Gloomwood, a game that draws upon classic sneak-em-up Thief, has hit Steam Early Access early.
Originally set to drop later today, Gloomwood launched into Early Access yesterday and is available to download for anyone prepared to pay the $19.99 asking price – or less, since there’s currently a 10% discount. And you’ll need a PC, of course, though we have our fingers crossed the game eventually finds its way to console.
We’ve yet to dive into Gloomwood but the trailer is absolutely giving us flashbacks to Thief, Looking Glass’s stealth series. Enemies sport the same slightly angular appearance as the first two Thief titles, and the semi-Steampunk city looks chillingly familiar.
That said, there are a couple of significant differences. Firstly, your protagonist isn’t a thief by trade – they’ve been abducted and dumped in a mysterious, faintly foggy city. Secondly, they’re more capable of defending themselves against multiple foes than Thief’s Garrett ever was; more along the lines of Hitman’s Agent 47.
There are several neat touches that have grabbed our attention; one that really stands out is the way the enemies’ eyes light beams reflect their status – unaware, suspicious or actively trying to murder you. Aside from keeping you, the player, informed, it makes them look pretty unsettling.
So what state is the Early Access version in? According to Gloomwood’s developers it’s “..a very polished introduction to the game that contains the fishery, cliffside caves and mines, cliffs, and lighthouse parts of the game world.” In other words, it should be enough to give you a real taste of the game. It’ll remain in Early Access until it’s ready, at least a year.
You can purchase Gloomwood’s Early Access version from the Steam store and, while it’s priced at $19.99, the final release will rise to $29.99. Now, if only we could get Nightdive Studios to remake Thief..
