[dropcap size=dropcap]A[/dropcap]lmost half a year ago, Thief was officially unveiled. Thus, a legend of the stealth game play was reborn and all fans of the genre and the Thief series in particular, were more than happy to see their dreams fulfilled. Also known as Thief 4, the game has become a reality only after the publisher Square Enix and the Montreal Eidos Studios (the producers of Deus Ex: Human Revolution) signed a collaboration agreement.
Garrett returns in Thief as the main character. The new game’s action will take place in a gothic metropolis called, simply, The City. Like in Dishonored, the city fell victim to a plague (named The Gloom by the native population), and it is led with an iron fist by a tyrant known as Baron Northcrest. As we will find out soon, the Baron has many concerns but the fate of the ordinary people is not one of them. All the privileges and the wealth of the city are under the baron’s control. A scenario that suits Garrett almost perfectly, as the Thief is only concerned with the idea of robbing, without any interest in being heroic.
The producers of Thief promise to remain loyal to the game play and the mechanics of the previous game titles in the series. Significant changes will be applied as well, according to the new requirements. For example, there will be less emphasis on the magical side of the Thief’s universe than before.
Thus, players will be guided to their target with an arrow that should render the navigation more efficient. Also, Garrett will have a Focus Mode, which, once activated, will highlight the interactive objects of the environment (with a display of fingerprints on them to detect valuables more easy) or the weaknesses of the enemies.
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As I have said before, Garret is mainly a Thief. This means he won’t be able to always face his enemies directly and engage in battles. Instead, he will choose to resort to stealth approaches and techniques by using the most appropriate tools such as the blackjack, the bow, the claw or the various types of arrows. For example, the blackjack allows him to sneak behind an enemy and hit him in the back of his head.
Thief will be released on February 25 2014 in North America and February 28 in Europe for PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Playstation 4 and Xbox One.