| Game Review - Thief: Deadly Shadows |
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Contact Mr. Shade and make fun of him
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| Publisher: |
Eidos Interactive |
| Developer: |
Eidos Interactive |
| Rated: |
M for Mature |
| Length: |
20 hours |
| Genre: |
Stealth with some RPG elements |
| Website: |
Thief: Deadly Shadows |
| Platform: |
XBox, also availabe on PC |
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OVERVIEW
|
 Garrett is
back for the third installment of the Thief series and he's still a klepto. The
Keepers inform Garrett that dire prophecies point to the "Brethren and
Betrayer" making an appearance and the entire city going to heck. Garrett is
once again forced to save everyone. Stealing, shadows, and the strangest
collection of accents in a video game ensue.
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MR. SHADE'S TAKE
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I was
concerned that Thief for the XBox would turn out like Deus
Ex for the XBox - a mere shell of its PC ancestors. I was very pleasantly
surprised that not only does the game live up to the series; it actually surpasses
its predecessors. So far this has been my favorite game this year and has earned
an entry into my top 5 XBox games list.
For Thief newbies, gameplay consists of sneaking through areas to reach your
goals. Goals always include stealing a certain % of the loot on a level and
usually include stealing a particular item. Combat is dangerous and should be
kept to a minimum because the guards are tougher than you are. They also carry
big swords and you have a small dagger. Don't bring a knife to a sword fight!
To get around this you have your trusty blackjack and your stealth-o-meter to
knock out your opponents. The stealth-o-meter (that's not the real name) goes
from black (good) to white (bad) depending on the level of light in your area.
If it's completely dark you won't be seen unless the guard actually runs into
you.
You also have a myriad of other ways to take out guards or avoid them. You can
kill them with arrows, knock them out with gas bombs or gas arrows, stun them
with flash bombs, take out torches with water arrows so they can't see you, or
cover loud surfaces with moss arrows so they can't hear you. You also have to
worry about noise - running across an iron grate will alert guards just as
quickly as tapping them on the shoulder.
 There
are some inconsistencies with combat that are holdovers from the other two
Thief games. If the guards notice something out of the ordinary they will begin
looking for you. At this point you can no longer knock them out. The blackjack
becomes useless unless you want to slowly bludgeon someone to death. What is
even sillier is that shooting an arrow into a non-alert guard's foot will
instantly kill them but shooting an arrow into an alert guard's face will only
wound him. I was surprised that this wasn't changed in the third game. Instead
of fixing this issue, they decided to break the combat. In the first two games
you had a short sword that you could block with and then time your hits. Now
combat consists of you mashing the attack button until your health gets low and
then taking a health potion and attacking again. This continues until the guard
dies, runs off, or you run out of health potions.
One of the new things added to the game is the ability (and necessity) of going
through The City. In the first two games you just had a series of missions
separated by cutscenes. At the end of each mission it showed your stats and at
the beginning of each mission it allowed you to pick out your equipment for the
next mission. In this game you actually have to go sell your loot and buy new
equipment from shops in the city while avoiding guards. You can also find some
side quests while wandering around, and you can break into people's businesses
and homes. In typical Thief fashion, there are plenty of amusing conversations
to listen to between guards or civilians. Unfortunately, the load times between
areas are long and add tedium to this part of the game.
The story of this game picks up a few years after the second game. Garrett is
still a thief in The City. The Pagans, Hammerites, and Keepers are all back
for this game as well as the city guards. The Pagans were the focus of the
first game and are "woodsy" people. Basically they're a bunch of tree-huggers
who run around in loin-cloths and use some very weird accents ("Youse be's
deaded if I finds you").
The Hammerites were the focus of the second game and
seem to be based off of medieval Catholics. They are very religious and call
their god "The Builder." They often quote from the Builder's book and they
carry giant hammers. They don't like Garrett much.
Of course, this brings us to
the Keepers, which are - SURPRISE - the focus of this game. They are keepers of
arcane lore and the Glyphs (magical symbols). They watch over The City and try
to make sure that nothing bad happens. The time of the Brethen and
Betrayer prophecy is nigh at hand and something bad will happen unless they can
prevent it. This is where Garrett comes in. The Keepers use Garrett to gather
information and "acquire" items. The story takes a while to get going, but it is
excellent. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first two. During the course
of the game you'll explore castles, sewers, an asylum, and a church, as well as
several other interesting areas.
