So, I'm going to endeavor to swear as infrequently as is humanly impossible in this VLOG, as
evidently the gibbering 'apologentsia' that have since arrayed in knee-jerk support of
Eidos Montréal's asinine decision to bring back the character of Garrett in Thief 4,
while simultaneously dispensing with a man whose performance accounts for 90% of what
makes the character who he is in the first place - evidently despoil their trousers at
the merest utterance of 'VILEST PROFANITY' and use the reposed 'F-bomb' as an excuse
to write off the opinion of the mouthpiece who delivered it.
But I don't want that to be misinterpreted as my acquiescing to their small-minded pabulum.
My past and future VLOGs will continue to contain more f-bombs than a Denis Leary tax
audit like always, but I'll say this upfront: Ill-mannered and profane truth... is still
TRUTH.
You can cower behind propriety and cosmetic minutiae all you want.
You can attempt to marginalize the individual that generated it - and by God, Eidos Montréal
is certainly giving it the old College Try - but we see through you like used Neutrogena.
Eidos Montréal needs to learn one very important thing:
Yes, it's important to learn from your failures.
But it can be TWICE as important to learn from your successes.
I am of the firm belief that Eidos Montréal wholeheartedly misunderstoof and mistook the
success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
It was word-of-mouth, yes.
It was quality of marketing marketing and quality of product, and every other thing--
Flashiness of style!
Yes.
And Yes.
Equally important, to me, though...
the reason postive word-of-mouth spread so vociferously throughout the gaming public,
the reason fans continue to look back on Eidos Montréal's inaugural effort with warm-hearted
regard and reverence?
It's because Deus Ex: Human Revolution bucked an awful lot more trend than it signed on
for.
Yes, we had flashy, contextual, third-person takedowns.
Yes, in my opinion, that was a transparent attempt to get ten-year-olds to buy the game,
but for every addlebrained modern concession, there was a blast from the past that took
its place.
The fact that the game has an actual inventory, for example!
I remember being blown away by that fact.
Virtually no modern releases give the player an actual inventory, let alone an upgradeable
one.
The absence of quicktime events, the ability to shut off glowy, condescending HUD elements,
the inclusion of a fleshed-out hacking mini-game in lieu of a magic 'hack' button from Deus
Ex 1.
Even early on, even after early trailers of the game left a trepidatious Deus Ex fanbase
in their wake...
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was broadly and positively defined... by what it KEPT.
We only have one trailer, and one terribly-written Game Informer article, and Thief (4) is already
broadly defined by what it LACKS.
Twice as many core elements of Thief have been removed than in its counterpart across
the hall, and at least at this stage, preposterously few have been retained.
The disgusting fact that Stephen Russell was actually passed over for the role he not only
defined, but if his work in Skyrim is any indication, remains 100% capable of delivering
with aplomb...
[Stephen Russell in Skyrim: "When I started out in this business, I wasn't really interested
in The Guild or being a... thief."]
...speaks far more about the game than just that Garrett got a voicebox transplant from
Jason Statham.
It isn't just a question of cosmetics or personal taste, whatever the shrieking contrarians
would have you believe in order to more easily sweep the entire conflict under the proverbial
rug.
"Give them a chance!", they shout.
"It's just a different voice!", they scream.
"Romano Orzari seems like a cool dude!"
I agree!
Romano's a cool cat!
Highly charismatic.
Let him sell Sham-wows.
Because it isn't just one character we're talking about, here, either.
Stephen Russell was the voice of quite nearly half the characters...
in the ever-lovin' SERIES!
Father Karras, the deranged Mechanist priest and antagonist of Thief II, Benny the half-wit
guard, whose performance essentially defined enemy A.I. in Thief and in a literal sense
physically dictated the game's playstyle...
[Stephen Russell as Benny: "These *hic* Taffers have no respect for such... *hic*...
BEAUTIFUL THINGS!"]
...half the Hammerites in Thief: The Dark Project, the waifish boy-servants you encounter
at random intervals throughout the series, and dozens of other contextual bit-parts who
- through overheard conversations, inner monologues, cutscenes and pre-mission briefings - act
in concert to delineate the greater tapestry that comprises all things THIEF!
The man's voice and tone are inextricably woven through the very fabric of the entire
series!
Everything from narrative to LEVEL DESIGN relies on the strength of his performance!
Randy Smith - the project lead on Deadly Shadows and level designer on Thief 1 and 2 - gave
an interview last year explaining that during the development of Thief 1&2, entire sections
of levels might be changed or augmented based purely on fitting in a new conversation or
sardonic quip that Stephen Russell had generated in the studio that morning.
[Garrett: "No need for alarm, ladies, just... passing through."]
They'd giddily plug that sound file into the game... and at that moment, the entire composition
of the level might physically change due entirely to the strength of Mr. Russell's vocal performance.
A strength I don't believe his replacement has, as evidenced by lackluster readings like
this: [Orazari as Garrett in Thief 4: "I don't kill
without thought... or a good reason, and I certainly don't take payment for it."]
Eidos Montréal has made a concerted effort of repeatedly claiming that they intend to
(and let's dust off the air-quotes, here, for posterity) "Remain true to the heart of
the Thief series."
But there's one small problem, and it is imperative that you absorb and process this fact:
It is 100% impossible to remain true to the heart of this series - in atmosphere, in tone,
and in actual, physical gameplay - without casting Stephen Russell as Garrett.
It's not just a voice.
It's one of those all-important 'pillars' of the core Thief experience you've so hurriedly
paid lip-service to, during every one of those umpteen developer interviews we've all seen
on the subject.
Prove it wasn't mere lip-service... and consider the broader implications of this abhorrent
decision!
There's a petition to bring back Stephen Russell as Garrett.
A petition which has been blatantly censored by Eidos Montréal at every turn.
No thread on the Thief 4 forums discussing its existence goes undeleted, no Facebook
post linking to it remains intact, no YouTube comment discussing it has longer than an hour,
tops, in which to exist.
But here's one public forum where it's MORE than welcome.
As such, it's linked in the description box below.
And before the inevitable chorus of querulous homunculi emerges from the primordial lagoon
to shriek, 'A few thousand signatures on the internet isn't going to change anything!'
- Welcome to the world of the immutably self-evident!
As with most petitions, this is more about principle than function.
It's not to say 'Change this or die!'
It's to illustrate a commercial imperative for Eidos Montréal!
A game that's next-gen exclusive, with a smaller consumer base to draw from, a hostile retail
market, the slowest console adoption rate in history, and five years of prohibitively-expensive
development time to pay for... at its REAR... cannot afford to have the kind of negative
word-of-mouth this sort of decision cultivates...
at it's FRONT.
I'm RazörFist.
Godspeed!