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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!

Thief finally perfected!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I remember reading the reviews for Thief 3 in Computer Games when it was still being developed- I thought it looked awesome but then promptly forgot about it, figuring it would probably never come out in my lifetime, because game companies tend to do stuff like that. You may have noticed it.

Well anyway, the other day I saw a friend of mine playing Splinter Cell and I thought of how cool it would be to have a Thief game with graphics that good- the graphics, physics, and all that were pretty poor in 1 and 2. Then I saw Thief 3 (sanctioned name is "Thief: Deadly Shadows") and I was surprised with how great the graphics looked, so I bought it.

The first thing I noticed, before I got it home, was that it was oddly specific about what kind of system it will run on, even so much as to include a list of supported video cards on the back of the box, but my PC passed (for the most part). It comes in a pretty sweet case, like a double-wide DVD case. It's a 3 disk set so the install takes ten minutes or so. The manual seems to be pretty good, although I haven't really used it for anything yet, just glanced through it.

As I was installing, the game confirmed my suspicions about how restrictive it is with technical specs- the autostart screen includes a little tool to check to see if your video card will work before you even bother installing.

So I got it installed and checked out the video options- they're pretty sparse. They range from (I think) 800*600 up to 1600*1200 but there isn't a lot you can mess around with, just the res, the brightness, the shadow detail, and "bloom".

One thing that really annoyed me, READ THIS IF YOU PLAN ON BUYING THE GAME, is that when I went to change the controls, as soon as I clicked on something to change it, the game crashed to the desktop with no error message. I messed around with this for quite a while- updated my sound drivers, my video drivers, even uninstalled / reinstalled the game. Finally I admitted defeat and went to the Eidos website to try to figure it out- turns out since the game REALLY hates joysticks, gamepads, etc, not only will they not work but having them plugged in will cause the game to crash at that menu. So before you go to change the settings, make sure you unplug your joystick. I think I'll just leave mine unplugged whenever I play.

The game itself rocks. From the third person perspective it really does seem a lot like Splinter Cell. The graphics and physics rock- you can move everything (within reason) and everything casts a shadow, so you could conceivably move a barrel in front of a light and then creep around behind it and not be detected. The models are smooth and round now, and they move like real people. Get this, the models even have REAL HANDS. This is a MONUMENTAL BREAKTHROUGH in the Thief world.

Also, Garrett's arsenal is signifigantly improved- you have all the standard arrows (broadhead, fire, noisemaker, gas, water, moss), and the trusty blackjack. The broadhead arrow will now kill guards immediately if you hit them in the chest or the head- mind the trajectory though, as I found out, you can AIM for the chest but if you're too far away it'll result in a leg hit which will then bring about a very lengthy, angry search. His old sword has been traded in for a dagger- this serves as both the last-resort hand-to-hand combat weapon, and can also be used sort of like the blackjack, stealthily killing an opponent unaware of your presence. I've never had to use the dagger for that yet, since it really does pretty much exactly the same thing as the blackjack except for some blood (which you have to clean up with a water arrow) and a cry, which can alert other guards/enemies. One good thing about the sneaking up behind people bit is that you no longer have to aim for the head or the neck- as long as you're behind them and you're close enough, you're guaranteed to hit the guy in the perfect spot and knock him out / kill him.

Garrett still has the explosive mine, flash bomb, gas bomb, health potion, and holy water flask, but he also now has an oil flask. If you throw it, it creates a slick on the ground that causes enemies to fall over. And get this- you can use a fire arrow to light it up if you really feel evil. I can't wait to mess around with these- you can wait for someone to slip and then incinerate them, you can spill it across a doorway and then light it on fire and enemies won't follow you through it- should be fun.

Garrett now also has access to more tools- he now has an implant in his eye that allows you to zoom your vision in and out. There's the lockpicks (I'll talk about those later) and wall climbing gloves, that let you climb stone or brick walls. There's also a "Keeper Door Glyph", which I have yet to encounter but which appparently "reveals doors to hidden Keeper areas".

Lockpicking has been enhanced quite a bit, but the change only makes it harder. You start out with as many as six lock barrels, and you have to find the "sweet spot" of each barrel, wiggle the pick around, and get that barrel open before you can move on to the next.

