceed to break out of his cell, free all the prisoners, and then escape with ease.

They did that in Thief 3, whenever you'd get busted by a street patrol, if I remember right...

Also, is this REALLY coming to PS3 and 360 like the article says? Last I heard it was next gen only.

 

[ProtoChimp]

It was referred to as "The City" by all living within the Baron's dominion due to its infamous nature as being an ancient citadel rife with corruption and secrets. When you mentioned THE City, everyone knew to which city you were referring to. It was part of the aura of mystery underneath the exterior of guards being guards, nobles being nobles, fanatics being fanatics and thieves being thieves. Everything was so ordinary and almost simple. That's why the originals were great. They had a believable world with a main character who was the product of that world, fighting against it and then saving it when the hour came. The games threw you into that world, and let you be.

This game, is something entirely different. It's not Thief. It's not Deadly Shadows. It's a product of those who could not miss the point any harder if they tried.

Okay, well I kinda stopped giving a shit about this when I heard the stuff about "The City" and that it was apparently gonna have action elements cos "Lol stealth is old," which I would make a joke about if it didn't make me SO FUCKING ANGRY!

But since I haven't kept up, how badly have they missed the point, as someone who has played the games?