Flitting in the Shadows (Thief - Deadly Shadows (PC))

Member Name: thanatoszane

Product:	Thief - Deadly Shadows (PC)
Date:	29/01/05 (714 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: creepy, eerie, engrossing

Disadvantages: loading screens, dull controls

I have to confess, I've never been a huge fan of the Thief series up until now - it always sounded good in principle but I found the camera angles annoying and the interface a bit clumsy. Call me a heathen if you like, but I couldn't get into them.

I'm a convert now though.

I have several copies of Thief: Deadly Shadows it came with my soundcard, the three graphics cards I bought recently, and, I even picked up a copy of my own before it started coming free with every device in the world.

Thief: Deadly Shadows is a great game. It stays true to the original concept of thief, and has an interesting plot. It's also given the game a graphics upgrade, and, while the camera is still mostly first person it is a lot nicer to use now.

=====THE PLOT======

Thief: Deadly Shadows, which I'll call Thief from now on, is a mission based game, but it gives you a lot of freedom - between missions you can wander around the city mugging people, dodging guards, or just exploring. In missions you get a lot of freedom too - if something goes wrong you can flee the scene and come back later, or just hide and wait for things to calm down.

There are many ways to complete the missions, and along the way you can pick up some nice loot - although how Garrett carries all that stuff is beyond me.

Garrett is an interesting and believable character, and the missions actually held my interest - I found myself craning to hear every line of dialogue (for some reason the speech was very quiet on my machine) - normally I skip cutscenes out of boredom so they must have done something right.

They have added a shop, and now you need to buy your own gear for missions, which is a bit annoying but does add to the realism.

======THE GRAPHICS=====

The graphics are nicely done, and add to the atmosphere of the game.

This is a very dark game, taking place entirely at night, and with lots of shadows for Garrett to hide in. That said, it's not i-can't-see-a-thing-this-game-is-rubbish-dark like Doom 3 though - more a shadowy, dull, dark - you can still see things, and it doesn't interfere with the game play, but it does add to the tension and the feeling you're sneaking around.

There are some faults - the items, scenery, and some of the people look really good, but others look plastic and fake. Some of the animation is smooth, but other parts of it just looks wrong - the cutscenes, for example, are very well done and entertaining to view, but some of the fighting looks like it was done by someone who doesn't know how the human body moves. Blackjack someone and you will see what I mean.

This isn't too distracting though - most of the game is spent in first person view (you have a third person option but I never really used it) and from there, unless you're beating someone up, things look great.

=====THE SOUND=====

A lot of the old voice actors have returned - apparently. Like I said, I'm not a fan of the older thief games so I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't been told it.

All I know is that the voices for the main characters are very good. The in game sound effects are great too. I spent a lot of the game holding my breath while I was sneaking and when I heard little sounds in the distance, and everything from distractions to lockpicking sounded authentic enough for my ears.

It takes a lot to get me immersed in a game, and this managed to do it.

=====THE CONTROLS=====

The controls are very simple and easy to pick up. I used to find the camera angles made navigation nearly impossible but that has changed. The light meter at the bottom of the screen indicates if you are well hidden or not.

The inventory system works well, and things like looting although a little strange (what does he do with those huge paintings when he picks them up?) are easy enough.

Lock picking seems to take forever though, and could do with being a little more erm.. interactive.

The keyboard controlls sometimes lock a bit when side-stepping round corners, but I believe that is a deficiency of my keyboard, and not the game itself.

======SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS======

Thief requires a fairly decent machine - not ridiculously high requirements, but a Pentium 4, 256 MB RAM and a GeForce 3 or above. You also have to be running Windows 2000 or XP - any older versions, including ME, are not supported.

The lack of support for older versions of windows might lock out a lot of potential buyers, but the system requirements aren't too bad if you are someone who plays a lot of games. If your PC is more than a couple of years old though you might be out of luck.

I played this on a very, very modern PC and it ran like a dream. It really is worth a system upgrade if you need one because it is such an engrossing game.

=====The Tutorial=====

The tutorial is basically a very simple mission that introduces you to the light gem, sneaking, the blackjack, lock picking, stealing, and your special tools such as noisemaker arrows..

It's fairly nicely done - not patronising, not irritating, and not too fast or too slow.

It's rare that I actually bother with tutorials, but I think you do need to give this one a look unless you're already familiar with the series and have played very recently. It's easy enough to figure out most of the keys if you forget, but considering this mission is well written it never hurts to have a refresher.

=====OVERALL=====

I love this game. It has its faults, but they're easily overlooked. There is one big problem though, and that's walking through the city. It is broken up into several zones, each only a few streets big - that means that you don't have to go very far before you hit a loading screen. Some of the missions are also split across several zones, and, sometimes you need to travel almost from one end of the city to another.

Spending most of your time loading is something I'm used to in online games, but for an offline PC game I expect better. Perhaps it's because it is an XBox game too, but why should PC gamers get an inferior game just because of the console people?

Other than that, As I've already hinted at, I get really into this game. I play a thief class in another, much older game, and love the buzz from breaking in to places. I get almost that same feeling in this, and I never thought I could get that anywhere else.

Sneaking around is normally something I resent in the first person shooter style games, but Garret is a thief - he can sneak up and attack people, but wouldn't be able to beat them in a straight out fight. He can also run away, and eventually the enemy will run out of stamina and stop chasing him.

It all adds to the buzz.

It's so well done and I can't believe how much Thief has changed for the better.

If anyone reading this is a fan of the original game, I apologise for criticising it - I know a lot of people loved it - I loved the idea, and I was interested in The Dark Project, but something about the interface annoyed me. The changes in Deadly Shadows are subtle but make the world of difference for me.

I know fans of the original, and they assure me that while there are a couple of changes that they don't like, it's mostly true to the older games and they still like it.

So, take it from me as a new convert, and from my many gaming friends - this is a great game. It gave me plenty to get my teeth into, tested but never quite broke my patience, and was a long-lasting gaming experience.

If you've ever fancied snooping around mansions and swiping a few things, give it a shot!

Minus one star for the loading screens, but definately recommended.

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