Fun, but not quite as fun (so far) as the first two. On my system, it's a little laggy, but that's probably because my video card is about middle/low end, as far as their specs go (NVidia 5500 FX) and I don't have the money to upgrade to the top of the line vid cards they want. Graphics are not as fabulous as I've heard, but again, I've got a middle of the road vid card, and I can live with it.

I dove right in without reading the manual, so of course, the re-mapped weapons keys came as an unpleasant surprise. I had gotten so used to hitting '4' to get my water arrows in the first two games, but that's '8' now. They also swapped the blackjack and sword (dagger) keys, so I kept pulling out the dagger instead of the blackjack. And honestly, I don't miss the sword, but then I never used it in the first two except to cut down wall-hangings. I never kill guards, and only the occasional spiders. But, these key mappings can be easily changed, so I'm not complaining too much.

Pros/Interesting positive changes:
The training mission rocks for getting you up to speed quickly. It explains all the buttons, and many of the changes between this and the first two games in terms of actions and dynamics.

The dynamic lighting is nice. You can now extinguish candles and other lights (but, strangely, not torches) by walking up to them and 'using' them.

I haven't tried out the third-person mode yet. "First-person" is not what people traditionally think of as first-person in games - it's just like the camera is mounted on Garrett's forehead. I like it, as it lends a little bit more realism to things - you can look down and see his feet, turn and see his arms. It takes a little getting used to, but I like it.

Garrett seems to comment a lot more in this game too. If you pick up an item and try to put it down in a spot where it won't fit, he'll say "uh-uh". He'll make little quips about locations like he did in the first two, but it seems like there's more of those.

Lock-picking is a lot more involved and a lot of fun so far.

There are pieces of loot that are special - they're worth more than regular loot, and are often figured into the objectives. Loot glint is actually helpful, although I can understand the complaints that it makes things too easy. But at the same time, they made loot and non-loot look a lot more alike in this game, and they still managed to hide some loot in out of the way places where you can't see the glint from normal eye-level.

The City mode is a lot of fun. I already ransacked Garrett's landlord's apartment. Just a word of advice - don't blackjack someone in the middle of the street in front of three witnesses. (*whistle* I hit the wrong button, so sue me. I was trying to pick his pocket)

With a few notable exceptions (see below), the physics are a lot more realistic. Almost everything Garrett touches can be moved - he can knock over chairs, knock swords out of sword racks, push large tables and crates, knock cups and plates onto the floor. On normal difficulty, the guards will come if they hear the noise, but they don't seem to notice things being out of place. I imagine on the higher difficulties, they'll start investigating.

Everyone complains about there not being any swimming and the substitutions of climbing gloves for rope arrows. I haven't missed either so far. The loading zones are mildly annoying, but not too bad - they kind of sub-divide missions into smaller chunks. I really didn't mind them too much.

Nitpicks/Little funny issues:
The bright blue "use" highlight is annoying. I can deal, but it's still annoying.

I miss the briefing movies. There are cutscenes, but when you enter a mission, Garrett just reads the text while it's on the screen. No pretty movies.

The physics of the unconscious/dead bodies is really funny. I blackjacked a guy and he bent over backwards in a position that probably should have left him paralyzed. It's now possible for Garrett to trip over the bodies and make noise. No longer possible to "stack" bodies in quite the same amusing way as the original, although that's probably for the best. (No more setting it up like the servants were messing around....)

I managed to make a guard kill himself - I blackjacked him while he was carrying a torch, and he fell on the torch and died.

There's not really an option to quietly set things down either, which is somewhat annoying. (Maybe there is, but I just couldn't find it?) I picked up a cup up from a table without realizing it wasn't loot (still getting used to the loot glint vs. the bright blue "use" highlight.), and when I hit the button for drop - he literally dropped it, it rolled off the table, clanged onto the floor, and attracted a nearby guard.

Overall: Fun, so far. I still prefer the first two, but then I'm only one mission into this one. It felt like Thief, though, which was the most important thing to me. More later!


On Par with the series   June 22, 2004
 23 out of 24 found this review helpful

Thief 3 continues Garrett's never-ending need to pay the bills. Taking place a couple years after Thief 2 concluded, we find Garrett unwittingly involving himself in a plot that might mean the end of time. The Age of Darkness, when light shall become shadow and life shall become pain.
IonStorm took over the Thief 3 project from Looking Glass for this installment, and with them, comes a new yet familiar view to the series.

Gameplay: TTDS starts you off on a training mission that walks you through the aspects of the game. Like the previous titles, Garretts friend is darkness, and the use of a highly modified UT2004 engine allows for some impressive shadows. Now, unlike the previous titles, shadows not only look more realistic, but they move as well. Garrett has lost some familiar equipment from the previous series. Constantine's sword is gone, replaced with a dagger. Might be a bit of a turn down from the purist perspective but apart from the inability to block, melee is melee. Rope arrows are also missing due to an inability to code them to work with the engine, which is a shame, but they have been replaced with climbing gloves that allow you to scale certain walls. All in all fairly clean importation of thief 1+2 standards.
What's poorly done, however, is the new enemy AI. It seems the coders spent more time on the graphics, which though nice, are not what makes a Thief title worthwile. The enemy is more responsive to its environment, knowning that there are crates, stairs, etc in the room, but they do nothing about it. You might hear, "I better check behind those crates" if you alert one, but they will never check them. The AI gives up far too soon, even on expert difficulty, and makes for a VERY easy game. Also, the AI seems to be far less responsive to sounds cues from the previous games. I've been able to run up to a guard on a tile floor and blackjack him before he ever got into high alert (weapon raised) posture. Enemies might also respond to other missing AI but again, do nothing about it. Quite sad, as I was looking forward to the enhanced AI which was touted pre-release able to relight torches and make a run for the money. Add all this to the fact that any sort of alarm system, the greatest challenges in the first two games, and TTDS ends up being quite a cakewalk.

