We Owe Skyrim's Beloved Stealth Archer To One Of The Designers Of...

Garrett from Thief crouch walked so Dark Brotherhood assassins could run.

I love stealth games, and I love playing a sneaky guy in bigger RPGs: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Cyberpunk. You best believe that, when given the option, I'm crouch walking for 80 hours straight. I'm not alone in that preference either: The Stealth Archer in Skyrim, which plays exactly how it sounds, is a memetic, fan-favorite playstyle in Bethesda's smash hit RPG, with guides, analysis, and love letters galore on YouTube and Reddit.

Being obsessed with stealth in games, particularly Bethesda RPGs, I've always wondered about the Pagliarulo Connection: Bethesda's design director, who has contributed to all of the studio's games since Oblivion, got his development start at Looking Glass Studios, the legendary '90s developer of Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

Pagliarulo in particular designed two of Thief 2: The Metal Age's most fun levels: Life of the Party, a swanky gala infiltration that begins on the open rooftops of the surrounding district, and Precious Cargo, a pirate's cove hiding a steampunk submarine you have to stow away on. I got the chance to talk to Pagliarulo for an upcoming PC Gamer print retrospective about Bethesda's work on the Fallout series, and I just had to ask about how Looking Glass influenced his work.

"The two years I spent at Looking Glass were amazing, it was incredible," said Pagliarulo. "It was almost like grad school for me. I call it my Good Will Hunting phase. I didn't look like Matt Damon, but I was the kid from South Boston with all the MIT nerds thrown into the deep end, and it was just such an education.

"They were the best people, and they were so patient, and just so in love with what they were doing, so incredibly creative."

The Boston-based Looking Glass (initially Blue Sky Productions) was founded by Origin Systems (Ultima, Wing Commander) developer Paul Neurath, and drew on MIT graduates for its first staff members⁠—something that helps explain its games' cerebral sensibilities and exacting simulations. In another timeline, id cofounder John Romero might have helped start Looking Glass, while Pagliarulo, before becoming a developer, was editor of gaming website Adrenaline Vault.

"Thief was the first game that I played with headphones on in a dark room. I love that game so much, and so it was impossible for me not to bring that stuff over," Pagliarulo said. "In fact, one of the first things I did when I was hired here, Todd

Source: PC Gamer