Thief 3 also lets you make some of your own decisions and enjoy an out-of-mission world. You have an apartment where you can store stuff, and a whole open-ended city where you can sneak around, pick pockets, buy and sell from fences and the black market, and listen in on what's going on. That's what drives your missions later on in the game- like Freelancer, you have reputations with the Hammers and the Pagans, and you get missions from one or the other based on your status. This also determines who is friendly toward you and who will attack you on sight. The treasure you confiscate comes in three types and no fence will buy all three, so you have to play the market.

I've only completed the first mission (training) and the first half of the second mission, but so far it's been awesome. You can finally do all the stuff you wished you could do in the first games- I've yet to see a single thing you could do in the real world that Garrett can't do in Thief 3. The guards seem a lot more perceptive- I'm playing on "easy" and it's still pretty tough, I can't even imagine how brutal it would be on "hard". I can't wait to get to the open-ended part, I can see myself not moving from my room for weeks.

So, the rundown:

PRO

Awesome graphics

Really good models / textures

Superb physics

Great lighting (expected in a Thief game)

Open-ended gameplay!!

Dramatically improved AI

New weapons/tools

Truly an immersive game that you get totally wrapped up in, just like the first two.

CON

Really really specific about what kind of hardware you run it on (see below)

Crashes if you have a joystick plugged in

Lockpicking now takes a while (not really a problem with the game, it does make things more realistic I suppose)

Pretty graphics-intensive (I have to run it at 1024)

Not a lot of graphics settings to mess around with

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.

Ion Storm successfully continues a beloved franchise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: November 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Thief 1 and 2 are some of my favorite PC games. There's just something about the sneaking that seems like a welcome change of pace from other action-based games on the PC. When I first heard that Looking Glass Studios, creators of the first two games, was closing down, the only thing I could think of was "Oh man, I guess that means no more Thief games." Fortunately, Ion Storm has made Deadly Shadows.

I was pleased that for the most part the gameplay stayed the same as the first two. There may even be more emphasis on stealth this time around because in Deadly Shadows you have a dagger instead of a sword, which only does minimal damage. All the arrows are back, from the godly gas arrows to the seldom-used but sometimes useful moss arrows. Thankfully if you are stealthy you can kill people with just one arrow in Deadly Shadows, rather than turning them into a porcupine like in Dark Project or Metal Age. Your have your trusty blackjack again, this time with a neat system that lets you know when you're close enough to successfully use it on someone (Garrett raises the blackjack over his head). Also, you can "back stab" your opponents with your dagger, though it seems useless because it makes noise and is essentially the same as blackjacking your opponents. One quibble I have with the gameplay is that there are no longer any rope/vine arrows, which were replaced with climbing gloves in Deadly Shadows. Unfortunately, you don't really need to use them that often and the animation and control for them seem a bit clumsy. The AI has improved, but the guards are still pretty oblivious to your existence unless you take some sort of action. Also, there isn't too much variety to the guards. It almost seems like they used the same AI for every enemy and just changed the skin. But, enemies do notice when doors are opened, loot is taken, or their buddy isn't patrolling anymore and will come looking for you. The true experience comes when you play Deadly Shadows on hard, as there are more guards and they are MUCH more perceptive of their surroundings.

Another change is that you navigate your way through "The City" from mission to mission. While it's kind of fun at times, it seems that it should be bigger with more areas to explore. (Like "Life of the Party" in Thief 2) It also gets annoying to traverse the city and avoid the city watch when you are a ways away from where you need to get. Then again, I guess it makes it more realistic. You also will have to sell everything you steal to a fence located in each district of the city and buy your equipment from them too. Unlike the previous Thief games, your items and weapons carry over from one mission to another. This is a double-edged sword at times, because while you know that you can pretty much have everything you want for each and every mission, you might find yourself hoarding good items like gas bombs/arrows. Your map has changed slightly in that you no longer know what room you are in when you check it. Personally I like this modification because you find yourself doing more exploring rather than looking at your map to see how to get somewhere the fastest way. After you have explored a sufficient amount of the mission you're in, you can tell where you are on the map and how to get back to places you were with ease.

The graphics for Deadly Shadows are excellent. The character models are much more detailed than they were in Metal Age and the animation is much more fluent. The only real problem I have is that the plants and bushes didn't get much attention, but these are minor things when compared to the overall graphical presentation. Of course, the lighting effects are the most important graphical aspect of the game, and Deadly Shadows delivers brilliantly. Literally everything in the game is affected by light. Some of the enemies carry a torch while patrolling, which is really fun just to watch the way it affects the surroundings.

