Massa's nieuwe details over Thief 4 bekend

Thief 4 is nog maar aangekondigd of er zijn al nieuwe details bekend. Via onze concullega’s van Game Informer en Gaming Everything weten we meer over het spelbegin, de spelmechanieken en het dievengereedschap.

Gisteren werd bekend dat Thief 4 eraan zit te komen. In zijn meest recente nummer heeft Game Informer een groot artikel gepubliceerd over de nieuwe avonturen van Garrett. Thief 4 komt eraan voor PlayStation 4, PC en andere Next-Gen consoles. Onze concullega’s van Gaming Everything hebben de preview van Game Informer onder de loep genoemen en ontdekten zo details over het spelbegin, de spelmechanieken en het dievengereedschap. Je ontdekt meer over de nieuwe Thief-game hieronder:

Overview/opening sequence
Garrett has been away from his hometown for a long time
When he returns to City, he sees “a city of melting prosperity”
Iron-fisted Baron now rules the city
Baron crushes City’s citizens through militarized watch
Good fortune only for the elite
Garrett views the political chaos as a chance to get rich
Not concerned with being the hero
Garrett finds his way into the Stonemarket district in the back of a covered wagon
Watches the bodies of plague victims piling up on street corners
Guards quell small civil disputes with force
Wealthy men stroll by with bodyguards
“Would-be revolutionaries preach to deaf ears while men in stockades slowly waste away”
Garrett becomes interested in a conversation between two guards talking about Eastwick, a wealthy man
Theodore Eastwick: principle architest, richest man
Baron commissioned Eastwick to build many of the City’s Gothic structures
Guards say that Eastwick is visiting a pleasure house on the other side of the size
Eastwick going to the House of Blossoms
This is an underground cathouse serving the elite
Gates close at midnight
Garrett crouches behind crates, which results in a dark tint covering the screen to show that you’re hiding safely
Bottle thrown to distract the guards, and then Garrett climbs up a pipe up the side of a building
Garrett moves across roofs, bounds over merchant tables and under wagons, and dives through a nearby building window
Eastwick passes through the secret entrance in the House of Blossoms
All of the above is not a cut-scene

Next sequence
Garrett enters the House of Blossoms undetected
Area has rich patrons, scantily clad women who saunter by and flirt with men
Xiao Xiao, a transvestite, greets guests
Garrett loses Eastwick in a crowd
Xiao Xaio notes that there is more security than usual and that anyone with something valuable can store it in his office strongbox
Use Xiao Xiao’s logbook to determine where Eastwick has gone
Garrett wants to get his hands on whatever is in the storngbox, so he heads to Xiao Xiao’s room
Logbook shows Garrett which bedroom Eastwick is in
Garrett then decides to lighten Xiao Xiao’s strongbox
This results in a lockpicking mini-game
Align the tumblers of a lock until it opens
Before Garrett can crack the lock, Xiao Xiao enters

Another sequence
Xiao Xiao enters, but Garrett rolls into a darkened corner
Xiao Xiao doesn’t detect Garrett
Xiao Xiao leaves to deal with a situation with one of his girls
Garrett opens the chest and takes out a jewel-encrusted heirloom
Garrett can’t leave the room since Xiao Xiao is just outside the door talking with the girl
Secret button slides the wall to slide open and reveals a hidden passageway
Garrett comes across Eastwick’s room by using the House of Blossoms’ network of backdoors
Garrett enters the room and takes a medallion
He then uses Focus to look at the wall Eastwick is examining
Focus shows a mysterious symbol written on the wall in blue energy
Symbol corresponds to one of the runes written on the medallion
Garrett turns a band of the medallion to line up that rune with an arrow, but the medallion then begins to glow with a similar blue energy
Four adjacent rooms show four more symbols to line up
After the last symbol is in place, the medallion whirls and spins
Soon after, Eastwick notices that he has been robbed and calls for help
Garrett hears through the wall that Xiao Xiao is ordering guards to search everywhere

Last sequence
Guards are scattered everywhere
Garrett heads to one of the House of Blossoms’ back rooms
He had heard two serving girls talking about a catastrophe that followed after the ventilation system was accidentally overfilled with opium
Garrett dumps the house’s stock of opium into vents and cracks open the flue
Everyone is sent into a deep sleep as the vapors flood the House of Blossoms
Garrett has to hold his breath and move quick or he’ll see the same fate
Guards circle Garrett, who retreats into the opium fog and uses his bow to fire an arrow at a statue hanging above a doorframe
Statue falls and crushes two guards
Another guard pins Garrett against a wall
To buy time, Garrett enters Focus mode
Garrett grabs the guard’s arm, jerks it back behind his soldier, eventually falls against the stone floor
Garrett breaks free from the final guards, grapples onto a nearby vent, and rapples down into the depths of City’s sewers

AI
Garrett isn’t a fighter
Fighting against four or more guards in combat won’t go well
Guards and other NPCs are aware of the level design, so they know where a person might try to hide
Guards understand the topography of the level and which areas could be useful for hiding
Different NPCs will look for Garrett in different ways

Gameplay mechanics
Navigation beacon shows players where to go
Dev. team wants players to explore environments as they see fit
Multiple entrances and exists in each room
Multiple options available for stealth approach
“Focus” mechanic: has many uses, including being able to aid Garrett’s vision as he navigates through open levels
Focus lights up the screen and highlights pipes you can climb + candles you can put out to make the room darker
Can upgrade Focus
Doing so will give you a bigger radius of things to see
Fingerpints system: gives you hints on which drawers are best to look in
Every drawer is accessible
Can pickpocket
Use Focus while pickpocketing to slow time and swipe up to three times as many items from others
Can spend money to upgrade supplies and equipment at the end of each mission
Various artifacts are scattered throughout the game’s levels
Can use these to decorate Garrett’s hideout
Garrett is motivated by the thrill of stealing something that others can’t take
Focus will show a number of attack points on enemies
Can select a point (like the chest) to do a quick push that will buy him more time to dash off into the shadows
Can also string together a number of points to perform a more debilitating attack
Team is trying to find a balance between making combat enjoyable and allowing players to enter combat if they want
Major mechanics are in place

Tools
Blackjack: use when sneaking up behind guards to knock them unconscious
Bow: powerful, can be used outside of combat (ex: fire at a bottle in another room to lure a guard away, trigger a switch to lock the guard inside)
Specialty Arrows: different uses; dry-ice arrow can be used to snuff flames from far away; smoke-starter arrow: cover and a distraction
Claw: grapple attaches to certain points

General
Garrett design made by game director Nicolas Cantin
Garrett’s scar represents that his past has left long-lasting effects on his life
Eidos being vague about how faithful the team is remaining to the original Thief lore
Many of the series’ magical elements will be toned down
“Eidos-Montreal compares game development to a high-speed train collision between art and technology.”
Team was kept small and “stayed within the concept phase of development for a longer period of time.”
The staff experimented with featuring a new character, making it a third-person game involving either tactical gameplay or environmental clambering (like Assassin’s Creed)
“At one point in development, the game had so many third-to-first-person transitions that the constant camera shifting was making people sick.”
Many experiments during first three years of development