[*donk, thump*] GUARD: “What in the…?! I have seen that!” GUARD: “Ha! The Builder have lead me to thee! Builder, GUIDE MY ARM!” We made it to the end of the trilogy. This is “Thief: Deadly Shadows”. This was going to be called “Thief 3”, but the series was now making its debut on the Xbox, so they didn’t wanna be scaring any new players off. My brain always wants me to call this “Thief: Invisible War”, with good reason: it has some of the exact same problems, uses the same weird version of Unreal 2, and was made by the same developer. But that would be a little too harsh. Looking Glass may have been gone, but a lot of key figures did return. Having the studio behind “Deus Ex” do it seems like the next best thing. I’m going to have to structure this video differently, because, like “Thief 1” and “2”, it has a fan patch. Unlike the others, this one is much more substantial. So, right off the bat, I need to say what’s terrible. And what better sign could there be than the main menu? You can see my recording icon flash up there, because it’s a little unstable. So how about a new game? GARRETT: “I got a tip last night from my fence, Heartless Perry.” Yeah, remember those haunting, atmospheric briefing cutscenes? Those are all gone now. But things get worse. This is Papyrus font. There are only two reasons to ever use this. One is you’re a kid making a PowerPoint, and you need your classmates to realize that you’re IN THE KNOW with ancient Egypt. Or you’re making a high concept album. ♪ And you look into the eyes of the wolf ♪ ♪ Black and cold, red and old ♪ This is neither, so it sucks. For the first mission, you’re locked into Normal difficulty. This might seem overbearing, until you actually play it, and, wow… You need to follow every move laid out for you exactly, and if you deviate from it even a little bit, then you fail. I know it’s just a tutorial, but it’s surprising to see this kind of mindset in a “Thief” game. “Thief 1’s” training was linear, sure, but this feels like it’s on rails. If you’re coming into this fresh off of “Thief 1” or “2”, you’ll notice that the movement is… awful. That’s because this is both, a first- and third-person game. After some experimenting, I found that the controls are designed for neither. In “Deadly Shadows”, your movement is based on animation. When Garrett turns or strafes, his body has to actually move first. So that jitter you see when the animation snaps directions also carries over to first-person. It adds a terrible layer of jerkiness to everything you do. It’s like your legs have to approve a bill, before they let you turn. A quick lean to check a corner doesn’t work anymore. It’s slow, and you expose yourself to the light, because you’re taking a weird, gigantic step now. I can only guess that they figured most people would switch to third person to look around corners. Having a lean that terrible seems like a concession for people who want to stay playing in first person. The tutorial level is shockingly tiny, and this carries over into the next mission. The rooms are cramped and narrow, but it’s not over yet, because now the mission is broken up into different loading zones. So, instead of having one big, interconnected map, you’ll have two, or maybe three different levels built into one mission. This only emphasizes how crammed in things are now. It’s kind of shocking how tiny these additional areas can be, but that’s what you had to do, to make it fit onto the Xbox. This was a nice looking game for 2004, and that came at a sacrifice. It was also a PC performance hog. The engine has a lot of issues. If you run the game too well, lockpicking and ladders can break. Compatibility is bad, there’s no proper widescreen, so let’s try and fix things up a bit. Enter the Sneaky Upgrade mod. It fixes lots of bugs and engine issues, like TFix 1 and 2 did, but also includes options to make it feel more like the “Thief” I know and love. For this, I’m installing everything, except for the texture pack and the minimalist project. The textures still have that, kind of, “out of place” issue at times, but the minimalist project does have some cool stuff in it. It’s just VE-ERY customizable, and you should probably know the game, before you start monkeying with it. So, what did I put in? Graphically, the fonts are sharper, and there’s proper widescreen support now. Some of the animations have been outright replaced. It’s still not as responsive as the old game, but it’s a noticeable improvement. There’s still a jitter to the controls that will never fully go away, but I’ll talk more about that in detail later. The tutorial mission can now be played on any difficulty, and the glowing feet only appear on Easy. Some loot has been added, so it’s now kind of a proper mission. And, in some amazing news, the level loading zones are now gone. Once again, you play in one big map. This is one of the reasons I love videogames. Sometimes, you come back to them years and years later, and the community has made all kinds of cools stuff for them. Speaking of: guess what else is back? GARRETT: “I got a tip last night from my fence, Heartless Perry:” GARRETT: “a nobleman named Lord Julien had some sort of quarrel and showed up at a local inn well after nightfall.” All the mission briefings have cutscenes again. They are a bit limited, since hand-drawn art takes time and money, and they had to use screenshots, but the style is emulated really well. The choice of music and audio stingers is great. Once again, this is all highly tweakable, but the default install should take care of you. Typically, when I recommend mods for a first time player, it’s something pretty… you know… lite. This is more of an overhaul than usual. I just want that to be cooking in the back of your brain. It is substantial, but I think it’s the best way you could play the game. But the vanilla game is worse in a lot of ways. It’s due to hard, unpaid work that a few people did that we even have it this good. So, finally, I can play the game. [rad music theme] [rad music theme softens] [discordant whispers of the past] [rad music theme] Garrett has quite the adventure resume, but once again, he’s back to basics. It’s not clear exactly how long it’s been since “Thief 2”, but I’d have to guess at least a few years, because things look quite a bit different, compared to “Thief 2”. That’s a good place to start. Where “Thief 2” could look a lot like “The Dark Project”, “Thief 3” is on a brand new engine. The lighting is dramatic, using stencil shadows for its darkness – the same thing that games like “F.E.A.R.” would use. The clarity makes it a lot easier to tell where you can sneak. The series was usually good about this, but there would