It turns out that Deus Ex wasn’t the only series that Eidos Montreal wanted to try a third person perspective with. Thief 4 or simply Thief, which will reboot the series, also featured some experiments in that department.
At least producer Stephane Roy admitted as much to Game Informer. “Now it’s really a first-person game. The team did some prototypes with a third-person perspective.”
Of course, the idea was scrapped as narrative designer Steve Gallagher explains why. “What was interesting is that when you’re in [first-person], you’re very intimate and focused and closed-in and you need to look behind you.
“When you’re in [third-person], you automatically felt like ‘If I can see me, other people can see me.’ At the end of the day, it’s much more important that the player’s comfort is looked after more than some kind of narrative brain fart.”
Regardless, the game certainly looks all the better for it. We’ll find out just how well it suits the first person perspective when Thief releases for PS4, PC and other next generation consoles in 2014.