Thief 4: the ONE Mandatory thing.

DexterUndefine on 29/5/2009 at 07:17

The Shrimp! :D

oRGy on 5/7/2009 at 14:20

Eh, one thing? Right... Intelligence. Abstract but gritty graphical style that draws you into the world. Very strong acoustic identity that is all about immersion and a particular type of atmosphere. Non-linearity. Characters that move and gesticulate like human beings, that is, properly motion captured. Every level being conceptually interesting. Cultural richness that references anything worth referencing. Humour. Artistic arrangement of shadows. Evading the authoritarian surveillance state.

Alas, in this age of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube*, I am not confident that any corporate game developer has the license to produce anything with those qualities - most likely twitch fest and flashy graphics to grab attention for 5 minutes, followed by any old shit thrown together. We shall see - and at the end of the day, it's only a game.

* - All these newfangled websites should be banned. They promote dissolution of concentration and mindfulness. They also function as corporate intermediaries of social communication, hence you are inviting capitalism into your mental space.

Syndef on 5/7/2009 at 19:54

Yeah...sadly I have a similar feeling, oRGy.
We sit here on the forums and discuss and discuss and discuss 'till the cows come home, but there's no assurance that the dev team would even bother taking notice of us, or even trying to seek out the opinions of fans.

In my HEART, I hope that Thi4f will end up playing as well as one of the originals, but in my BRAIN, I can't stop shaking the feeling that Thi4f will end up playing like nothing more than the "forced stealth sections" of many FPS's. Generic. Bland. Uninspiring. Disappointing.

Eidos Montreal...What is Eidos Montreal? A proven game developer? A creative team made up of 50 or more cooperative individuals?
A group that is willing to be experimental and break from the bandwagon and risk sales just for the possibility that they'll create something so unique, it will truly inspire?
Or is Eidos Montreal yet another common game developer, that has a checklist of the current trends, and incorporates all of them into their games?

If they ARE a bunch of bandwagon fart-catchers, then I'll BET YOUR ASS that Thi4f will have the following:
1. Impossible Parkour
2. Lightning fast and devastating slash attacks with claws/daggers
3. Arrows with no trajectory (AKA "a gun")
4. Regenerating health
5. Busty and tough female love interest/protagonist
6. Easy to play if you choose to be violent
7. Phunky-ass tracks with phresh, thumpin' beats as background music
8. The "choice" to be "evil" or "good"
9. Skills and skill points
10. Colorful, vibrant colors and extreme bloom and HDR effects

You see? With this checklist, Eidos Montreal will please the most people (and get more sales). 1 and 2 are for fast-paced hack-and-slash gamers (Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, etc.). 3, 4, and 6 are for the FPS gamers (CoD, GTA, etc.), 8, 9, and 10 are for the RPG gamers (Oblivion, Gothic, etc.)

And 5 and 7 are just cool to have these days, I suppose.

For those of you that skipped my long post, at least read the list.

jtr7 on 6/7/2009 at 03:04

The one thing? Literacy.
Corollary: No compromise, but rather, a challenge to the player to slow down and think and realize it's fun and healthy to do so. Blow minds again and spoil them and turn them off from other games, especially competitors' games.:sly:

jpalmer7 on 6/7/2009 at 03:49

Jeez, everybody has hit all the good ones: Russell, Eric Brosius, PC game (first), Benny, atmosphere, rope arrows, traditional T1/T2 gameplay, expansive environments... oh, and burricks. :D

I'm replaying T: DS at the moment, after having played T1 then T2 first. So I'm going to say... better AI. The T: DS AI isn't anywhere near as good as T1/T2. I've jumped in/out of windows while being chased & have had my pursuers give up totally. In T1/T2, the "path determining" algorithms would have had the pursuing guards on my tail after figuring out a path to me. DS AI can't figure out that going around a corner, out a door, around another corner would put them at the foot of the window I climbed out.

So.. better AI. Bonus points if the AI will also let them scale ladders or ropes.

Beleg Cúthalion on 6/7/2009 at 08:05

Quote Posted by jpalmer7

I'm replaying T: DS at the moment, after having played T1 then T2 first. So I'm going to say... better AI. The T: DS AIs' sensory perception isn't anywhere near as high as T1/T2. [but can be altered ini-wise; replier's note]

Fixed, as you say in these fora.

jtr7 on 6/7/2009 at 08:22

Good point, 'cept for the part about needing to modify it rather than playing it at the settings it shipped with.

On a related note, how are consoles with the modding and hacking of gamefiles?

negative_len on 6/7/2009 at 09:46

A good story that doesn't reinvent the characters.

SLIEZER on 6/7/2009 at 12:43

No RPG elements

OldMeat on 6/7/2009 at 23:06

Maybe not the one mandatory thing; I can not decide because you have to have a thief, good gameplay, and atmosphere.

Below is more than one I would like to see.

1.The ability to knock out everyone but the women and chase them around an entire level because Garrett does not have time for committed relationships.

This goes in line with the thinking of many women's organizations that began their formation during the Karras heresies, allowing them to do guard duties and take soldiers posts, that all men are secretly softcore serial rapists.

2. Benny! and his relationships with head trauma doctors, magistrate ordered drinking self-help groups as well as festering cut conversations.

3. Arguments between guards similar to that found in the Life Of The Party level.

4. Zombies that wet-explode as they did in the first games, with the ability to cause collateral damage to the main character and those within the zombie-blast radius, such as being impaled with a zombie femur, radius, or ulna.

5. A rival competitor, that sometimes works within a stable, sometimes independently and sometimes in alliance with a certain chance of betrayal.

6. Alternative moral choice (or lack thereof) outcomes.

7. Most definitely a fully self-contained one panel or window level editor that would allow for new stories, and new characters with fully alterable character and object traits. The list processed node tree feature of the old dromed editor and dark engine was pretty cool, it is too bad current day editors with their better graphics do not utilize this much anymore.