be times when it was hard to tell how dark was “dark”. The light gem seeming to be brighter than I would think still happens, but not nearly as often. Also, a compass is attached to it now, which is a fantastic change. Controlling light is still a key to success, but there are some new tricks this time. You can be revealed by environmental effects, like lightning, or moving light sources, like the enemies that now carry them, so you can’t rely on every guard just bumbling after you in the dark anymore. Sure, the models are better, and the textures are better… sometimes… but the new lighting is really where I find the most benefit. It’s a case where having better graphics enhances the gameplay. It’s clear where to sneak, and, visually, there’s a lot of atmosphere. As for the art direction, it’s gone backwards. In “Thief 2”, the city was going through a mechanical Victorian revolution, and that’s all over. The only sign of the Mechanist revolution even happening are some journal entries and a few turntables. It is mentioned that some massive trials happened, so I guess they decided that Karras was just, like, the Hindenburg of people, and stopped using anything he had anything to do with. RECORDING: “Who is Karras but the hand of The Builder?” So there are no robots this time, or cameras, or alarms, or even that many electronic lights. Though, when they do show up a lot, you’re in for a treat. So, we’re back to that more gothic style that “Thief 1” had, where they just happened to have some electricity around. Honestly, I do prefer that, over it going full steampunk, but it still feels like a bit of a loss. At the very least, I would have loved to have, like, a Mechanist holdout map, where they still have cameras and alarms and robots stomping around. Instead, technology seems have regressed even beyond “Thief 1”. The Hammers didn’t ban it or anything, because they are still making new stuff – it just seems like things were pulled too far back. But maybe that’s more of a gameplay issue. It might stand out to me more, because the location variety is a lot lower than it used to be. If you like stonework and castles, you’re gonna have a good time. There’s so much stone. Biblical divorce court didn’t have this much stone. “The Dark Project” had a lot of castles too, but there might be, like, some red brick or wood paneling. There was distinction to it, and “The Metal Age” really stepped that up. “Deadly Shadows” does have some standout areas, but they feel more rare. After staring at footage like a madman for a while, I’ve thought of some reasons why. If you played the missions back-to-back, it might not be an issue. The thing is, “Deadly Shadows” now has a city hub. You come back to it after every mission, you can buy and sell items, there are side quests. The point for now is that you’ll be coming here a lot. The hub is mainly in narrow castle streets. So then you go to a mission that looks just like it. It’s atmospheric and looks nice, but it gets repetitive. What makes it worse is, as I said before, the levels are crunched down. It’s a subconscious effect that’s hard to put into words, so I’m wrestling with my caveman brain here. “Thief” has always tried to sell its levels as being like a real place. It had a scale to match that, which is still pretty staggering now. First City Bank & Trust feels like a place. It’s enormous and interconnected, but also has some areas that would just be in a bank. You have teller offices, conference rooms, areas for the workers. There are out of the way areas with no treasure that, I guess, you could hide in, but not many guards around there either. It’s just something that a building like this would have. But now think that you’re very space-limited. You can’t fit in as much non-essential stuff like that anymore. Your levels are already being cut apart by loading screens. So, they’d try to keep that aspect, but it’s so scaled down that it’s just kind of silly. The first few levels are especially bad about this. Everything is so narrow, and so many rooms are similarly sized that they all begin to feel the same. Like, lacking openness in the castle’s hallways is understandable. It doesn’t feel lavish, but I buy it. When you get to the Fisher-Price great hall though – that’s when it’s apparent something’s wrong. When things do open up more, it still feels sparse and empty. They probably couldn’t fit anything else in. Again, I’m not saying that everything’s barren. There are some great locations, and they use the most out of what they got, but what they got wasn’t a whole lot. So, if you’re feeling boxed in over and over, it’s because you are. “Deadly Shadows” uses EAX 4, so, once again, you’re in for some good sound. [ghastly wheezing] [ghastly wheezing] [soft footsteps on sand and gravel change to loud clanking on metal grating and quiet tapping on wooden stairs] GUARD: “Anybody there?” GUARD: “Er… we’re friendly, and don’t know how to fight.” The sound effects themselves are very clean – they don’t have that grainy-sounding compression that some of the first two games had at times. So the way sound propagates is better than ever. I knew it was good when I could make it back outside of a castle, just by listening for the crickets. [ambient hum of empty halls] [chirping of crickets gradually fades in from one direction] That’s some good sound! The voice acting is excellent too, and all professionally done. If anyone was grabbed out of their office chair to do some lines this time, I couldn’t tell. There’s a lot more characters and different interactions now, so that’s pretty impressive. As expected, Stephen Russell is better than ever. GARRETT: “Ah, the city… Obey the law, and there’s no need to worry about the residence.” GARRETT: “The City Watch are the guys who wanna lock me up though. Gotta keep my eye out for them.” GUARD 1: “They’re just a bit on the testy side, you know. Grumpy, cause they’re wet.” GUARD 2: “Idiot… Wet or dry, zombies don’t care.” GUARD 1: “OHH!” The only thing that’s a step down, quality-wise, is the music. It’s not grating – it’s competent, but… I don’t remember it. They’re fitting tension tracks for when you’re playing the level, but nothing really stuck with me. [subdued tune] [eerie tune] [crack of thunder]
