Eidos Montreal’s Thief hasn’t had what many would consider an ideal development process, but it’s hardly ever smooth sailing in the gaming industry. The reboot will see Garret not only return to The City under authoritarian rule but also to home consoles and the PC in 2014. Will it be worth the wait?
GamingBolt had a chance to speak to lead level designer Daniel Windfeld-Schmidt about the game. When asked if the dev team were aiming for 1080p resolution and whether there will be improvements over the locked 30 FPS on both consoles, Windfeld-Schmidt replied, “It’s a little too early to talk specifics on this just yet though although the team are pushing to have the highest resolution and frame rates as possible for all platforms.”
We also asked how difficult it was to match the earlier appeal of the Thief series while expanding on the gameplay with new technology. “When revisiting an existing license there are always things to be aware of and treat with respect and the studio are approaching the Thief franchise in the same way we did with Deus Ex; taking a lot of time studying what made the original games so interesting and then working out what we need to do to ensure the essence of those games is intact.
“For example the light and dark mechanics, the bow, the arrowheads and so on all have to remain – plus they’re cool to use so it’s an easy choice. We also kept the fact that you can complete Thief without knocking anyone out or killing anyone. You still have that choice; that is an essential in what makes a Thief game. It’ focus is on stealing. We didn’t fall into the temptation to force players to shoot anyone or to do anything in that direction. We want to make sure that stand alone experience that Thief was in the original series is still what retained in Thief.”
Thief is currently slated to release on February 25th 2014 in North America and February 28th 2014 in Europe for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC.