By Jim Rossignol on May 11th, 2009 at 3:26 pm.
(Thi4f? 4FS.) The giant rumour-phone they call the Internet has been a-rumbling with Thief 4 noises for many months now, and so it seemed certain the announcement was imminent. Naturally RPS’ enormous BFG-like ears had long ago picked up concrete information, but we couldn’t confirm it. Now we can. Confirmed. The press release (in full below) reports that the game is still at a very early stage, and is being developed by Eidos Montreal, who are also handling Deus Ex 3. They’re looking for new staff, too. Talk about labouring under the weight of expectations, eh readers?
Eidos-Montréal is excited to unveil its previously secret second title in development at the studio, Thief™ 4, the next instalment in the legendary series.
The original Thief game, Thief: The Dark Project redefined first person gaming and established an entirely new genre of stealth based game play. The critically and commercially acclaimed Thief series has won numerous awards and accolades including GameSpy Hall of Fame, GameSpot Greatest Games of All Time and The Academy of Interactive Arts And Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Character and Story Development.
Eidos-Montréal, which is also currently producing the much anticipated Deus Ex™ 3, has recruited the very best core team for the development of Thief 4. The team is comprised of industry veterans who have worked on an incredible collection of AAA titles and who each bring personal expertise in their respective fields.
“We’re in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious and exciting project for Eidos,” said Stéphane D’Astous, General Manager at Eidos-Montréal. “While it’s too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market.”
Development is under way and the team is looking to recruit the very best talent as production ramps up. If you are a world-class developer looking to join the talented Thief 4 team, visit www.eidosmontreal.com to submit your résumé or www.thief4.com to join the community discussion.
11/05/2009 at 15:27 Gap Gen says:
What about Thivf?
11/05/2009 at 15:29 Bohan says:
Thifourf? That’s a bit of a mouthful.
11/05/2009 at 15:29 jalf says:
Thi4f? This game shall be known henceforth as ThiAf.
Also, didn’t they already recruit “the very best core team” for Deus Ex 3?
11/05/2009 at 15:34 kafka7 says:
At last: Thief 4. Even though it was the worst kept internet secret for a long time I still feel the urgent need to change my underwear.
11/05/2009 at 15:35 AndrewC says:
I very strongly disapprove of this name.
11/05/2009 at 15:36 Ian says:
Ain’t no way I’m ever typing that as anything other than Thief 4.
11/05/2009 at 15:38 Senethro says:
I’m willing to give this a chance. Thief: Deadly Shadows was better than Deus Ex: Invisible War.
11/05/2009 at 15:39 Jockie says:
Surely that logo/name won’t last until release. Once again I find myself flabbergasted at the lack of common sense in a major entertainment organisation.
On the other hand: yay.
11/05/2009 at 15:39 Mejwell says:
They got greedy. An ‘H’ turns into a non-closed top 4 so easily!
11/05/2009 at 15:41 hydra9 says:
Hoo-ray! To celebrate, I’m going to the bear pits tomorrow. Ya wanna come with?
11/05/2009 at 15:41 Pags says:
“Man we totally missed a trick by not calling the last one Thi3f! People love that sort of thing. Perhaps if we call this one Thi4f then we’ll be forgiven.”
11/05/2009 at 15:45 James says:
I’m willing to overlook the horrendous liberty taken with the name for two reasons:
1) Thief 4 exists. I now have a new reason to live.
2) I’m clinging to the optimistic view that this will have an actual title by the time it’s released, or at the very least they’ll have the good sense not to print it like that on the box.
My excitement is the only thing distracting me from my overwhelming disappointment. The way they teased it, and teased May 11th, I expected a little more than ‘yeah, it exists’. How about a little info on the structure? Story? Estimated release date? Hell, a bit of concept art would have done!
If this isn’t at E3…
11/05/2009 at 15:49 Yak Jazz says:
They don’t make Thief logos like they used to.
11/05/2009 at 15:50 James T says:
Haha, quite.
Hope they don’t cop out!
11/05/2009 at 15:52 Ragnar says:
I’m interested in how they will continue the story. Will we still be playing as Garrett or are we going to play someone else?
11/05/2009 at 15:54 Jonas says:
They seem quite eager to be the next generation ION Storm Austin. It’s just a shame they haven’t managed to hire more of the old staff.
Still, I’m hoping this will be good. I’m also hoping it will be a bit of a break with the previous trilogy, narratively. Perhaps moving the setting to a slightly later era of steampunk? I guess they can’t get too Arcanum for fear of coming too close to Deus Ex 3′s weird rennaissance theme though.
