Thief: Deadly Shadows

Another part of the cult Thief series, classified as a stealth action game or FPS – first person sneaker.

Story

As in the previous parts, the player becomes a medieval thief, Garrett, a true master of his trade, but the story told by the game isn't directly connected with what we saw in the first two iterations of Thief. This is due to the fact that the authors, Ion Storm (developers of e.g. Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War) and the publisher, Eidos Interactive, wanted Thief: Deadly Shadows for PC and XBX to draw in new players with no prior experience with the franchise, and at the same time meet the expectations of long-standing fans. The story takes place in a single, big medieval city, which, as was a common occurrence in history, is divided between the poor (living in the slums), and the rich (surrounded by castles, towering cathedrals, museums, mansions, etc.). It is ruled by three main factions: the Order of the Hammer, the Pagans, and the Keepers, with the hero of the game being in a long time alliance with the latter. The plot revolves around Garrett's efforts to thwart the upcoming, long-foretold Dark Age. To prevent the disaster from happening the protagonist has to infiltrate the most heavily-guarded places in the city and steal the oldest and most precious treasures and artifacts they hide. Unfortunately, in the course of his „work”, things suddenly get complicated. As if accidentally waking up the „ancient evil” wasn't enough (happens to the best of us), in light of this unfortunate event the Keepers guild, whom Garret actively helped in their attempt to prevent the coming of Dark Age, started considering him a traitor. Now, completely alone and with no friends and allies, he must save his city from imminent danger and find a way out of this intrigue.

Gameplay

Once again, for the players controlling Garrett awaits an exciting adventure and what they like the most (the thing accountable for the success of the series), namely breaking into various castles, prisons, dungeons, museums and cathedrals, sneaking in darkness, stunning the guards and stealing a variety of treasures. The game is divided into a series of missions that can be completed in several ways. Our hero is an vastly experienced and well-trained thief; he can scale almost any wall, sneak silently and perfectly use a knife, a bow (with several types of arrows) and other thievish / silent killing gadgets.

Technology

A big novelty and change introduced in this installment is a mechanism called „body awareness”, through which the player can see the hands of his hero and thus have better control over what he is doing, whether it's opening locks or climbing (we see the subsequent protuberances – points of support – in e.g. a wall). Big advantages of Thief: Deadly Shadows for PC and XBX are also its graphics engine, supporting special lighting and shading systems (used also in Deus Ex: Invisible War), the physics provided by second generation of the Havok engine, and, performing a very important role, surround sound system, allowing the player to recognize direction from which the guard is approaching and the surface he walks on (i.e. carpet or stone). We should also not forget about the game's advanced artificial intelligence, controlling the NPCs: guards, other thieves, and assassins.

Last updated on 10 December 2007