[eerie tune] [eerie tune] [ominous tune] It is mixing with the ambience, like usual, so I wasn’t expecting anything huge here. You just won’t have an Assassins’ break beat, or creepy sirens from Framed. Though, to be fair, this game is probably the scariest. (fish-person speaks in creepy, clicking and hissing tongue) By most accounts, the sound is better than ever, which makes this next part of it even stranger. Out of the entire trilogy of games, sound probably matters the least here. Previously, you would do your best to avoid metal and tile flooring. It would give you away quick, and training emphasized the importance of these surfaces. “Thief 3” also has this, but a lot less importance is put on it. Moss arrows used to be an essential tool. In “Deadly Shadows”, I used them one time. At least, when I did it for sneaking – now they’re a chocking hazard. (guard chokes on some moss) Ironically, the reason I did use them was I went “Oh, I probably need footage of using a moss arrow”. What ended up happening was the sound of the arrow ended up alerting the guard. If a guard was around – the ideal time to use it – it would be better to… not use it. Okay… It is more realistic, rather than guards just not noticing, like before, but you don’t need moss arrows to set up a Kevin McAllister ambush – you just walk up and blackjack them. The surfaces just don’t matter as much. (loud clangs of blackjack strikes are followed by thuds of falling bodies and rattling of swords on stone floor) It would be cool if guards could acknowledge the loud-ass thump of a body hitting the floor, or the clatter of a sword. If we’re gonna have a smaller level, maybe the takedowns could be riskier. There’s already an in-game mechanic to support this. Magic users are dangerous enemies, until you pickpocket their wand off them. So, maybe you could choke a guard out, or grab their weapon first. It’s just so strange how the sound be so much better, but, mechanically, less important. There is one thing they hear really well. Before, if you picked up a junk item, you had a button to gently set it down. You don’t have that degree of control anymore. You’re at the mercy of Havok physics. I’ll drop it on carpet… (loud gasp) NPC: “By the… I hear thou there!” It seems way less consistent this time. A sound I make could do nothing, or have every guard in the zip code run over. So, that’s disappointing, but let’s get into the gameplay. The most immediate change is how difficulty is handled – it now changes the enemy AI. For the record, everything I just talked about has been on Expert. The map won’t change around, and you won’t get crazy new side objectives. Instead, you’ll need to collect more treasure. On Expert, that’s 90% of the mission’s loot value, and 3 special loot items. This goes for every mission. First of all, 90% is high. You typically had way more room to miss stuff before, or you just didn’t have to loot anything. They realized, for the sake of the narrative, it would sometimes be a bad idea to make people hunt around for treasure. “Deadly Shadows” absolutely has maps that get hurt by this requirement. But more than that, not everyone wanted to play these games to pick up every piece of petty cash. Now you have to, or you get dumber enemies. They had such a good difficulty system, which added some replayability. It sucks to see it thrown out. The treasure hunting itself is made a little bit less clear. Let me show you what I mean. This screenshot has loot. Can you see it? Did you guess “these two cups specifically”? I would not have known, but the game now has a glare effect to tell you what treasure is. Candle on top is loot, candle on the floor is junk. These are some subtle differences. If the loot didn’t have this effect, would you know to steal it? How about this one? Something by the jars? Also, this map has worthless banners all over the place. Looks important – not treasure. Out of the way – that’s treasure. NPC: “Who turned the lights off, while I still need them?” NPC: “Truly, these are dark times…” (hurk) What? 🤣 So, loot glare helps out, but it’s not always there. Special loot in particular can require some reading, so make sure you’re paying attention. Because the briefing won’t tell you what to look for, you’ll need to find clues in-game. It’s that 90% requirement that’s the problem. The one time I couldn’t make the loot requirements in the first two games was haunted cathedral, but it didn’t take me long. To pass it, you needed about 75%. You can miss a decent amount, and still be fine. With 90%, you can miss a single chest in the corner, and have to hunt around for it. It’s weird, because these are the smallest maps in the series, but I probably had to go back and hunt for loot about two or three times. It’s so steep, that it actually takes away a story decision. There’s a level called The House of the Widow Moira. I like this one a lot. It’s a seaside mansion that reminds me a bit of “Dark Corners of the Earth”. It’s also right next to the mission with the fish people. But this is good – there are secret passages, hidden tunnels, and it feels like a “Thief” game. The thing is, I always wanna call it the Window Moira, because the widow is always staring out the window. You can help her out a bit, and she’ll send you a nice note, but that won’t happen on Expert. Because now you have to steal the inheritance that her loving husband left her. She’s, like, not well… The Sneaky Upgrade actually has an option to change this, because it’s so weird. The thing is, none of this would matter, and I would just say “play on Hard”, but then you get the dumber AI. In conclusion: the difficulties are weird. As for the mission-to-mission gameplay, it’s still really good. The same core gameplay loop is here, with some enhancements and some changes. I’ll start with some positives. Even with the sound inconsistency, the guards act smarter than before. They search more methodically, and they’re prone to noticing missing objects. They’re better at running off for help, and just working together. CITIZEN: “I believe I saw something. It’s very strange.” GUARD: “I’m with you.” Suspicious guards are now more of a challenge. There was a change to blackjacking that I didn’t like at first, but I did grow to appreciate it. When you can score a knockout, it now raises automatically. It’s now a sure thing that they’ll hit the ground. Because there would be those times when you had a perfect one lined up, and it just… would not happen. The catch is, if an enemy is now suspicious, with their weapon out, you cannot knock them out with the blackjack. Their senses are high, and they’re bracing for attack – something like that. Noisemaker arrows and other suspicious tools now get them amped, so distracting and stunning tools can’t be used to knock people out. This does include the flash bomb. It is a little silly that this makes them immune, but flash bombs are very available now. It would be an “I win” button, but that’s what gas is for. But that’s more pricey. Also, you have to worry about the demonic chairs. They WILL try to kill you, and they give their users terrible power. I don’t know why. [haunting