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Thief: Deadly Shadows Review for PC
Posted on Monday, June 28, 2004 @ 01:11:52 pm E.S.TWe’ve all heard and are bored to death with the story: In 1998, Thief: the Dark Project was released by now-dead developer Looking Glass Studios for the PC, two months after Metal Gear Solid arrived on the Playstation. It defined the stealth genre and was acclaimed by many for its open-ended, creative gameplay. The sequel, Thief II, was also made by Looking Glass, just before the developer shut its doors in 2000. It was slightly better than its predecessor but sold a substantial amount less. We’ve heard it, we’ve memorized it, and now it’s behind us. On to what’s important – Thief: Deadly Shadows.
This is the third iteration of Thief series, though the franchise is now under the belt of a new developmental team. Austin-based Ion Storm, led by studio director Warren Spector (who worked diligently on the first two Theif games), is now in charge of all things Thief. But the question arises – has this developmental switch ruined the series? No, it hasn't. But it hasn’t improved it, either. More or less, Thief: Deadly Shadows has kept the Thief franchise intact, and nothing more. Veterans of the series will love its dogged trueness to the franchise, while newcomers might enjoy it just the same, as long as they can put up with all of the game’s minor, major—but always frustrating—shortcomings.
As Garret, infamous master thief of medieval England, players will be traversing dark, foreboding castles, dark Hammerite (a group of religious hardasses who would rather see sinners lynched than saved) sanctuaries and dark, zombie-holding ghost ships in an attempt to save the world and make some money while they’re at it. The story’s revealed partly through journal entries and cryptic notes left behind by careless nobility, but is, for the most part, unraveled via overheard conversations between NPCs and Garret’s self-directed monologues. It's a classic tale of greed-turned-evil-turned-destruction-of-earth-as-we-know-it, and it's well-told, well-written and believable (if you’re the type of person who believes in zombies, that is). It’ll take players through some amazingly perilous locales and even more perilous plot twists, in regular Thief fashion.
The game’s title says it all - gameplay in Thief: Deadly Shadows consists almost entirely of slinking through shadows and taking loot. Sneak past a guard here, take a candlestick there, read a note, sneak past another guard, etcetera. The game doesn’t begin to allot you enough arrows to kill every guard you come across, so you’ll be contained to darkness for the majority of play. It gets kind of boring, really. Deadly Shadows boasts being open-ended, nonlinear (meaning that you can complete your objectives in any order you like and nothing is trigger-based), and it is, to a point. The problem occurs when the only way to complete a scenario is to sneak through shadows past guards, again and again. Sneak, wash, rinse, repeat. Sneak, wash, rinse, repeat.
All this repetition could have been avoided—masked, at the very least—had Deadly Shadows presented an original and creative level design. Unfortunately, the game strikes out here, too. Don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing technically wrong with the level design. All the levels are constructed intricately, featuring winding hallways, escape-route tunnels, and multiple floors. After a while, though, it all begins to look the same. This dark hallway looks like that dark hallway. That cramped armory looks the this cramped armory. The North Courtyard looks like the South Courtyard and the East Wing is identical to the West Wing. Intricate though the levels may be, one has to wonder: where’s the creativity? Also, levels are always split up into two or three sections when they really don’t need to be. This offers players some solid loading times any time they move to another section of a level, making backtracking a real pain in the !@#.
A defunct map only compounds the mundane level design. Since everything looks the same and nothing’s discernable from anything else, one would need a highly detailed, hi-res map to navigate through Thief’s levels. No such thing is to be found. The only map provided is a highly archaic one, listing only the different sections of an area, not individual rooms or corridors. I realize that previous Thief games have featured this imprecise and ultimately frustrating map, but it’s time to let nostalgia go and upgrade to something that’s useful. What’s more, the game actually forces players to backtrack through levels to take loot or special items. Since the map is never any help, players will be forced to backtrack through levels until they find, purely by chance (unless they happen to have photographic memories) the items Garret must retrieve.
In between missions, Garret visits the game’s City. Here he can mug unwitting citizens, steal from shopkeepers, buy and sell goods to the multiple fences around the City, and basically do anything he wants. In theory, this is great. The trouble occurs when the fittingly-named City Watch steps into play. They patrol every passageway, stand on every corner, and seem fixed on sending Garret straight to prison, since they’re invariably able to discern him from every other citizen. Since you have to watch your back, sneak and hide through the City, it takes the fun out of being free to do what you want and makes moving through the City just another mission.
Compared to other cult stealth heroes like Solid Snake and Sam Fisher, Garret’s a real wimp. He can’t hang from balconies, ‘SWAT’ turn from doorways or use guards as human shields. He’s definitely not going to belly-crawl on the ground, hide in lockers, look at adult magazines, or crumple himself into a box for camouflage. You would think a ‘master thief’ could do more than crouch and hide dead bodies, really. Garret still can’t go a round of fisticuffs without getting the crap beat out of him, plus his dagger—which replaced the sword from the first two games, for some reason—is about as useful as a flashlight in a daylight burglary. To make up for some lost ground, he can pick locks, though the feature lacks any depth whatsoever. Players stick a key into a lock and move it to a point where it causes the controller to vibrate. This is repeated three to six times to pick a lock. Plus, the game’s explanation of lockpicking and ‘sweet spots’ makes the whole process sound more like sexual intercourse than thievery.
