New Perspective on Thief: Deadly Shadows with Screenshots

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Some new screens from Eidos are putting a new perspective on Thief 3. The latest Thief game will now be played from a 3rd person perspective as you can see in the screenshots below. The shots also show off some of the lighting and shadows present in the game already. The first shot showcases a guard holding a torch, it looks like his feet are casting shadows from the light of the torch. Definately a step up from the previous games, though the new perspective is bound to disappoint some. I think it could definately be a step up if done properly, it's much easier to hide in the shadows from a 3rd person perspective. However the game could easily become "Thief: Splinter Metal Gear Solid Cell 3: Pandora's Whatever" if it has a particularly bad outbreak of consolitis. Take a look and decide for yourself!

Comments

It's already "Thief: Invisible War." Can't lose much more ground.

Rat Boy wrote:

It's already "Thief: Invisible War." Can't lose much more ground.

At least they didn't name it "Deadly Shadows ... [size=4]A Thief Game[/size]"

Thief: The Sands of Time

Word on the street is that their is also a first person mode, for the traditionalists out there. Personally (and I'm a big fan of Thief I and II) I'm all for a third person mode...it'll make figuring out how hidden you are (gem or no gem) that much easier. My concern is that the First Person mode will go the same way as the "no, it's totally being a PC game too" statements on Deus Ex II.

Naked wrote:

Word on the street is that their is also a first person mode, for the traditionalists out there. Personally (and I'm a big fan of Thief I and II) I'm all for a third person mode...it'll make figuring out how hidden you are (gem or no gem) that much easier. My concern is that the First Person mode will go the same way as the "no, it's totally being a PC game too" statements on Deus Ex II.

This is my main fear, that it'll end up being a console game ported to PC like Deus Ex II. If they take the console thing too far it'll end up with alot of competition. Gee, a 3rd person stealth game on a console, haven't played that before.

I'm with you though, 3rd person can make it easier to hide letting you focus on the fun stuff.

First person, third person, it doesn't really matter. I couldn't sneak past a watermelon.

While Invisible War left me a little cold, I do think the Thief franchise could translate better to a console environment than Deus Ex.

Hmm, it was first-person-only when I played it at the Games Convention.

I really liked Deus Ex II (more than I liked Deus Ex One, actually, which puts me in some kind of hated minority, I guess). As I was playing Deus Ex II (on Xbox mind you) I kept thinking "oh god, how I wish this game was 3rd person". So if Thief III is really going to be 3rd person then I am a happy camper with one condition: I better have an animated range of movement that is closer to Prince of Persia than Splinter Cell.

One of the biggest problems I have with playing these games set in photorealistic environments is that you can't move around them like you can in the real world. The amount time I spent in Thief 1 and 2 trying to mantle onto surfaces that the real, non-superthief me could have climbed on to followed by me swearing at the developers is very large. Don't get me started about Splinter Cell. There were so many situations where I knew exactly what I needed to do but no combination of buttons would let me do it. Compare this to the effortless context-sensitive animations of Prince of Persia ("oh, you walked into a waist high wall, I bet you want to climb it, here you go").

If the designers and animators get this right then I will happily welcome our new 3rd person overlords.

Oh, why gods, why do you torment me so?!
First they raped Deus Ex, and now they rape Thief! Is there NOTHING sacred at Ion Storm?

*sob*

After playing Techu, Wrath of Heaven I'm sold on 3rd person stealth. I played the first Thief and never made it past the 3rd mission.

Control wise I guess it would be easier to handle it in 3rd person. However, I found that first person in Thief made you more immersed in the game and somehow...more vulnerable.

I really hope that vulnerability effect stays. I never finished Splinter Cell because i felt a bit super-power-ish.
Recently I replayed System Shock2...ahhh...creeps are good

They certainly wanted to increase the situational awareness. (I think this may be a partial result of the shadow casting. It's harder to see the shadow you're 'causing' when the light source is in front of you (without turning back) etc. in first-person.) Of course, I find first-person more immersive as well. Nothing as thrilling as standing in a dark spot while a guard is approaching and coming really close. Doesn't feel the same in third-person.