sting] Their power is that you can’t blackjack anybody sitting down. That’s weird. Everyone knows: sitting is when you’re most vulnerable to a… …to a blackjack. GUARD: “You’re kidding with that, right?” Don’t try it. As for your robbery loadout, some items have been cut, but it’s a good arsenal. How you use some items, like holy water, was changed around, and the only brand new item is an oil flask. You can set people on fire or just do “Home Alone” shenanigans. Out of everything, the bow and its many arrows have remained largely intact. Broadheads, water arrows – they’re almost all here. Unfortunately, the one that was cut was pretty significant, as you no longer have rope arrows. I guess, vine arrows too, if you wanna stretch. I’m not entirely sure why this happened. It can’t be levels being too small, since some do have some verticality to them. If I had to guess, it would probably be that it didn’t work, or it looked really stupid in third person. Whatever the reason, it is replaced with a new ability you get later on – handy wall climbing gloves. They only work on certain surfaces, and there is some… ehm… technique to them. Remember the whole animation-based movement system? Well, that’s still happening. See, here, I can easily climb up, because there’s room for it, unlike here, where there is no room. The ledge is too tiny, and I’d fall, but this one is okay, because there’s a little more room, and this one i- They expected me to climb through the banister? It’s walled off – this is the only way to get up there. It- It’s time to talk about the movement. The wall climbing is awkward, and incredibly shitty, lined up next to the rope arrow. You don’t need to do it too often, so, fine. But when I’m just walking, and get stuck on the staircase… Ohh! It’s bad! The third-person view does let me see what I’m getting stuck on, so I feel less crazy, because, sometimes, I’m stuck on nothing. Is it the pipe? Are the floor tiles too high? I don’t know! I get through. From time to time, you get stuck, and it breaks down completely. If your movement suddenly becomes smooth and really good and responsive, it’s actually because the game’s breaking, and your legs aren’t moving. You can’t do anything though, so you do have to reload a save. Let me show you the pain of it working. That jump seems pretty low. But is it too high for legs and too short for arms? Yes. In the previous games, this would be a brainless jump, but now it’s pretty tricky. What really gets me is I fell again and dropped onto platform below, and saw this really high jump, and then… no problem. The things that can happen are beyond my understanding. And no, it’s not the Sneaky Upgrade doing something, because this has way less problems. Now imagine doing PRECISE movement. I could do a tightrope before, but now look at this board. I lurch forward, the screen freaks out and I fall. Because each leg isn’t really making contact. When I say the controls feel like they were designed for neither view, this is what I mean. In first-person, I can climb it – I’m just being careful not to let a leg go over. But I’m fine after. In third person, it looks weird, but I can do it just fine. At least, until I get to the pipe on the end, which I’m too… high to jump on? I look down and try to climb – nothing. I go to first person, look down – then it works. I don’t know what you want from me. Third-person was a mistake. It didn’t have to be like contemporary stealth games. I wouldn’t mind it if the controls weren’t compromised. To no big shock, swimming is also gone. Which, again, is understandable. But then, why have The Sunken Citadel – a level about a sunken ruin filled with fish people? Like, it’s a fine level on its own. Though, it might be the most appropriate in the series to have some underwater sections, and this doesn’t have that. It’s The Slightly Damp Citadel. I know “Thief 2” designed levels before making the story, but this seems like that, but even farther back. Like, assets were being made, before they were sure what the mechanics would be. Most of the time, playing on Expert, meant you couldn’t kill anybody, but now you have free reign to kill combatants, because it HAS to be more free-form. At one point in the story, Garrett is framed for killing a Keeper, so he needs to infiltrate their compound, to find evidence that proves he’s innocent. And during this mission, you can… kill Keepers. The story and gameplay were incredibly intertwined, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Whether it’s story, or just moving, there’s a disconnect there. It feels like playing a different immersive sim. The starting philosophy was “murder is the mark of an amateur”. You could block with your sword and kill creatures, but you didn’t wanna kill people. GARRETT: “What can I do?” PAGAN: “The c-cold… Feels nothing now…” PAGAN: “Garrett, I begs, return me to the Green… Kill me…! Urggh!” This is a pretty big moment in “Thief 2”. Garrett’s always been adamant that he’s a thief, but he’s not a murderer. [*chop*] Gameplay-wise, it’s simple, but as a character, it feels like a big choice for Garrett. You don’t HAVE to do this. Now you have a cool dagger to do backstabs with. [prolonged death rattle] Maybe, they were trying to give more mechanical freedom, to compensate for smaller spaces. I don’t know what the reasons were, but it feels less focused overall. So now is a good time to bring up the city hub. After a mission, you come back to town – usually, the Garrett’s apartment. GARRETT: “It's not much, but it’s home.” It’s not a big equipment stash or anything, so you won’t spend much time here, besides robbing your neighbors and your landlord. There’s now a town to explore and random pedestrians to mug. The area is as confined as you’d expect, but there are fun things to do. Besides random breaking and entering, there are mini side quests to pick up. My favorite being sleazy fake Garrett. IMPOSTER: “Alright, Mr. Brent. And don’t forget: if you want Garrett-type services, you gotta offer Garrett-type prices.” It is nowhere near as elaborate as a mission, but they’re fine side attractions. You’ll also be doing a lot of sneaking or running. Garrett remains wanted by the City Watch, who will either kill him, or throw him in prison. You skulk around, finding secrets, and the town changes a little bit day by day. Nothing too big. More importantly, you’re also unlocking new districts to visit. This gives you access to new black market fences. You have to pawn off all your loot after all, and some fences only deal in specific items. The same goes for buying new equipment from different shops. Everything is persistent now, and carries over between missions, so you can hoard