Thief: Deadly Shadows
UltimaGecko
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Some decent stuff for the ol' Box</div> I'm pretty sure the game is also on PC, but I played the Xbox version...The game rocks and is definately worth the money to rent it (you'd have to be the judge to know if the replay value is good enough to buy it).
Thief: Deadly Shadows [Thief 3]
Made by: Ion Storm and Eidos
Stealth action in 1st or 3rd person (changes on the fly, woot)
1 player
The game has an excellent story, and a fairly untedious tutorial 1st mission. And then it's basically mission based pilfering all the way (with choices). After the first (real) mission, the game picks up much better. As you can then pick your missions more selectively, or just run around in the city pick pocketing people.
I don't really want to go into a whole review about the game, you can get those pretty much anywhere (although, if you read the OXM review, I find that their negatives are kind of untrue).
I'd actually like to point out some of the more awesome points of the game (some kindof big spoilers in here, so if you don't want to ruin the story, levels or equipment you should probably stop now).
[soo....SPOILERS...would be the best way to mark this off]
This game has some of the best levels I've seen for atmosphere and design (the fact that Garret can be killed pretty easily helps a bit too, I suppose).
One of my favorite parts in the game isn't even during a mission, on the Abysmal Gale (a ship anchored in the city harbor). It's a ship infested (while...they'd have you think so, but there's more like 12 zombies on it) with zombies. It's like Resident Medieval and has some nice atmosphere. There's actually the cool way of killing the zombies with flashbombs, fire arrows or vials of holy water.
My favorite level would have to be the Cradle, an orphanage turned insane asylum that had a fire and is now abandoned. It's got awesome story elements (right when you find out the way you came in is blocked by a metal gate and Garret says "This can't be a good sign" you know it's going to be cool). The level actually features a minimum of enemies (which, I thought I read in OXM, but I guess I didn't, but there still were few enemies). Once you get to the attic it takes off and becomes even freakier/cooler.
It's one of the few levels where I've shocked myself for a split second. I came across one of the electroshocked inmates and killed him, then I opened a door and the music played something strange and I jumped for a second, before noticing my eyes had just played tricks on me (maybe playing it at 3 am helped). If nothing else, you should rent it just to play this level.
Another good level, is the last actual mission, the museum. It's basically lots of guards, lots of loot, and some good atmosphere. The electrical 'traps' that can be put out with a water arrow are kindof lame, but easy to bypass, so it's all good. Not really much for spoilers or interesting plot in the level - it's justa fun level to play.
The game actually does present you with a variety of choices, not just in choosing your mission (in two seperate points), but in the levels themselves - which have multiple points of entry, chances of escape and interesting sub plots (mentioning Captain Moira's beach house as a level - it's got awesome atmoshpere, epescially listening to his wife and watching the lightning flash through the rotunda roof casting cool shadows).
The first (real) mission: The first time I played it, I didn't know what to do (listening to the tutorial level's plot tells you to put out the giant fire pot). A door would open on the second floor, but I had no idea how to get there. I kept trying to get in through the front door (and considering one swipe of a sword takes off 1/3 of Garret's health on normal, that's not safe)...
Once I did get around to looking around, I found there were 3 ways to just start off the level: A ladder behind where you start [to the second floor], a window that goes right into the castle...and the front door.
The game runs on a fairly smooth running engine (fire arrow explosions or 7 enemies on screen at once can slow it down sometimes, but overall it's smooth), which seems to be the Deus Ex 2 engine - just put to better use on normal mapped bricks and the existence of much more Fire than Deus Ex 2.
The only problem with the game is the moderately long wait for levels to load (although, realistically, it's about 1/10th of Morrowind's loading times) and the strange ragdoll physics that create unrealistic body posistions. There's also the fact moss arrows are almost totally useless, but I digress [since they're the only completely useless items, oil vials come next, but after that they're all decently usefull].
So...go out and rent it already, come back discuss the awesomeness of the game.
Thief: Deadly Shadows [Thief 3]
Made by: Ion Storm and Eidos
Stealth action in 1st or 3rd person (changes on the fly, woot)
1 player
The game has an excellent story, and a fairly untedious tutorial 1st mission. And then it's basically mission based pilfering all the way (with choices). After the first (real) mission, the game picks up much better. As you can then pick your missions more selectively, or just run around in the city pick pocketing people.
I don't really want to go into a whole review about the game, you can get those pretty much anywhere (although, if you read the OXM review, I find that their negatives are kind of untrue).
I'd actually like to point out some of the more awesome points of the game (some kindof big spoilers in here, so if you don't want to ruin the story, levels or equipment you should probably stop now).
[soo....SPOILERS...would be the best way to mark this off]
This game has some of the best levels I've seen for atmosphere and design (the fact that Garret can be killed pretty easily helps a bit too, I suppose).
