Thief: Deadly Shadows

aka: Dark Project: Deadly Shadows, TDS, Thief 3: Deadly Shadows, Thief 3: Złowieszcze Cienie, Thief III
Moby ID: 13460
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Master Thief Garrett is contacted by the Keeper Artemus, who wants him to steal two valuable artifacts. Meanwhile, Garrett learns that the coming of a Dark Age had been prophesied long ago. Gaining access to the Keeper Prophecies, Garrett learns that an ancient book known as the Compendium of Reproach contains more information about the prophecy. As Garrett is trying to solve the mystery, it becomes more and more clear to him that there is a traitor in the order of the Keepers.

Thief: Deadly Shadows is the third installment in the Thief series. The game follows the same design philosophy and gameplay structure that distinguished its predecessors. As before, stealth is the key to successful completion of missions. Avoiding confrontation with the guards, Garrett has to make his way through the levels towards the objective. Shadows and sounds play a large role, as guards will react to suspicious noises, and studying their patrolling routines is essential.

A few gameplay elements have been slightly altered. Garrett can no longer swim, but is able to use climbing gloves that attach him to the walls. He can also flatten himself against walls while standing; if in shadow, he remains completely unnoticeable that way. The player can see Garrett's limbs even if he is viewed from first-person perspective, allowing more precise movements. Switching to third-person view is also possible.

The most significant gameplay change is the non-linear exploration of the City, which has been added to the largely linear missions. In order to access the next mission, Garrett has to explore the City. On his way, he can overhear conversations, steal valuables, avoid or knock out the guards, and even accept secondary missions, which will influence his reputation with some of its factions.

Spellings

  • Thief 3. Тень смерти - Russian spelling
  • 神偷:死亡阴影 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

265 People (208 developers, 57 thanks) · View all

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 44 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 105 ratings with 7 reviews)

Some great additions for the series, and some drawbacks too

The Good
First of all, this is the third in the planned Thief trilogy, and the fact that it's here is good. Stephen Russell is back to voice Garrett(as well as guards etc) along with other instantly recognizable(and excellent) voices, Thief style FMV's are back and they're as atmospheric and other-worldly as always, although mixed in with some that appear to be in an in-engine style, there's still the haunting ambient sounds to keep the tension up. All these things are familiar to seasoned Taffers and help bring the unique Thief atmosphere back, and should draw newcomers in to the game.

The graphics are excellent, although technically an improvement I wouldn't say that they're necessarily so, as the originals looked sharp and the graphics did the job very very well(The Dark Project even ran smoothly on my ATI Rage 2MB onboard graphics!). Deadly shadows still looks excellent(there's much less right angles too) and this is failing to mention the real-time shadows; which are a great addition to the game, and directly effect gameplay, you can now hide in the shadow of a door left ajar, or a pile of stacked boxes etc.

There is now a much more open-ended element to the game, and even some side quests that effect your standing with the factions. The City itself is very much part of the game, patrolled by the City Watch and wandered by valuable adorned passers by. There's fences and blackmarket shops throughout the City of several types - some will buy some types of goods from you and others will buy others. In turn some shops will have equipment or items in stock that other's won't. You'll have to travel across the City to get to the areas of the next mission, and this is where the open-endedness really comes into play, stop to pickpocket a passer-by, break into an armoury or a closed up tavern, or pretty much visit any area you want.

The missions themselves are varied, from a traditional manor/castle type estate to a zombie infested ghost ship, pagan settlements, a spooky maze like asylum etc, one of my favourites was the sunken city inhabited by the lizard-like Kurshock. The later levels are more difficult, and achieve a very good level of tension and scariness, in keeping with the original games. The plot quickly becomes a driving force behind the missions and, as always, the Keepers are very much involved.

The AI will notice extinguished torches and investigate missing valuables, comrades and open doors. A small point but it's now longer possible to stand in the shadows and lean into a well lit corridor unseen, more realistic and a good point in my book.

The Bad
My main gripe is the movement, which is somewhat clunky and slower to react, once you've pressed a key you've got to wait for the model to do it's thing. For example, say you're having a look around and decide to set off in another direction, the model will turn to first to face the same direction, and move slightly to one side while doing so - this resulted in falling off a close ledge a couple of times early on. Leaning also feels rather haphazard. I did get stuck in the scenery a couple of times too. That lot all said, I got used to it pretty quickly and was having too much fun to notice.

Load zones, most missions are broken up into two areas and the City is broken up into several areas, now this didn't bother me too much, but one drawback is that it's easier to run through one and leave a band of cursing guards on the other side, also they can sometimes still be waiting for you when you return, this detracted a bit from the experience.

