Thief's XP system culled due to negative fan feedback

Thief developer Eidos Montreal has removed the game's XP system after a mixed reception from fans.

The game mechanic offered rewards for performing kills in specific ways, with bonuses offered for headshots and the like.

Fans of the series said that this strayed too far from Thief's main gameplay - stealthily thieving things - and Eidos Montreal has now agreed.

"It was reducing our motivation to steal," game director Nic Cantin explained in a blog post. "The main goal of a thief should be to gain loot. Garrett is already the Master Thief, so we saw no need to have XP as a core mechanic."

Added lead level designer Daniel Schmidt: "We shouldn't judge how the player wants to achieve their goal, only reward them for achieving it.

"Fans might be surprised how often the devs go to the forum to see how things are perceived in the 'real world'. This feedback is extremely valuable to us, so as you can imagine, the consistent reaction to the XP system was something that indicated we needed to revisit some design decisions."

Gameplay elements previously unlocked through XP will now be bought using gold - which gives players another incentive to pilfer the game's stores of loot.

A new gameplay trailer released this month showed off a new focus on the series original traits of infiltration, theft and escape.

Roughly four months remain before Thief's 28th February launch for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.