11/05/2009 at 15:56 Old Hat says:
This has potential to be absolutely awesome. As long as they bring back the rope arrow. Thief 3 was seriously lacking in the go anywhere you please with your trusty thief equipment department. Magic gloves? I mean, come on!
11/05/2009 at 15:57 Rosti says:
Amused that thee-af makes it sound like some kind of Jamaican action game, mind.
Look forward to more info-news in the future.
11/05/2009 at 15:57 whaleloever says:
I can’t wait for Thiaf!
11/05/2009 at 15:58 PC Monster says:
YES! *punches air, dodges counterblow*
This has put the shittiest year ever right into context! Lost my job? Doesn’t matter – Thief 4 is coming! Broken up with GF? Doesn’t matter – Thief 4 will be all I need!
WOOHOO!!!! God, I love this series SO MUCH! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
11/05/2009 at 16:00 Alex Norris says:
I just made the mistake of checking out the official forum. It features people demanding that Garrett be the lead character, or else they’ll positively refuse to acknowledge the game! (I personally think the game should feature an old Garrett who goes missing as part of the plot, with the lead being his female apprentice who’s been working on her own for some time – as long as she’s as acerbic and cynical, everyone wins out) as well as people asking for a rehash of the Cradle, which would be bad for two reasons: a) a new Cradle level will never live up to the original (nostalgia and déjà-vu) and b) I would be forced to stop playing Thief 4 upon reaching that level (seriously, my mind refuses to acknowledge the existence of the Cradle; I remember entering through the basement, and then fighting the Hag in the streets, but nothing inbetween).
Gah.
Edit: for those worried about the “Thi4f” shtick, one of the Eidos staffers posted that it was a working title, and that all domains etc. associated with the game had been registered as thief4.com. See the official forums (but beware unrepentant fanboys) for more detail.
11/05/2009 at 16:02 Carey says:
I should like to see increasing scales of criminality for each new game. I suggest Larceny (larcenist?) = Theft-with-trespass y’see?
11/05/2009 at 16:04 Hermit says:
Seriously hoping they change the name quickly. Thiaf sounds like a disasterous attempt to be ‘cool’.
I can see the mission briefings now. “Got a hot tip from my mate Heartless Perry, innit. Rich geezer, Lord Julian or summit, got some jewels, man. Totally having those!”
Still, helpful advice for Eidos: Don’t screw it up.
11/05/2009 at 16:04 Waste_Manager says:
So. very. excited.
11/05/2009 at 16:05 drewski says:
Eidos clearly dropped the ball on D3us 3x, in hindsight.
11/05/2009 at 16:07 Taillefer says:
Prepare for trailer of dual-wielding Garrett performing a deadly pirouette and decapitating two guards, then swiftly letting loose an arrow in to the eye of a third. Cloak and hood blowing wildly in the dark, rainy night. Close-up of blood draining into a steamy drain. HE’S BACK. All to a Marilyn Manson song. Ah ah. No?Sorry. I am terribly excited, really! Yaaay!
11/05/2009 at 16:12 lumpi says:
Because the industry “has grown up as a whole”, the first changes EM will introduce to Thief will consist of regenerating health and the replacement of shadow-based stealth by a revolutionary “line-of-sight” approach. Also 3rd person only to because the fresh crowd of console-Gs wanna see the “cool animations”.
11/05/2009 at 16:12 Sp4rkR4t says:
It’s bad enough that they saw fit to use l33t speak in a commercial title of a product but to go and get it WRONG is beyond a joke.
ThiAf, no thanks I’d rather have Thief 4 please.
11/05/2009 at 16:20 Stense says:
Yay, Thief 4! One of the internet’s worst kept secrets, but nice to have it all gone done official like.
But Thi4f… Really? Someone needs to have a good hard talk to whoever came up with that.
11/05/2009 at 16:21 jalf says:
surely you mean D4us 4x
11/05/2009 at 16:23 Acosta says:
When they can’t even get the name right, what can you expect of the game?
I’ll keep the cyninc in me jailed, but I’m not amused seeing all this past raiding from no-name studios. Now get off my lawn.
11/05/2009 at 16:25 Citizen Parker says:
@Sp4rkR4t Come now, their usage of 4 instead of e isn’t so bad, is it SperkRet?
11/05/2009 at 16:27 Ginger Yellow says:
Se7en has a lot to answer for.
11/05/2009 at 16:29 Wirbelwind says:
Compared to the abomination Deus Ex 3 is turning out to be compared to the original games I’m not getting my hopes up for th14f; g4gnsta 3d1t1on
11/05/2009 at 16:35 jalf says:
Original games? Anyone thinks there was mor than one “original” Deus Ex game instantly forfeits any right to comment on Dx3. ;)
11/05/2009 at 16:35 Petethegoat says:
At first I assumed that that was a mock up by RPS, but it seems this is the case. Oh dear.