up items, but, due to progression, you can’t get endgame stuff until later. Your health also carries over, so, to not die, you need to keep stocked up on health potions. I’m kind of conflicted on the hub. When I first played it, and was exploring around, it seemed neat. It was a bit cramped, like everything else, but it had good atmosphere. And I like the idea of actually having to go and sell your goods. It was also interesting that you had to find the map, so it would help you in some later levels. Then, as I got more familiar with it, and the novelty ran out, I started to not care for it. Especially when I found out that guards get tired after running for a while, so you could just outrun everything – you don’t HAVE TO skulk around. Then, as more districts unlocked, I switched around and started appreciating it again. I do like it as a grounding point, and without it, the game would be very short. The only thing I hate it how big of an area it claims to be. The city always seemed monolithic and ancient. Ironically, by actually showing it in a limited way like this, it ruins that effect. This brings me to the faction system. GARRETT: “The Hammers and Pagans are mad at me, because of jobs I did for the Keepers.” GARRETT: “I better find out what they want, and then decide whether or not I wanna bother trying to improve their opinion of me.” This was not something I expected the first time I played. You can only get points with The Hammers or the Pagans, since they’re the ones having the gang wars in the street. This only affects how they react to you in the street. In missions, you can maim or kill as many as you want – it doesn’t matter. For the sake of gameplay, it has to be this way. There are a few mini-quests you can do to gain favor with the faction, but you have two main methods. For the Hammers, you kill exploding beetles that eat their structures. They explode, like they’re an “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”, and cause mass panic. [*boosh*] [mass_panic.mp3] For the Pagans, you shoot arrows into specially marked stones, like the big green one next to the letter giving you that assignment. So that’s simple enough. You would think… That’s not the stone. They look like this. They are barely perceptible. I can bet- Whoah! Oh, right, the mechanical eye does that now. It doesn’t matter. Or maybe is SHOULD HAVE highlighted loot? Nonono, I’m moving on. This helps plants grow, and the Pagans like that. There are other things to do, but you can easily get on the good side of both factions. If you are buddies, you can hang out in their areas of the city, without being attacked. Things that you might have to sneak or steal to get access to – they just let you have. If you’re a moron like me, and kill every bug and find every rock, you get a reward in your apartment. The Pagans give you a shrubbery that grows moss arrows, and The Hammers give you a pipe that drains Tylenol. Of course, with the way districts unlock, the game is basically over by the time you get these. I can only blame myself, and I do. It is kind of half-baked, but it does lead to one of funniest parts of the game being even funnier. I’ll get more into the story soon, but this is too good not to show. When Garrett is on trial for Keeper murder, he escapes, so they deploy the Keeper enforcers after him. They’re superhuman assassins who only communicate telepathically. There is a whole document about how cool and badass their training regime is – which I think is something I specifically praised “Thief 1” for not doing – but they’re a very hyped up. They’re always alert, always on a hunt for- Wait! There’s a beetle. [*boosh*] ENFORCER: “Is it Garrett? I hear someone.” GARRETT: “The enforcers are using telepathy to communicate silently. I don’t think they know I can hear them.” ENFORCER: “You disrupt my mission.” Then it sounds like they’re killing people at random. [telepathic chatter overlaps, causing cacophony] Oh, Jesus Christ, what?! They look scary, but I killed beetles. HAMMERITE: “I shall fell the beast!!” [rekt] HAMMERITE: “Well shalt I sleep tonight, having smite The Builder’s enemy!” This is chaos. THIS GUY: “Master Pain, it is a great honor having you beating random people in our town.” CITIZEN: “Where’s the damn Watchmen?!” ENFORCER: “I think I heard-” [sounds of grave offence] ENFORCER: “Let’s now leave. No further delays.” [sounds of payback] GUARD: "What's all this?!" [dissing from the sidelines] [sounds of frantic skirmish, interspersed with death rattles] [sounds of self-immolation for political reasons] Priorities on what to criticize just… fly away. Why would secret assassins go on a murder spree? Could telepathic communication use, like, ethereal humming, or something more creative? All of that pales to how stupid the chaos is. They’ll get a few townspeople, but in the end, they get demolished every single time. You don’t need to be an ally to witness this, it just makes watching it all unfold even easier. Like “Thief 2”, this game was also rushed, and I think the circus this part is, is one of those parts they didn’t have time to refine. This isn’t a silly one-off thing either. The final boss mission also happens in the city. The enemies don’t die this time, but it looks just as silly. To make it worse, the enforcers are automatically buffed a little by the Sneaky Upgrade. When I first played the game, this was even more one-sided. There’s an option to make them cloak and only hunt you, but I didn’t want to ruin the vanilla experience. This is what came out, and I doubt it’s what they intended. Getting into the story, I’m mixed on things, but overall kind of positive. On one hand, it is much more “tell, don’t show”. The game relies more on notes and journals than environmental storytelling (except for one level especially, which I’ll get to). I remember it, it remembers me. Anyway, having a dictionary of what, like, all the insults mean is stupid. However, all the “catching up new players” stuff mainly happens in these notes. So the main story doesn’t have Garrett retreading things that longtime players already know. It’s to the point where first time Xbox players were probably confused on what was happening. As a longtime player, I was happy with it. That said, some of these notes desperately needed a different way to convey the information. “Hahaha, Garrett would never find my weakness that would let him do this with his blackjack!” As established previously, the Keepers have written everything that will happen. “The Dark Project” and “Metal Age” were both prophesized. They use their sneaky means to change destiny. Except, now, the writings appear to be changing on their own, so, something’s happening… Garrett, who