Goldmoon Dawn on 28/8/2013 at 01:12
I have reviewed every piece of media I could find about this new game, and very rarely, if ever, is the focus on sneaking. It is usually relegated to comments such as "if you want to be the ghost, we have that too, see? The dna is intact".
Springheel on 28/8/2013 at 14:08
Peeking through keyholes is kind of a silly mechanic (imho), but it's definitely a stealth feature. And the bit about guards having dynamic patrol routes, relighting lights, caged animals that function as alarms...they're also all about stealth.
King No One on 28/8/2013 at 14:32
Looking at some of the responses in this thread, many taffers seem to be under the misapprehension that Garrett was some kind of heartless automaton; one who only derived satisfaction from the successful completion of a job.
It's funny that was what I was afraid EM were going to turn NuGarrett into: The "once I stole to live, now I live to steal" line leaving me envisioning a boba fett-like cypher, someone who existed solely as an archetype of their profession. On reflection I'm relieved by the direction this backstory is taking; it would be a churlish Thief fan who denied ever envisioning Garrett taking an apprentice (and there's plenty of fanfiction on 'TheCircle that attest to this). The very fact that Garrett is a loner makes a situation where he would become an authority (or even parental figure) all the more interesting.
Now people will argue I'm projecting the Garrett I played as onto the character but one only has to look to the OMs to see that Garrett wasn't an unfeeling hard-ass. I need no other evidence than his interaction with Lotus during the events of Precious Cargo. Here was someone Garrett had never met before, whom he had no specific interest in beyond the information he had (
http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus) yet.
Furthermore in many of the expert difficulty missions after he witnessed the Beck o' the Wills massacre Garrett's 'no killing' objective is fleshed out with the line 'killing is for amateurs...and mechanists.' So Garrett dislikes the Mechanists with a passion, would not suffer the same fallout from killing them he would from collateral damage during a standard heist yet restrains himself from killing their foot soldiers. I think it's more than 'professional standards' that keep Garret from taking lives.
Then I might be letting immersion take me too far: based on the briefing in Shipping and Receiving and Garrett's reaction to the housebreakers in Life of the Party I try to avoid doing anything in game that Garrett may find 'beneath him.' I mean why would Garrett go after small potatoes in a manner that reminded him of his dire childhood when he could do so much better (helps me deal with some of the immersion breakingly huge loot counts in some FMs).
Oh and with regard to EM asking for community input then ignoring us, have people forgotten so quickly NuThiefs lengthy development cycle and high turnover rate for creative staff? Members of the dev team may have wanted to take some of our ideas on board but market forces* forced them to produce a title with broader appeal.
Anyway that's my two cents
*Blinkered, folly prone Square-Enix
Darkness_Falls on 29/8/2013 at 18:52
Quote Posted by Springheel
Peeking through keyholes is kind of a silly mechanic (imho), but it's definitely a stealth feature.
I don't mind it on like 10%-20% of the doors at most, but I have a feeling it'll be on the vast majority. Spyhopping already reported, "I think that every door which I picked, or any unlocked door which I opened inside the mansion allowed me to check through the keyhole first. I can't speak for every door in the game, but it was a feature that was useful and I used it regularly in my playthrough of the demo."
I prefer not being able to have a preview of what and who are inside every room; and I think it's a bad idea, for the integrity of the franchise, to have players expect that they will be able to.
There should be some tension during the act of opening doors. You should have to listen for muffled footsteps or speech before opening the door. If you can look through every door, EM is missing the boat on the whole 'theater of the mind' thing that they could be playing on.
I guess since Garrett jollily flings the door open with his pre-rendered animation, any idea of carefully creaking the door open to take a peek inside is not likely... so every door instead needs a keyhole.
Beleg Cúthalion on 29/8/2013 at 20:08
Still the peeping feature would be a sort-of improvement, as long as it doesn't give away too much. I cannot really remember how much you could see at GamesCom, but the FOV was limited in any case. Giving only a few visual clues on every keyhole would be better IMHO than to have [drum roll....] contextual peeping. :p
Vae on 29/8/2013 at 20:57
Quote Posted by Darkness_Falls
There should be some tension during the act of opening doors. You should have to listen for muffled footsteps or speech before opening the door. If you can look through every door, EM is missing the boat on the whole 'theater of the mind' thing that they could be playing on.
I agree, DF...It would be nice if one was able to
lean against a door, so as to listen in and be able to determine action based on the semi-obfuscation of using sound alone...Unfortunately, such will not be the case, due to the ridiculous notion of no free-leaning.
VIDEO UPDATE: Thief on PS4: Garrett's new story, going back to The City, and the world of Thief
[video=youtube;4m6obRF_4mI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m6obRF_4mI[/video]
Garrett's new story?...Right...It's a new story for a new character, who happens to be named Garrett.
Going back to The City, and the world of Thief?...What a crock.
SubJeff on 29/8/2013 at 23:03
It's all rubbish.
Renault on 30/8/2013 at 01:03
I'm not necessarily even ripping on the story, but this new character they're calling Garrett really isn't much like the original one at all. Different voice, different look, different attitude, completely different background - why even call him Garrett? I'm not sure why they didn't just create a new Thief, I would have been fine with that. I think EM believes just calling him Garrett is going to automatically bring people on board with the new game, when in fact the opposite is true. Fans of the real Garrett are left to wonder - what happened to to the guy we've been following around for the past decade or so?
Goldmoon Dawn on 30/8/2013 at 01:12
It gives a whole new perspective on the mantra "whats yours is mine". ;)
Our Garrett becomes EMs Garrett.
Chade on 30/8/2013 at 01:30
Quote Posted by Brethren
I'm not necessarily even ripping on the story, but this new character they're calling Garrett really isn't much like the original one at all. Different voice, different look, different attitude, completely different background
Different voice and different look is somewhat true, but I think in the recent promotional material it is not anywhere near as true as it used to be.
Different attitude? In the video he describes how he started with Garrett's personality and used that to drive the story. To me, what Gallagher described in that video absolutely nailed it, which is not to say I always agree with how he's been portrayed in their promotional videos.
Different background, sure.
IMO it's clearly the same character.
I'm surprised no-one's bitching about Gallagher's response to the narrative vs. gameplay question. "A little bit of story and then you can get back to the gameplay"? Combined with the lack of readables in the E3 demo, I thought that would have thrown up a few red flags (it's the bit that stood out to me, anyway). The Garrett portion of the interview I thought was excellent.