11/05/2009 at 16:36 TheFatDungeonMaster says:
Here’s hoping.
11/05/2009 at 16:37 Stupoider says:
Here’s hoping too!
11/05/2009 at 16:38 Lu-Tze says:
I hope the tutorial level features scrumping.
11/05/2009 at 16:44 Gap Gen says:
Lu-Tze: That would be ace.
11/05/2009 at 16:49 Lorc says:
It wants to be pronounced “thorf”.
11/05/2009 at 16:49 ilves says:
don’t really get switching the E for a 4… the two symbols don’t even look alike, they would’ve been better off with one of the other letters. Thief is awesome, but who knows if they’re going to pull this off. They’re putting a lot of fanboi wrath on themselves by doing thief 4 AND Deus Ex. They’ll either be the most hated company in the world or the most beloved with not much in between.
11/05/2009 at 16:53 Fat says:
That’s even worse than ‘Driv3r’s name.
11/05/2009 at 16:55 diebroken says:
Fantastic news! :)
I guess the Dark Mod will have to suffice till then…
11/05/2009 at 16:55 Ian says:
Isn’t the new Deus Ex a prequel? That’d make it 0eus Ex.
11/05/2009 at 16:56 stormbringer951 says:
I’m going to be cynical and go for The Dark Mod. Until I get a proper prequel, The Dark Mod is where my taffing fix is :)
11/05/2009 at 17:01 John Walker says:
I’m going to call it 44444.
11/05/2009 at 17:05 JKjoker says:
i just hope they keep the good things about thief 3 (i actually liked the stealth and story from that one a lot) but fix the incredible small areas (which forced them to be very linear)
also, “Thi4f” is so stupid, what is the problem with “Thief 4″ ? is it because they think Yathzee will like it if the number is not at the back of the title or something ? how about “4 a Thief” or “Thief 4evah” (that one would make the Duke cry), …. “Left4Thief”?
11/05/2009 at 17:13 Theoban says:
I reckon they’ll retitle it to Burgl4r instead.
More breaking and entering and nicking the stereo in this version.
11/05/2009 at 17:14 Deadend says:
It doesn’t even work as leet speak! e = 3 not 4!
Is it Thi 79? As 4f could be in hex.
I just can’t wait to hear how anyone tries to say the name in promotional material and not sound like a douche.
11/05/2009 at 17:15 Name (required) says:
Now all we need is SWAT5 or should that be 5WAT.
11/05/2009 at 17:19 Dominus says:
its ok, I’m from the internet and I fixed the title:
http://i44.tinypic.com/34pjdkl.jpg
11/05/2009 at 17:21 Subject 706 says:
PLEASE don’t fuck this one up Eidos!
11/05/2009 at 17:24 Matt says:
Thi4f: The dead horse that was tenderized in record time.
11/05/2009 at 17:24 cjlr says:
So, they’re going to ruin Thief as well as Deus Ex? Great…
But still, I’m cautiously optimistic. It could just be brilliant.
Also: am I the only person still annoyed by the title ‘Deus Ex’? God from what? Seriously…
11/05/2009 at 17:27 sbs says:
I still think Thief Episodes was the better idea.
11/05/2009 at 17:30 DigitalSignalX says:
Shamefully, I’ve never played a Thief game :( Heard lots of good things, just never got around to it. But after trying out the sneaky sneaky play of Velvet Assassin and Dark Athena, I’m really looking forward to what the “master” of the genre can bring.
11/05/2009 at 17:30 phil says:
Given ‘Fiddy cent’s recent, and somewhat unlikely, videogame success, could Edios licience a likeness of 2PAC to take the lead in thi4f, or rather thief4life.
11/05/2009 at 17:31 Pijama says:
First Bioware with that shoddy trailer for MARKETINGZ, now this?
WHAT THE HELL is going on this industry??!?!
disclaimer: irony heavy post
11/05/2009 at 17:34 jonfitt says:
I shall call it Thy-four-eff, and I wait with baited breath.
…must go brush my teeth.
11/05/2009 at 17:35 Dain says:
THIAF is apparently the old frisian word for thief.
So there.
11/05/2009 at 17:39 Pijama says:
THIAAAAF
Nope, doesn’t work. :’(
11/05/2009 at 17:45 panik says:
wish it was the old team working on it
11/05/2009 at 17:47 Deepo says:
Now hire Tom Hall and pay him a huge amount of dosh to make Anachronox 2!
11/05/2009 at 17:51 Wulf says:
Well this is going to be fun news to pass along to people.
