Thief 4?

[Eraser]

Eurogamer seems to suggest that Eidos is working on a fourth installment in the Thief series. That sounds like good news to my ears, although I'm not completely convinced by the "proof" they present. I remember that there were some Thief fans on these forums (Mat Linnett?) so I thought I'd post about it.

[Mat Linnett]

The rumour-mill's been rumbling away for the past few months, and the community over at TTLG.com are more than a little wary.
Essentially, the original games, including Deadly Shadows, were always envisaged as a complete trilogy. The first game focussed on the Pagans, the second on the Hammerites / Mechanists and the third on the Keepers. If you've played the third game to completion, you'll understand that while there's potential for a fourth game (the little girl pick-pocketing Garrett nicely representing Garrett's origins in the original Thief), one of the main attractions of the series, playing as Garrett himself, would no longer be possible. Garrett essentially "retires" upon becoming the one, true Keeper.

I think the best thing for a new Thief game would be to take the game into the future of the City. Riffing on the already richly realised steampunk world and imagining how it would advance over the years could create something truly unique, but unfortunately I don't have that much faith in the widely creatively-bankrupt industry.
Looking Glass Studios made brave, inspirational games and their legacy resulted in some of the best games of our times (Deus Ex for example has its roots in Looking Glass games), but they didn't make enough money off of being brilliant in order to survive.

Personally, I'd like to see the return of the massive, freeform maps from Thief 2 along with an improved City hub a la Deadly Shadows.
One of the only areas where Deadly Shadows suffered was in map size thanks to restrictions placed on development by the original xbox' memory footprint. Hopefully a modern take on the series would suffer no such restrictions, but I'm also under no illusions that it would probably be developed with console platforms in mind rather than the PC.
This comes with its own problems. PC game series that have transitioned to consoles have traditionally suffered in translation as developers try to simplify the game in order to make it appeal to the mainstream.
I feel they often under-estimate console gamers and aim too low, but such projects these days are mostly driven by committee rather than creativity.

I'm not as passionate about Thief as I am about Fallout, so I'd probably enjoy a new Thief, even if it wasn't accepted by the community. But I could completely understand them proclaiming it a heresy as I have done with Fallout 3.

Let's see how the new Deus Ex works out. From what I understand, much like Deus Ex Invisible War and Thief Deadly Shadows, it's the same company working on both titles, so one should give a good idea of the other.

[Ryoki]

Only played thief 3, which i thought was all kinds of excellent. So yeah, good news

[MKJ]

thief3 was aight, save for obvious clipping issues.
oh and the cocksucking bug on xbox which made it reset to easymode all the time :R

[Eraser]

I haven't made it really far into Thief 3 and I think Thief 2 was better than 3 in terms of atmosphere. Never played the first.

I'm not so passionate about the whole Thief legacy that I'd let such a thing spoil a tacked on fourth installment, so I'm all for a Thief 4.

[Don Carlos]

The original was good, and I can't say I played the rest...

Deus Ex was shit, and so was the second. I really did not get on with the games...

[o'dium]

3 was so good... I crave for a new one, regardless of if it makes sense or not.

In fact... I may re-install it later... It works with the 360 pad, right...?

[tnf]

I miss Thief games.

[Captain a13n]

I played Thief Gold which accompanied with "sound blaster live x-gamer".
As someone mentioned above, its atmosphere is supreme even if its gfx is poor compared to q3.
This frustrating game needs rocket launcher or bfg.

[Dr_Watson]

if they make a new thief game it better not have zombies.

[Captain a13n]

if they make a new thief game it better not have zombies.

Agreed.
In this game they seem to be a representation of developer's laziness.

[LBt1st]

That's exactly what always turned me off from these games. I bought every one of them, and finished none. Each one was fantastic until there was some tomb-raider style bullshit thrown in.

I want to sneak around stealing shit. Toss in the occasional sword fight beause I fucked up. That's it, no zombies, not robots, no ghost or other such nonsense.

And bring back the damn rope-arrow!

-Bean

[o'dium]

HELL NO. While Robots, aliens and zombies are a no go, you can't say GHOSTS should go...

The Cradle level from Thief 3 is one of the very best levels in gaming history.

[Captain a13n]

The exact same thing true of wolfenstein.
Or is it a taboo here?

[Eraser]

The exact same thing true of wolfenstein.
Or is it a taboo here?

Wolfenstein taboo? Ofcourse not. Wolfenstein is still hugged and loved on a daily basis.

[Ryoki]

if they make a new thief game it better not have zombies.

but... i liked the zombies

[Grudge]

don't the zombies break the entire sneaking mechanic?

[Ryoki]

Well yeah that's pretty true i guess, but that's what made them scary! You had to get rid of them quick quick.

[Eraser]

I thought the steampunk robots of Thief 2 were the best thing in gaming since the invention of the color screen.

[Eraser]

Well, it has been confirmed. Thief 4 is-a comin'
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/eidos ... ms-thief-4

edit:
by the way, it's going to be THI4F. Thiaf? Errr, what?
http://www.thief4.com/

[xer0s]

I think Thie4 would work better. But its still dumb...

[Fender]

thi3f

or maybe 3mu

[xer0s]

It's Thief 4, not 3...

[o'dium]

Why are people so impressed with putting stupid numberss into words... Christ its like a 14 year old MSN user got her chatlog into my Thief...

[brisk]

I have a good feeling about Eidos Montreal. If DX3 is decent, then you can guarentee T4 will follow suit. I hope we get to see some DX3 at E3 and maybe a teaser trailer for T4.

I wonder what engine T4 will use. DX3 is already using the TR:U engine, which is far from cutting edge. If that is released in 2010, I imagine T4 will be released in around... 2012? Somehow, I don't think the engine will cut it then.

Oh well, lets keep our fingers crossed at least.