User Reviews (1 - 11 of 80)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

What a shame

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 79
Date: May 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Reviewer: Hardee from England
Thief Deadly Shadows has been in production for four years. As a fan of the original Thief games, I have been looking forward to this for a very long time. The Internet community were amazed at the stylish graphics and the apparent "old style" voices and characteristics.

The final product couldn't have been further from the truth.

I downloaded let's say an "early" version of the game. I seriously doubt the next month until release is going to change anything gameplay wise. I was incredibly disappointed to find that all of the appealing features of the original games have been dumbed down for the likes of the Xbox kiddies. Yes that's right folks, instead of rope arrows you now have "climbing gloves". Which means you can climb pretty much any surface to escape guards, that is unless they use arrows. This is annoying because as soon as you see a threat, you can simply climb a wall and watch the guard taunt you with three .wav files of "taffer" insults until he forgets you're there. A new addition to the game - guards can and will, rarely, climb or ascend ladders - though it doesn't matter anyway. One because there are pretty much no ladders - hell, there aren't even many stairs in the game, because that would mean the Xbox would have to load a level bigger than a front room. Two, they take so long getting off a ladder you can stab them with the dagger before they even find their feet.

Yes you heard me correctly, of the game I've played, there are virtually no floors in the mansions with the exception of the training mission. Remember the huge, four-floored mansions in Thief 2? You'll be lucky to get two floors in Deadly Shadows. Remember the huge amount of secrets and hidden bits in the levels? There are practically none, a lot like the recent debacle of the Deus Ex sequel. That's gaming evolution for you. If there are huge buildings to venture through, these are accompanied by lovely two to three minute loading times, which make you forget you're even in the same building. Even the outside sections have loading times, and it sent me insane.

One of the earlier "levels" consists almost entirely of zombies which are so low and lumbering you can just speed past them. Stealthy. At least this mission didn't have the atmosphere of a public toilet like the first two did.

I really haven't played this game for that long, but I felt I had to write a review of it, and am finding it increasingly hard to try to like this game. Looks like Ion Storm killed the Thief series at this moment, and it shall be interesting to see what other people think.

Good
Training mission excellent
FMV's are in the style of the old games
Graphics look quite nice

Bad
Looks like Splinter Cell (third-person view is default)
Every mission is a mansion/castle
Loot received message takes up half the damn screen
Needs Windows XP to run

OMG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 28
Date: May 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing - just got done playing it at E3. I was worried about the PC version, but now I see there was nothing to worry about. The hires textures were AMAZING and it is one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen. Ion Storm learned their lesson with Invisible War, and only a blithering idiot would think this is has been dumbed down for Xbox fans. The game is great too- almost forgot about that! The AIs seem super smart - scary-super smart. I've never felt so much tension just hiding against a wall while an NPC goes by - wonderful game!

Solid previews

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 25
Date: May 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Normally I wouldn't write a review of a game until it is released but in this case I feel the need to balance out the ratings because of the negative reviews (...) that have been posted here. If the game is going to be so bad then why has every major game site raved on about how good their hands-on previews have been? Not to mention all the positive coverage from E3? Personally (...) Also, just because a game is released on a console as well as the PC does not mean it is going to be awful - anyone who played Star Wars: KOTR, or Splinter Cell Pandora etc etc can testify to this. As far as I'm concerned, if Deadly Shadows can recapture even part of the atmosphere of the early games then I will buy it.

Lacking

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 49
Date: May 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Sadly the game isn't a patch on the original Thief games! Graphics are awful. If you own Deus Ex 2 you'll know what I mean. Eidos really screwed up and I refuse to purchase another product from them again.

The game runs poorly, much like Deus Ex 2 which is known for technical problems. Even a friend with a AMD 3200+ couldn't get the damn thing to run higher than a rate of 20fps :(

The game crashes on my system all the time, I have XP Pro and more than enough RAM (1GB) to run this game. Considering Far Cry ran like a dream on this system and it looks much better than this tells you enough.

The gameplay is slow and boring, and the LOADING TIMES completely ruin the game. A third of the way through the level, a loading time ruins the immersion and makes you feel like you're in another mission. I hope a patch will fix this, but Deus Ex 2 was also ruined in this way and had no fixes to rectify this problem.

Thief 3 gets the thumbs down from me.

the pictures are looking great and the new stuff are amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 18
Date: May 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

if the other games (thief 1 and thief 2) was so good it shuld be
realy good so i gave it 5 stars.(...) you shuld buy it!!!

Another Fake Review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: May 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

To balance out the other fake reviews of a game that isn't even out yet I'm adding mine.

It's FANTASTIC! Best Game Evar!

Oh, and by the way Hardee why post multiple "reviews"? Are you some kind of attention starved moron that got fired from EIDOS or perhaps ION Storm? Also you're obviously a liar since you say that 3rd person view is default. It's only default on the x-box version. 1st person view is default on the PC version (which you'd have to have if you're playing a warez version like you claim). You sir are a either a thief or a liar (and not a very good one).