“Have you heard? Thifourf is coming out.”
“…wot?”
“Thifourf.”
“Thee fourth, the fourth? The fourth wot?”
“Thifourf!”
“THE FOURTH WHAT?”
“Thief?”
“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE?”
“I DID!”
Thanks Eidos, this is one bit of word of mouth they can’t count on me for, not until they change it to something I can pronounce verbally without creating mass confusion.
Ah well, at least we didn’t end up with Deus Threex, that would’ve been even more fun. “Deus Freaks, you say?”
11/05/2009 at 17:51 Andrew Dunn says:
Anachr2nox.
11/05/2009 at 17:52 Name (required) says:
<a href=”http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/wsc420/thief4.jpg”
11/05/2009 at 17:52 bergotronic says:
TAFFERS!!!!!
11/05/2009 at 18:03 Magnus says:
Dragon Age, Deus Ex 3 and now Thiaf.. er.. thiof.. um.. Thief 4. Things are truly looking up. My hope will last at least until they are released to crushing disappointment.
11/05/2009 at 18:09 Geoff says:
Theoban, your brit-slang has inspired me. I propose a new game, one with the thefting we know and love from Thief, and the graituitous sex we’ve come to expect from
Duke NukemGrand Theft AutoDragon Age:Nickers!
It’ll be a surefire hit, I can tell already…
11/05/2009 at 18:09 Tworak says:
cutting edge name for a cutting edge game
eidosomgroflmaoirltbhffs
11/05/2009 at 18:13 Kieron Gillen says:
Everyone: The press release calls it “Thief 4″. It’s Thief 4. Don’t worry.
KG
11/05/2009 at 18:14 Paul Moloney says:
*clutches teddy*
*kneels beside bed*
*makes sign of the cross*
Dear Baby Jesus,
Please make Thief 4 be good. Please have scary bits, lots of steampunk and no load screens.
Thank you, and say hello to Santa for me.
11/05/2009 at 18:15 Kompi says:
Short version: OMG GIEF!
Being generally optimistic, cheerful and full of spasmic giddy glee about this peice of news, my two key questions at this point will have to to be:
A. When will this lovely vehicle of stealthing joy bring absence of light with its fixation on water arrows, and
B. Will there be a repeat of the Thief 3 forum drama I saw regarding whether there’ll be killable cats or not in the game.
11/05/2009 at 18:20 DBeaver says:
After the horrible mutilation that was the use of the Unreal 2 engine in both DX2 and Thief 3, I really just hope they’ll make it feel right…
I think I’ll go replay 1 and 2 now, and totally ignore this one until I see some decent gameplay trailers… ugh
11/05/2009 at 18:26 apnea says:
Can I be the first to tell you, with good sources backing this, that it will be a VERY action-oriented Thief 4, with plenty of focus on the cool action moves the protagonist will pull out while machine-gunning arrows and the like.
Sadly, I’m serious.
PS: By the by, I have the exact same bad news concerning another major Eidos game for this year; namely, DX3.
11/05/2009 at 18:26 pepper says:
I kinda liked thief 3.
There, ive said it, not that i came far though, im rubbish at it. But i think its a great game. I hope they dont screw this up.
11/05/2009 at 18:30 solipsistnation says:
Hum. I am deeply split. On the one hand, yay, more stealth stuff. On the other hand, it’s not Looking Glass and I didn’t see mention of any of the LGS people in there, especially since they all work for other companies now (like Harmonix and Bethesda). I have, well, not really any faith at all in Eidos’ ability to pull off a Thief game.
The producer, Mario Aguera, has worked on some games that are, hm. Not very edifying. They do, however, including “Rogue Ops,” a sort of middle-rated stealth/action game. I have no idea if it was actually any good, but it got middle-to-low review scores, so who knows? Either it was a niche game or it wasn’t very good.
At least, I hope, they’ll implement damn rope arrows.
11/05/2009 at 18:39 Magnus says:
@Apnea: I really hope not! It’s not too late for them to change their minds… “Thiaf’s Creed” would just make me feel sick…
In the spirit of hope though, I hope they will include far more sneaky-ness, hiding in shadows, and actual theivery, rather than having a bizarre collection of arrows to use, and undead/machines.
11/05/2009 at 18:42 Archonsod says:
The game that launched a thousand misplaced, compulsory stealth sections returns!
11/05/2009 at 18:44 autogunner says:
good to see the hype machine in full swing already, now we just need an overly violent video with erotic scenes of garret gettin’ down that can be remixed into the prisoner theme tune and we are done!
11/05/2009 at 18:46 pierec says:
t4ffer would be better.
