Thief's hero redesigned to be 'more mainstream'...relative to internal designs - by retractingblinds
retractingblinds on 14/3/2013 at 04:33
(
https://www.shacknews.com/article/78205/thiefs-hero-redesigned-to-be-more-mainstream)
oh hey, a better source than some shitty amateurishly written article, even has a nice interview with the developers...as nice as it can get.
(
https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/03/13/meet-the-new-garrett-from-thief.aspx)
While not much is said, the implications are heavy. I wonder what a redesign for a modern console audience would mean, because frankly I can't think of many successful and iconic modern console games without some gruff military man taking ass and kicking names. Then again, the lead guy is from the Assassins Creed team. I only beat the first one, so would anyone who's played them care to refresh my noggin on what the characters are like? I really can't remember much of anything about the first game, apart from running around getting flags instead of assassinating people.
Fortunately I'm glad they're toning down his magical abilities, I never liked playing a mage in
Thief.
Update:(
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-14-thief-4-hero-garrett-less-gothic-more-mainstream)
Looks like poor wording was the crux of this debacle, turns out they were talking about his earlier designs within the studio, not within the franchise. And with this mending statement comes another,
Quote:
Cantin also noted that players will be able to tailor the game's difficulty and complete the entire story without taking a single life. "Garrett is a Master Thief, not a killing machine," Cantin stated.
That's a bit of a relief, although saying it and showing it are quite different. I'm reserving myself until they show us what the game is like. I've been toyed with like this before.
thiefinthedark on 14/3/2013 at 04:34
Quote:
"We're now trying to make him appeal more to modern audiences."
"He's now doing the more action move."
"With the-a main character from the Joker and the Crow, this all inspiration."
Quote:
We wanted to bring in more for the modern audience of today's console market is now in the game doing more action move and that's how we wanted the costume and the suit to reflect that. In the beginning it was kinda more gothic, we turned down all the things that feels gothic.
For example black nails and things like that, we don't have that anymore. We wanted to make him a bit more mainstream on that but yes so dark character but we don't want to say that he is a gothic one and things even though the victorian period feels really gothic
Quote:
It was my role to art direct the team that was working on Altair, same thing that I did with Garrett. Both were character that can often feel -intelligible-
we had to make them more actiony figure. Make them stand out in a crowd of NPCs when
he needs to stand in the rows at the market and that people would often say oh he's too white he is too black he is standing too much but that's a good thing
he needs to stand out when he is in a crowd. F* Eidos. F* Eidos apologists. F* anyone who even pretends that this utter trash will be good.
Peace out.
Fintilgin on 14/3/2013 at 04:41
Quote Posted by thiefinthedark
F* Eidos. F* Eidos apologists. F* anyone who even pretends that this shit will be good.
Peace out.
Dusting off my TTLG account to post for the first time in years and years to say AMEN, BROTHER! :mad:
jtr7 on 14/3/2013 at 05:15
Why'd they pick Thief? They were given several choices (I can't remember if it was 5 or 7 titles to pick 2 from), and they chose an iconic and historic game they don't believe in beyond it being a neat game, taking this out, that out, hybridizing, homogenizing, forcing it to be financially viable and safe, making it less of the risk the original was. If it doesn't challenge FPS gamer notions, it's missed one of the biggest points of the original. They are taking the "hippy" rebellion against the system out of the art, forcing the longhairs to wear suits and conform. Yeah, it'll be a very playable game, for anyone keeping up with the industry enough. It'll be kewl. It'll be fun. It'll be a modern video game that wows the crowds, with enough threat to keep people who've heard weird things about the originals cautious.
Will it still appeal to the same number of female gamers? Probably not, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. The team(s) that have worked on it have been all-male at times, with a huge ratio difference from LGS, and it had been the female voice that had a major influence on development choices. Much of the richest and strongest writing came from the women collectively, and I don't know if we'll ever see anything like it again, in any other kind of video game. I envy all the gamers that had Laura Baldwin as a DM/GM during P&P RPG sessions at MIT.
I haven't been able to play the old games on this laptop, yet, but I do hope I will at least have the older titles as long as I have no newer ones to fit the bill. We never knew those original games would remain so different all along through into now a second decade. They are so different that people feel compelled to mod them into something safe and comfortable, and the industry only borrows things from it, never putting all of Thief's eggs in one basket. Cowards. Well, I suppose the tanked economy might be propelling the industry, but the devs keep echoing what the gamers who struggle with the basic Thief recipe keep saying.
jay pettitt on 14/3/2013 at 06:10
Garrett was a goth who painted his fingernails black? Who knew?
I'm guessing that in an earlier draft they turned Mr G. into Brandon Lee, and then back-pedalled because it was a bit sh*t.
Though truthfully Jay suspects that pinking Garrett's nails won't be back-pedalling quite enough.
retractingblinds on 14/3/2013 at 06:33
Quote Posted by jay pettitt
Garrett was a goth who painted his fingernails black? Who knew?
That may have been an eidos montreal innovation,
Inline Image:
http://i.imgur.com/GV302mx.jpgAnd I think he even had them in the recent screenshots.
jtr7 on 14/3/2013 at 06:43
They aren't in the new screenshots, but they were darkened (not blackened or polished) in the leaked trailer, but at least at that point, they looked darkened from being out in the cold rain, not from an applied coating, so it's been adjusted by degrees since 2010.
The only Gothic qualities I would've been okay with were in
some of the architecture, not in Garrett's appearance. Garrett has evoked Batman over the years, even way back when the devs were saying they hadn't thought of it, and I hope they keep G shy enough of that line. Although it's annoying, I'd rather he was compared to Atair than Batman, but if they can really do something very different with the wall-climbing and get people off the easier Batman, AC, Spider-Man, now Corvo, and old Prince of Persia comparisons mentioned on various forums over the years, while still allowing the player to travel vertically, jog and jump across rooftops, and have a few atypical gadgets, it'd help separate the brand and be a bit pleasantly surprising to newbies. I would love it if people said they wished the ACs or the newer Batmans had been more like new Thief (where movement is concerned).
Inline Image:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i106/jtr7/Thief4_GarrettHandsTrailer.jpgMelan on 14/3/2013 at 08:03
Know-nothing intern at media site tries to sound like an expert on some topic, fails miserably.
jtr7 on 14/3/2013 at 08:20
Quote Posted by retractingblinds
Fortunately I'm glad they're toning down his magical abilities, I never liked playing a mage in
Thief.
I'm curious to know what magical abilities he had that you are referring to.
retractingblinds on 14/3/2013 at 09:00
Quote Posted by jtr7
I'm curious to know what magical abilities he had that you are referring to.
I would like to know which ones the article are referring to myself. Likely a jab at the X crystal arrows being replaced with real-world items.
