Fans of the Thief series of video games have been waiting for another Thief game for longer than we’ve all been waiting for Half Life 3, if you don’t count the episodes. In the past eight years, gamers have seen stealth gameplay incorporated into lots of games, but it hasn’t been the focus of many. The Assassin’s Creed franchise perhaps comes closest to the feel of Thief, though it is a long way from anything other than a spiritual successor.

You can see why, then, it is so exciting that footage of a new Thief game has surfaced online. It has been known for several years now that the developers at Eidos Montreal have been working on Thief 4. Eidos Montreal was the development team that created last year’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The folks over at Enizr were evidently following the studio closely enough to notice when a lighting and compositing artist at Eidos Montreal named Eric Wong put out a demo reel of his work – including a 30-second clip of Thief 4 CGI work.

As Enizr mentions, the posting is gone now, but the leak has already spread to YouTube. Though there is no gameplay footage in the leak, take a look at the clip below to see some poor-quality next-generation Thief action:

(via Enizr)