11/05/2009 at 18:50 Nutkins Victory Otter says:
utter 4gtry
11/05/2009 at 18:51 Bhazor says:
My guess is the logo was rejected for Thief Deadly Shadows (Thi3f) after driv3r was so universally shafted. Clearly there was one very surly, very disappointment designer who required satisfaction.
11/05/2009 at 19:07 apnea says:
@Magnus:
I think Eidos’ exact wording was ‘going for a broader market’, so no, they won’t change their mind without first changing their perception of the market. And of course, a company determines a market in function of what other companies are doing, so no help there neither.
11/05/2009 at 19:16 Magnus says:
@Apnea: I will await the crushing disappointment then. Ah well, just have to retreat further back into my world of retro-gaming.
11/05/2009 at 19:24 Erlam says:
That looks like how my kids pronounce their ‘th’ sound. Th-ee-Four-Fuh. Sounds… awesome.
I actually didn’t mind Thief 3, except for, you know, the whole ‘not-able-to-use-USB-keyboards’ thing, which prevented me from beating it (my Ps2 keyboard died, and with it, anymore playing of Thief 3.)
As soon as this comes out as a third-person-only, eviscerated storywise, and all about killing people instead of theifery, we can put it next to Deus Ex as “more proof that, yes, that tired cliche about console games ruining PC games is true.”
And that list is quite large already.
11/05/2009 at 19:26 Supraliminal says:
Oh MY Goddess! This is Awsome.
Hope they are going to do it properly, thief 1 & 2 style and forget the third one.
Sneaks behind the guard….STAB!..
I can’t wait.
11/05/2009 at 19:30 rei says:
Don’t get too upset over the name. The reason it says “Thi4f” instead of “Thief 4″ is no doubt because this is the logo that was being partially uncovered in the teaser, and they didn’t want to make it too obvious. Not that it wasn’t anyway, but still, the game’s called Thief 4.
11/05/2009 at 19:32 simonkaye says:
Oooh I’m excited. Just finished shepherding my dad to the end of Thief 3, too.
So – predictions (minor spoils for rest of series, maybe):
1. Protagonist will be the girl whom Garrett takes on to train at the end of part three.
2. Game will use a version of the graphics engine they’re putting toward Deus Ex 3 (as with Deadly Shadows and Invisible War).
3. plot shouldn’t focus around any of the City’s main factions (as in the first three – Pagans, Hammers (mechanists), and Keepers respectively)
4. They’ll keep the explorable city, but make it one big map. Like a sneaky GTA, with loads of opportunities for incidental burglary.
Any more?
11/05/2009 at 19:40 kafka7 says:
Before anyone gets carried away with the console-bashing/fear, may I just remind listeners that we went through this whole thing with the last one and that turned out ok, didn’t it? This game has already had it’s Xbox puberty. It’s time to move on.
11/05/2009 at 19:41 Azazel says:
I love Thief.
11/05/2009 at 19:44 JohnArr says:
@simonkaye Seems pretty spot on. Though possibly a prequel so they can keep Garrett at the protagonist?
11/05/2009 at 19:48 Gravey says:
@simonkaye:
Since Eidos is now owned by Square-Enix, I’m expecting some brand synergy. Can anyone say steampunk thievery? It’s pronounced LOCKE COLE.
11/05/2009 at 19:51 Bah says:
Please be good, please be good…
11/05/2009 at 19:51 ZIGS says:
This was my exact reaction upon reading the news:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/8317/fuuuuu.png
11/05/2009 at 19:58 jalf says:
@Rei/Kieron/whoever else mentioned that this isn’t the “real” name: I don’t think anyone is upset about the “thi4f” name because it tries to be cool and modern (or whatever), but because they get it wrong. e is not written as 4 in any dialect of l33t I’ve ever seen. Of course this isn’t the “real” final name, and of course they refer to it as “Thief 4″ formally. Anything else would be silly.
To me it doesn’t matter that this is only a logo, and will probably get changed before release. But I find it hilarious that they even contemplated creating a logo titled either ThiAf or ThiFourF, depending on how you read it.
I don’t think this in reflects on to the game in any way, so no, I’m not “upset” or worried about what it means for the game. I’m just amazed that they thought it’d be a good idea to misspell the game’s name at the announcement.
11/05/2009 at 20:06 jackflash says:
I will be shivering with excitement if they update the damage model in this game to feel even slightly realistic. I mean, in the previous games, you shoot a guy in the back when he doesn’t know you’re there, and he dies. But if he knows you’re there, you have to shoot him like 10 times. Drove me nuts, it did.
11/05/2009 at 20:20 qrter says:
The Thief series and its universe is one of my personal favourites.
