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Posted: May 10th, 2003.
EIDOS UNVEILS THE NEXT CHAPTER IN THE THIEF SERIES
Ion Storm’s ultimate stealth game featuring the anti-hero Garrett makesits way to Xbox and PC.
Eidos Interactive, one of the world’s leading publishers and developersof entertainment software, announces that the next instalment in theThief series is currently in development for Xbox and PC. The game isbeing developed by Ion Storm, creators of the award-winning Deus Exfranchise, and is due for release winter 2003.
“The opportunity to create a game in the Thief universe is a real thrillfor me and the rest of the folks at Ion Storm,” says Warren Spector,studio director at Ion Storm. “Thief pioneered the concept of ‘stealthaction’ gameplay on the PC and was the game that, more than any other,inspired me to build a team to create Deus Ex. Now, Ion and the Thiefteam hope to take the ‘sneaker’ genre to new heights and, by developingfor both console and PC, bring it to an even larger audience thanbefore.”
“Eidos believes that the upcoming Thief game will establish itself as amajor brand for the company,” says Rob Dyer, president of EidosInteractive US. “Ion Storm possesses a firm grasp of how to create andmaster the open-ended, stealth-based gameplay that has reached such highdemand in the consumer marketplace. And it is the primary focus offranchises like Deus Ex and Thief.”
In this chapter of Thief, you once again take on the role of Garrett, amaster thief who is rarely seen, never caught and capable of breakinginto the most ingeniously secured places. Garrett steals from thewealthy and gives to himself, making his living in the dark andforeboding City. Although Garrett would prefer to be left alone to plyhis trade, the prophecies of an impending Dark Age dictate a differentplan for the thief. In his efforts to prevent the Dark Age, Garrett hasinadvertently roused an ancient, hidden evil. He finds himself withoutallies, standing alone between the City and the forces that would crushit.
Playing as Garrett, you must use your skills to sneak throughout theCity into castles, mansions, prisons, cathedrals, dungeons, and museums,past armed guards, hired muscle, angry thugs, hideous monsters, and muchworse. Garrett must steal the City’s oldest treasures in order to stopthe darkness foretold in the prophecies. You will have a wealth ofthieves’ tools at your disposal, including lock picks, a variety ofspecial arrows, wall climbing gloves, and flash bombs.
An innovative new key feature in Thief is ‘body awareness’, which givesyou the ability to see your hands and feet while climbing walls, leaningover ledges, and picking locks. Working hand-in-hand with bodyawareness is Ion Storm’s dynamic lighting system, Garrett can manipulatethe light and shadows in real-time to his own advantage, creatingentirely new stealth opportunities.
“The Thief team is poised to deliver an incredible action stealth game,featuring realistic sneaking and stealing. We want the player to feellike a real thief,” said Randy Smith, project director at Ion Storm.“The game is accessible on both platforms yet sophisticated in itsdepth, enabling a lifetime of gameplay to explore and master. Theinternally developed technology that powers Thief puts control anddirection of the action in the player’s hands.”
News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2003.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.