Thief 4: Dagger of Ways - Eidos' Cancelled Thief reboot

Cardjoe on 31/8/2015 at 08:06

Thief 4: Dagger of Ways was a modern day Thief reboot Ion Storm was working on in 2004. Led by Harvey Smith, it was cancelled by Eidos without ever being announced. I spent the last six months researching it for Eurogamer.

(http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-08-31-the-modern-day-thief-reboot-that-never-was)

Enjoy!

Starker on 31/8/2015 at 09:19

Very interesting reading. Excellent work!

The concept sounds cool but I have serious doubts that it would have remained intact under publisher pressure. Cutting out the supernatural would have been just the first step. A lot of the streamlining for the modern audiences that happened to the Eidos reboot would have happened to the Ion Storm reboot as well.

User 205 on 1/9/2015 at 17:02

I read about this once on the Thief wikia. Pretty interesting. I would have actually liked this more than the actual reboot :cheeky: even tough it really sounded like Eidos wanted to mutate Thief into a semi-first person shooter

Beleg Cúthalion on 1/9/2015 at 18:25

It's really interesting to see where my scanned Garrett-outside-the-Clocktower image pops up. :D Otherwise, an interesting read, thanks for putting it together! Did anything new about the first three games pop up, by the way?

nickie on 1/9/2015 at 19:16

Thanks for posting that, Cardjoe - interesting stuff.

TannisRoot on 3/9/2015 at 15:04

The wraith world sounds like Soul Reaver or even Silent Hill's dark world. Might've been interesting.

Petike the Taffer on 7/9/2015 at 20:44

I recall that, at least in the fan communities, many taffers dubbed this 2000s reboot concept "Thug". ;) Especially after they saw that one bit of concept art, with Garrett holding a travel bag and having a silenced pistol tucked away. :D

downwinder on 7/9/2015 at 22:02

i think we all can agree thief 3 storyline was good ,but the movement of garrett in t3 was shit,so if they wee going to do the same thing as t3 for t4 i am glad it was cancelled

even the megaman series figured out to go backward to regain popularity,sad thief wasent the same

henke on 8/9/2015 at 08:47

Fascinating read, Cardjoe. Thanks! :)

malau on 9/9/2015 at 10:25

Thanks man, fascinating stuff. I'm glad it didn't get made either. Ion Storm's supernatural mumbo jumbo sounds garbage. They were probably awash with coke and hookers from all that Deus Ex cash to come up with such a confused mish mash of ideas and genres.