Thief: Deadly Shadows

by Eidos

Product Features

• Cutting-edge stealth and gameplay, as you work the city -- crime & corruption are everywhere, and so are dark alleys
• Think about the right tools for each situation -- huge arsenal to choose from - lockpicks, a blackjack, arrows, wall-climbing gloves, Flash bombs, daggers.
• An entire city is yours to explore - break into buildings, mug people on streets, and earn a reputation
• New levels of responsiveness and interactive options -- listen to small talk for clues, and watch as guards react to hints of your presence
• Third-person camera mode and new fighting abilities give players a choice of views, and the option to fight if seen

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0001CNRQQ
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: May 25, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,511 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

You play Garrett, the master thief. Rarely seen and never caught, Garrett is the best that ever was. Able to sneak past any guard, pick any lock, and break into the most ingeniously secured residences, Garrett steals from the wealthy and gives to himself, making his living in the dark and foreboding City. World weary and cynical, Garrett wants nothing more than to be left alone to ply his trade. But things never work out that way.

Features

• Cutting-edge Stealth: Hide in the shadows, sneak past the guards, or ambush them from the darkness!
• Brand New Game Perspective: Cinematic 3rd-person and classic immersive 1st-person modes are both fully supported and can be changed on the fly during gameplay.
• Action Gameplay: Breaking and entering, stealing, sabotage, evasion, espionage, combat, assassination, and setting up ambushes.
• Huge Aresenal of Thieves' Tools: Including lock picks, a blackjack, arrows with numerous purposes, wall-climbing gloves, oil flasks, flash bombs, and a dagger.
• Advanced Artificial Intelligence: AI guards that see and hear, track evidence and suspiciousness, search for intruders, flight, give chase, and perform lip synching, facial expressions, and hundreds of lines of real-time dialog.
• Dynamic Lighting and Shadow System: Every character and object casts a real shadow that dynamically affects stealth gameplay. Dynamically manipulate lighting to create your own shadows, but make sure your own shadow doesn't betray you to those who hunt you!

From Warren Spector -- creator of the award-winning series Deus Ex.

Product Description

Thief: Deadly Shadows takes you into the strange world of Garrett, master thief. Rarely seen, never caught, he just wants to make a living. He's drawn into a Web of events that will destroy the world, unless he applies his trade for more than just wealth. Dynamic lighting system for realistic, dynamic shadows that enhance stealth gaming

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Freedom, depth, great AI, solid visuals - and a lot of fun., May 28, 2004

By 

W. C. Bryant (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thief: Deadly Shadows (Video Game)

I should preface this review by coming right out and admitting that I am a new Thief, not having played either of the earlier titles in the franchise. Sure, I had heard all the hype, the various glowing reviews and ravings of die-hard fans, but something kept me away. Not this time, feeling hungry for a new game, I saw that Thief: Deadly Shadows hit the store(s), and decided to take a chance. I'm quite happy to report that I'm entirely glad that I did.

I did have some concerns at first. For the first few minutes of play, I found myself thinking that it should have been a rental instead of a purchase. But I played on, gradually getting drawn deeper into the plot, into the city, and into the joy of slipping quietly in where you haven't been invited, and plucking some valuable trinket off a table, from inside a chest, or even off the very person of an unfortunate homeowner or passerby. But this isn't what really got me into the game. How smart my victims were did. Sure, I was a little over-confident at first. I'd boldly sneak around behind marks wandering through their own homes, I'd skulk in the shadows, or creep slowly and quietly behind them, lifting items that caught my eye as I went. But this person lives here, and when they pass through a room and a candlestick is gone, or a chair is slightly out of place from when you less cautious than you should have been and bumped into it, or when a door has been left ajar - they realize it. And they often realize they aren't alone. So you could imagine my surprise, not yet having an appreciation for the depth of AI, when my helpless victim became decidedly non-helpless, and started actively searching for me. But I'm Garrett the Thief, and when backed into a corner, I can put up a fight. So when the owner found me after I knocked a barrel on its side trying to quickly duck into a nearby shadow, and when he drew a weapon with the intent to cause me harm, I quickly dispatched him with my dagger. He was in the light, I was in the shadow, he knew roughly where I was, but I still had the advantage. I stood over my victim, enjoying the moment when I heard a scream. The scuffle had alerted someone else in the house who came rushing in, and upon seeing me standing over the body, shot straight out of the house. She hadn't just fled through, she had gone to get the town guards. So imagine my surprise as I'm casually walking towards the open door to leave, and in burst two guards with weapons drawn. They came right at me, and while I put up a good fight, they took me down. The last thing I saw was the `terrified' woman standing in her doorway again, watching the guards beat me down.

I really enjoyed Splinter Cell, and SC: Pandora Tomorrow. I think it was how much I enjoyed those that led me to finally give Thief a shot. But one thing always bugged me about those titles, as terrific as they are and were. Your enemies had the attention span and short-term memory of mentally disabled goldfish. If two terrorists are in one room together, and you snatch one up and drag him away, the other never notices that he's suddenly alone. Leave doors open, move things, do anything but show yourself or leave a corpse around, and they have no clue anything is amiss. Not so here. Guards have areas of responsibility. And when one is no longer at his post because you've clobbered him over the head with your trusty blackjack, and dumped him unconscious behind some bushes, his captain who may well be wandering around and checking up on his men will notice, and he'll investigate.