The design of the game seemed a bit easy in places(not the AI). No swimmable water, entering deep water results in instant death. Rope arrows, while highly improbable, were fun to use but have been replaced with climbing gloves. The HUD is more obtrusive and has some unnecessary curly iron work. Now there's a lot of tweaks available on the web that address a lot of issues, but personally I thought I'd just play the game as is(and moan about it afterwards).

The missions are much smaller than the originals, but a lot of effort has gone in to making the levels not feel small. A small note but the guards will now get tired and pause while chasing you, this makes it easier to get away but may be down to the smaller levels.

The Bottom Line
There is a fairly long list of improvements and drawbacks, perhaps the drawbacks are a little longer on my list but overall the game is true in many ways to the Thief series and is a lot of fun to play through.

Windows · by Jack Lightbeard (2685) · 2005

Thief: DS

The Good
- It's closer to Dark Project in terms of atmosphere and overall direction, but also features TMA-style "breaking in" mundane missions. There are zero to none placeholder or just "badly designed to the point it's unplayable" missions. - You get to explore the City between missions to find more stuff or complete side quests for different factions, find new stores to sell different kinds of loot and buy different kinds of equipment. - AI is greatly improved. - Thick atmosphere, elevated by the excellent sound design and voice acting.

The Bad
- Story is kinda "meh". Some parts of it are heavily underdeveloped, some feels like recycled bits from the Dark Project. The game also doesn't seem to acknowledge TMA events which is weird. - After some time City exploration becomes pointless. - Weird choice of engine which resulted in a very clumsy player model, not very responsive controls and some annoying save/load bugs.

The Bottom Line
Requires some modding in order to be playable.

Windows · by SanfordMorgan · 2023

The best yet. It's still "Thief" though, so if you're not a fan, stay well away.

The Good
It is to Ion Storm's credit that they have created a game so faithful to the original series. So much so in fact that it feels like an homage to Looking Glass. I, for one, find this heartwarming, especially as many were concerned that the now-defunct company's extraordinary talents would be lost forever. Indeed, Thief:DS feels like it was made by both LG and Ion Storm. It probably was to some extent - I'm sure lots of LG members had a large hand in it, though I don't know for sure.

So this game has the usual LG hallmarks: Slow pace, slight 'fish-eye lens' viewpoint, advanced use of sound, atmosphere...but you can feel Warren Spector's influence. There are subtle similarities with Deus Ex. For example, Thief:DS has a backbone which was missing in the earlier games. Thief 1 and 2 were just one mission after the next, but in this, Garrett spends half of his time in one place: The City. It lends a structure to the game to always be coming back to the City to sell the stuff you've plundered or to meet friends or whatever. You can also roam the City at will and swipe things from people's houses, giving the game a more free-form nature very reminiscent of Deus Ex, if only because that was the first game to really implement such a system.

Thief:DS has real-time, dynamic lighting, which presents a whole new challenge. It's wonderful to knock a candle off the table without snuffing it out and seeing how the shadows alter enormously. You also occasionally see the elongated shadow of an enemy first and think that a 20' giant is around the next corner, when really it's just a man carrying a torch. Such technology is very processor-hungry however.

I actually bought this game on the hype surrounding one of it's missions. It's been frequently called "one of the greatest levels ever" in an FPS. The UK edition of the best-selling PC games mag in the country even ran a special 8-page feature dedicated to it (it might even be 10 pages, I'm not sure since I didn't buy it). It's the "Shalebridge Cradle" level, affectionately referred to as simply "The Cradle". And yes, it's brilliant. Perhaps a tad overrated, but still brilliant. All you should know is that it's an abandoned building that was once an asylum and before that an orphanage. To say anymore would spoil it. Cleverly, you only discover the bare elements of the story behind it, and it's left to your logic and imagination to piece things together. I have to admit being unafraid whilst playing it, (more on that later), except a few times. One time in particular was actually quite chilling. I define that as the kind of fear that creeps up on you slowly AFTER the event has happened, and makes you shudder in painful reflection. Games are rarely chilling.

I've said before that graphics don't mean a thing since they're improving all the time, but the difference between Thief:DS and Thief 2, is a lot greater than the difference between Thief 2 and Thief 1. The series has always had good textures, but here they're great, or at least most of them are. Some levels have a particular look. 'The Cradle' is perhaps the most beautiful level in the game yet it's almost monochrome, like you're watching a black-and-white documentary. I can't help but say it looks almost photographic at times, but I'll bet I'll regret that in a few years.

Finally, the sword has been replaced with a dagger. Because of the sword and the limitations of the Dark Engine, in the previous games you could face 3 enemies head on and beat them without barely receiving a scratch. This is no more, which is a good thing, but has brought problems of its own...