Really looking forward to this one. Now, to avoid all previews that’ll inevitably be coming our way before the actual release.
11/05/2009 at 20:27 Sparvy says:
@jackflash, That made perfect sense to me, seeing as how the entire point is that you dont want to be seen, and that your a pretty crappy fighter. And on that note, more thumping on the back of heads and less stabbing; thieving, not assassination.
Ooh, I want some hammerites aswell. Just keep that stuf around and I will be more than happy.
11/05/2009 at 20:31 Smurfy says:
Eidos Montreal better be damn good at sequels.
11/05/2009 at 20:44 Sunjammer says:
Retarded name. But my god, any shot at revisiting that world is super points for me. That franchise has the most interesting fantasy setting i’ve ever visited. Thief 2 stays installed.
I hope they revisit the open world stuff but do it properly. Honestly, people bash Thief 3 for its attempts at an open world but praise Thief 2 for “Life of the party”, which is the most open of the levels in the game. If done right, i think it’s the natural progression for the series, as long as the storytelling doesn’t suffer.
I’m off to submit my resumè to Eidos. It’s completely unrealistic, much like my attempt to be elected dean at the age of 18, but what the hell. Can’t hurt to try!
11/05/2009 at 20:45 Willy359 says:
They don’t need to do a prequel. They don’t need a new lead character. There’s plenty of ways to keep the existing storyline going. Here’s one off the top of my head:
It’s ten years later. Garrett has been living in monk-like seclusion out in the wilderness, contemplating balance. His girl apprentice is grown up and acts as his liason to whatever the Keepers have morphed into. She’s been bringing him reports that something is mysteriously wrong in the city, but she can’t figure out what. Then she goes missing. Garrett comes out of retirement, just as grumpy and world-weary as ever. With rope arrows.
You want a new faction? Well, we’ve never heard much about the civilian authorities who run the city. Is there a mayor? A king? A patrician? Someone will be trying to fill the power vaccuum created when the Keepers lost the glyphs. Say they’re not very good at it and the city is falling apart. Or, say they’ve instituted a brutal police state. Say the Keepers are now a rag-tag resistance group and Garrett has to reluctantly put the band back together.
I could do this all day.
11/05/2009 at 20:52 Sunjammer says:
What i liked the most about the Thief stories was their depiction of a secret war. Deus Ex pretended towards this but it was always quite overt nonetheless. Thief really convinced me of a covert war going on in the underbelly of the city. I believed in that world to the extent that if there were books written about it i would happily read them.
My biggest concern is actually the first person camera. I hope to dear god they don’t stick with the third person.
11/05/2009 at 20:54 solipsistnation says:
@kafka7: “Before anyone gets carried away with the console-bashing/fear, may I just remind listeners that we went through this whole thing with the last one and that turned out ok, didn’t it?”
What? No it didn’t.
The good thing now is that consoles are much heftier than they were in the Xbox 1 days, so they won’t have to try to pack giant environments into 64MB RAM.
11/05/2009 at 20:58 Markoff Chaney says:
We knew it was coming. Glad it’s finally confirmed. I so loved Thief and Thief 2. Horrible name as far as the placement of the 4, though. It could be construed as being confusing to someone new to the franchise, but that’s not who this announcement was for. Talk about eggs in a basket with Deus Ex 3 and Thief 4 coming from the same dev house. I hope they have a good CM to handle the raging pulsing intertubes.
11/05/2009 at 21:09 Taillefer says:
Apnea,
Uhm, well, there are very few people who could have told you that since, apparently, they’re not even in pre-production yet, or even have a team finalised to develop it.
11/05/2009 at 21:12 bhlaab says:
Haha, dont get too excited kids. the ball will drop soon enough.
11/05/2009 at 21:12 TheApologist says:
Beyond good and evil – check
Deus Ex – check
Thief – check
Now bring back Anachronox
11/05/2009 at 21:20 jalf says:
and The Lost Vikings :D
11/05/2009 at 21:29 The Colonel says:
I bet anyone on the forum £1000 Thiaf will replace the shadow sneaking with a simple cover system and implement regen health. Bring back the rope arrows! Ahh, the first two games were so good. Please just leave a good thing alone Eidos! Since Deu2 Ex: Vi2ibly Poor came out so many of our great classic PC titles have been marred by awful sequels. Looking at you in particular, Ion Storm and Bethesda. Fingers crossed for Ma3 Payne and Maf2a
11/05/2009 at 21:43 Chalee says:
Thief 4TW!
11/05/2009 at 22:22 Muzman says:
Well, no. Actually it didn’t. Not really.
