bukary on 24/1/2014 at 15:30
Some new (?) PS4 gameplay with Polish commentary:
(
http://tvgry.pl/?ID=4083)
The journalist said that:
- The City (parts between missions) is great and fun to play,
- the levels (missions) are not that big (smaller than the ones in Dishonored), but there are plenty of things to do,
- Thief is more like the last Spliner Cell than the original game.
You can also see that there are 3 different playstyles: Ghost, Opportunist, Predator.
There's also a preview of the 'almost finished' game (
http://www.gry-online.pl/S022.asp?ID=9498) here (in Polish). Some bad news:
- lots of loading screens in The City,
- the guards can't chase Garrett between loading zones,
- the levels are small,
- AI is not that good (you can crawl into some hole and the guards can do nothing),
- rope arrows are like climbing gloves in TDS: you can use them quite rarely,
- so far PS4 controller does not work very well with this game,
- "automated" movement is not a good idea and 3rd person sequences seem out of place in Thief,
- there are no old-style cutscenes (just in-engine "movies").
Yet his overall impressions are good.
Tomi on 24/1/2014 at 16:14
Hmm. Interesting.
This video confirms some of my fears, but in a way it's also better than I expected. I've never played Splinter Cell so I can't comment on that, but the game still looks like Thief to me. The unnecessarily edgy and gloomy little brother of Thief, yes, but still Thief. The UI looks bad, but at least it's not as obtrusive as feared even on those (default?) settings. The zombie hands do look a bit silly when crouching indeed, it doesn't really bother me, but the hands don't need to be there when there's nothing to interact with. :erg: The shroud that everyone seems to be complain about? I hardly even noticed that it's there, to be honest. The movement looks surprisingly smooth to me, I was expecting something a lot more "on rails" stuff (press X to jump over to the next platform), but it's hard to say what it's
really like without actually playing the game. Is this what you mean by "automated movement" though?
Quote Posted by bukary
Some bad news:
- lots of loading screens in The City
How do the loading screens work though, do you have any idea? I remember the devs saying that the player will barely even notice the loading zones because the "transition is so smooth", so I was hoping that the end result would be something a lot more tolerable than what we got in TDS at least. Still, that's bad news. It might still be somewhat acceptable if the loading zones only exist in the City hub though and not in the actual "mission areas", but still... bleh.
Shame about the AI too, hopefully it's at least better than in the older games.
bukary on 24/1/2014 at 16:26
Quote Posted by Tomi
The movement looks surprisingly smooth to me, I was expecting something a lot more "on rails" stuff (press X to jump over to the next platform), but it's hard to say what it's
really like without actually playing the game. Is this what you mean by "automated movement" though?
No. What the jurnalist meant was the contextual movement. He says that it's just bad and kills immersion.
Quote:
How do the loading screens work though, do you have any idea?
Quote from the preview:
"Exploration of the City is not so pleasant when you're greeted with loading screens all the time."
Quote:
It might still be somewhat acceptable if the loading zones only exist in the City hub though and not in the actual "mission areas", but still... bleh.
If I understand correctly, the loading zones in Thief missions are very few, because the levels are rather small. The article says that there's no Life of the Party size mission in new Thief.
sNeaksieGarrett on 24/1/2014 at 16:44
Very disappointing. I would have hoped that they'd be able to avoid loading screens. That was one of the biggest flaws of TDS, right? (As of this writing I still have only played the demo of TDS, but I remember a loading zone and thought how immersion breaking/gamey that was.)
Starker on 24/1/2014 at 16:46
I think that the swiping motions every time the character picks up loot would get old pretty fast.
Splashcups on 24/1/2014 at 16:48
Awesome, thanks!
I find the shroud looks a little better, but is f*&%ed whenever it flashes. How could you not notice that. I miss readables. I loved the old text on parchment. I don't really mind the hands, but I definately agree that they shouldn't be there while not interacting with anything.
Sucks to hear that the level sizes are small, I'm currently playing through Deadly Shadows again and can't believe how tiny the missipns are. Finishing most of them in 30 minutes on expert.
Someone needs to call them and say "Rope arrows should stick into anything made of wood. Also, contextual movement? WTF are you thinking?".
I think it looks "unnecessarily edgy and gloomy" because they aren't adding the silly side of Thief and trying to make it alot more grounded and serious, and personally I like that.
henke on 24/1/2014 at 17:32
I like the way it looks and plays. Sucks about the small levels though. :erg:
Starker on 24/1/2014 at 17:35
Apparently, Garrett getting caught red-handed and having to make a cinematic action-packed escape is a classic Thief moment.
Inline Image:
http://i43.tinypic.com/2iig0mc.jpg
sNeaksieGarrett on 24/1/2014 at 18:50
Quote Posted by Starker
I think that the swiping motions every time the character picks up loot would get old pretty fast.
The more I saw it the more I became inclined to agree with you. Feels awkward, couldn't he just grab the item like a normal person rather than "swiping" it? The swiping animation feels forceful and unnecessary I guess, if that makes any sense. Hard to describe, would be better to explain with real life hand movement.
Also, the more I see Garrett's hands out in front of him the more I feel like it's completely unnecessary and distracting. Thinking about it from a realistic standpoint, who would actually walk around like that in real life? Even the crouching one seems weird. I tried it myself in real life just as a test and I felt silly for doing it.
Keeping both hands up in front of you like that feels awkward. At the very least, the crouching one is less of a problem, but it'd be better if they could stagger the placement of his hands. Like say, have his right hand lower than his left, almost like in a stance if that makes sense. Having said that, other aspects of his hands I am all for. For example, him using his hands to trigger something behind a painting's edges, or seeing his hands physically moving the lockpicks in a lock.
@Splashcups
There's certain things I doubt they'll change (like the rope arrow point you brought up) at this point, however they surprised me by removing the XP pop-up implementation they had since E3. That was more major though. The rope arrow thing I can live with, but still, it is disappointing to say the least.