Graphics
Not bad not bad. The engine is gorgeous, I'll give it that. Not all the textures are hi-res, but it is made up for with the beatiful lighting effects. Torch flickers and moving shadows just made me stare at the screen when I first loaded it up. These effects do come at a great cost. Very few graphics cards are supported and we're talking top end-boards here. ATI owners need to be aware that they need to run 4.4 Catalyst drivers or else they will have some horrible light glitches. Nvidia owners who own the FX 5200 chipset line - all 5200s and 5600s that those cards have poor pixel shading renderers and you will get horrible framerates. (I own one myself but was able to get by on the lowest settings). Again, very beatiful, but beauty was never Thief's selling points.

Sound
The sound is superb. Very thief-esc with voice actors that you have grown to love over the years. The ambient sounds and music set the mood as always but as I stated in the gameplay section, there is something lacking in the AI's sound detection. I think it's been dumbed down a tad and they have gotten rid of the large disparities between the louds and softs found in the previous titles. Some may actually enjoy this more, but I used to love seeing a tile floor and actually fearing it in the first two.

Overall
Well, it's not better than the first two, but it's definately not worse. The freestyle mode between missions is fun, but not needed as items are obscenely easy to come by as I beat the game on expert setting with full inventory and nearly 50,000 gold to my name. This game could have used some more optimization on the graphics end, and larger porting options besides the WinXP only setting as many gamers still use 98 on their rigs, but still fun.
The "immersiveness" (I'm tired of that word) of Thief 3 was almost non-existant until a certain point of the game, and had I written this review before then, it would have done much worse. However, I must say - there is a level in this game that scared me, scared me good. :) It's worth the buy, especially if you're a fan, and it will not let you down on the story. Though produced by a different company, they are true to the story started in the Dark Project and the conclusion will definately brink a smirk to a taffer like you.


OMG   May 17, 2004
 22 out of 26 found this review helpful

This game is amazing - just got done playing it at E3. I was worried about the PC version, but now I see there was nothing to worry about. The hires textures were AMAZING and it is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen. Ion Storm learned their lesson with Invisible War, and only a blithering idiot would think this is has been dumbed down for Xbox fans. The game is great too- almost forgot about that! The AIs seem super smart - scary-super smart. I've never felt so much tension just hiding against a wall while an NPC goes by - wonderful game!


What a shame   May 19, 2004
 19 out of 68 found this review helpful

Thief Deadly Shadows has been in production for four years. As a fan of the original Thief games, I have been looking forward to this for a very long time. The Internet community were amazed at the stylish graphics and the apparent "old style" voices and characteristics.

The final product couldn't have been further from the truth.

I was incredibly disappointed to find that all of the appealing features of the original games have been dumbed down for the likes of the Xbox kiddies. Yes that's right folks, instead of rope arrows you now have "climbing gloves". Which means you can climb pretty much any surface to escape guards, that is unless they use arrows. This is annoying because as soon as you see a threat, you can simply climb a wall and watch the guard taunt you with three .wav files of "taffer" insults until he forgets you're there. A new addition to the game - guards can and will, rarely, climb or ascend ladders - though it doesn't matter anyway. One because there are pretty much no ladders - hell, there aren't even many stairs in the game, because that would mean the Xbox would have to load a level bigger than a front room. Two, they take so long getting off a ladder you can stab them with the dagger before they even find their feet.

Yes you heard me correctly, of the game I've played, there are virtually no floors in the mansions with the exception of the training mission. Remember the huge, four-floored mansions in Thief 2? You'll be lucky to get two floors in Deadly Shadows. Remember the huge amount of secrets and hidden bits in the levels? There are practically none, a lot like the recent debacle of the Deus Ex sequel. That's gaming evolution for you. If there are huge buildings to venture through, these are accompanied by lovely two to three minute loading times, which make you forget you're even in the same building. Even the outside sections have loading times, and it sent me insane.

One of the earlier "levels" consists almost entirely of zombies which are so low and lumbering you can just speed past them. Stealthy. At least this mission didn't have the atmosphere of a public toilet like the first two did.

I really haven't played this game for that long, but I felt I had to write a review of it, and am finding it increasingly hard to try to like this game. Looks like Ion Storm killed the Thief series at this moment, and it shall be interesting to see what other people think.

Good
Training mission excellent
FMV's are in the style of the old games
Graphics look quite nice

Bad
Looks like Splinter Cell (third-person view is default)
Every mission is a mansion/castle
Loot received message takes up half the damn screen
Needs Windows XP to run


Solid previews   May 19, 2004
 17 out of 24 found this review helpful

Normally I wouldn't write a review of a game until it is released but in this case I feel the need to balance out the ratings because of the negative reviews (...) that have been posted here. If the game is going to be so bad then why has every major game site raved on about how good their hands-on previews have been? Not to mention all the positive coverage from E3? Personally (...) Also, just because a game is released on a console as well as the PC does not mean it is going to be awful - anyone who played Star Wars: KOTR, or Splinter Cell Pandora etc etc can testify to this. As far as I'm concerned, if Deadly Shadows can recapture even part of the atmosphere of the early games then I will buy it.