One of my favorite parts in the game isn't even during a mission, on the Abysmal Gale (a ship anchored in the city harbor). It's a ship infested (while...they'd have you think so, but there's more like 12 zombies on it) with zombies. It's like Resident Medieval and has some nice atmosphere. There's actually the cool way of killing the zombies with flashbombs, fire arrows or vials of holy water.
My favorite level would have to be the Cradle, an orphanage turned insane asylum that had a fire and is now abandoned. It's got awesome story elements (right when you find out the way you came in is blocked by a metal gate and Garret says "This can't be a good sign" you know it's going to be cool). The level actually features a minimum of enemies (which, I thought I read in OXM, but I guess I didn't, but there still were few enemies). Once you get to the attic it takes off and becomes even freakier/cooler.
It's one of the few levels where I've shocked myself for a split second. I came across one of the electroshocked inmates and killed him, then I opened a door and the music played something strange and I jumped for a second, before noticing my eyes had just played tricks on me (maybe playing it at 3 am helped). If nothing else, you should rent it just to play this level.
Another good level, is the last actual mission, the museum. It's basically lots of guards, lots of loot, and some good atmosphere. The electrical 'traps' that can be put out with a water arrow are kindof lame, but easy to bypass, so it's all good. Not really much for spoilers or interesting plot in the level - it's justa fun level to play.
The game actually does present you with a variety of choices, not just in choosing your mission (in two seperate points), but in the levels themselves - which have multiple points of entry, chances of escape and interesting sub plots (mentioning Captain Moira's beach house as a level - it's got awesome atmoshpere, epescially listening to his wife and watching the lightning flash through the rotunda roof casting cool shadows).
The first (real) mission: The first time I played it, I didn't know what to do (listening to the tutorial level's plot tells you to put out the giant fire pot). A door would open on the second floor, but I had no idea how to get there. I kept trying to get in through the front door (and considering one swipe of a sword takes off 1/3 of Garret's health on normal, that's not safe)...
Once I did get around to looking around, I found there were 3 ways to just start off the level: A ladder behind where you start [to the second floor], a window that goes right into the castle...and the front door.
The game runs on a fairly smooth running engine (fire arrow explosions or 7 enemies on screen at once can slow it down sometimes, but overall it's smooth), which seems to be the Deus Ex 2 engine - just put to better use on normal mapped bricks and the existence of much more Fire than Deus Ex 2.
The only problem with the game is the moderately long wait for levels to load (although, realistically, it's about 1/10th of Morrowind's loading times) and the strange ragdoll physics that create unrealistic body posistions. There's also the fact moss arrows are almost totally useless, but I digress [since they're the only completely useless items, oil vials come next, but after that they're all decently usefull].
So...go out and rent it already, come back discuss the awesomeness of the game.
Comments
Plus the city is so ridiculously small, we dont have the feeling it is a CITY, especially compared to the huuuuge level of Thief 2 (anyone remember the Bank and the chase through rooftops?).
Plus they are lots of stuff you dont use. I mean, why should i use an oil flask when a flashbomb does the job 10x better (and believe me i tried using it)? Flashbomb/ water arrow/ fire arrow for damage, is all you will need
Overall it is a good game but definitively not producing the same shock that Thief 2 created. My advice is to replay Thief 2 instead of playing Thief: Deadly shadows. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I just wish I could play Thief 3 without getting my hands dirty in OS blood. Ah, well.
Only the 'find this thing and put it here' part is really boring (once you read the paper telling you the connections it's kindof pointless anyway)...they could have just left it with finding 3 items instead of 4 and it would probably have been a little bit better.
As I said, I played the Xbox version, which understandably shouldn't have any compatability errors, however, XP only is stupid - tons of people don't want to use it, some can't and many people just don't want to upgrade.
...Moss arrows are still the most useless...Let's shoot an arrow that makes noise to cover up our walking noise! It's secondary use of shootign people in the face to disorient them is covered by the flashbombs.
...maybe if they covered the electric based lighting they'd have more of a use (..well..maybe they do, but I never tried it).
Flashbombs, water arrows and blackjack <i>are</i> really all you need. [shooting fire arrows into puddles of oil = waste of a fire arrow]
Unfortunately, Thief 3 is the only Thief game I've played, although I know one of them is the base for the SS2 engine with the 'hide in the shadows' ability. I don't know of anywhere to get them either.
TBH I was just looking for a reason to jump into this, because of that whole "If you have nothing nice to say don't say it" rule, but I 100% agree with you Tequila.
EEK: Glad to see you like a game, first time I've heard it. Lets hope I can hear more of...hmm...I need the other Thief games...pwnt is me.