Thief's hero redesigned to be 'more mainstream'

"We wanted to keep the main DNA of who Garrett was; we didn't want to change that much because it was working already," game director Nicolas Cantin said. But, "we wanted to bring in more of the modern audience of the console market."

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It's been nearly a decade since players have seen Garrett, star of Eidos' Thief series. With Square Enix and Eidos Montreal working on a new game for next-generation consoles and PC, it was time to rethink how Garrett would be presented to a new audience.

"We wanted to keep the main DNA of who Garrett was; we didn't want to change that much because it was working already," game director Nicolas Cantin said. But, "we wanted to bring in more of the modern audience of the console market."

Cantin's past work includes the original Assassin's Creed, and he's drawing on that experience for the new Thief. Garrett can do much more in the new Thieft, and he "wanted the costume and design to reflect" the game's added action.

In addition, Cantin told Game Informer that "we toned down all the things that felt gothic, like black nails and things like that." Why? Because "we wanted to make him a little bit more mainstream." Considering the new Thief is being pitched as a reboot, Eidos Montreal is free to reimagine the character however they see fit--even if that means toning down his magical abilities.

"Fans remember the original games very fondly and we want to preserve that essence which we have excellent experience of doing at Eidos Montreal, whilst also introducing Thief to a brand new, next-generation, audience," Eidos Montreal general manager Stephane D'Astous said at the game's official announce.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 13, 2013 2:55 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Thief's hero redesigned to be 'more mainstream'.

    "We wanted to keep the main DNA of who Garrett was; we didn't want to change that much because it was working already," game director Nicolas Cantin said. But, "we wanted to bring in more of the modern audience of the console market."

    • reply
      March 13, 2013 2:56 PM

      grossssssss

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      March 13, 2013 3:02 PM

      Just called "Thievin' The Assassin's creed" and get it over with

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      March 13, 2013 3:19 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:23 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:24 PM

      fuck video games.

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      March 13, 2013 3:26 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:27 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:27 PM

      Well this sounds terrible.

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      March 13, 2013 3:37 PM

      LOL

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      March 13, 2013 3:38 PM

      OH COME THE FUCK ON

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      March 13, 2013 3:39 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:39 PM

      Garrett, we need you for a very special assignment. We know you have a long and complicated past with the Hammerites, but we need a sacred blessing urn from their gardens. You must kill no-one, and no-one must see you. Do not fail us, Garrett, we rely upon your legendary skill.

      SHIT NIQQA I GOTZ DIS YO LOL F'REALZ
      AIGHT PEACE

    • reply
      March 13, 2013 3:41 PM

      just what everyone wanted. whoever thought this up can go get fucked.

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      March 13, 2013 3:43 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:43 PM

      i guess if they are going to pump tens of millions into this game, their risk aversion is going to be quite high. Problem is, if they take no risks they will end up with a bland product that no one cares about, but good marketing can alleviate that.

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      March 13, 2013 3:43 PM

      god damnit what the fuck

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      March 13, 2013 3:45 PM

      hahahaha R.I.P.

      Where is walker 720 to tell us why this is good

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      March 13, 2013 3:45 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:48 PM

      The voice actor for Garrett will be played by Sam Worthington. The rest of the cast of CODBLOPS will fill out the rest of the roles. Enemies will respawn until you move past an invisible checkpoint. Soundtrack will feature dubstep. Bullet time will be added so you can dodge incoming arrows. Stealth will be an active ability that has a very small energy meter and will constantly require recharging until you finish the game once, making it basically unusable during your first (and only) playthrough of the game. Water arrows will be replaced by exploding arrows. Enhanced robot physics and destruction make fighting the enemies of Thief 4 more dynamic and exciting, now with innovative ragdoll physics.

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        March 13, 2013 3:53 PM

        UM

        "The game will be continuing the series' tradition of first-person stealth and actively discouraging combat. It will also add a major new mechanic called Focus. It works like Detective Mode did in the Batman: Arkham games and highlights scalable walls, extinguishable lights and fingerprints that can be analysed. It also works as a sort of Bullet Time, as you can use it to slow down time while pickpocketing."

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          March 13, 2013 3:58 PM

          Holy shit!! I should work in video games!

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          March 13, 2013 4:08 PM

          [deleted]

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            March 13, 2013 4:46 PM

            They let you disable everything in DXHR, no reason to assume you won't be able to play without it here.

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              March 14, 2013 4:41 AM

              Can't disable the radar and it's the most annoyingly cheap bs in that game. Shows enemies and cameras and their directions through any wall once you're in range. Stealth is trivial with that always on.

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          March 13, 2013 10:19 PM

          so its a 'I can't use more then one braincell to think for myself when playing a game so I need the game to tell me what to do, what to think, where to go and how to not accidentally strangle myself with a wireless mouse chord' button? fantastic! Games need more of those.. particularly Thief games... who needs a challenge anyway?