I hope they don’t look at Deadly Shadows at all for how to do this game, frankly. Most of the levels in that barely measure up to ‘Lord Bafford’s’ in complexity. If they can’t bring back the soaring majesty of ‘The Bank’ or ‘Life of the Party’ these days, they shouldn’t bother.
But good luck to ‘em anyway.
11/05/2009 at 22:58 alco75 says:
Indeed. The original Looking Glass games are far more atmospherically freakier and generally just better than Thief DS.
11/05/2009 at 23:06 PaulMorel says:
I loved Thief 1 and 2, like everyone else. Thief 3 put me to sleep… literally. I hope this one can liven up the series for me … either way, I will be a launch-day purchase.
11/05/2009 at 23:17 Rob Maguire says:
@Willy359:
Finally seeing the government that can keep the City together is a great idea, especially since (spoilers) the existing powers were crippled (killed or de-powered), due to the events of the last game. I imagine a daring patrician, formerly a Keeper, covertly balancing the remnants of the factions against each other for the benefit of the City.
Lord Vetin4ri, anyone?
12/05/2009 at 00:02 Po0py says:
Nice.
The AI will definatly need to be looked at because Theif 3 AI just felt like actors in a stage play. You are hiding in the shadows and a guard hears you and he’s looking right at you but then it’s as if the gaurd is thinking: “I know he’s there but it’s just a game so I’ll turn and walk away just to go easy on the lad.” And he turns and goes off down a corridor wistling like nothing just happened, waiting for me to catch up with him and twat him with my club.
Despite it all it did have it’s own kind of charm. Deadly Shadows was a solid game, imho.
12/05/2009 at 00:02 Subjective Effect says:
This will be rubbish.
You can tell because the name is stupid. Its science.
12/05/2009 at 00:04 Gap Gen says:
If it has science, I’m looking forward to it.
12/05/2009 at 00:08 MD says:
Thi Fourf game in da series, comin atcha from tha c0re t33m !
Lordy. I suspect they knew exactly how we would react though: amused and pseudo-appalled, but not upset enough to actually lose interest in the game. Publicity++, I guess.
12/05/2009 at 00:11 apnea says:
@Taillefer
Admittedly, it’s only a glimpse, but ‘proof of concept’ is a good pointer as far as these things go. There’s still two years to go in any case. They may still change their minds about a few things.
12/05/2009 at 01:04 Solar says:
Seconding that. Still playing through Thief 2, taking my merry time and getting scared out of my wits. Demo and area loading of thief 3 put me off. Might try it if I ever finish Thief 2. The idea of Thief 4 could be great, but there is little wrong with the old gameplay. Further to that, the amount of quality fan-made missions and campaigns for Thief 1+2 is humbling.
Another gripe. Why do they have to create a new forum to garner public opinion about Thief 4 when the TTLG forum is bursting with Thief fans; you know the ones that create the fan missions, the darkmod, Thief 2X, that kind of thing. If it new forum is just for viral advertising, then it’s as subtle as Thi4F.
Sigh
@Supraliminal: Sneaks behind the guard….STAB!.. Not playing on expert then ;)
12/05/2009 at 02:34 James T says:
Well, obviously they want to control the official forum of the game they’re releasing — they’d look like utter clowns if the discussion board to which they directed the general public became a hive of moderator-endorsed anti-Thief 4 sentiment as more details were released about the game. I don’t know why you’re talking about viral stuff; they haven’t pulled any of that bullshit yet, thankfully (unless showing the ‘Thi4f’ logo was an amusingly roundabout form of ‘viral’ advertising, in which case I would almost describe it as ‘clever’ if I wasn’t sick of the idiotic “well it got u talking didn’t it?!!!” view of advertising. What could you call that, the ‘troll approach’?…)
12/05/2009 at 06:24 bhlaab says:
I’d love to play the first two thiefs but them, along with system shock 2 and presumably anything else done on that awful engine are broken on my computer even with all the community fixes.
They run alright, but the thing is that the whole game is super bright and there are absoloutely no shadows. Kind of a problem for thief..
12/05/2009 at 07:35 Pemptus says:
Please be good. Please don’t be a bloomy, blurry qte-ridden mess most games are nowadays.
Everyone who hasn’t – reinstall both Thiefs, get ddfix (and the widescreen mod) so they run properly on new systems, visit the ttlg forums and play some fan missions. I swear to Builder, some of them surpass the original campaigns in quality. “A night in Rocksbourg” series or “Ominous Bequest” and its sequel to name just two. There should really be an RPS article on those, the game deserves it.