keeps stumbling into this cryptic bullshit, is involved again. If he steals two items for the Keepers, they’ll give him access to the prophesies. Most of the missions have nothing to directly do with this narrative. It’s a similar layout to “The Dark Project”, but much more compressed. So here’s what I think, without spoilers. KEEPER: “The prophesies are clear. It was much ahead to be wary of.” Initially, my thought was shining a light onto the Keepers like this was a huge mistake. The more you reveal about a secret, mysterious organization, the higher chances are that you accidentally reveal something stupid. It’s them and precursor aliens. If you have precursor aliens in a series, the longer it goes on, the higher the chances are that some writer will say they created humans or were humans. It doesn’t always happen, but it happens enough where I get nervous. “Deadly Shadows” was getting me nervous. KEEPER: “Ah, I see your point… AND the error in your thinking.” KEEPER: “The Compendium was lost ages ago. How could it possibly be on a ship that has just come into port?” CARVER: “Wat? What does that mean?” SCRIBER: “But-” KEEPER: “Enough, scribe, I have important business to attend to, in case you haven’t heard.” Oh no, they’re getting dumb… GARRETT: “You’ve moved up in the world, Orland. Nice view.” ORLAND: “Yes, I have.” [dramatic thunderclap] Character I’ve never seen or heard of before, but Garrett doesn’t like him. I hope he’s not trouble. HIGGS: “Remember me?” ORLAND: “This will admit you to certain areas of the library. DO NOT venture further.” ORLAND: “You will not ply your trade here, thief. If anything happens, you will be held accountable. Is this clear?” GARRETT: “Perfectly.” [*yoink*] The Keepers being revealed as squabbling bureaucrats seemed awful. I guess, their previous mystique made me think that they were above all that. Though, at the same time, it does explain more why Garrett left. I always accepted that – it wasn’t a burning question or anything – but sure, the Keepers are flawed, like anyone else, and they squabble a lot. I thought the Keeper internal power struggles gonna be the focus (which it is, but some elements get twisted around). Interesting elements do come out of that, but, unfortunately, some of it does feel like a retread of “The Dark Project”. If you don’t want spoilers, go to here: Alright, forget the Keeper garbage for now – it’s time for Shalebridge Cradle. DREPT: “This place hath nothing of value for thee to steal.” GARRETT: “I’m more interested in those papers of yours. If they can tell me anything about a… A crone that talks to statues…” DREPT: “Thou hast seen the Hag?!” GARRETT: “Not just seen – she tried to kill me! But I hear you’ve been trailing her for years.” DREPT: “Aye. I have followed her trail, but it had not been clear.” DREPT: “I had even doubted and on that her crimes weren’t more than my own imaginings. But that thou had seen her as well…” DREPT: “It was in my boyhood, in the orphanage known as the Shalebridge Cradle that I spotted her.” DREPT: “I didst playeth at a game with mine friend, and I was hidden, and my friend sought me.” DREPT: “Then a Hag, a bent and evil apparition, came from the darkness, near enough to touch, and my friend did scream.” DREPT: “But I was a child, and afraid. And then, it was over.” DREPT: “The orphanage grew a dark and haunted place, and now none dare enter.” DREPT: “When came I to my manhood, and was saved by the order of The Hammer, I sought the Hag again...” The Hag is our real villain. She’s being revealed very late into the game – these are the final two missions. The setup is creepy, and the art reminds me of the old “Thief” cutscenes. It is a hard turn at this point, but it’s a welcome one. GARRETT: “I’m used to the dark, but this feels like a house with bad dreams.” Yeah, let’s go in. Shalebridge Cradle is like a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, but more pleasant – being a combo asylum and orphanage. Walking in, there are no guards, no signs of anybody. This will already be throwing people off. And then the noises start. [foreboding echoes flow through the air] [knocking and pounding comes from beyond the walls] [murmurs and unintelligible lamentations pass by and fade away] There’s so much tension. You have no clue what to expect. You’ve encountered the supernatural before at this point in the game, so now anything goes. [frantic pounding] There’s so much restraint shown. You’re allowed to explore and absorb the creepy scenery. You know it’s effective, when the lights come on and you feel less safe. [sounds of rusted mechanisms coming to life] Right when you’re sort of getting used to the outer Cradle, you need to go deeper. There was a loading screen here. It’s gone now. I remember it making me feel even more trapped. [ticking of a clock] [electric crackling and deranged wheezing] Holy shit! I am INVESTED! When people make lists for the scariest videogame levels, the asylum appears frequently. A lot of the horror does come from not expecting it. You have encountered the undead at this point. They run now, but that still has nothing on the Cradle. The residents are some kind of undead, so, many of your usual tricks won’t work on them. But these aren’t your average undead. These are the puppeted corpses of the asylum’s prisoners. They never refer to this all being Hag magic or something like that. At least, I hope so. If it’s written down somewhere, I didn’t read it. It’s all caused by the pure evil of this location. It’s a traditional haunting. Besides the ghouls moving like “Jacob’s Ladder” characters, the horror also comes from seeing they have some kind of intelligence to them. They’re trapped in the past in quite a few ways. Each of the cells gives a little glimpse of the life of the patient who lived there. It is explained more in a note, but it is for the sake of gameplay. Unlike most other missions, there is a narrative here beyond just “go steal the thing”. It’s a ghost story, so, once again, you work with a ghost. GARRETT: “She looks… familiar. It’s that Keeper translator girl.” GARRETT: “But that can’t be! This portrait must be as old as the building!” (girl's voice is preceded by its echo)
LAURYL: “I can hear you breathing. Nobody here in the Cradle does that anymore.” Terri’s voice acting is also incredible. Mystery of the time loop aside, she needs Garrett’s help. The will of the Cradle is keeping her spirit trapped there. To sever that link and free her, objects that remind the Cradle of her must be destroyed. First, you get rid of a blood sample. Then you need to find her night gown, which will need to be burned up in the morgue. It’s not too eventful. PATIENT: "HA-AH!"
