The modern-day Thief sequel that never was (Eurogamer)

[Melan]

This is a fascinating article from Eurogamer, discussing Ion Storm's cancelled modern-day Thief sequel:

 

 

magine a world where we never had to debate whether Square Enix's 2014 Thief reboot was called Thief or Thief 4 or Thi4f. Imagine instead that the franchise remained with Ion Storm Austin, developers of Thief: Deadly Shadows.

 

That's a world we very nearly saw, as exclusive research reveals Ion Storm was working on exactly that in 2004 - a never-announced Thief reboot led by Dishonored's Harvey Smith and inspired heavily by Splinter Cell. It was called Thief 4: Dagger of Ways.

 

Now the bad news - it was cancelled in 2004, along with several similarly unannounced Deus Ex games.

 

While titled as a sequel however, Thief 4: Dagger of Ways was - like Thi4f - actually a reboot. Hallmarks of the original games, such as Garrett's nameless home city/hunting ground, were

to be spun into new and more modern versions of themselves.

 

"This is not the unrecognisable setting from the earlier Thief games," explains the first page of Ion Storm's internal pitch to Eidos. "This is modern Earth, at night, with some stylised elements - a blend of New York, Los Angeles, Boston and other American cities. Game environments will feature recognisable elements from modern day society...derelict convenience stores and dark back-alleys.

 

"We want to present a darkly colourful world of shadow, neon and moonlight wherein Garrett will explore rooftops and street corners in one mission and a corrupt senator's mansion in another."

 

And:

 

 

"As a child, Garrett's family was part of a scholarly secret society called The Keepers," says the document. "Over time, the organisation became more cultish. His mother and father - refined and educated - disappeared trying to escape. Garrett eventually got away...his younger sister did not."

 

Dagger of Ways would then begin years later, with Garrett using his training to orchestrate heists. As always he'd come into conflict with various secret societies - but this time not the Hammerites and Pagans. Instead, Thief 4 would introduce The Church and The Openers.

 

"The Openers [are] seemingly a new power, but with ties to forces older than human society. [They] seek to unleash the dark magic that is awakening in the world. The Church, fading in the modern world, sees conflict over the emerging supernatural world as a chance to make manifest their influence over their believers."

 

"Eventually, Garrett's sister, now a Keeper agent, confronts him about the truth, giving him a choice to make."

 

What truth? It's never clarified exactly. The overview promises Garrett would play a deciding role in a "shadow war", but doesn't explain further. Ten years later, memories are so faded even those close to the project are uncertain how it would have played out.

 

"I honestly remember next to nothing about the story stuff," said our source. "The only specific thing I do I remember is that the first mission was about breaking into Senator Bafford's mansion."

 

And about the Thief 4 fiasco:

 

 

"It is fascinating to revisit Thief 4 with Dishonored in mind," our source reflected. "There's a lot of shared DNA there."

 

"There are similarities in terms of the action and dark supernatural elements, but the specifics of those similarities are so different. Our plans for Thief 4 were focused on a cool, modern setting with magic and a real sense of horror. Dishonored has magic, but it's pretty pointedly neutral. And once you get to player powers, Thief 4 was about gadgets whereas Dishonored is about personal abilities."

 

During this time, Eidos - now owned by Square Enix - set to work on a different reboot. The reception for Thi4f was lukewarm at best and a flashy marketing campaign that sought to establish Garrett as a cool anti-hero is visible proof of pressure to modernise the series in pursuit of profit - a pressure Ion Storm also felt.

 

"It was eye-opening to see how things operated in terms of chasing the market instead of valuing creativity for the sake of making the best game," says our source, looking back. "Eidos' executive team didn't care about games, they only cared about money."

 

[demagogue]

I definitely remember this because there was a released or leaked concept art of the protagonist, a kind of thuggish looking young guy in a hoodie. It wasn't so well received actually, since it made him look like he was in a gang or some such. There's a thread on it somewhere on TTLG if you want to search for it.

[grayman]

Fascinating.

 

Also interesting to consider that if Ion Storm had been allowed to create a fan-satisfying T4, would there have been a need for TDM? We might not be here today.

[wesp5]

This reminds me a lot of my favorite game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines! Of course it's not a real Thief game, but if you build your character with Stealth or even choose a clan with invisibility, you get what they planned at the time: a stealth game in modern nights with magic background and fractions fighting each other!

Edited August 31, 2015 by wesp5

[Goldwell]

I had heard about that modern Thief concept before but I never really looked into it much. My first reaction wasn't that excited to be honest however now that the idea has sat with me for awhile I think something like that would be fantastic.

 

Help change up the setting of the universe, even going a bit further forward to say a setting like Deus Ex.. Imagine the Deus Ex Human Revolution world but in a Thief style, that would be so fun to sneak around in.

 

As much as I really enjoy the medieval/steam punk version of Thief it would be very refreshing for a nice change of things.

 

I wonder what Eidos Montreal plans to do with the Thief franchise anyway now.

[VanishedOne]

I definitely remember this because there was a released or leaked concept art of the protagonist, a kind of thuggish looking young guy in a hoodie. It wasn't so well received actually, since it made him look like he was in a gang or some such. There's a thread on it somewhere on TTLG if you want to search for it.

I'm not sure whether it's the thread you have in mind, but there's one linked from http://thief.wikia.com/wiki/Unfinished_Thief_sequels#Ion_Storm_T4with a post by someone from Ion Storm.

 

Senator Bafford's mansion... It sounds like something an experimental/joke FM would come up with.

 

Of course shadow-based stealth can be done in various settings (though a Thief-style setting does have the advantage of freely mixing flaming and electric light sources), but considering how they could have improved on TDS, I get the impression Ion Storm were a bit over-keen to 'tear it down and begin anew'.

[Springheel]

This was interesting:

lockpicking would involve a sound-based mini-game

 

I wonder if it would have been similar to ours?

[Dunedain]

I'm glad they never made that one. Garrett is now in a modern city among neon signs wearing a sweat shirt? Yuck. =P I mean if they want to make a stealth game in a current city, etc., fine, but don't try to call it Thief and stick Garrett in it, call it something else. Thief is set in that old English medieval / steam punk setting that is unique to the game, a time when the use of torches, candles and oil lamps is a daily necessity for everyone, with just a touch of steam and simple early technology here and there for the very wealthy; it's a signature part of the whole Thief experience.

 

It would be like trying to turn Dishonored 2 (I think the first game is excellent, can't wait for the sequel, hope they don't mess it up =) ) into a game with Mac-10 wielding bad guys set in New York with shoot outs at the Empire State Building, a hideous thought, hehe. =P

[demagogue]

It wouldn't be out of place in GTA to allow cat burgling people's homes and shops, to progressively more ambitious targets. But I guess the games is already 30GB without making every other house enter-able. Well the game has a lot of heists as it is. Anyway, that's the rightful forum for that kind of gameplay.

[Airship Ballet]

If only the online wasn't 33% suburban gangsters, 33% Russians and 33% 12 year olds, I'd have played those heists more than once each.