The Thief series is all about atmosphere, and Deadly Shadows is the best yet in that department. Each level is a little eerie, but the sound amplifies it and makes the experience much more engrossing. I have never played a game where the sound plays such an integral part in the overall experience. I played a few missions with the sound off after I'd played through them normally and it's like playing a completely different game. This game was made to be played in the dark with the sound up and the experience is unbelievable when played like that. "The Shalebridge Cradle" is one of the creepiest and most exhilarating experiences I have ever had in a video game.

Overall Deadly Shadows is a great game that most fans of the series will love. A technical problem with Deadly Shadows is that it's pretty choosy about your hardware. You need 512 RAM to play it smoothly and your graphics card has to be pretty recent as well. But, if you have a gaming PC and are looking for a good game to add to your collection, Thief: Deadly Shadows is definitely one you should consider picking up.

Beauty!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I recently finished playing this masterpiece, and I'm still rueful about it. I absolutely loved it, I always knew I would anyway being a die hard fan of Garrett.

So what I found in this game: the price sure was an issue for me when it first came out, but they weren't stereotype about it this time, the screenshots were an actual part of the game. I don't blame Eidos and ION Storm for making this game not so easy to purchase. These graphics come at a great cost, and plus you get what you pay for, including the make up for the extra slight expense for the graphics card and the like.

This game's got a bit of a give and take in it. The sword; vine and rope arrows; scouting orbs; flares; invisible potions and burricks have been removed but a dagger replaces the sword; climbing gloves make up for the old vine and rope arrows; and there are flasks of oil and holy water as far as inventory and tools are concerned. The game's also got extra features: shadows and change of perspective which enables first and third person viewing. The physics are precise. Bodies actually roll if thrown down a flight of stairs and objects crash to the ground if you go bumping into them, though I do slightly doubt the ragdoll physics (It makes you feel you're in a yoga class). Lockpicking's now a little more complicated and it's got more of a realistic feel to it unlike its prequels where you just switched between the triangluar toothed pick and the square toothed pick. This time though, the mouse is needed to control the picks until it "jabs" the "sweetspot" of the lock.

Deadly Shadows is now a little more open instead of the usual "one mission leads to another" technique. This time, the game offers sidequests and Garrett is now free to roam the City, looting and selling to his fences. The City's also divided into four places- South Quarter (Garrett's residence), The Docks, Auldale, and Old Quarter; and eventually all areas are accessible depending on your progress throughout the levels.

Also, this time Garrett's got a Faction Status. He can ally with the Hammerites and the Pagans through doing these sidequests or they'll continue to be hostile to you and won't allow you to enter their territory (Hammerite Cathedrals, Pagan woods and the like), which in a way will make the game more stealthy.

The atmosphere is still as detailed and realistic especially this one level which stands out the most in my mind- Robbing the Cradle. Garrett still retains his signature cynical voice played by Stephen Russell and continues to bring out the dark and dismal feel to the game.

I really recommend this game, it still lives up to its prequels but its more improvised this time.

This is not "Invisible War". This is a great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Could it be? That the same studio and publisher that made "Deus Ex: Invisible War" also made "Thief: Deadly Shadows?" Apparently, it is, since the former was a flawed and mediocre effort, and the latter stands out to me as the finest stealth/action game of the past five years. If, for some reason, you have hesitated to buy this game, then hesitate no longer.

Technically, you don't have to have played the first two Thief games to play "Thief: Deadly Shadows", but the story and atmosphere tie so closely with the first game, that you probably should. The story in "Deadly Shadows" is great from beginning to end. So while the levels provide you with an interesting challenge, the story is what makes this game addictive. The suspense begins to build early, and it never really stops until the very end. The game provides a sense of mystery that few games manage to do, and then it wraps it all up in a very satisfying manner. In the final cut scene, the game ends the thief trilogy by bringing it full circle.

The stealth mechanics for the game are well-refined. Generally, stealth works great here, and the trial-and-error that you find in the Splinter Cell series is nonexistent. This is mostly due to the inclusion of items like flash bombs and sleeping gas arrows, which let you escape from a tight spot. Unlike the previous Thief games, these items are abundant and somewhat cheap, so you can use a lot of them without running out. Of course, there are exploits in the game, just like every other stealth game. Yes, shadows hide you a bit too well and yes, the guards are all lazy. This makes the game too easy, unless you play on the hardest difficulty level or self-impose a "no-kill" rule. You also will have to refrain from using the third-person viewpoint, which has little value besides providing neat-looking screenshots. However, it keeps the game from getting boring or frustrating, which can be a problem for stealth/action games, since they tend to move along slowly.