MANDALORE: "TUFUGHUGH!!" When that’s done, the patient cells and their items come back into play. You need to choose an object, and then bring it to where the patient liked to hang out, which you would know from reading the journal. However, doing so sends you into the past as that patient. Sort of… You can now be caught by the shadowy forms of the staff. They are deeply unpleasant. [deeply unpleasant huffing and grunting] If you get caught, you’ll have to try again with a new object in a new area. Or load a save. Even now, this is still a scary level. I’m sure some horror game fans might not find it as scary as some modern ones, but at bare minimum, it should be pretty interesting. You can see the DNA that formed some later horror games. This series has always had some influential levels, and this time around, it’s the Cradle. That said, if you are stocked up, you can obliterate all these haunts like crazy. “Deadly Shadows” has been very “do what you want” so far, but, if you want the best time, try and be sneaky. I mean, it’s a video game. Don’t you play those to have fun? Fine, fun’s over. The Cradle is fantastic. For a while… As much as I enjoy it, I do think it overstays its welcome. Because, after the toy in the past trip, you’re still not done. LAURYL: “Will you get my diary? In the real world, it’s all torn apart, and we’d never find all the pages. But in the past, it’s just the way I left it.” Okay, all the way back to the outer Cradle, back to the attic. Depending on the object you picked, you might be closer. I now have the diary – back to the inner Cradle to burn it. [epic burn] LAURYL: “My diary is gone. Good. The Cradle can barely remember me anymore.” LAURYL: “But it can still see the bloodstain in the attic. You’ll need to clean it up and-” Alright, got the cleaner, back to the inner Cradle again. This stain is gone. LAURYL: “You did it! The Cradle can’t remember me anymore! We can leave now! Meet me in the lobby, I’ll show you the way out.” With all that done, you can finally leave the cradle and- LAURYL: “Oh no! You can’t leave, can you? I know why. This place remembers YOU now. You’ve been here too long.” LAURYL: “There’s only one way to leave the Cradle – you have to trick it. I’ll help you. First, you have to enter the past as your real self.” Are we gonna make a 3 year plan for this? Does the Cradle remember my tax returns? Do I need to throw them in the furnace? The tension gets pushed into tedium. The final sequence is great, but it feels like there was some padding to get there. It’s likely another consequence of the levels being constrained. They can’t have a massive asylum, so they have to run you through this a few times. It seems you could cut a task out and not miss a whole lot. NOW you finally escape. Assuming you got all the loot you needed. You did that, right? So how is this ghost child alive? KEEPER: “Let the Book of Names record that-” GAMALL: (cries out in pain) KEEPER: “Interpreter Gamall, what’s wrong?” LAURYL: “Oh, look…” (the voice shifts from child-like to crone-like)
GAMALL: “No, no… Curse her stinking, rotting bones!” HAG: “You think you can snare me? Trap me with your secrets? I AM secret, kept for decades!” HAG: “You scratch out glyphs, and think you have them, but I wear them, drink them, breathe them, know them far better than you!” [*crunch*] HAG: “I am glyphs now and for all time!” LAURYL: “I’m me again. She can’t use it anymore.” Gamall, the Hag, was using Lauryl’s body to disguise herself. Even with her being revealed as some kind of lovecraftian, John Carpenter monster, it feels like such a retread of the Trickster’s reveal. And not even close to that good. In “The Dark Project”, the Trickster is a “hidden in plain sight” kind of villain. When you replay the game, you notice more hinting about him that you didn’t before. Check out the cutscene before the Bonehorde. It used to be abstract, but, oh, there’s the Trickster ruling the woods! The Builder comes, and humanity builds up, and they cast him out. Now that you’ve played it, you have the whole picture. “Deadly Shadows” has conversations, saying “Have you heard about the Hag? I don’t think the Hag is real. Who else seen the Hag, say “Yeah”!” What I find more intriguing about her was what she was actually up to. She’s an ancient, centuries-old magic user who infiltrated the Keepers. It is easy to do that, when you help found the organization. The Keepers always thought they were safeguarding the city and changing fate. It turns out, that with this kind of magic, destiny is set in stone. The Keepers had no real influence at all. She was manipulating them to think they were, by removing key prophecies that would mention her. Change notes here and there, and get rid of anyone who got too close to the truth. Then frame Garrett, because Garrett can… turn people to stone? Ugh, whatever… Garrett is a chosen one, called The True Keeper. Ironically, his role is to destroy all Keeper magic, ending her power and control permanently. This could have been done at the creepy lair that the Hag has, patrolled by creepy animated statues, but instead, we go back to the city hub. It’s bad, but our favorite guard Benny does end up being a hero. At least, in my game he was. Garrett succeeds in destroying glyph magic. The Keepers are revealed to all, and their power is over. We’re deep in prophesy and magic land, so this is up for interpretation. Whatever the case, it appears at long last that Garrett’s story is over. The “Thief” trilogy is done, but a new story could start. URCHIN: “Let go of me!” GARRETT: “That’s not for you.” URCHIN: “Please, sir, I’m hungry…” GARRETT: “You have talent. That’s no easy thing to… see a Keeper.” GARRETT: “Especially one whom does not wish to be seen.” [rad theme from the beginning] Yeah, it’s kind of cheesy, but I love that ending. It’s a solid bookend, and, even if you DON’T continue the series, it’s satisfying. It could have been a better game, but it also could have been a hell of a lot worse. There are still special moments to be had. I know I spent a lot of this video talking about things that I hated, or were a step down, but the bar was set so high by the previous entries, that even this not being up to that is still a pretty okay game. If a wizard said “I’m taking away your “Thief 3” memories”, I’d- I’d be sad. This game feels like