Thief's 'new Garrett' has more personal story

Thief protagonist Garrett has been written to have more personal motivations in the next game, and narrative director Stephen Gallagher has shared some of the background that kicks it off.

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Garrett, the protagonist of the Thief series, has been absent for a while. So when it came time to come up with a new spin on the character for the upcoming Thief, narrative director Stephen Gallagher wanted to flesh out the character with some more personal motivations instead of just a particularly big score. Minor spoilers follow.

"We weren't thinking, 'Oh, what's the biggest job he could do?" Gallagher told Polygon. "The thing is, we need a little bit more than that to try and connect with this guy because, you know, we're trying to be imperfect with this guy who doesn't want to be seen and hides in darkness. [He] kind of inspired himself as basic premise: We took his personality and [figured out] what he can't handle."

So instead, Garrett's story has an element of mentor-protege to it. Feeling a heavy sense of loss, he resolves never to kill again. He finds a pickpocket named Erin, and takes him under his wing, right up until the point that he realizes she's not only good at killing, but seems to enjoy it. He dismisses her, but years later they meet up again at a heist during which he steals her grappling hook. An ugly accident kills her and leaves him blacked out, and when he wakes up the city has grown corrupt.

"To try and define Garrett as the master thief, it doesn't do him a disservice, but it gives you very little to hold on to," Gallagher said. "Garrett's been challenging himself as a master thief for many years; the bigger the job, the harder the challenge. I think the biggest challenge for him is by taking [Erin's hook] that day, it's put him in a very strange position. It's put him onto a track he's never been used to before, it's new territory for him. Loss is an interesting emotional hook for players to follow."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 22, 2013 3:30 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Thief's 'new Garrett' has more personal story.

    Thief protagonist Garrett has been written to have more personal motivations in the next game, and narrative director Stephen Gallagher has shared some of the background that kicks it off.

    • reply
      August 22, 2013 4:15 PM

      TL:DR the antagonist was responsible for the death of his wife/girlfriend/child/father.

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        August 22, 2013 4:17 PM

        No wait, it's a dark and complex character. Garrett's responsible.

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          August 22, 2013 4:18 PM

          lol, I just read the article and realized it's pretty much this.

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      August 22, 2013 4:51 PM

      That doesn't sound very subtle and nuanced. In fact it sounds kind of like a cheesy fanfic.

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      August 22, 2013 7:19 PM

      This just sounds boring and uninspired.

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      August 22, 2013 8:52 PM

      Garret suddenly feels responsible for the death of Viktoria and what will be the cannon burning of her maybe rebirth tree in Thief 3. Without the balance of forces The City has fallen to the plebeians and rich, and again is now swinging towards mechanization. The plebeians are revolting but there aren't enough sabots without Garret going all guilt driven Robin Hood 99% along the way.

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        August 22, 2013 9:01 PM

        Oh wow, huh. It's not actually a narrative reboot. This is... really? Huh. I was more okay with all the changes when it was just a straight up reboot. Now I need to be with my thoughts.

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          August 22, 2013 9:07 PM

          They haven't really clarified it; I think it's intentional at this point.

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            August 22, 2013 9:25 PM

            The use of the Thief 3 apprentice as fridge stuffing and "We want new factions. The last story didn't give us a lot of options,*" makes me think this is sort of a GTA4/Superman Returns/2010 style sequel that is kind of a reboot, but kind of not.

            *https://www.shacknews.com/article/79782/thief-dev-answers-community-questions

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              August 22, 2013 9:28 PM

              Depending on how it's handled I'm okay with that. All depends on what they do with it.

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                August 22, 2013 9:35 PM

                Right, it just complicates my ability to separate it from what came before. Were it a straight reboot it would be easier to just take it for what it is, if it continues from the same narrative, it will be harder to not draw direct comparisons.

                I still hope it turns out well, because I really could use a new Thief game. The object hunting and living space story telling in Gone Home reminded me much of Thief, and now that itch is harder to ignore.

                May just have to look again for the best fan missions... I have a problem.

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      August 23, 2013 12:35 AM

      Wow, they went out of their way to spoil the whole premise before the game's even alpha. How disappointing, I would've wanted to see that play out without knowing it. Daft.

      Also, no-kill rule? That's cute. I'll wait to buy the game until the first mod that removes it comes out.

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        August 23, 2013 3:16 AM

        They seemed to imply that all of this shit happens before the start of the game.

        I'll take a guess that the terrible incident leaves Garrett at the point of considering breaking his no-kill rule, splitting the game into high-chaos / low-chaos paths from the get-go.

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      August 23, 2013 12:39 AM

      So basically Garrett got full blown aids from the new voice actor and is also a faggot now.

      What the fuck was so wrong with the old Garrett that they had to go and make everything worse?

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        August 23, 2013 8:24 AM

        ^^ this, I am still 100% butthurt over it and just have no interest without Stephen Russel.

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      August 23, 2013 4:38 AM

      So now he has FEELINGS. Ugh.

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      August 23, 2013 6:36 AM

      I totally doubted Deus Ex HR right up until it's release, (A prequel starring a security guard? No way it's going to be good). I'm hoping they surprise me again with this one, because right now, everything I've heard about this game makes it sound about as far from the Thief series I've enjoyed as it can be while still being a stealth game.

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        August 23, 2013 7:06 AM

        I was in doubt about Human Revolution up until a gameplay trailer showed Inventory Tetris.

        That game and, more recently, X-Com showed that it is possible to make huge changes to a game's formula so long as you capture the soul of the original.

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      August 23, 2013 7:20 AM

      Does Garrett have a Dark Secret?

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