Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, the weekend piece that rounds up some of the more interesting stories of the week from the industry outside of the strictly co-op sphere. This week we have some exciting news for fans of old PC fan-favorites Thief and Planescape: Torment.
Thief reboot headed to PC and next-gen consoles
Torment: Tides of Numenera Gets Kickstarted in Under Six Hours
Thief reboot headed to PC and next-gen consoles
Though I’ve longed for the day that Thief 4 would finally see the light of day, I’ll admit there were some times that I didn’t think it would happen. It’s been nearly ten years since the last Thief game, the third in the series starring Garrett, the Master Thief. Unlike many modern stealth games, the Thief series was a hardcore stealth game. Garrett wasn’t strong or a master of the sword. He relied on his wits, his bow, and his ability to be a ghost. Letting a guard see Garrett often resulted in having to restart from a save point, which could be frustrating at times, but also rewarding when a successful mission was pulled off. I honestly wondered if the industry would want to put such an unforgiving stealth game out on the market when forgiving and casual systems are so big right now.
Looks like the answer is a resounding “Yes!” as this week Eidos Montreal announced that Thief 4, now simply entitled Thief, is coming to PC and next-gen consoles in 2014. The developers promise that despite its shiny new look, it’s still a Thief game where stealth will be key. I’m hoping for the same gloriously unforgiving experience I had with Thief 3.
Source: Gameinformer
Torment: Tides of Numenera Gets Kickstarted in Under Six Hours
Planescape: Torment is one of the PC’s best-loved and most lauded RPGs of all time. Praised for its deep story-telling, the game has a special place in many a PC gamer’s heart. When it was announced that inXile (the studio that’s released titles with a whole lot of personality, like the Bard’s Tale and Hunted: the Demon’s Forge) would be kickstarting a new torment game, the gaming community was pretty excited. Developer inXile had some huge names going for it, including a whole bunch of people who worked on Planescape: Torment. Not only that, but they had Chris Avellone’s (the lead designer of the game) blessing.
Though inXile must have certainly felt encouraged by the positive feedback they received before their kickstarter launched, I don’t believe they foresaw that their $900,000 goal would be reached in a mere six hours. At the time of writing, they have currently raised well over 2 million dollars for their story-driven, isometric, single-player RPG.
It turns out that the PC gaming community longs for the old days of games like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, and I find that to be encouraging indeed. Modern day games are beautiful and great in their own regard, but there’s just something about the old party-based, top-down games with the amazing storylines that I miss - and it seems like I’m not the only one. Wasteland 2 (also kickstarted by inXile awhile back) and Obsidian’s Project Eternity are going back to this era, and I personally can’t wait to see what they have in store.
Source: Kickstarter