Dishonored Among Thieves: Thief Trailer

Another week, another Thief trailer. Maybe I should just stop watching them at this point. If the game does turn out to be at least half-decent, I'd like at least some of the surprises to be surprising when I play it. Previous videos haven't revealed much beyond the basics of the City (it has a skyline with a clocktower, natch), and new-look Garrett, along with his dubious quips. The shiny new bauble below fell off the VGX Christmas tree over the weekend and it provides more plot to chew on, roll around it in the mouth and then spit back onto the plate. You know, like at a cheese-tasting session.

I'm confused and it's not just because today is Monday and I haven't had enough coffee yet. I'm confused because I didn't expect Garrett to have a protégé. I thought the rebooted Garrett was younger, barely out of his thiefly apprenticeship, but maybe that's not the case at all. There are spoilers for Thief: Deadly Shadows below, which is why you'll find a sizeable buffer between these words and the next.

"It's no easy thing to see a Keeper."

There's precedent for this. At the end of Deadly Shadows, Garrett's story comes full circle. He is now the Keeper and he echoes his own 'recruitment' as he catches a young urchin goal by the wrist as she attempts to pick his pockets. This feels like a deliberate nod to that scene, a muddying of the connections between what came before and what is happening now. This is also the first time, as far as I can remember, that we've seen any overtly spiritual and supernatural occurrences in The (New) City. It's all very frantic and bombastic, of course, because it's happening in a trailer of a certain type.

My initial thought was that the ritual-gone-wrong must take place mid-way through the game, being the event that forces Garrett to risk his neck to save The City. Maybe not for the greater good but because, you know, it's where he keeps his stuff. If the summoning happens mid-game though, does that mean Garrett's companion will play a part in his adventures for a time?

I didn't like that idea one bit. In Thief, solitude is the key (or rather lockpick) to my heart. I'm probably wrong though. The sequence in which Garrett returns to The City following an unexplained absence is most likely where the game begins, and it seems likely that the ritual is a flashback to something that happened during that period. He left with a partner and returned alone.

Poor Garrett. They're giving him motivations. It could be fine, just as long as we don't find out his parents were hacked down by a drunken guard in Law Alley, causing him to dedicate his life to committing crimes.