Thief (computer game 2014)

Thief

Studio

Eidos Montreal
Nixxes Software (Windows)

Publisher

Square Enix

Senior Developer

Steven Gallagher (Narrative Director)

Erstveröffent-
lichung

February 25, 2014 February 28, 2014

platform

Windows , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4

Game mode

Mouse & keyboard , game controller

system advantages
preconditions

OS : Windows Vista with updates
CPU : High-Performance Dual Core CPU or Quad Core
RAM : 4 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon 4800 series / Nvidia GTS 250
DirectX 10
20 GB hard disk space

medium

DVD-ROM , Blu-ray , download

language

Audio: English , German , Russian

Age rating

USK

PEGI

Thief is a stealth action game developed by Canadian developer Eidos Montreal and distributed by Square Enix . It is the fourth game and at the same time a reboot of the Thief series of the same name from the former developer Looking Glass Studios . It was released on February 25, 2014 in North America and on February 28, 2014 in Europe for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , Xbox 360 and Xbox One platforms .

action

background

Thief is set in a dark fantasy world that is influenced by Gothic , Victorian and Steampunk styles. The location is simply called "The City" and is ruled by the brutal Baron Northcrest. The city is on the verge of chaos. While the ordinary urban population suffers from a serious plague, the rich can maintain their good standard of living. There are also far-reaching plans of the baron with which he wants to promote progress at the expense of the population. But under their leader Orion the resistance in the population stirs. Under these circumstances, the player character Garrett - a master thief who lost both his protégé Erin and his memory during a raid - returns to the city after a long absence. Garrett only intends to take advantage of the situation, but reluctantly becomes the city's beacon of hope.

Characters

role	English voice actor	German voice actor	description
Garrett	Romano Orzari	Sascha Rotermund	Player character
Basso	Harry Standjofski	Eberhard Haar	Garrett's friend, fence and former safe-cracker
Queen of the Beggars	Renee Madeline Le Guerrier	Isabella Grothe	Underground ruler of the city
Baron Northcrest	Michael Copeman	Rüdiger Schulzki	Main antagonist
Orion	Daniel Kash	Wolf Frass	Leader of the insurgents
Erin	Vanessa Matsui	Maja Maneiro	former protégé Garrett
Thief General	Matthew Edison	Christian Rudolf	Officer in the service of the baron

Gameplay

The player controls the master thief Garrett, whose goal is to steal from the rich. Similar to the previous games, Garrett has to act mostly clandestinely in order to master the challenges, as violent action is less efficient. The player has the freedom to decide which of the different solutions that are available in each level he uses. The player can, for example, use the environment to his advantage or pickpocket important items. The surroundings and the objects to be stolen are guarded by guards and other non-player characters who hunt and attempt to kill Garrett upon discovering his presence. The Artificial Intelligence uses for the different characters, different approaches to Garrett track, and the level architecture is aware, therefore, knows the potential hiding places.

The player can activate a so-called focus mode, which offers him various options. He improves Garrett's vision, for example highlighting pipes that he can climb up or candles that can be extinguished to darken the surroundings. The focus can also slow down current events to make it easier for Garrett to pickpockets, topple opponents, or carry out other attacks to weaken the enemy. In the course of the game it can be improved and the possibilities expanded.

Garrett carries a club that he can use to knock guards unconscious. In addition, there is a collapsible bow that can be used to support clandestine actions, for example to distract guards or to make progress easier with the help of special ammunition such as water arrows. Garrett also has a climbing hook with which he can reach higher level areas. At the end of each mission, the player can invest the money looted during the course of the game in the purchase of new equipment and utensils.

development

Announcement and course of development

Thief was first announced in May 2009 under the working title Thief 4 after lengthy rumors in advance . The game was created at Eidos Montreal , a studio founded by Eidos Interactive in 2007 that was to continue the Deus Ex and Thief brands last developed by Ion Storm . In addition to the ongoing work on Deus Ex: Human Revolution , another team should work on the development of Thief 3 . At the time of the announcement, however, there were no notable plans for the game and should mainly serve to attract new employees to the young development studio. The preparatory work was only started some time later. On the company side, studio manager Stéphane D'Astous was quoted as saying that Thief 4 was still in an early development phase:

“We're in the early development stages for Thief 4 , but this is an incredibly ambitious project and a very exciting one. It's too early for us to offer any specific game details. Right now, we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market. "

“We're in the early stages of development for Thief 4 , but it's a tremendously ambitious and exciting project. It is too early to give exact game details. Right now, we are focused on recruiting the best talent to reinforce our core team so they can help us create what we consider to be one of the most exciting games out there. "

