Nightdive's Thief remaster is adding a weapon wheel and other UI changes, 'but we're not forcing you to use it'

Nightdive's Thief Remaster Introduces New UI Features Without Forcing Them

Partway through Nightdive's video about remastering Thief: The Dark Project, producer Daniel Grayshon casually mentions that in the original you pressed 4 to bring up the water arrows. This triggered a memory of the keybinds for Thief's arsenal of items — the trusty blackjack was 2, rope arrows were 8, the get-out-of-jail-free flash bomb on F6, and so on. Grayshon's remark highlights how deeply the original game's controls are etched into the memories of long-time fans.

"As with a lot of Nightdive games in the past, we're not looking to change the core experience of the game," Grayshon says. This sentiment is echoed by studio head Stephen Kick, who reiterates that they take all the comments on the trailer insisting they haven't changed anything as a compliment. If it looks the way you remember it looking, Nightdive considers that a success.

A Fresh Take on Controls for a New Generation

Thief's original controls, while iconic, were definitely in need of improvement. "The first thing that I wanted to do for the game was introduce a weapon wheel," Grayshon says. In the original, players cycled through their collection of tools by pressing tab on the occasions when they couldn't remember the shortcut for gas mines or whatever. A weapon wheel would definitely help there.

"I think that will make a great deal of difference when it comes to playing the game," Grayshon says. "And getting through those tricky situations where you're being approached by someone and you've gotta lockpick through a door really quickly, but you don't have to cycle through your pockets to find your square-toothed lockpick or your triangle-toothed lockpick. You quickly open the weapon wheel, you throw the mouse to the left to get the square lockpick or you throw it to the right to get the triangle lockpick."

Kick jokingly plays the contrarian, miming a desperate search for the right equipment while asking, "Did you think for a moment that that was part of the original design, that as a thief you'd have this bag of just stuff?"

"If you want to do that you can totally do that if you want," Grayshon replies. "Not taking anything away. If you fancy the convenience it's there for you, but we're not forcing you to use it."

Preserving Legacy While Offering New Options

Which is exactly what you want to hear. The option to use the weapon wheel is a welcome addition for players who may have forgotten the keybinds or prefer a more intuitive interface. However, for those who have formed a deep, almost muscle-memory connection with the original controls, the ability to stick with them is crucial.

"I'm glad the option will be there when I can't remember which key brings up the moss arrows and don't want to accidentally equip a brightly burning fire arrow and give away my position," Grayshon says. "But I'll still be pressing 4 to whip out the water arrows because apparently that's permanent muscle memory now and I'll still be able to recall it long after I've forgotten the names of all my loved ones."