Y'want's my oppinion taffer? Fine, here's it is:
Visuals are pretty nice and I like the detail in the environments and the ability for more interaction: Looking through keyholes and hiding in closets being the two examples I saw there. I also liked that this is the first trailer for Thief that was actually about, y'know, thieving. That's good. How Garrett's arms are visible is neat as well although I dislike how they're constantly on screen when he's crouched, that looks a bit dumb and takes up screen space unnecessarily. Still it's neat, as were some of the minigames for lockpicking and finding that safe.
HOWEVER, and this is a bit however, the sound design in that video was terrible. Like seriously truly bad. And not just in ways that can be chocked up to Youtube's video quality:
-The screen in constantly flashing, presumably with lightning, yet we hear absolutely no thunder? None? And all that rain makes about as much noise as a summer days light dizzle? Really? You expect a storm to sound like
this, or if you want an example from a game like
this, not nearly silent.
-The voice acting was at best mediocre, at worst bad, while their script not much better. The new voice for Garrett is generic, which is a pity considering how strong the previous games voice acting was in the form of Stephen Russell.
-Those constant 'BWOOONG' whenever something happens? Annoying and unnecessary, ideally the environment should be letting you know if you screwed up. Having these sound cues is just dumb in my opinion.
-Admittedly Garrett's tapdance shoes in the first two Thief games might have been a bit much, but here there's nothing. No footsteps at all that I heard regardless of the surface he was walking across. Does he even make noise when he moves or does that swoopy thing, because sound was one of the most important assets of the previous games.
-THAT MUSIC??!!?!? What the hell was that? Were they trying to emulate
this or something, because the devs of all people should know that the music never actually played during gameplay. Everything was environmental, the reason for which is really really simple: In a game where you need to carefully consider how much noise you're making, it's kinda important to be able to, y'know, hear yourself over the sound of ill-placed unfitting music.
Meanwhile the environments and setting look supremely bland. If you had shown me that environment alone I would never guess it had anything to do with Thief at all, which is a pity because the unique setting of the previous games was one of the series greatest assets. Unique and distinct with memorable locations and peoples to inhabit it. This meanwhile just looked like generic gritty europe-place number #425. I saw and heard nothing that struck me as neat in terms of the setting. Just bland. Maybe later areas in the game will be improved in this regard, after all even the original Thief games had their share of generic medieval-ish housing, but the trailer didn't do a good job of convincing me that might be the case.
The thing with the camera zooming around to highlight stuff is also troubling, since that's the sort of nonsense you usually get from a developer that doesn't trust a player to, y'know, notice these things on their own. It's lame and it takes control away from the player all while feeling condescending about it as well.
Hard to tell how linear the level was from that clip. UI seems a bit intrussive but not enough I wouldn't be able to get over were the rest of the game good. And I disliked that swooping mechanic although I can understand its inclusion. Most gamers these days are unlikely to appreciate the slow methodical pace of the original games and so the devs added mechanics like that to try and speed things up. I dislike it, same with dark-vision ability ala Dishonored, but I can see why they were included.
And so finally I'm left with an impression that can be summed up with a simple 'whatever'. Maybe the reviews will be amazing and it'll turn out the devs have been tricking us all along, hiding a deftly made and masterfully crafted stealth experience all this time behind disappointing press releases and forgettable trailers, but I doubt that. At this point I expect an alright product that will appeal to some I expect but thoroughly disappoint many fans of the original games such as myself.
Maybe I'll be wrong. I'd like if I were in this case actually... but I doubt it. In any case at least there's The Dark Mod, which is fantastic and totally worth checking out for fans of the original Thief games who want a more 'traditional' experience.