Ta.

omg! greatests games evers!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 19
Date: May 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In the tradition of abusing the amazon review system, I give thief 3 five stars, though I have not played it.

Great game!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 27
Date: May 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Love this game, graphics are awesome although they don't run very well. Been playing this for three days solid and got about three hours sleep!

Watch out

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 19
Date: May 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Make sure your graphics card has pixel shader 3.0 because mine sure as heck doesn't. So even though I would love to play this game I can't. I'm sure the game would be a fun experience but I should not be obligated to buy the game and spend 50 bucks on a new graphics card as well. Why can't Edios make pixel shadding optional like evryone else?

Its not like I have an older computer I just bought the thing 6 months ago, I think I got hossed.

Overall-Just make sure your machine mets the requirments they are not kidding.

Initial thoughts on Thief III

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 73 / 76
Date: May 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First thoughts on Thief III, which I played for about 3 hours last night.

Fun, but not quite as fun (so far) as the first two. On my system, it's a little laggy, but that's probably because my video card is about middle/low end, as far as their specs go (NVidia 5500 FX) and I don't have the money to upgrade to the top of the line vid cards they want. Graphics are not as fabulous as I've heard, but again, I've got a middle of the road vid card, and I can live with it.

I dove right in without reading the manual, so of course, the re-mapped weapons keys came as an unpleasant surprise. I had gotten so used to hitting '4' to get my water arrows in the first two games, but that's '8' now. They also swapped the blackjack and sword (dagger) keys, so I kept pulling out the dagger instead of the blackjack. And honestly, I don't miss the sword, but then I never used it in the first two except to cut down wall-hangings. I never kill guards, and only the occasional spiders. But, these key mappings can be easily changed, so I'm not complaining too much.

Pros/Interesting positive changes:
The training mission rocks for getting you up to speed quickly. It explains all the buttons, and many of the changes between this and the first two games in terms of actions and dynamics.

The dynamic lighting is nice. You can now extinguish candles and other lights (but, strangely, not torches) by walking up to them and 'using' them.

I haven't tried out the third-person mode yet. "First-person" is not what people traditionally think of as first-person in games - it's just like the camera is mounted on Garrett's forehead. I like it, as it lends a little bit more realism to things - you can look down and see his feet, turn and see his arms. It takes a little getting used to, but I like it.

Garrett seems to comment a lot more in this game too. If you pick up an item and try to put it down in a spot where it won't fit, he'll say "uh-uh". He'll make little quips about locations like he did in the first two, but it seems like there's more of those.

Lock-picking is a lot more involved and a lot of fun so far.

There are pieces of loot that are special - they're worth more than regular loot, and are often figured into the objectives. Loot glint is actually helpful, although I can understand the complaints that it makes things too easy. But at the same time, they made loot and non-loot look a lot more alike in this game, and they still managed to hide some loot in out of the way places where you can't see the glint from normal eye-level.

The City mode is a lot of fun. I already ransacked Garrett's landlord's apartment. Just a word of advice - don't blackjack someone in the middle of the street in front of three witnesses. (*whistle* I hit the wrong button, so sue me. I was trying to pick his pocket)

With a few notable exceptions (see below), the physics are a lot more realistic. Almost everything Garrett touches can be moved - he can knock over chairs, knock swords out of sword racks, push large tables and crates, knock cups and plates onto the floor. On normal difficulty, the guards will come if they hear the noise, but they don't seem to notice things being out of place. I imagine on the higher difficulties, they'll start investigating.

Everyone complains about there not being any swimming and the substitutions of climbing gloves for rope arrows. I haven't missed either so far. The loading zones are mildly annoying, but not too bad - they kind of sub-divide missions into smaller chunks. I really didn't mind them too much.

Nitpicks/Little funny issues:
The bright blue "use" highlight is annoying. I can deal, but it's still annoying.

I miss the briefing movies. There are cutscenes, but when you enter a mission, Garrett just reads the text while it's on the screen. No pretty movies.

The physics of the unconscious/dead bodies is really funny. I blackjacked a guy and he bent over backwards in a position that probably should have left him paralyzed. It's now possible for Garrett to trip over the bodies and make noise. No longer possible to "stack" bodies in quite the same amusing way as the original, although that's probably for the best. (No more setting it up like the servants were messing around....)

I managed to make a guard kill himself - I blackjacked him while he was carrying a torch, and he fell on the torch and died.

There's not really an option to quietly set things down either, which is somewhat annoying. (Maybe there is, but I just couldn't find it?) I picked up a cup up from a table without realizing it wasn't loot (still getting used to the loot glint vs. the bright blue "use" highlight.), and when I hit the button for drop - he literally dropped it, it rolled off the table, clanged onto the floor, and attracted a nearby guard.

Overall: Fun, so far. I still prefer the first two, but then I'm only one mission into this one. It felt like Thief, though, which was the most important thing to me. More later!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next 

Actions