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      March 13, 2013 3:49 PM

      [deleted]

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      March 13, 2013 3:50 PM

      Man I hope they can get Nolan North

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      March 13, 2013 3:52 PM

      Haha, I called it the day those first screens appeared.

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      March 13, 2013 3:55 PM

      sadly not surprised

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      March 13, 2013 4:04 PM

      they did OK with Deus Ex (as in Eidos, no idea if it's the same people within Eidos). So will wait and see.

      OT: I still have Theif 2 CD that came with my Soundblaster Live Platinum 5.1 that I haven't got around to playing. That card also came with UT99 and Deus Ex and something else. It was a sweet bundle

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      March 13, 2013 4:12 PM

      HOLD X TO WIN GAME AND LISTEN TO DUBSTEP CREDITS

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      March 13, 2013 4:16 PM

      what a cunt

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      March 13, 2013 4:24 PM

      I'm impressed that, after Deus Ex: Human Revolution came out of Eidos Montreal, we're seeing the exact same baby wah wah blub blub boo hoo dunna stinky change me change me peekaboo wheres alice theres alice wheres alice theres alice waaaah boo hoo ha ha oh shes teething just leave her shell be fine she just gets like this sometimes blub blub waaaah over every minor Thief 4 detail as Game Informer spins out an entire month of coverage from one announcement.

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        March 13, 2013 4:31 PM

        Ummm... ummm... lots of caffeine today?

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        March 13, 2013 4:35 PM

        Sup Alice, want to cyber?

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          March 13, 2013 4:48 PM

          Dude not while she's like this, she'll tear you apart.

      • reply
        March 13, 2013 4:44 PM

        You should narrate these types of posts.

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        March 13, 2013 4:47 PM

        Meh. Classic games like Thief are beloved, and there's a legitimate worry that they'll betray the original(s). The "modern audience of the console market" are largely twats.

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          March 13, 2013 4:48 PM

          Yahtzee is worried since Thief is one of his favorite IPs. And he's British so you have to automatically agree,

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            March 13, 2013 5:47 PM

            Anyone who's automatically impressed and won over by someone with an English accent should rethink an awful lot of their life.

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        March 13, 2013 4:58 PM

        Yeah, the wailing on the TTLG Thief forums has been amazing. There have been a few sane voices, though.

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        March 13, 2013 5:18 PM

        Can't take seriously without quotation marks.

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        March 13, 2013 5:22 PM

        LOL at all of that including the Gameinformer blip, was reading it earlier going.. .seriously.. guys...

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        March 13, 2013 6:17 PM

        Yeah yeah, but let's really be honest: DX:HR was a good game, almost great if the boss battles had been supremely better, and damn that last stage with all the "ZOMBIES."

        I'm am guardedly optimistic.

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        March 13, 2013 7:05 PM

        I just want to know where the they got the idea that Garrret ever had black fingernails, or if that was some sort of miscommunicated joke about the use of the term "gothic."

        Well and a few other things, but that came out of nowhere.

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        March 13, 2013 7:59 PM

        This is your worst post so far Alice.

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        March 13, 2013 9:10 PM

        How do you still cope working in games journalism when gamer communities purge out nothin but pure hatred 24/7?

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        March 13, 2013 11:22 PM

        Yes yes yes

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        March 14, 2013 12:25 AM

        Yup. And it's the same thing all fucking over any gaming forums or news comments. Nobody is happy about anything, and everyone assumes the very worst about every fucking thing. Excellent games get declared complete and utter shit because of some single issue or downside, and every single thing done differently in sequels are bad, horrible, fucking infernal changes.

        Shacknews used to be my getaway from shit like this, a good portion of people actually seemed to have a pretty healthy, objective attitude towards games. I don't know if those people have just given up and either don't post anymore, or have joined the herd-minded cynics.

        We're getting more and better games than ever, there are just so many good games coming out all the time that it blows me away. But judging by the gaming community output online, we're living in some sort of horror world where every single game is some intentionally fucked up piece of shit. It's tiresome.

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        March 14, 2013 1:52 AM

        Well played, ma'am.

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      March 13, 2013 4:35 PM

      WHAT...THE...FUCK?

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      March 13, 2013 4:51 PM

      People were complaining about the new direction Deus Ex was taking early on as well, but that game turned out freaking awesome. At this point I'm willing to give Eidos Montreal the benefit of the doubt considering their track record of late.

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        March 13, 2013 10:18 PM

        To be fair to the people who bitched about that game, part of the reason that game turned out so well is that the developers listened to some of that bitching and made some changes. (Allowing you to disable some of the UI prompts for example)

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      March 13, 2013 5:00 PM

      oh no now the game will be bad or something

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      March 13, 2013 5:01 PM

      Actually watching the vid I can't really take any issue with their description of Garrett.

    • ArB legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      March 13, 2013 5:05 PM

      He looked shabby in the old games. Why is it bad for a character to look cool? I don't understand you guys.

