Thief 4 News: Gameplay Previewed Before Release Date [Trailer]

The Thief franchise has been one of the most important franchises in the stealth genre, and the fourth game in the series (simply called Thief) is set to appear on next-gen consoles in addition to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In anticipation of the latest Thief, IGN wrote an extensive preview revealing that, while some parts of the game are shaping up to be excellent, others areas still need work.

One of the most critical aspects of Thief is that players cannot employee a so-called "panther style" of stealth that allows players to sneak around enemies before taking them down. Thief employees a much more basic level of stealth that requires players to stay hidden or they will most likely be taken out.

The preview also notes that the new version of Thief has some rather annoying features that get in the way of the game's visual presentation and take players out of the experience.

"The first thing I did was turn off the rather large mini-map which not only offended my old-school Thief sensibilities, but also happened to take up far too much real estate on the screen. I also wanted to disable the Riddick-esque 'eye shine' that fogs the outer edges of the screen when you're completely in the shadows, but sadly was unable to do so," wrote IGN. 

However, Thief's mission structure is well put together. Players can finish different missions in any order they choose, and some missions will have side quests that can be done during a mission that will give players extra bonuses if they choose to pursue them if they can get 100 percent completion on these graded quests.

The game's visuals offer a very moody setting for players to explore, and Edios Montreal stated that they are shooting for a 1080p presentation at 30 FPS. It's also clear developers paid meticulous attention to every minute detail to make the game a true first person experience, with special care taken to show the natural movement of the main character Garrett's hands, feet and head.

The biggest fault so far in the game is the voice acting. As evidenced in the preview, the voice actors give very bland performances that appear out of place in the game's setting:

"NPCs are walking anachronisms, dropping the 'S' and 'F' words like contemporary bros from California with nary a tongue-in-cheek "taffer" in earshot. It contrasts sharply with the game's pseudo-19th-century steampunk setting. Meanwhile, Garrett's original voice actor Stephen Russell and his charmingly dry, sarcastic portrayal of the master thief has been inexplicably dropped...Worse still, the actor they replaced him with offers nothing distinctive; his Garrett sounds like an Everybro who could be in any game in any era," wrote IGN.

It will be interesting to see if Thief can overcome the voice acting and other issues when the game is released in 2014.