I really dig the Thief series… but I’ve been very skeptical of the new Thief for most of the past few years since it was announced (As Thief 4… or “Thi4f.” Yuck.). There has been such a gap between games… ten years now since ‘Deadly Shadows’, that I worried the tone of the game would be lost. That we would end up something completely different, bearing the Thief name.

For a little while there that looked to be the case. Some of the features they were talking about in early gameplay videos seemed to suggest that the game would be very linear… very “hand-holdy,” and less about being a silent master thief and more about being… I don’t know, a ninja action hero?

All of that may still be the case… I’ll find out later this month. Thief was always a PC series for me, so I opted to remain true to that. I’ll stream the game, and we can see if it holds a candle to its predecessor.

However, while I can’t yet tell if the game will offer multiple paths or be incredibly narrow or linear, my mind is set somewhat at ease regarding the potential for a challenge. While most games have steered towards being easier and more accessible over the past decade, with fewer harsh consequences, at least the new Thief will provide you with the options to tailor a more old-school experience if you so choose. Disabling certain features, or adding certain restrictions/parameters not only makes the game tougher, but will provide you with a higher score at the end.

That focus system that magically highlights all the important stuff in an area that you should be looking at? You can turn it off. The minimap and navigation waypoints that lead you by the nose to your next objective? You can turn them off. Hell, you can even set it to only save the game at chapter intervals, like they did back in the day. That may be going too far though… not all advancements in game mechanics are bad.

I don’t know if the Thief reboot is going to live up to my fond memories of the first three games… but I’m excited to see that the developers are at least giving me the option to customize my difficulty level.

I think that most of the UI elements will be ticked off for my game… and we’ll throw in a few of the better mod options to boot. Be sure to stay tuned when the game comes out for my stream, and we’ll see how this reboot holds up.