At least Garret’s easy to control. Using either a first- or third-person perspective (both are fully supported through the entire game), players will maneuver Garret through the nonlinear (but still mundane) levels, sneaking and occasionally striking out at guards with a blackjack or the slightly deadlier ‘broadhead arrow.’ Everything from opening doors to stealing loot is done via the ‘X’ button. Any object that Garret can affect is highlighted in blue when Garret nears it, which can make for some pretty aggravating scenarios. If a door, window, candlestick, plate, book, and loot are all in very close proximity, the game can’t decide whether players want to open a door, steal the loot, or pick up the candlestick. Aside from this and a fairly useless ‘jump/random action’ button, the game controls very well, allowing player to get to what Garret does best and far too often – sneak.
Up Garret’s sleeve is a multitude of weapons and escape devices, though you probably won’t use many of them. He’s got water arrows (same as in the previous Thief games) to put out torches and other flames, oil slicks for guards to slip on and fire arrows to ignite them, flash bombs in case you get caught, and noisemaker arrows to divert unneeded attention from you. Climbing gloves have replaced the series’ rope arrows, while moss arrows will keep your steps quiet on noisy surfaces. You probably won’t use most of these (save the water arrow, which proves to be very handy) too often, but they sure are fun to mess around with.
Enemy AI in Deadly Shadows is so-so. Guards will notice quite a few occurrences; missing treasure, open doors, extinguished candles, dead bodies, and strange sounds will all draw their attention. They only have two ways of reacting, though: cautious (if they hear you moving or see a fire go out suddenly) or alert (if they see a dead body or you attack them). Either way, they won’t hardly ever see you as long as your light gem—the Splinter-Cell-ish light meter that shows how visible you are—is totally gray, no matter how close they are. Also, enemies won’t stay on the alert if they can’t find you. Regardless as to what’s happened to them, they’ll always go back to normal after short time of searching for you. In short, enemies react to many different things, but they only have a few ways of reacting, plus they’ve got roughly the same vision as those weird candlesticks Garret’s always stealing.
Thief’s graphics can be compared to Garret’s bag of treasure after a long mission; some pieces of loot are solid gold, encrusted with rubies, diamonds, and other gems of the sort. Others, though, are ugly, misshaped – Garret would be lucky to get a penny (or, judging by the game’s British setting, a pence) for these trophies. Any of the game’s animations—save Garret’s, which flow beautifully—are choppy and awkward. Guards and NPCs walk with the unnatural gait of somebody on crutches, while the horrible use of rag doll physics and Garret’s floating-in-air jump further offend. Contrasting this is the game’s gorgeous lighting engine. Shadows (which you’ll be hiding in throughout the whole game) all move in real time, making for some pretty creative escape routes. What’s more, fire and water effects look perfect, as do the brilliantly done FMV sequences.
Even though only half the game looks good visually, Thief struggles to maintain just this. Load times are excruciatingly long and largely unnecessary, since levels are relatively small. Frame-skips appear as often as a common thief in Deadly Shadows, accompanied by some of the most infuriating game freezes ever. Not only do they force players to start from their last saves, but they also have the tendency to erase the majority of players’ accumulated game saves. You can’t imagine how angering it is to be seven hours into a game only to have to start back at the first mission. In addition to all this, a bug in the game’s loading screens makes it almost impossible for players to stay on either the ‘easy’ or ‘expert’ difficulty settings – after loading a saved game, Deadly Shadows proceeds to change the difficulty level back to ‘normal’ on its own accord.
Aurally, Deadly Shadows fares pretty well. Voice acting is superb (excluding Bertha the fence’s voice actor, who sounds like she’s from New York instead of England), making the juicy bits of NPC banter that much more believable. In fact, you’ll never see a dialogue box, exclamation point, radar, or any other cluttering icons in Deadly Shadows – most anything you need to know will be revealed through the game’s audio. In-game music is just as enticing as the voice acting. It’ll stay low-key while Garret is slinking through the shadows and climax when he emerges to attack guards, steal loot, or sneak into a dangerous room. Well done, Ion Storm.
As far as replay goes, there’s nothing to be had here. Going back and playing through the game on a difficulty anything other than normal has already proved frustrating—due to the aforementioned loading bug—so that’s pretty much out the window. In addition, there’s no multiplayer at all, online or off.
Thief veterans will appreciate the game’s trueness to the sneaky nature of the series, and any gamer can appreciate the beautifully told story and great audio. Newcomers to the Thief franchise might be turned off by the true-to-series but still infuriating map and bland level design, while Thief lovers might actually like the sneak, sneak, sneaking repetitious gameplay. Really, this thing all boils down to taste. If you’re a Thief fan, then you’ll probably like Thief: Deadly Shadows, and if not you probably won’t. Ion Storm did a good job of keeping Thief: Deadly Shadows close to its roots, but it didn’t do anything to advance the series. Sorry, guys – this one didn’t quite steal the show. Review By: Stealth52 - 1270 Reads
Thief: Deadly Shadows Review Scores for PC :
| Gameplay |
| 6.0 |
| Graphics |
| 6.8 |
| Sound |
| 10 |
| Replay |
| 1.5 |
| Overall |
| 5 |
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