Thief Reveals Launch Date With New Cinematic Trailer

[Andy Chalk]

Thief Reveals Launch Date With New Cinematic Trailer

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A brand-new Thief trailer heralds a launch date that's probably a lot closer than you expect.

Step one: the new Thief trailer. It's still rocking a very Dishonored vibe, with the disease-stricken masses of the great unwashed simmering under the thumb of a ruthless, muscular ruler in a City that could easily be one of the more run-down sections of Dunwall. It doesn't necessarily look bad but it does look extremely derivative, and while that's probably just a matter of unfortunate timing it will inevitably lead to comparisons with a very, very popular and successful game. That's a tough spot to be in, especially for a game that's had as rough a pre-release ride as Thief.

Step two: launch date! Until now all we've had to work with in the way of a release window has been 2014, but today Square Enix and Eidos Montreal announced that Thief will launch in North America on February 25 for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC. That's just six months away, and certainly a lot closer than I expected.

The box art is out too and I have to say that even setting aside my not-exactly-secret dissatisfaction with what I've seen of the new Thief thus far, it's really not knocking my socks off. It's not bad, just bland - good box art is so hard to come by these days.

One other thing: the presence of the monk-looking guys at around the 1:55 mark is interesting. Pagans, perhaps? The pendant around the central figure's neck could easily be one of the old Thief sigils. Perhaps there's a bit of the ol' sneaksie taffersie in here after all?


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[teebeeohh]

still veeeeeeeeeery skeptic on this one.
and why does Garret talk so much about the city, he wouldn't give two fucks, the only reason he ever gets involved in world changing events is because an apocalypse would not be good for his bottom line.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

That looks so generically gritty there isn't even brown in it, just varying degrees of grey and black. I love myself a good sneaking game, but even the atrocious similarities to Dishonored aside they haven't instilled much confidence in me.

And isn't this like the 3rd cinematic they've given us? Where's the game play trailers, or are they purposely hiding that from us?

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Hearing the old turning cogs sound brings me some comfort but still very cautious on this one. From the sound of the trailer it seems like they might be building up Garrett as a Robin Hood type Thief with all this plague and peasant uprising speak.

 

[Andy Chalk]

From the sound of the trailer it seems like they might be building up Garrett as a Robin Hood type Thief with all this plague and peasant uprising speak.

Hard to say, but it certainly looks possible. Which is of course completely contrary to the original character, but I think that "old Thief" ship sailed long ago.

 

[1337mokro]

I like-hate it???... I'm so confused! If they manage the actual open hub gameplay of the series and combine it with a snarky, aloof, callous protagonist I'm all for it but this just seems SO MUCH LIKE DISHONORED!!!

It's fucking amazing really! "In my dreams I see her die." Who? The fucking Empress? It's like they wrote this story either entirely ripping off Dishonored or they seriously just simultaneously wrote the same story and just decided to stick with it because they thought they could put an interesting twist on it.

However again it can be saved you know! If Garret is the kinda guy to sort of reluctantly get roped into the protests and so on. If he is just using the Robin Hood persona as a flimsy justification I could see it all work. Just hoping really hard they didn't make another Dishonored.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

From the sound of the trailer it seems like they might be building up Garrett as a Robin Hood type Thief with all this plague and peasant uprising speak.

Hard to say, but it certainly looks possible. Which is of course completely contrary to the original character, but I think that "old Thief" ship sailed long ago.

True, as long as the stealth gameplay ends up being good then a lot the character changes can be overlooked in my book. Well except for the eye liner of course

 

[synobal]

It doesn't feel or look like thief. Please for the love of god I hope garret isn't some sort of revolutionary. This game ugg I want it to do good I really do but it looks like they don't know the source material at all. Part of me wonders if they didn't just want a familiar name to market it under rather than risk calling it a new IP.

 

[wetfart]

"In my dreams I see her die." Who? Viktoria? The girl from the end of TDS? Both of those could make interesting stories but I doubt they're going to carry that over since it feels like they've ignored the rest of the thief universe.

The turning cogs and furnace reminds me of the Hammerites but I'm not getting my hopes up that they'll be in the game again. Though if they're going to make the Hammerites into the villains they should just admit to ripping off TtMA.

 

[evilengine]

still veeeeeeeeeery skeptic on this one.
and why does Garret talk so much about the city, he wouldn't give two fucks, the only reason he ever gets involved in world changing events is because an apocalypse would not be good for his bottom line.

What he said. Garrett was never one to get embroiled in the poor vs rich, I think he mentions the gap between the two once or twice, but it was never a central focus of his goals at all. It was always make a profit, then the story unravels and some supernatural or conspiratorial forces get to work, to which Garrett is unwillingly and forcefully dragged into, only though his wits and skills he saves the day, but the endings are all bitter sweet. He wins, but gets nothing from it and few people are even any the wiser. His is a thankless job, he's a criminal and that's all he ever is, and certainly isn't a voice of the downtrodden as this trailer seems to be suggesting.

