Warren Spector and Thief Game director Fat Like Thieves are working on a multiplayer immersive sim.

A master thief whispers on the cobbles in the early modern metropolis, splitting the difference between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool. They pass for a civilian, lit up by rays that can’t dispel the industrial haze—rough, sure, but shadowless, anyway, causing the passing guard to itch in his sword.

In the meantime, you’ll take to the Thieves’ Highway – following the hook to the rooftops you can see the city skyline and the moon. Here, it’s a parallel world – the trees in the street answer with smoke stacks, and the steep cliffs of distant hills echo the rise and fall. “We are very proud of these roofs,” said Greg Lopiccolo. “It’s an amazing landscape that we put a lot of thought and effort into, and it’s a lot of fun to walk through.”

In the year In 1998, Lopiccolo was the game director he saw. Thief: The Dark Project to complete. Today – after 18 years of journey to lead similar projects to Harmonics Guitar Hero And Rock bandAmong other adventures – he is the game director of Thick as Thieves. “It’s an opportunity to do something really unique and cool and new, on the shoulders of this thing that’s now well-respected,” he says. “A thief has legs, doesn’t he? People still talk about it to some extent.”

Thick may not be a Thief universe like Thieves, but it lives up to its reputation. On the ceiling, a glowing gem of light reveals the level of the Lord Thief’s cover. A low whistling wind provides accompaniment, as does a chilling choral bass note – instantly bringing to mind memories of The Dark Project. And a thief, too, lives in the mission statement, which asks you to infiltrate a library and retrieve family secrets from a hidden room. It’s a one-of-a-kind tribute that’s inspiring, and simply demonstrates the involvement of Looking Glass’ developers.

But what is so special about thick as thieves? The answer is right there in the title, what you notice is a large number. As our protagonist takes out a mansion, as the guards close the exterior, they notice movement among the black tiles on the adjacent roof. Smoke from the chimney, perhaps – until the dark speck shoots a dart in the direction of the master thief. A warning shot from a fellow player: This road is taken, Bozo. Try drain pipes, and stay off the road.

The idea of ​​a multiplayer thief has been in the shadows since the turn of the millennium. In fact, in the final months before Looking Glass shut down, the developers were working to envision the series as a collaborative experience. And when Other Side Entertainment first started getting thick as thieves, they were thinking the same way.

“We’ve talked a lot about heist games because each player has a unique role,” says Warren Spector. “And Greg and David[McDonough, lead designer]specifically came back and said, ‘No, we can do PvP.’ You kind of put your head in your hands and think, wow, that really impresses people. It will be something completely unique. And that’s me being stupid: I don’t know how to do it right, that’s why.”

Ah, yes: Mr Spector is the world’s most famous advocate of the immersive sim genre and the main RPS text director. Deus Ex. After the closing of Epic Mickey’s Studio Junction and a spell at the Academy, Spector joined another party to direct the production of Sick People. System shock 3. Not only do you see Wofer as thieves, but Argos: he’s controlling the Storm Riders. Another multiplayer immersive sim. It is now entering its fourth decade of game development.

It’s rare to be able to talk face-to-face with a specter, even if it’s more than just zooming in – he is A man of literatureAnd usually he prefers to answer questions in writing. Physically, he has a traditional demeanor, and he talks a little more than he thinks is acceptable. His first love—Dungeons & Dragons, which he played in his youth with cyberpunk pioneer Bruce Sterling as his DM—came out on a whim.

“One of the hallmarks of the immersive sim genre is trying to recreate the feeling of playing Dungeons and Dragons,” he says. “And solo play is great, but telling stories with friends is even better. So we wanted to see what would happen if a group of players got together and interacted with a deeply simulated world.”

This is Specter’s entry into the world of live services. “Tabletop role-playing games have an ongoing life. They don’t just end when you finish a quest. And we wanted to emulate that approach and make a game with an ongoing life,” he said. I played in one D&D campaign for 10 years.

Thick as thieves, you may recognize the sniper effect in your DNA. In the last half decade, as games Hunting: show They’ve also developed a session-based infiltration style where you can get packs and leave – with stress from other players you can take the prize out of your hands at any time.

