Developer Profile: Looking Glass Studios

[Nick]

The releases of <i>Deus Ex: Invisible War</i> last month and <i>Thief III</i> a little later this year are causes for celebration. They represent more than two more good games to play - they are reminders that the incredible design philosophies of Looking Glass Studios live on.

For those of you not familiar with the now defunct developer, this profile will serve as a primer that we hope will inspire you to find and play some of the classic adventure titles covered. For fans, we hope to offer a look back at what you know and some facts you never heard before.

Forum regulars may be interested to know that the history section of this feature was written by NeoZeedeater. Much thanks and admiration to him from all of us on staff.

Enter the world of Looking Glass here.

[g0zen]

That was a wonderful piece.

I personally think all of LGS's games (especially the Thief and System Shock series) were incredibly stylish. Every one of them was made by meticulous effort and nothing short of an artist's touch. If every developer out there were as dedicated to making quality titles as LGS was, then all gamers would truly be blessed.

That's why I'm somewhat weary about Thief III. Don't get me wrong, I'm very anxious to get a hold of it, but in the back of my mind I have to ask myself if it will meet the lofty standards set by Thief 2. For them to do the series justice they would have to include atleast everything the second one had as far as voice actors, story, and overall gameplay feel. Plus, they're challenged with bringing this game into the new age of graphics and A.I..

That's a tall order to fill, and making anything less than a worthy sequel would be total heresy. I'd rather have nothing at all than (god-forbid) a bad Thief game.

[Nick]

Ion Storm has shown some incredible talent, so at least the game is in more-than-competent hands. The only bad part is that it might suffer a similar fate to Deus Ex: Invisible War. That is, the focus might be on making a great PC and console game instead of just throwing it all into PC development and worrying about the port later. Invisible War was noticeably dumbed down, and I'd rather have one phenomenal version than two versions that don't quite live up to their potential.

[Master]

NZ Rules. Great stuff.

[NeoZeedeater]

Thanks for putting this up. I had actually forgotten I wrote it. When I wrote it, that Neverwinter Nights expansion wasn't out so that part near the end isn't up to date any more.

Also looking at it again, one part I wrote seems a little misleading. When I said there weren't many first-person RPGs prior to Dungeon Master, I should have specified that I meant games that were completely done in first-person 3D. There were plenty of RPGs that had first-person views for battles even if most of the game was spent in 2d.

[Diff-chan]

What I wanna know is, why hasn't the entire staff of TNL knelt down at Neo's feet by now? Im not saying this to troll or whatever, the dude is seriously ace and you guys should wring him for all he is worth. His work will make TNL a hell of a lot better, and that's no fooling.

Aside from me, I would say he's the best poster on TNL.

[bbobb]

System shock 2 and Thief 2 are some of the finest FPS's ever made. What a great company Looking Glass was.

And good job NeoZ.

[bahn]

What I wanna know is, why hasn't the entire staff of TNL knelt down at Neo's feet by now? Im not saying this to troll or whatever, the dude is seriously ace and you guys should wring him for all he is worth. His work will make TNL a hell of a lot better, and that's no fooling.

Aside from me, I would say he's the best poster on TNL, no doubt about it.

I don't know about kneeling and stuff...

but from what I understand - he's had his reasons for not contributing content despite the fact I agree with you regarding his writing abilities. It's great to see he's come around and grace the site with his work. Hopefully it won't be the last.

[Rich]

I agree--NZD is perhaps one of the best and most entertaining posts I've yet to encounter.

[Nick]

NeoZeedeater: I made the changes as requested.