It could be he takes no part in this revolt and merely watches form the sidelines, picking up what he can in the madness, but it doesn't really seem that way. We'll see.

 

[wetfart]

What he said. Garrett was never one to get embroiled in the poor vs rich, I think he mentions the gap between the two once or twice, but it was never a central focus of his goals at all. It was always make a profit, then the story unravels and some supernatural or conspiratorial forces get to work, to which Garrett is unwillingly and forcefully dragged into, only though his wits and skills he saves the day, but the endings are all bitter sweet. He wins, but gets nothing from it and few people are even any the wiser. His is a thankless job, he's a criminal and that's all he ever is, and certainly isn't a voice of the downtrodden as this trailer seems to be suggesting.

This right here.

TDS is as close as we come to a Thief game having a happy ending. And even then, the Keepers fall and the glyphs are destroyed.

If they turn Garrett into some sort of Marxist revolutionary I will weep.

 

[Karoshi]

It's fucking amazing really! "In my dreams I see her die." Who? The fucking Empress? It's like they wrote this story either entirely ripping off Dishonored or they seriously just simultaneously wrote the same story and just decided to stick with it because they thought they could put an interesting twist on it.

Good one, really.

Quite frankly, the storyline looks rather generic and revolutions have been kinda overdone at this point. This game might turn out good, or it might just flop.

 

[evilengine]

*snip*

This right here.

TDS is as close as we come to a Thief game having a happy ending. And even then, the Keepers fall and the glyphs are destroyed.

If they turn Garrett into some sort of Marxist revolutionary I will weep.

I was never too fond of Deadly Shadow's ending, not too fond of TS all together really. The ending was far too rosey, that and the cutscene graphics looked really off to me, petty I know but from a series with very stylised live action/animated cutscenes before it felt very out of place. It would have been more fitting to end it like the first two, with Garrett saving everyone but still stuck in the same position as he was. I mean he still pretty much is, but is now some kind of Keeper messiah? very odd choice if you ask me.

I've yet to see a stealth game really capture stealth the same way Thief's 1 & 2 did, these days it does seem far more lax in comparison. Somehow a game with shoddy graphics from 1998 still outstrips all the modern technology available today, I know alot of it comes down to the writing and planning, the first Thief was hell getting made, all sorts of bugs, problems in the company, yet they turned out a great product. Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs maybe, studios this day and age do try to play it safe with the Dishonored-esq style, the whole belted thief-outfit, taking part in grandeur poor vs rich rebellion, call me old fashioned for wanting more of the same, but that's why I loved the original Thiefs in the first place.

That and more bantering between NPCs please. "The Mechanists invited the Bumblesons! THE BUMBLESONS!"

 

[Andy Chalk]

More info please, what do you mean "jumping is contextual"?

It came out in a PC Gamer hands-on last week that you can only jump in specific instances, when the game tells you. The direct quote from the lead level designer is, "Jumping, bouncing up and down, kind of broke the immersion. We didn?t want you to be the master thief and you just tend to fall off stuff all the time."

So, yeah, there's that, too.

(Link: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/255-thief-feature-a-crime-of-passion/2/)

 

[Ace Morologist]

A lot of bellyachin' here.

No, it won't be The Dark Project (which I thought was awesome). No, it won't be Thief 2 (which I found pretty boring). No, it won't be Deadly Shadows (which I found only slightly less awesome than Dark Project). Why compare the game to something it isn't and never was? You sound like a bunch of old men grumping about the good old days.

And... faithful to the character of Garrett? You know what Garrett's character was? A snarky, self-interested misanthrope who was basically a decent person underneath it all. Deep, right? But why couldn't somebody like that love the city he lives in? What's to keep someone like that from taking the oppressed minority's side when the time comes to stand up to the greedy, evil guys in power and make their final run on the Death Star(... er, whatever the plot of this game is)?

"I can't jump whenever I want!" That definitely seems like a weird gameplay decision, but at least wait to see how you feel playing the demo before you decide that's a deal-breaker. Maybe you won't even miss it.

Finally, calling it derivative of Dishonored ("which is just derivative of Thief!") is basically just an Internet pop-journalism sound bite with no real merit.

--Morology!

PS: My first thought on seeing this trailer: "Wait, what? It's on the 360 too? Woo-hoo!"

 

[2HF]

You know what Garrett's character was? A snarky, self-interested misanthrope who was basically a decent person underneath it all. Deep, right? But why couldn't somebody like that love the city he lives in? What's to keep someone like that from taking the oppressed minority's side when the time comes to stand up to the greedy, evil guys in power and make their final run on the Death Star(... er, whatever the plot of this game is)?

Because of this part here.

A snarky, self-interested misanthrope

Garrett never cared for anyone or anything else. The opening mission of Thief 2 is all about saving a girl from indentured servitude so she can marry a "friend" of his and Garrett (at least the way I played him) spent hours roaming the halls and rooms of the mansion stealing everything in sight before even thinking of freeing her. Freeing her was an afterthought.