Fat thieves are structured in the same way. As an agent of the Thieves Guild, you’ll go out every night with the goal of picking up rare treasures from under the noses of NPC guards, while taking care to circumvent or circumvent traps, locks, and other security measures in your path. Meanwhile, other players are trying to achieve the same.

Maybe you knocked a fellow player out cold, stealing their property in the process of ambushing; Maybe you can ignore their warning and reach the exit without encountering any collisions. Ideally, you’ll leave with a squad of items behind them, or at least enough undiscovered gold to improve your character’s net worth and reputation in the metagame. Between missions, each player chooses missions and follows a personal story line.

“We imagine a game where one player kicks in the door, takes it all out, smashes the display case, then jumps out the window,” McDonough said. “And another player hides in the abyss like a ghost, and no one even knows they’re there. And those two playing styles are equally valid and compete against each other.

This isn’t the first attempt at a stealth-oriented extraction game. In particular, Hood: Outlaws & Legends Assassin’s Creed worked in Sherwood Forest, while the underrated Deceive Inc brought Hitman-style social stealth to the formula. Where Third Party’s offering stands out – to me, at least – is in its commitment to “classic immersive sim design”.

“The guards, the security, the rules of the environment, the way the characters walk and the way their equipment works – they’re all orderly, which means that everything you do affects someone else, and the world naturally responds to you. ways,” says McDonough.

In each session, the position of enemies, cameras and locked doors will change, along with the objectives. The only guaranteed way to survive is to improve. “We feel like this is a strong conceptual link to what it feels like to play a classic thief,” says McDonough. “I don’t know how the mission works, but I know how my tools work, and I know what to do with them, so I’ll find my way through this.”

In a way, it’s strange that Immersive Sims hasn’t embraced multiplayer sooner. If the genre is built to pit variables against each other in unpredictable ways, rival players are a gift — the most mercurial element you can add to the mix. “One of the things that makes thief games work is the knife’s edge – I’ve been caught, haven’t I?” says Spector. “Meeting other living people makes that even more fun.

“The other player’s mind is a mystery to you,” Lopiccolo said. “It’s not like a group fortress where you have a very simple agenda. In this case, your agenda is complex, theirs is complex, and you cannot predict how they will respond. While we’re talking, I’m using Thieves’ Thick as a Scream Arrow to send guards into a human opponent, distracting them in a high-pressure stealth scene. Spector, clapping his hands in glee, said, “This completely convinces me that the game will work.

There are reasons to be cautious. LeLucyd’s solo release Underworld Ascendant was another spiritual successor to the beloved immersive sim – but it ended in disaster, much to the dismay of its Kickstarter backers. “Our focus was on building the damn studio, and maybe we weren’t paying enough attention,” Spector said. This time, OtherSide has the help of publisher Megabit, which can handle most of the business side while the developers focus on making games.

“It’s a completely different group[that works against thieves],” Spector said. A larger team more qualified to tackle the incredible challenges of making an immersive sim. No one will believe me until they’ve worked on these games – what we do here is harder than most people do in game development. And we have enough talented and talented people.

Spector says he may be the oldest person still involved in active game development. Which begs the question: After the inherent difficulty of making an immersive sim and the pain of missing System Shock 3, what keeps it back in the groove?

“I’m interested in making games and making people,” he said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said this out loud, but there you go. I don’t have a filter. I am interested in passing the torch so this type of game will continue.

It’s exciting for Specter to see Arcane Rise and the immersive sim elements that seep into Zelda and Baldur’s Gate 3. But he left halfway through a three-year stint at the University of Texas because he felt there was still work to be done. “We’re in this young art, and anyone who thinks we’re done even in 40 or 50 years is not paying attention,” he said. “An opportunity to create or contribute to a new art form comes along once or twice a century. How can you not want to be a part of that? I try to surround myself with people who feel that way, who want to advance the state of the art.”

“My personal mission is ‘playstyle matters,'” he continues. “And it’s not just words. I’m going to do that until people won’t let me anymore. But when I say I’m going to do it, I’m going to find people who do it better than me and I’m going to keep going. So 20 years from now, if I’m still here, I’ll be able to see what they’ve done to take this to places I never imagined.”