Thief 4 (or Thi4f for plonkers) looks like it will feature some sort of online feature, as well as utilising the Unreal Engine 3.
The CVs of several outspoken Eidos employees have confirmed the existence of some form of online functionality, and "online tools" have been mentioned in this Eidos employee's linkedin profile.
Thief games have traditionally been single player affairs, which is why this revelation, if it turns out to be true, is particularly noteworthy.
The news of Unreal Engine 3 powering the upcoming thievery is much more credible.
These 'online tools' may not equal 'multiplayer', as they could easily refer to leaderboards or even some form of update system for patches, but it'll be interesting to see what the Square Enix developer is planning.
Comments
15 comments so far...
gillri on 16 Jan '12 said:
Not again...............I'll add Thief 4 to ME3 in my 'worried list'
freds1 on 16 Jan '12 said:
A few years ago I'd be surprised maybe disappointed, but nowadays I'm just...
(IF true that is)
Still, how would it be done? One player is Garret sticking to shadows and nabbing loot, everyone else is a gaurd and looking for you? Can't see that working. In fact I can't see any MP mode working with this kind of game.
I guess we'll wait and see. May even be good...
JD_Method on 16 Jan '12 said:
Co-op maybe? There was that mod for Thief 2 that added campaign co-op.
Dralel on 16 Jan '12 said:
NNOOOOOOOO what made the other Thief games good was that it was single player!
Why the f*** does every game have to feature some online integration?
Consider this another franchise destroyed.
Sangor on 16 Jan '12 said:
Fingers crossed it has no impact on the quality of the single player campaign.
MikeC on 16 Jan '12 said:
There ends one of my favorite series, deadly shadows was bad enough but at least it was playable, MP can't work in a game based around sitting in the dark for 25min memorising the movements of the guards and then buggering something up and escaping frantically.
Dracomd on 16 Jan '12 said:
I particularly like the idea where "Online Tools" = custom map-making (even more awesome if its collaborative), and the "Online Mode" = Allowing other players to play your maps. I'm not sure if there would be any meaningful goal (i.e. loot) other than to enjoy the level, but it'd add to the excitement if there was a betting/wager mode where the level maker/game host bets his own gold that you can't beat his level-- and there could be requirements as always - no kills, cant be seen, must get all loot, etc. And the map-maker has to verify that the level can be beat by doing it themselves to avoid people making unwinnable scenarios.
That'd be great as I loooooved most of the fan missions for the other Thief games, and it's nice that console owners would have a chance to experience fan missions instead of being stuck with the vanilla game + some DLC.
Ah...DLC.. I think thats where my idea falls down... who would pay for DLC when they can make their own missions, unless they do something like make the DLC level building items. "You cannot play jigglypuff69's level as you do not posses the -Medieval Treachery- DLC."
The ultimate incarnation of my envisioned approach would be having an semi-online worldspace that's in the form of a town, and each of the buildings serve as a gateway to featured or random user levels, i.e. the most highly ranked levels by users would be these huge castles or hammerite church structures --something that makes it obvious to the player that this level is going to be good. ... hmm that'd tie in well with a DLC system.. seeing a huge castle and being told you cant play this super awesome level unless you fork over some more money.
Alas its all probably some s**tty time-attack or versus mode, with a splash of co-op centric levels that require simultaneous blackjacking.
sulli456 on 16 Jan '12 said:
More importantly than Thief 4 having an online mode, how does a "4" replace an "E"
icedmetal57 on 16 Jan '12 said:
Exactly, I was wondering the same thing.
freds1 on 16 Jan '12 said:
They missed the boat with Thief 3, it could've been Thi3f. But, too late. Must be kicking themselves. So they try and put a 4 into Thi4f. It looks even worse.
Daft buggers. Just call it Thief 4 for f*cks sake and stop trying to be trendy.
badmonk on 17 Jan '12 said:
man!! i am sooooo excited for T4!! can't wait!! but there is gonna be online MP in it, well @ least thats what the leaked youtube video showed!! it was prob over a year ago i saw it, but saw thief's sniping each other on rooftops, with gamer tags above their heads and someone shot it off a camera phone!!
1Nightmare1 on 17 Jan '12 said:
Well at least the game(project) is getting some media, for up until now I thought Thief 4 was dead.
therealjacko on 17 Jan '12 said:
someone give Dracomd a job, that sounds like a commercially sensible way of doing gamer-made DLC...so therefore i guess it has no chance!!!!
nb_nmare2 on 17 Jan '12 said:
At first I was with the majority and thought that an online mode was a stupid idea, but then I remembered Thievery, which is a Thief-style DM and team DM (or rather TM, "thiefmatch") mod for Unreal Tournament. It's actually pretty good fun; the team game in particular, which sees one team play the thieves, and the other team take on the role of the guards.
Also, shortly before Looking Glass Studios closed down, they were planning to make a multiplayer Thief game themselves.
nolim on 17 Jan '12 said:
I am looking forward to and dreading Thief 4 in equal measure. As my all time favorite franchise it's great that it's getting another game but as Deadly Shadows showed it's also very easy to break the magic that made the first two games so fantastic. It needs to be first person, NOT third, it needs big levels with multiple entry points, it needs a good combat system with a sword NOT a dagger, it needs rope arrows, and most of all it needs a good editor as the fan missions have always been the best reason to play Thief. Given all of that i'm not holding out much hope.