 The
best thing about Thief is the atmosphere. Everything happens at night, so all
of the levels are dark. You can feel the tension as you're trying to pick a
lock to get into a room and a guard is coming down the hallway. You actually
get worried when you make a sound in the game and a guard comes to investigate.
Even scarier, you'll have more than just guards to elude. Ratmen, lizard
people, statues, and the undead all make appearances in the game. The asylum
level is easily the creepiest part of the game. This is all made possible by a
great graphics engine (gone are the days that the Thief games are the ugliest
on the block) and great sound. You'll definitely use the 5.1 surround sound to
keep track of where your enemies are.
So how difficult is this game? Will players new to the series be lost? For the
first question: this game is much easier than the first two Thief games. The
previous games had restrictions like not being able to kill anyone or only
being able to blackjack two people on a level. The only restriction I saw in
this game was not attacking the Keepers. You might see more restrictions on the
harder levels (I played on normal). The average gamer shouldn't have any
problems with this game. As far as new players being lost - I would suggest
that they find a description of the first two games on the Internet. This isn't
totally necessary but it does fill in the back story. As far as gameplay goes,
there is a tutorial level so new players should pick up the game quickly.
 All right,
onto the issues. The biggest problems were the bugs in the game. Several times
during the course of the game I would lose sound and would have to save and
reload. Another bug I encountered was getting trapped in a chest. You read that
right - I got my leg trapped in a chest. I was trying to get an item out and
for some reason I couldn't pick it up. Being really determined I jumped into
the chest, got stuck, and all I could do was turn around. Fortunately I had
saved recently and didn't lose much time. The most serious bug I encountered
was the game locking up during a load screen. After finishing a quest I needed
to leave one of the areas in The City and the game would lock up every
time I left. Eventually I was able to get around this by intentionally getting
arrested which takes you to the city prison where you promptly escape. PC
gamers are used to these types of bugs, but this pretty uncommon on the XBox.
The next issue is the load time. This game uses the same engine as
Deus Ex: Invisible War, so anyone who has played that game will be very
familiar with the load times. Going to a new area takes anywhere from 30
seconds to a full minute. Fortunately, Thief does a much better job of level
design and you usually don't have to go through three different areas and back
to accomplish a goal. The save times (you can save anywhere, anytime) are
usually around 15 seconds. Note to developers: A quicksave option would have
been nice.
The last issue is the map. It personally didn't bother me, but some people
(cough, Johnny Betts, cough) had a hard time with it. Basically it's a hand
drawn map that shows a few points of interest but doesn't go into detail. More
often than not you have to find a place on the map and then use your compass to
find a path to where you're going. One valid point that Johnny did have is that
the map does not mark new places you find - for instance if you forget which
map the Keeper Library is on you'll either have to look it up on the Internet
or spend 30 minutes wandering.
As much as I enjoyed this game it's not for everyone. The game is slow paced
and often requires watching and waiting instead of running and gunning.
Children will most likely get bored with it and the average gamer
probably won't "get" this game either. If you like games with good atmosphere
or stealth games or the medieval fantasy environment then this will have
something for you. For everyone else, well, Halo 2 comes out November 9th.
|
| Category |
Description |
Score |
| Presentation |
Nice cutscenes and good intros to missions. |
9.5 |
| Graphics |
Very well done. Above average for the XBox and much better than the original
Thief games. |
9.0 |
| Sound |
Most of the sound is good, but some of the voicework is very weird. The accents
vary from Mae West to Yosemite Sam. Surround sound is put to good use. |
9.0 |
| AI |
Excellent. Guards react to missing items or other guards missing their patrol. |
9.5 |
| Gameplay |
Controls are tight and the stealth is still the best in the industry. And they
added a third person option. |
10.0 |
| Replayability |
There are a few side quests you're likely to miss the first time through and
lots of conversations to hear and books to read. The game plays out the same
way though.
|
8.0 |
| Overall |
|
9.5 |
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