The game is outstanding, I am really enjoying it. I'm nearly done, and I've already decided that I will be playing it through again. There's so much to do beyond the main storyline, that there's really no way to get into all the little side plots and scenarios, no way to hit every house and business in your first go. Graphically the game is quite good. Not jaw-droppingly impressive, I would have liked to have seen this in 720p and widescreen, but still a solid visual presentation. The Dolby Digital sound is terrific. The depth of play, and the AI, are really what give this title legs though.

This game, in my opinion, is worth a purchase. Unless of course the idea of sneaking around just bores you to tears. If you're looking for a hack'n'slash, this isn't it. If you're looking for an intriguing storyline, exciting action, and even a few moments where you literally jump at your own shadow, then this is going to be a good time for you. Why 4 out of 5? I would have liked to have seen at least a minimal tie-in to XBLive. Not online play perhaps, given the scope of the game, but maybe expansion and bonus content (new missions, new equipment, etc.) that could have been added over time. I think that really would have gone a long way to put this title over the top in terms of re-playability. Also, I've been trapped (bug) inside or against objects a few too many times. An annoyance, and perhaps a minor one, but a piece of the puzzle when I had to decide upon a rating. To be fair, if we could give fractions of stars in our ratings, I'd give this as high a 4 as possible.

The cover art says it best. "Tension-fueled stealth, variety of gameplay, advanced AI, dynamic lighting and shadow system." Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Pick this one up, you'll be glad you did.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best "true" stealth game I've ever played., May 31, 2004

By 

R. Wyatt (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thief: Deadly Shadows (Video Game)

Well I'm not really going into real "depth" about this, I think some of the earlier reviews covered that. I'm just going to type out a few thoughts I have about the game.

First of all, the game play is excellent, it really does stick with the stealthy play the whole time. But the first thing that caught my attention was the lighting. It's not just "lighting" for the sake of viewing.The lighting is actually a part of the game play. It's actually the -most- important part of the game, and in Thief DS, the lighting is beyond perfect. You sneak around in the shadows,and your "light gem" shows how visible you are to the AI in the game. Even having a small percentage of your body sticking out from the shadows will be reconized by the game's AI.

Now the AI... It's near-perfect. Characters will hear your footsteps, notice if you leave doors open, notice if you put out a torch, notice if you steal something and so on. If you kill someone with an arrow, or your dagger, it will leave a pool of blood (which you can wash away with water arrows), which the AI will notice, and alert other characters that something is wrong. One thing that bothers me is when Garrette (main character) gets caught. The guard/enemy will chase him for a bit, but not for long. Basically all I need to do, to lose them, is round a corner and get into a shadow. After that, wait about 20 seconds and they give up. After a while it gets to where getting caught is less of a dangerous problem, and more of a very annoying one. If you get cornered and all you have is a dagger, just hope you saved earlier. Garrette can only take about 5 hits. Which is good, in a way, because the game really is about stealth, not fighting.

Visually the game looks pretty good. At a medium distance you can't tell if a guard has his back turned, or if he's looking right at you (glad Garrette has that mechanical zoom-in eye). Some of the areas are beautifully detailed. And some are just 'okay'. Most of the areas will have great looking textures, and 'okay' textures right beside each other, which makes things look strange. The town is literally a big maze. It takes a while to figure out how to get around, because it all looks the same (besides a few landmarks). The maps aren't much help either, because they don't show any of the alleyways that you use to get around. It can get confusing.

The story is so-so. This game was definatly not made for the storyline, but made for excellent game play and freedom. The town that the story takes place in has no name, and unless you've played the other Thief games, you have no clue what the storyline is about. You just get "thrown" in at a certain point and do whatever you're told. The areas kind of melt in to each other after a while. Most of them seem the same, except a differant look. Hiding in most areas isn't very challenging. The stand out mission is the Abysmal Gale (ghost ship). Everything about it is made perfect. It's eerie, you don't know what lurking around the corners, and the fog and lighting just make everything look extra-creepy.

This game requires alot of patience. Watching which routes guards walk, slowly skulking in the shadows so you will not get caught, slowly pacing behind someone waiting for the right tim the strike, and searching everywhere for loot makes up the entire game.

So if you've read this much so far, I'll give my opinion on whether or not to buy it. For now, while it still costs $50, don't buy it. The game is just too short to pay $50. I got it in the mail 3 days ago, and I just finished it this morning. Secondly, the game isn't going to be one that you will replay more than twice. It's a linear story. Aside from a few side quests, the game goes in one direction and you have to do all the missions in order. After a while the game play gets repetitive. Skulk in shadows, hide from foes, watch the guard, mug him, hide the body, repeat, repeat, repeat.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece among many stealth clones, July 12, 2004

By 

Daniel Harris (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thief: Deadly Shadows (Video Game)

Most people, I have noted, who have not played this game ALL the way through, usually give this game bad marks. The story here is far superior to anything on the market (yes, Percy, that includes Splinter Cell and Syphon Filter... BOTH of which were released way after the first game in the Thief franchise.
Garrett is easily the most endearing character in this game, and voice actor Stephen Russel absolutely shines as our aloof, embittered mercenary.
The sound is absolutely phenomenal, and one reason ANYONE should play this is because this game contains one of the top three levels EVER MADE in a video game, unfortunately, this level (The Shalebridge Cradle) is near the end, and the impatient and Attention-Defecite Afflicted (Again, like Percy) may be too frustrated by not seeing blood and flying heads to continue that long. This level is a masterpiece, as is the game as a whole. It is the most realistic simulation of what true medieval thievery would be like... but don't expect a huge body count... after all, you're a thief, not Rambo.

All in all, an absolute epic that you will be tempted to play at least twice.