Thief to be released on current-gen consoles simultaneously with next-gen versions

Developer Eidos Montreal has announced on its official blog that its upcoming first-person stealth game—Thief—will be making its way to the current-gen PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 alongside the next-gen consoles. The game is set to hit all the platforms simultaneously.

While the game will undoubtedly look much better on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, the developers do note that the gameplay will be the same on all platforms.

Thief is coming to current-gen consoles too!

A ton of information about the game—earlier referred to as Thief 4—was revealed earlier this year. The game will continue the series’ tradition of first-person stealth and will actively discourage combat, just like the previous games in the series.

Thief will also add a major new mechanic called Focus. It works like Detective Mode did in the Batman: Arkham games, and highlights scalable walls, extinguishable lights and fingerprints that can be analysed. It also works as a sort of Bullet Time, as you can use it to slow down time while pickpocketing.

Gathering Focus lets you accumulate Attack Points, which basically work as emergency “oh crap!” buttons and let you pull off emergency escapes. This may be a lot like the VATS system Bethesda used in Fallout 3 and Obsidian used in Fallout: New Vegas, where you pause time and aim for specific body parts. For instance, you can use Attack Points on an enemy’s chest to shove him out of the way.

The enemy AI can make or break a stealth game, and the first few Thief games’ AI were revolutionary for their time. Apparently, this game is set to continue the tradition. “Garrett’s enemies understand the topography of the level and which areas could be useful for hiding. Different NPCs will look for Garrett in different ways,” noted AI programmer Eric Martel.

Overall, the game sounds very similar to Dishonored, which is unsurprising as the Thief games are cited as some of the biggest inspirations for Dishonored.