Thief developer diary steals a quick glance at Garrett's backstory

You don't get to develop a gravelly voice or kleptomania through anything as quaint as a happy childhood , that's for sure.

, that's for sure. This new dev diary from Eidos Montreal reveals the backstory behind Thief's protagonist, Garrett—and as you may have guessed, his early years were disappointingly bereft of cuddles.

It sounds like Thief's got the potential for some psychological exploration; narrative director Steven Gallager reveals that Garrett grew up as a street-dwelling orphan, and now steals to express freedom from his past. Gallager also sheds some light on the shadowy City. (Not to spoil anyone, but the City's no less cheery than our main man, and perhaps a little more disease-ridden.)

Gallager insists that you won't need to have played the older Thief games to understand the story in the forthcoming addition to the series. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like our old friends the Hammerites and the Mechanists will be returning in any major capacity, though Gallager teases that while exploring, you might stumble upon some references to them that have you thinking, "Now wait a minute..."