Thief: The UI

[Whoracle]

So, after hearing a gentle buzz tzhat the new Thief is, oh wonder, mediocre, but alas better than most people feared, I watched TotalBiscuits WTF is... of it. Not going into the gameplay proper, since I haven't played it, and for the moment I don't want to talk about the (linear and unremarkable, according to different reviews, but I'll judge that for myself eventually...).

So, here's the beef: At about 12:41, for example, in TBs video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJS1yCSKlhs], the inventory is shown. Now, you may say I'm nitpicking over a minute detail, but: Is this really the choice of UI design they went with, or is taht just a beta holdover? Sorry, but for me a UI has to somehow adhere to the aesthetic of the game, and that flat, iconified windows 8 like look just looks jarring... Same for the lockpicking and switchhunting minigames later in the video, where it's basically plain circles that get filled depending on how good you do... It just doesn't fit...

So, please tell me that's just beta crap and not in the final retail version. Pretty please?
Alternatively: What do you think of the UI design?

 

[exobook]

Well here's PC Gamers review and they use the same UI

http://www.pcgamer.com/review/thief-pc-review/

From that I get the extreme feeling that this game was very quickly remade in effect when tester reaction to the original version did not go well.

A Thief version of Deus Ex: Human revolution this is not

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I've seen TB's WTF and yes, I've noticed that. It's really weird. I thought the UI would have the Gothic, 19th century kind of feel to it. I did not expect this modern, simplified kind of smartphone aesthetic.

 

[Weaver]

I feel a lot of this trend has to do with creating scalable UI elements. Simple vectors can scale infinitely (well, okay, up to INT_MAX) at any resolution, fixed pixel images cannot. The decorative UI's of the 90's were great IMO and I miss them. That said, going back and playing them at modern resolutions with super pixely everything is a big ugly.

 

[Whoracle]

Yeah, but you can also create vector graphics that are more than simple. Google for a few example .svg files. So while the old UIs were hard on the eye, you could make scalable ones with almost no more effort today....

 

[rofltehcat]

I don't really see the problem with it.
Sure, it is very different from the circle menus we had in most other multi platform games of the last years but it didn't seem like something a PC user would see often anyways (hotkeys) and was just expecting this to be their PC solution and consoles to use the old circle menus.
I'll agree that it isn't pretty, though.

 

[Whoracle]

Oh, I don't have a problem with the functionality. Just with the aesthetic. But, to answer my own question: Yes, it's the same interface anywhere I look, so that's the one they're rolling with...