The suffocating, creepy atmosphere of the first "Thief" game makes its return here with a vengeance. The atmosphere is greatly enhanced by what I believe is the greatest ambient sound to ever grace a video game. If you have an EAX-capable sound card, then the sound of the game is so perfect, that you'll forget that you are playing a game. The sound contributes to a general sense of foreboding and danger that I haven't 'hurt either. There is a ton of content here. The number of voice-acted lines and sound bites rivals games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Deus Ex. You can go a long time without hearing guards' AI barks repeat, although many of the voices sound the same. You also get to overhear a lot of conversations. Some are funny, and many contribute to the storyline. All of it is top notch. There isn't one B- voice performance in the game.

This game definitely suffers from being co-designed for the X-Box. Namely, the sizes of the maps are very small. Every mission has to be divided into at least two small zones. Plus, many areas feel tight and cramped, and the game doesn't reward creativity like the previous two did. The levels are still good, but most of them are somewhat plain. The rope arrows are gone, but it doesn't matter, since the small level sizes pretty much prevent vertical thinking. The game also suffers a bit from a dumbing-down effect in some places. The most notable is the tendency for the game to constantly tip you off to special items of loot with conspicuously placed notes. Basically, you find books and letters everywhere out in the open, which give you obvious hints on what should have been secrets. There are still a few hard goodies to find, but the over-reliance on this mechanic removes a lot of the satisfaction from finding special items. One more slightly annoying problem in the game is the HORRIBLE implementation of rag-doll physics. The way that bodies bend like Silly Putty is a distraction, and one of the game's few immersion-breakers. The game would have been better off with motion-captured animations and simpler physics.

"Thief: Deadly Shadows" ends up being a long game. It took me over 30 hours to get through it, searching every nook and cranny and trying not to kill anyone. In this time, I rarely got bored or tired of the game. Regardless of how you play, there is a ton of content here, in stark contrast to games that only give you an 8-hour campaign. Once you play this game, it's easy to recognize that a lot of people who worked on the first two games also worked on this game. "Deadly Shadows" is more than worthy of carrying the "Thief" name. The X-Box may have kept this from being "Game of the Year", but at least it didn't keep it from being great.

100% Thief

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There are so many things said in amazon.com customer reviews that I am sure I do not want to repeat here. What I'll attempt to say is that if you were a Thief 1 and Thief 2 games lovers, you will definitely enjoy Deadly Shadows. It is Thief in terms of atmosphere, story-settings, AI, replayablilties and enjoyment. If you have ever played Thief and Thief 2, get this game.

I'd also like to shoot this warning off:
1. Supported OS is Windows XP. If you have Windows 98, it won't run. Don't even buy this game if you have Windows 98
2. You need a GeForce 4 Ti card. GeForce 4 MX will not run the game.
3. There are some problems reported with ATI cards and its drivers - you can still play the games - it's just that certain textures of the games will seem out of place.

I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy this game.

everything i had expected

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

recently finished this (with a months vacation during the game). normally, i wait to to see reviews before i buy a new game (deus ex 2), but i liked thief 1 & 2 so much that i rushed right out and bought this right after it came out ON TIME! and then worked at it steadily on expert until finished. my 2 year old hp had no trouble dealing with this game. there are aspects of thief 3 that are both better and worse than the prior two.

the visuals are outstanding, with details, shading, shadows, etc much better than before. i suspect that this is one reason why these small levels took so long to load, but its worth the wait. the realism is remarkable. the story presented finally pulls together what had been happening in the first two, which was never clear to me, (the Balance, that is). some of the levels were remarkably atmospheric and "immersive", such as the seaside mansion, the museum, and the cradle. Most of the time between missions, one runs around town doing errands, avoiding the watch, breaking into houses and shops, and robbing people. health is still rare, so you cant take a lot of hits like in half-life and then heal up. if you get caught, youre dead, or nearly so; many reloads are required. this game is a strong sequel in the thief series

a few new angles. no rope arrows. these are fun, but not really missed. the climbing gloves supplied are used rarely, once to enter a level, and a few times to get weapons or special loot (the equivalent of secrets). no swimming, but this is ok, because the only good swimming in a video game, imho, was in tombraider. buying loot from stores with stolen money is new, but i had about 50,000 dollars left over and a full arsenal. there was little to spend money on, as most items could be found. I was cheated by a merchant near the end who sold ersatz loot and a map, but the game would not let me go back and kill her. the only thing really necessary to buy is climbing gloves. faction status is new. you can improve vour status with hammers and pagans by doing them favors, which results in their leaving you alone when you enter their areas of influence (very helpful). what this implies is you cannot molest any ot their members, or you lose standing. this, in turn, means you must do missions involving these groups with no knockouts (of note, "killing time").