The development team was originally kept small and the game stayed in the concept phase for a long time. During this time, several experimental design changes were made compared to its predecessors, such as the switch to a third-person perspective , the introduction of a new protagonist or a climbing system similar to that of the Ubisoft game series Assassin's Creed . After rumors that several senior developers on the Eidos team had left Montreal, D'Astous said in the summer of 2012: “ We will be able to be a little more communicative later on, hopefully before the year's end. Right now, Thief is our priority and we're putting everything behind it to make sure it's as successful as our first game. "(German:" We can say more shortly, hopefully before the end of the year. At this point in time Thief is our main priority and we are pooling all our strengths to ensure that it is as successful as our first game ")

Although the game was originally expected for the seventh generation of consoles, versions for the successor models PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were also included in the planning. The official confirmation comes with the unveiling of the final game concept in an exclusive cover report for the March 2013 issue of the US game magazine Game Informer . It also became known that it would not be a sequel, but a reboot of the Thief series. Based on the original press photos, game editor Phil Savage from PC Gamer drew a comparison to Bethesda Softworks ' stealth game Dishonored: The Mask of Anger : " It all looks a bit Dishonored , which is apt, given that Dishonored looked a bit Thief " (German: "It all looks a bit like Dishonored , which is obvious when you consider that Dishonored looked a bit like Dark Project")

Originally, the game was supposed to use an experience point system to illustrate character development, but due to negative customer feedback, it was removed from the game or partially replaced by trading in items. One reason was that this solution better reflected the fact that Garrett was a seasoned thief. Continuing rumors about a competitive multiplayer mode were later contradicted by the developer side, but unspecified online support was announced.

On February 4, 2014, the completion of the development work was announced and a six-minute trailer with an introduction to the plot and the gameplay was published.

technology

Thief is based on the 3rd generation of the Unreal engine. The resolution on the Xbox One is 900p at a frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps), on the PlayStation 4 1080p also at 30 fps.

synchronization

Eidos announced that Garrett's longtime voice actor Stephen Russell has been replaced by actor Romano Orzari (including Assassin's Creed 2 ). After complaints from customers, Eidos Montreal explained the reasons for its decision in an interview:

“We made the decision to record our actor's voices and their movement at the same time using a full performance capture technique. The actor playing Garrett needed to be able to perform his own stunts. Garrett's a really athletic guy. We could have pasted Stephen's voice on top of the actions and stunts of someone else, but this wouldn't appear natural. "

“We made the decision to record our actors' voices and their movement simultaneously using a full-performance capture technique. So the Garrett actor needed to be able to perform his own stunts. Garrett is a very athletic guy. We could have put Stephen's voice over someone else's movements and stunts, but it wouldn't have sounded natural. "

The game was completely synchronized for the German-speaking market. The synchronized work lasted around six weeks, and around 120,000 lines of dialogue were set to music.

reception

"" Thief "got tangled up in his many ambitions. The developers wanted to please everyone, and in the end no one is really happy. Then you only know one thing for sure: The shadow of the competitive game "Dishonored" is too big even for a master thief like Garrett. "

- Christoph Fröhlich : Star

Giga: 4/10 (February 2014)
GameStar : 78% (February 2014)
PC Games : 85% (February 2014)
4players: 59% (February 2014)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Liam Martin: 'Thief' debut gameplay trailer sees Garrett steal a precious jewel ( English ) Digital Spy . October 9, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2013.

↑ Ben Reeves: April Cover Revealed: Thief ( English ) Game Informer . March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Thief - tons of details from Game Informer ( English ) In: Gaming Everything . Archived from the original on March 7, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 6, 2013. @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b Bartosz Szturgiewicz: Thief Reboot Coming in 2014 ( English ) In: Gather Your Party . Archived from the original on October 7, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 6, 2013. @1@ 2

↑ Keza MacDonald: Thief 4 Coming in 2014 ( English ) In: IGN . Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ ^a ^b ^c Steve Watts: Thief confirmed for next-gen consoles ( English ) Shacknews. March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2013.

↑ Thief 4 Leaked Trailer ( English ) In: YouTube . Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ Andy Robinson: Thief dev: 'There are a lot of action titles ... this is Thief' ( English ) In: Computer and Video Games . Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ Thief Interview - Bringing Next-Gen Into the Light

^ Eidos Montréal - Games . May 11, 2009. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved on March 24, 2014.

↑ Andy Robinson: Thief 4 team experimented with Assassin's Creed-style third-person elements ( English ) In: Computer and Video Games . Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ Danny Gallagher: Thief 4 Developer Says 'Thief is Our Priority' | Side Mission ( English ) GameTrailers. June 19, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2013.

↑ Dan Seitz: Thief 4: What's Happening? | Side mission . GameTrailers. June 14, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2013.

↑ Andy Robinson: Rumor: Thief 4 'switched to next-gen consoles' ( English ) In: Computer and Video Games . Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ Jason Schreier: Thief Reboot Coming To PC And Next-Gen Consoles In 2014 [UPDATE ] ( English ) In: Kotaku . Retrieved March 6, 2013.

↑ Phil Savage: Thief 4 screenshots emerge from the darkness' ( English ) In: PC Gamer . Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2013.