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      March 13, 2013 5:47 PM

      for fucks sake.....

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      March 13, 2013 7:30 PM

      As long as the faux hawk doesn't block me from crouching under low obstacles, I don't care.

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      March 13, 2013 8:45 PM

      Gutsy decision.

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      March 13, 2013 8:54 PM

      yeah... not going to freak out over this. People screamed that the sky was falling over Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and while not perfect, that one turned out pretty damn good.

      It's going to take a hell of a lot more than one easily misinterpret-able comment to ruin my excitement over a next-gen Thief.

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      March 13, 2013 10:26 PM

      The more I see of this game.. the more I'm convinced Deus Ex 3 was a fluke.

      One of my most favourite PC games series is probably about to be ruined by these idiots. I've still got a tiny bit of hope left saved for when they throw some scraps of gameplay footage our way though.

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        March 13, 2013 10:30 PM

        PS. Black nails? Garrett never had black nail polish.. if you had bothered to look into the character you're about to ruin, you'd know that!

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          March 13, 2013 10:52 PM

          From what I can gather, it sounds like they were talking about an earlier more fashion Gothic version of the rebooted Gothic Garrett, rather than the old Garrett.

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      March 13, 2013 11:41 PM

      [deleted]

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        March 14, 2013 12:19 AM

        He has intermittently worn gloves. It's more the goth fashion inspired powder white face with black eye shadow.

        I'm also not particularly enthralled that they're using another outfit design where in he obviously stands out in a crowd.

        Thief 3 wasn't great about that either, his cloak was another thing lost due to the limits of the original Xbox and the optional 3rd person camera.

        At least Thief Reboot appears to have rope arrows again. I missed them.

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      March 14, 2013 12:32 AM

      You people are over reacting. They're just simply toning down on the magic which is a good thing IMO; I prefer a much more realistic plausible world in which to steal things. BTW, I wasn't even aware that the Thief series had magic in it. I've only played Thief 3 and only the first two levels, never got around to playing and that was a while ago.

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      March 14, 2013 1:50 AM

      uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh

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      March 14, 2013 1:58 AM

      I'm just generally sick of gaming character design. Everything is so over-designed these days. All videogame character design basically looks like manga, or anime, it might not have the big eyes, but everything is just so fucking over the top. A character can't just be a shadow figure with a cape, no he's got to be covered in metal buckles with skin tight leather pants, megastyled emo haircut, crazy bandana and glowing black eyes.

      I'm not being over protective of the original game here, its a more general grumpiness with modern games. That some how all game developers seem to think good art direction just means adding more buckles and superflous details.

      It would be really bad ass if the character in this game, was just a guy who looked remotely like someone from that time period, maybe with a cape, thats it.

      Of course it will never happen.

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      March 14, 2013 4:41 AM

      [deleted]

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        March 14, 2013 4:51 AM

        What this means that Thief 4 will be more mainstream in all of its areas.

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      March 14, 2013 4:49 AM

      Fuck this shit and fuck Thief 4.

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        March 14, 2013 5:05 AM

        They made statements just like these about DX: HR. Sure you're not jumping the gun a little, or did you not enjoy it?

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          March 14, 2013 5:26 AM

          I bought DX: HR but have been struggling to get myself motivated to play it. I'm not very far in it but it doesn't seem to have that certain "it" that I like. I'll try to get back to it some day.

          I love Thief 1-3 and System Shock 1-2.

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            March 14, 2013 5:37 AM

            Give it a good go. It's quite a universally liked game, even if there are always those that disagree.

            I love the old Thief games as well, but honestly, I can't think of a better developer right here and now for a new one. PR statements like these are simply there to gather attention, convince investors and sell copies to masses. I think it's asking a bit much for publishers and/or developers to NOT consider things like these. And if the end result of this "casualization" is something like DX:HR, like it was in the case of this developer, then by all means, casualize all you want afaic. Even if you don't end up liking DX: HR, I'm going to claim you're going to have a very hard time claiming it's still not a good, quality game.

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          March 14, 2013 7:06 AM

          DX:HR was still a different time period and different character from the old DX - I don't think you can reasonably argue that it's the same thing as taking an existing beloved character and raping him into a mainstream turd.
          Every Thief fan must groan in pain at this, seriously.

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            March 14, 2013 7:10 AM

            Sorry, not groaning. I'll groan if it turns out the end result is shit. An excellent game from the developer weighs a lot more on my scales than a singular statement from some PR guy who might or might not be full of shit.

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      March 14, 2013 7:11 AM

      Now he's more white and more male.

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      March 14, 2013 9:06 AM

      Oh great. Lets make an Assassins Creed clone to appeal to console people. Epic fail for sure.

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      March 17, 2013 2:52 PM

      Translation: Consolized. Sigh.

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      March 19, 2013 9:23 AM

      Even the picture the presented takes away from his personality and makes him look like a brainless empty shell.

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