Role-playing sims are traditionally considered single-player titles. They can be really dense and system-heavy games, where even one player introduces a surprising amount of variables, as that player uses the freedom they have to resolve situations in any way. It takes no small amount of creative ingenuity and coding wizardry to enable all those possibilities, and it will only be enhanced by the presence of another player or a whole group of other players. Think of titles like System shock or Preyfor example, and imagine how introducing another player into these games — which already encourage people to bend the rules — could leave them completely confused and potentially even break them. Imagine The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with the second Link being capable of doing all the things the first Link could do. It may sound unwieldy, but the granddaddy of RPGs thinks it's the next logical step for the genre. I think maybe he's right.
In an interview with game developer, Warren Spector, renowned developer credited with creating immersive and landmark simulation games in the genre such as Deus Ex And System shock, has revealed some details about one of his studio's upcoming games, Thick as a thief, aims to combine immersive simulation gameplay with a competitive multiplayer angle to break new ground in the genre. The upcoming role-playing sim will drop two thieves into a setting not unlike that of Thief: Dark Project and tasks them with wandering through the dark streets of the city trying to outwit each other. One person can get to work stealing some high-value loot while the other waits in the shadows trying to steal them. Players also have the opportunity to work together or interact in any way. Spector shares that players can completely avoid each other if they choose, follow each other, eliminate each other or even put aside temporary differences to work together towards a common goal.
Spector's studio, OtherSide Entertainment, is also working on making the game's world react to the actions the player takes. Accordingly, the majority of the loop of one Thick as a thief The session will consist of gathering information from across the city, such as information that can be obtained by bribing guards. According to Spector, this type of interaction with each other in an immersive and reactive environment is “the next logical step” for the genre. “Part of the simulation is human interaction in the world…It's really a simulation that we drop a group of thieves into.” As part of the direct service, Thick as a thief According to OtherSide CEO Paul Nerath, there will likely be the release of new city neighborhoods over time as well as new thieves to promote different play styles.
OtherSide's design philosophy is all around Thick as a thief emerged from one Dungeons & Dragons game that Spector played many years ago. The team is trying to successfully recreate the feeling that Spector felt while playing D&Despecially the novelty of player-driven storytelling, by empowering the player Thick as a thief to chart their own story within the living environment. It's an approach no different than things Larian Studios received acclaim in the previous title, Divinity: Original Sin IIwas praised for the open-endedness of the story and how responsive the world is to the player's actions at the end of the journey.
Multiplayer corner of Thick as a thief may also be familiar to those who have played Arkane's death ring, which allows players to invade each other's games as important characters in the story. In spite of death ringOur testing with this format yielded mixed results, perhaps due to limited mechanics, so there's reason to believe this approach has potential by looking at other titles. Bald Gate 3the fully functional multiplayer feature of an inherently complex game suggests as much.
There may be a lot of hurdles standing in the way of such an obviously ambitious project, and I'll certainly reserve judgment until I see the game in action, but the idea is promising. That's not to say that single-player role-playing simulation games have hit bottom, because they absolutely haven't, but one of the most exciting things about modern games is the extent to which players can use them to tell their own story. In my eyes, a studio that makes games that explicitly stick to that theme and looks at the exciting new things it can bring to the medium is a positive thing.
