New details for Thief revealed – stealth mechanics explained, won’t support regenerating health


Thief 4
Thief fans, we’ve got some new details about the latest part of the Thief series that is being developed for next-gen consoles and the PC. According to EIDOS Montreal’s Community Manager, this new Thief will be extremely atmospheric, will feature a number of linear/scripted moments and won’t support regenerating Health or Focus.
Yes yes, you read that right. The new Thief won’t featuring regenerating health. The health (and the focus) system will be based on consumables.
As EIDOS’ community manager said:
“As it was a pre-alpha build [the one present at E3], the availability of health and focus consumables still has room for polish and the demo itself had the health and focus resources turned up above normal availability so that the press members could get a good feel for how things operated in a short time. Health and Focus DO NOT REGENERATE. They are based on consumables.”
The new Thief game will support both a mini-map and a full map, can be played via the traditional slow-paced stealth way, players will be able to tweak the game’s HUD via three methods (always on, always off, only contextual sort of way) and players will be able to steel from everywhere like in the original games.
Regarding the stealth mechanics, EIDOS Montreal’s community manager revealed that the game’s stealth is partially shadow-based (and much more comprehensive than a simple binary system) and added:
“Guards can look up. Their vision cone is actually really realistic and linked to their eyes. For example, if two guards are facing each other talking they cannot see what is behind the other because they are blocking each other’s views.”
As for lockpicking, the new Thief game will feature two modes (one with Focus enabled and one when it’s not). Focus ‘makes it easier by bringing up the “inside the lock” view. Without focus, the view is on the front of the lock, making things a little bit less straightforward’.
Last but not least, players will be able to use a claw in order to reach a higher area they wouldn’t be able to climb to themselves.
Thief is planned for a 2014 release on next-gen consoles and PC!