on the downside, there is only one truly spooky mission. there were several in thief 1, which makes that, for me, the scariest game ever. the hammer haunts in thief 3 are not as malignant as previously, and there are no spiders. the ai doesnt seem as smart as previously. the bad guys are much easier to sneak up on and knock out than before. i think they could get rid of those dead bodies that flopped for 5 minutes after you dropped them and use the computing power freed up for the ai. anyway, the slablike rigor mortis bodies of prior thiefs and deus ex may not look as good but they work well and there is no obnoxious uh-uh when you have to hide them in a hurry. all zombies in the cradle except one could be easily and repeatedly avoided, which detracted from the fear factor of that mission (which is reminiscent of "return to the cathedral"). actually, i think the gameplay of thief three was easier, too. Thief 2 had many very difficult secrets, and some of the objectives in thief 1 were much harder. did you find the serpentyle torc? the watchmans grave? or get to the heart and soul in "bonehoard"? also, i miss monster levels like "life of the party" (my favorite), "soulforge", "shipping and receiving", and "lost city".

all in all, thief #3 is strong work, with great story, attractive visuals, superb atmosphere, and engaging gameplay. my "complaints" amount to modifications id like to see when i buy thief 4. (make it for mac!)

Everything I expected...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: May 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ion Storm managed to create a game that lives up to the first two installments but also works with a console (XBox). There are certain elements of the game that clearly are meant for console players and are "dumbed down", like the twinkle of loot items. The item highlighting is back, but in a blue tint. So far I'm on the first mission and the game plays like Thief 1 and 2. People are complaining in their reviews that it's just not the same, but I beg to differ. The demand for games on multiple platforms nowadays forces developers to make small compromises. None of these hurt Thief 3 in my opinion. Gamers should step back and realize that things change. It's the same thing with everything else... people get stuck in a rut wanting more of the same. When something slightly different or new comes out that doesn't meet their narrow concept the developers are labeled sell-outs. I'm sorry, but Thief 3 delivers gaming goodness and does everything I expected from another installment. If you've got so many hang-ups about this series that you can't accept change then maybe you should be playing Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow instead of Thief 3. Games change, people change. Thief is still Thief. I see a bright future for the Thief series. As long as the basic gameplay elements and depth of story remain this series will always be enjoyable to me. Bottom line, if you're a fan of the Thief series and the story and stealth gameplay were what made the previous games so interesting and enjoyable, I don't think you'll be disappointed. As for some of the reviewers--I despise people like Hardee who take advantage of a rating system and post multiple times. Trolls don't deserve the right to post a review on Amazon.com or any other rating system.

One of the most immersive games to date

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't have enough wonderful things to say about this game. To start off, this game has the best story of any new FPS game that is out right now. Everything seems to click into place towards the end of the game, every piece of information you read, every note you find somehow seemlessly fall into the greater context of the game plot. And did I mention the great cinematics that add even more lustre to an already polished storytelling that this game provides?
Now for the graphics, they are great, but by no means incredible. However, in the context of the game they are perfectly acceptable. The engine does a good job at portraying an old, decaying, decadent city, and all imperfections of the engine just add more to that feeling. If developers used a more advanced engine (like that of Far Cry) with lots of shiny surfaces and much eye candy, it would just be outright silly, and inappropriate for the setting.
Now for the gameplay. This is where the game really shines. I heard a lot of complaints about Garrett using a dagger now instead of a sword and the lack of rope arrows, but seriously, what kind of thief carries a long sword with him? Dagger is much more likely to appear in the arsenal of a thief than a heavy blade. Now for the rope arrows. They were a pain in the first two games. It would always be tricky to hop onto the rope and then to climb off, and then there were issues of clipping and going through surfaces, etc. etc. etc. So not worth it. I think the climbing gloves do just as good of a job. Overall the gameplay is immersive and polished. After the first couple missions I was so into the game that I completely lost track of time. However the apex of immersion comes with the Asylum mission. As anybody who played this game will tell you, this will be one of the scariest gaming experiences you will have, EVER! This levelis done soo well that it puts even System Shock 2 to shame. Just play the game and you will know what I am talking about...

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