The Bad
...namely the easy misuse of the quick-save key. Without a quick-save, this game would be hell. But considering you are now very likely to die if an enemy sees you and there's nowhere for you to run, you are forced to hit that key more often than you should. Especially because Thief:DS has inherited other faults of the previous games.

My problem with the series is its never-ending need for stealth becomes too draining. When you first start the games, you have a great time hiding in the shadows for 10 minutes waiting for an enemy to walk away. 8 hours later and it's getting pretty old, but the threat has only become greater. You have to hide MORE. It's an enormous pain slowly creeping across the whole city to meet someone, only to meet them and be told you have to now go back to where you came from. You just want to be able to walk there but you can't because of the ever-present threat of the City Watch. So you have to slide from shadow to shadow slowly. It's almost like playing Grand Theft Auto without getting in any cars, or Grim Fandango without ever using the "run" key. This is why so many people can't stand Thief.

The engine powering Thief:DS is very reminiscent of the Dark Engine and has included it's inability to handle large entities. You rarely meet an enemy bigger than a human for example. The Cradle is let down by it's enemies. You marvel at the psychological game it plays, and the beautiful architecture. You can almost feel the life pulsating within the walls of the building, like it's alive and is trying to steal your mind, and then you meet the poorly animated low-polygon enemies and it reduces it. You just want a Half-Life moment. You want the walls to bleed or a ghost to flash past your eyes but it never happens. The engine isn't capable.

The sound is well used as I mentioned earlier, but there is a lot of 'fake' sound throughout the game which simply detracts from the atmosphere. I hate to bring System Shock 2 up AGAIN, but you only have to play it to see how it should be done: with immense subtlety. Silence is so powerful, it should get used more often.

Thief:DS starts badly. The pre-mission cutscenes have been removed, so there's no opening cinematic, just Garrett reading to you, and you aren't told what's going on. It's unimpressive. The story was confusing to me as well.

The thing with Thief is that it almost requires an aesthetic appreciation of it's use of sound, graphics, etc. to be enjoyed, because a large part of your game time is spent doing nothing. You have to enjoy simply being there. This is the pinnacle of the Looking Glass design philosophy - experience and immersion. If you're the type of person who plays games while talking to people in the room and listening to the radio, you won't like Thief. SS2 was different because it blended the Thief aesthetic with proper FPS action, and could be enjoyed even if you're playing it outdoors on a laptop in summer. Another reason why Thief is non-commercial. Thief:DS does not buck the trend.

Also those damn moss arrows have remained. They have a use which isn't mentioned in the manual, which makes them not entirely worthless, but still...why?

The Bottom Line
Thief:DS is just more Thief. If you've never played Thief then pick up the first game and play it, because this is the same thing at heart, and you'll be saving money. This one is certainly the best of the bunch though.

Pity 'The Cradle' is by far the best level. It's no wonder it was left till late in the game.

Windows · by Shazbut (163) · 2005

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Difficulty bug

Both the Xbox and PC versions shipped with a bug that affected the AI. The difficulty setting of the AI would default to Normal from all other levels (Easy, Hard, Expert) upon reloading a save game or re-entering a load zone. The game would still indicate that the setting was unchanged, so the only noticeable effect was that the awareness of the guards was easier and they dealt less damage. Ion Storm released a small patch (415 kb) for the PC version that fixes this problem.

Engine

Ion Storm developed Thief: Deadly Shadows with a heavily modified Unreal engine. Its the same engine that was used for Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Graphics

Originally the game did not work properly on ATI Radeon cards. Textures popped in and out, causing walls and floors to turn black and making it appear like there were shadows where there aren't supposed to be any shadows. This was fixed with the Catalyst 4.8 drivers.

Mods

Even though Ion Storm was shut down by its publisher-owner Eidos in early 2005, mod software tools for their final game Thief: Deadly Shadows have been released shortly after.

The mod tools could be found at a number of web file download sites like FileShack and 3DGamers. The 323 MB download will allow players to modify or build new maps for the game along with scripts, conversations and more. It also includes a number of tutorial maps.

[Source: Computer Games Magazine (Feb. 2005)]

References

The various painted portraits gracing walls throughout the game actually depict members of the development team. They were drawn by comic-book artist Frank Teran, who supplied much of the concept art for the game.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2004 – Best Sound of the Year (PC)

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, EndlessDespair, Jack Lightbeard and Jeanne

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by PhoenixFire.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, Scott Monster, Xoleras, UV, Havoc Crow, Klaster_1, Patrick Bregger, ZeTomes.

Game added May 26, 2004. Last modified March 17, 2024.