listening to a song I love through an apartment wall. I can make out the beats, and I’m not trying to sleep, so I’m having a good time, but I can’t deny that all the fine details are being filtered out. Sometimes, it’s so muffled that I wonder “Is that actually the song I like?” They might be playing something else. Anyways, the trilogy sale is back on. A steal at 90 cents, while I steal… affiliation… pennies. So ends the “Thief” trilogy, and who knows if it will come back… There are still plenty of fan missions, and the Dark Mod is great, but I can’t see an official new game happening. Unless they pull a “Deus Ex”. That’s a prequel that went over pretty well. DR. KLAHN: “Take him to Detroit!” CIA AGENT: “NO!! NO, NOT DETROIT!! NO! NO, PLEASE! ANYTHING, BUT THAT!!” No. The answer is “no”, and I don’t know what you’re talking about. Jojo Evans: “Any thoughts on the “Diablo 2” remaster?” Have they even fixed the “Warcraft 3” one yet? I don’t think they have. Preordering modern Blizzard – especially, ESPECIALLY a Blizzard remake – you are gambling. Minamoto Terumi: “What’s a game [you’d] delete from [your] brain to play for the first time again?” Oh, man, that is a… That’s a hard one. My instincts say “S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl”, or “Metal Gear Solid 3”. That’d be enjoyable. Maybe “Mystery of the Druids”? Oh, look, Drood with an Attitude, right in the credits. I’ll put those answers in for now. Christian Stanley: “Have [you] heard of the new “Warhammer Dakka Squadron” game, and [are you] going to cover it?” I have heard of it, but I’m leaning towards “no”. This is the second or third Warhammer flight game I’ve heard coming out recently. I would much rather do some “Ace Combat” videos, but those are still a ways off. I’m still on the opinion that there are far, far too many Warhammer games, and, for better or worse, a lot just aren’t notable. I still have some I wanna do, but most are just kinda mediocre. Alright, stay safe! [loud rattling of stone]
This probably sounds like heresy to some people, but I kind of didn't mind the smaller levels in Thief Deadly Shadows. Especially with the mod that stitches the maps that are split into two parts together. It felt a lot more claustrophobic which really amped up the tension. Thief 1 & 2 had a lot of large open areas almost devoid of guards where you could relax. Deadly Shadows by contrast ends up feeling a lot more intense.
Also the harsh stencil shadows in this game really work with the atmosphere. The lighting technology at the time didn't exactly do subtle or natural lighting but it does do dramatic lighting with super dark shadows very well. It's a brilliant fit for a stealth game about hiding in the shadows with horror influences. Relatively speaking Deadly shadows isn't that much newer than the first two games yet the graphics kind of still hold up really well.
The movement though is really bad. No doubt about that. It's clunky and awkward. Moving with any kind of precision is completely impossible and yet the game still finds ways to demand that from you on occasion.
As a kid I never finished it, was too scared in The Cradle, what a scary level if you never experienced something like that
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a tricky one because while so obviously inferior to the original games in a number of ways, I still kinda love it. The controls are objectively worse, the levels are contrictive and tiny compared to the originals, there are entire gameplay elements like rope arrows that have been stripped away... and yet it's still Thief.
It feels like Thief, and I love Thief, therefor I love Deadly Shadows.
Which is way more than can be said about Thi4f. 2014's game has its fans, and I can kinda almost see why, but I ain't among em.
Definitely agree with Mandy here. Cool concepts, but poor level design and terrible, clunky movement brought this game down. The Cradle is one of the coolest levels in the series, at least.
The limitations of the XBOX really hamstrung this game.
I'm not saying people shouldn't like it. But it's definitely not what it could or should have been. Oh well...
While it wasn't as strong as Thief 2 I really loved this game and I was really excited to see where the series went from there. Unfortunately they destroyed the franchise with the reboot but I can still dream a of Thief 4 as you playing the young girl with Garrett as your mentor.
Didn't the console version of this game (on the Xbox) also have the game-breaking bug whereby it would revert back to normal difficulty every single time you loaded a save or replayed levels (or if you backtracked to older parts on the current level). I don't think they were ever able to fix that on console? Was it ever fixed for the back-comp 360 version?
*edit* Just found a few posts on the steam discussion board mentioning it was never fixed for console. Damn, that must have sucked, seeing as A LOT of things changed if you played on Expert.
The game was definitely a huge downgrade from Thief/Dark Project and Thief 2/Dark Project 2. The change from first person to third person camera led to a bit different gameplay. On the one side, it worked... it felt a bit like a Splinter Cell-game, but in the thief-universe. On the other hand the game had clearly some flaws. A few levels were dull and quite small. The story's quality declined quite significantly after the second act. The game became overall more boring to play than the first few missions.
In the end let's find out if it was a bad game or not? As a Thief II/Dark Project 2 successor it was definitely a letdown. But as a stealth-game itself (without comparing it to the first two games) it was kind of a mix between good and alright (i would say a overall score of 7/10). I have not played the game for over 15 years, but still remember a lot of moments and the spooky mental health facility-level. The dialogues of some npcs in some of the levels were also quite fun to listen.
The latest thief (2014) brought back the first person camera, but gameplay-wise was less fun to play than Thief 3: Deadly Shadows.
I wish someone would try to make a new Thief game, but with some good writing, interesting level-design, more precise movement and more.
Honestly loved Deadly Shadows. My first Thief game. The first two are better in many ways, sure, but I still love this one.