Thief customisation options hold promise for old-school fans

I must say that I’m somewhat worried about the upcoming Thief reboot; I’ve been going over some previews from various reputable gaming sites around the web – opinions are mixed, and downright contradictory in some cases.

The negative previews mention things such as a lifeless game world, linear gameplay, baffling AI, and a general lack of homage to the old-school Thief experience – I wonder how much of this is filtered through wishful thinking and rose-tinted nostalgia goggles.

On the plus side, some previewers have been impressed with what Eidos Montreal has to offer, and mention things such as an immersive game world, slick stealth gameplay, challenging AI, and a decent re-imagining of Thief.

This reminds me of the build up to the previous Eidos Montreal game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There was a fair share of nay-saying ahead of that game, but it turned out to be fantastic. The obvious correlation being that fans of classic franchises are very, very defensive over their happy gaming memories and don’t want modern reboots to tarnish that. Fair enough – the success of Thief may just boil down to individual player reactions.

One promising sign has emerged in a PlayStation Access promo video, which shows off the gameplay customisation options available to the player. This is actually pretty neat – you can set various parameters to tweak your experience to the way you want it it, setting your own limits for the challenge the game offers.

For example, appearance of UI elements, turning off auto-save points, Garret’s “focus” ability, disabling combat take-downs, target reticule, arrow types, health resources, movement speed, alert levels, and what essentially amounts to a hardcore mode – “Iron Man” – in which any failure results in the end of your game run through.

These options should prove appealing to players who are worried about the challenge the game will offer, giving a choice on just how punishing you want your stealthy thieving experience to be.

For another look at thief, check out these gameplay breakdown videos: Thief: 24-minutes of gameplay revealed

I have (perhaps somewhat foolishly) pre-ordered the game, so I’m remaining optimistic. What do you think of Thief? Will it live up to the legend of its predecessors?