12/05/2009 at 10:57 Solar says:
@ James T
I don’t think forums are meant to be ‘controlled’. When the moderator is called VIKTORIA it does seem akin to viral advertising to me. Not saying they shouldn’t have their own forum, but if they are going to ask questions like ‘who do you want as the main character? discuss’ it would make sense to engage with the established community a bit. Many will visit their forum but seems a bit lazy to me. That and the question is ridiculous. Do they even know what they’re doing?!
@Pemptus
I couldn’t agree with you more.
12/05/2009 at 20:21 Guhndahb says:
I like Ubi Montreal and have purchased and enjoyed many of their “PC” games. But I don’t think there’s much chance they’ll make a Thief sequel that’ll satisfy me. I see little chance they won’t be simplified/dumbed down to a fun but ultimately unfulfilling game.
Fortunately, the original ‘Thief’s, along with fan-made material, as well as The Dark Mod will always be there for me. And if Ubi Montreal surprises me with something that plays like the originals and feels right on a PC then all the better.
EDIT: Please disregard my post, I obviously had mixed up Ubi Montreal and Eidos Montreal in my head.
12/05/2009 at 22:54 Subjective Effect says:
@Solar
Yup. And TTLG’s Thief 4 anticipation forums has mirror topics of so many of those on Eidos forums.
fyi – Viktoria is a long term gamer and member of both TTLG and Eidos forums. Its coincidence that she is the main moderator at the Eidos T4 forum. Could have been any of them, including theBlackman (also a prolific poster at TTLG and all round awesome 70+ year old gamer and musician). But then people would read into the “Black” in his name too!!
13/05/2009 at 09:07 Geko says:
I hope this is a reboot into another trilogy.
I can’t wait for T5I4F and then T5I46.
13/05/2009 at 19:44 Subjective Effect says:
Note to all internet users. The joke in the above post, despite being as obvious as the hand in front of your face, is, unbelievably, totally original and best of all – cool.
13/05/2009 at 20:42 Dia says:
Originally Posted by apnea
Can I be the first to tell you, with good sources backing this, that it will be a VERY action-oriented Thief 4, with plenty of focus on the cool action moves the protagonist will pull out while machine-gunning arrows and the like.
Sadly, I’m serious.
PS: By the by, I have the exact same bad news concerning another major Eidos game for this year; namely, DX3.
I’m wondering who ‘apnea’ is; ie: is she an Eidos employee, married to/living with someone who is or what? And whom are her ‘sources’? If she has no legitimate way to substantiate her statement, then as far as I’m concerned, it’s just another T4 rumor and more speculation.
I find it rather strange that when even Eidos isn’t quite sure what T4 is going to be all about yet, that there are a few who consider themselves ‘insiders’ and quite knowledgeable about T4.
Just sayin’.
13/05/2009 at 20:53 Solar says:
@Subjective Effect
Thanks for the info, was a feeling very cynical when I browsed the Eidos forum. Nice to know there is some crossover between forums, just frustrating to see blind repetition in creating a community that already exists.
13/05/2009 at 21:19 Jim Rossignol says:
Pemptus: you are dead right. I even have some stuff downloaded for Thief, I’ve just not looked at it. The problem, as ever, is time. We’re in dire need of that, or money, to let us cover more.
18/05/2009 at 14:45 PHeMoX says:
4FS, oh yes, I sure hope thát’s not the actual logo… Thief 4 definitely is one of the most promising announcements yet, same alley as Starcraft 2 and DNF’s pending release a few months back…
of course sadly it seems to be doubtful if we will ever see the latter released.
18/05/2009 at 14:51 PHeMoX says:
“apnea says:
Can I be the first to tell you, with good sources backing this, that it will be a VERY action-oriented Thief 4, with plenty of focus on the cool action moves the protagonist will pull out while machine-gunning arrows and the like.
Sadly, I’m serious.
PS: By the by, I have the exact same bad news concerning another major Eidos game for this year; namely, DX3.”
Hell no, you are way way wrong. Assassin’s Creed will be changed into an even more stealthier game when it comes to the sequel, why the hell would they change Thief into a more AC-like game? They didn’t with Thief 3 and they won’t with Thief 4, it would be plain moronic.
I wouldn’t buy Thief 4 if it’s some kind of action game with less emphasis on stealth, it’s supposed to be all about stealth ffs! It’s the one game, together with Hitman, that actually successfully knows how to pull it off.
07/08/2010 at 12:43 james says:
whos really lacking in common sense? its just a logo. every one will say it like ”thief 4” anyway, plus the way its style is , is in line with all the other 3 installments anyway, theres not really a problem quit making it on, common sense not very common among some thief fans it seems to me, quit moaning about the logo and feel excited thief 4 is on the way!