I strongly suspect that the default will be 3rd person and that the game will be designed for 3rd person and that the first person will be nearly unplayable. I would love to be wrong, but i do not think i will be.
Also I have read heavy speculation that there will be no leaning to look around corners which is completely insane since the original Thief is the first game I remember having that feature. I thought sequels generally have more features than the original game, not less.
I will not buy this game untill lots of reviews come out. I am fairly bummed about the prospects of this not stinking.

I get the strong hint of console. It seems like there's way to many games that are only made available on PC as an afterthought, to boost sales. Thief is probably my favorite franchise, and I truly hop they don't dumb it down to much. First person gave it a far greater sense of immediavy then any third person game I've played. I've always had problems with camera movement in third person games, even Prince of Persia. As far as not being able to lean around corners, to me that says not enough buttons left on the X-Box controller to map.

If ION console-izes this one too, they're dead to me.

Do you hear me, Warren? Dead to me!

"consolitis"

I love it, you should coin that

-Griffon

First DX:IW, then Fallout 3, now Thief 3....

Read the first bit of this thread:
http://66.193.119.177/index.php?show...

'If you believe Trajik played the game, here's the final nail in the coffin:

'Anyway, the level was broken down into "instanced levels".. the instanced levels I saw were about a quarter the size of lord baffords manor. You travel through each instanced level by stepping through a mist, and asked conformation to continue.'

Looks like Thief 3 levels are the same as the closet-sized ones in DX:IW!

Godammmittt!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we have textures that look like N64 and levels the size of my bathroom.

Just perfect... just f*cking perfect.

Well...there *was* one good 3rd person stealth game. I discovered Metal Gear Solid only on PC and frankly I was surprised on how well it can be done in thrid person (including leaning) without extra keys/buttons.

I risk on sounding not snobbish enough though

I`m actually more worried that they would tone down the atmosphere of the game. Thief had very edgy ambience, crazy story and state of the art movies. And for gods sake, dont introduce booby babe (unless she can nail Garret to wall with tentacles and cut out his other eye).

dont introduce booby babe

Sacrilege!

*Grits teeth*

My hope for Thief 3 is quickly dwindling down to nothing. If they provide only a third person play mode, or if the first person mode is just some horribly broken add-on feature to try and appease fans, I will seriously consider giving this game a skip. I do not want to play some lame console port on my PC! If they screw this up, a pox on them. A pox, I say!

jccalhoun wrote:

Also I have read heavy speculation that there will be no leaning to look around corners

I've seen some gameplay videos from a trade show where they DO show leaning. That was in first person, mind you. And you know how THAT is looking at the moment...

Elysium wrote:

While Invisible War left me a little cold, I do think the Thief franchise could translate better to a console environment than Deus Ex.

That is actually very true. Thief's gameplay mechanics are a lot simpler than Deus Ex's. The keyword here, though, is translate. It should go from PC to console, not the other way around like it did with Deus Ex 2.

You know what's one of the worst things about all of this? Even if they screw up the franchise completely with Thief 3, gaming sites around the net will herald this as one of the best stealth games ever. The only dissatisfied people will be the true fans standing behind the stage curtain silently shaking their fists at Ion Storm's ineptitude.

Eidos wanted Thief 3 to stand on its own. By the look of things they may very well achieve this.

I found that my life is much more immersive since I switched to 3rd person view.

I think the same thing that happened with Deus Ex 2 will happen with Thief 3 - Everyone will go ballistic. You know how angry and vocal we get when things don't go our way. They won't claim it's the best stealth game ever, largely because it won't even begin to compare to Splinter Cell. They'll call it a crappy knockoff, and they'll be right.

Where did ION Storm go wrong?

jccalhoun wrote:

I strongly suspect that the default will be 3rd person and that the game will be designed for 3rd person and that the first person will be nearly unplayable. I would love to be wrong, but i do not think i will be.

I would love for you to be wrong too, but I really think you're right. I'm going to play it in 1st person anyway, and if I keep dying then so be it. That's the way Thief is meant to be played.

I'm convinced that the game was destined to be a first-person title for most of the development time. I wouldn't be surprised if the third-person view was a decision made halfway through the creation process when they realized that their title might be more difficult/frustrating to Joe Average than stealth competitors such as MGS or Splinter Cell.

Thief III has been in the making for a while. All builds shown in the public were first person. There wouldn't have been a real reason to hide some kind of intention to go the 'third-person' way had they planned to do that right from the start on, IMO.