I finally got around to playing Thief: Deadly Shadows. Its been on my backlog of games to play for a while now. Being a huge fan of Thief: The Dark Project, and Thief 2: The Metal Age, it came as no surprise that I enjoyed the third one just as much. True, Looking Glass Studios, the company that made the first two critically acclaimed games had gone out of business, and thus would be unable to make the sequel. However, the torch was kept burning by Austin branch of Ion Storm (not the crappy Dallas ofice which released the infamously and horrifically bad Daikatana). The founder, Warren Spectre, had worked on System Shock and Ultima. Ion Storm already had the critically acclaimed Deus Ex under its belt. Not to mention Stephen Russell, the voice of the main character Garrett in the first two games, would be returning for yet another masterful performance. So the game was in pretty good hands - and it shows. Some tweaks to the original gameplay was made, but all in all it remained faithful to the original.
The story basically picks up where the last two left off. Garrett, the main character and master thief of the first two games, had played the role of maintaining balance between the two diametrically opposed religions - the Hammerites and the Pagans. The latter worship the Trickster, and revel in the chaotic freedom and primal anarchy of nature. The former worship the Builder, and delight in civilization and order. In the first game, the Trickster manages to return to earth, by duping Garrett into helping him. Garrett loses an eye for his efforts. The Trickster wants to unleash his tree hugging, nature loving minions upon the earth and destroy civilization as part of his "dark project" to bring humanity back to its original chaotic and primitive state. By defeating the Trickster in the first game, Garrett weakens the Pagans, swings the balance in the other direction, and unwittingly triggers a new era, a metal age. Thus in the second game, Garrett allies with the Pagans in order to defeat the Mechanists, a cult that splintered off from the Hammerites. The leader of the cult, Kharas, wants to wipe out organic life in order to create a mechanical paradise. Garrett foils Kharas' plan and saves the day yet again.
In Deadly Shadows, Garrett must once again play the role of the hero. This time the problem stems from the Keepers. The Keepers are an ancient faction that Garrett had originally apprenticed under. Fed up with their ways, Garrett left them in order to put the thieving skills he learned from them to more practical use. The Keepers represent neutrality and maintain balance. Unfortunately for them, one of their order is a brethren betrayer, who is trying to usher in a dark age. Figuring into all of this is a creepy old woman known only as the hag - a boogeyman type monster that performs unspeakable acts upon her victims. If this all sounds terribly plain and generic, it really isn't. Thief games all have a way of immersing you into their worlds.
A quick side note here. The game is named Thief: Deadly Shadows, not Thief
3: Deadly Shadows, even though it is technically a sequel to the metal age. The reason being that Deadly Shadows was released for consoles as well as PC. Not wanting to alienate players who had never heard of the first two games, they decided to just call it Thief Deadly Shadows. I'll just refer to the game as Thief 3, since it is the third installment of the series in everything but name.
In fact it was so similar to the first two that it shared the same glaring flaw as the first two, despite being developed years afterward: Since the game is a bit old, it could not handle my dual core processor! It caused the game to be stuck in an infinite loop where it played the opening movie over and over again. This was solved by permanently setting the affinity of t3main.exe and t3.exe to one of the processors.
I downloaded
imagecfg.exe and created a batch file in my C:\Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\System directory with these lines:
imagecfg -u t3.exe
imagecfg -u t3main.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 t3.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 t3main.exe
pause
and that fixed the problem, allowing me to actually play the game.
And what a great gameplay experience it was! As I said earlier, some tweaks to the original formula were made. The basic idea remains the same though. You play through a series of missions as Garrett, a master thief who favors stealth over strength. Each mission involves burglarizing various locales. Each area will be swarming with guards, servants, and various other NPCs. You won't get very far by going in guns blazing. In fact, you don't even have a gun, let alone a rocket launcher. You have a dagger and a bow. No, instead the idea is to use stealth. Light and sound are your main enemy. You will prefer to hide in the shadows and be careful of where you tread, as certain surfaces make louder noises than others. When you do strike, it will be fast, quick, and painless; your enemies will not see you coming. It will be your best interest to clean up the evidence. People will take notice of blood stains, missing items (stolen by you), and bodies.
The missions run the whole gamut and present a diverse variety of challenges. Among the places you will be robbing are a museum, a church, a mansion, and a castle. They managed to capture the magic of the original thief games. The levels are nonlinear, huge, offer plenty of places to explore, hide, and steal. The NPC conversations are hilarious as usual, and bits and pieces of lore can be found everywhere that really flesh out the world and mythology. For example, in the sunken citadel you learn the history of the kurshoks, who were banished deep beneath the sea by the Trickster for their pride. Really, my biggest complaint is that the loading zones between areas were lame. The other nitpick is the level: gamall's lair. It wasn't quite a full blown mission, and it occurs right before the final level, so its kind of anticlimactic and sort of throws off the pacing. You're expecting a showdown with the final boss, but you don't even encounter her in her lair. And when you finally do, that too feels anticlimactic, since it takes place in the city, and not in a level of its own.
My favorite mission by far is the Robbing the Cradle level. To put it bluntly: it scared the shit out of me. Judging by other people's responses, I am not alone. What makes it so unique is that the Thief Series is not a "horror" game, like Clive Barker's Undying, or Silent Hill. But it always has elements of horror in it. There will be a hint of it here and there, and then BAM, it hits you hard in the head with it. Anyone who has played through the Return to the Haunted Cathedral level in the original Thief knows what I'm talking about. The Cradle manages to capture that same creepiness and intensity that made the Cathedral such a chilling experience. Its really hard to put into words but I'll try anyway.
The Shalebridge Cradle is an orphanage that was later converted to an insane asylum. The kids, who remained behind in the nursery, started disappearing. Then the place caught on fire and much of it was destroyed and abandoned, left to rot in decrepitude. An atmosphere of gloom pervades the whole area, and it fills players with a sense of foreboding and dread.
The ambient sound effects really contribute to the feelings of unease: Groans, whispers, tortured shrieks punctuate the silence. Even the steady ticking of the clock and the crackle of a flickering light seem sinister in such an environment. Probably the best moment of the game was when I first began to hear the barely perceptible sound of someone knocking on the door. It was quite subtle and I wanted to dismiss it as yet another harmless, albeit frightening, noise. But it didn't seem quite right and felt out of place, so I investigated. I began to head towards the sound, and sure enough it grew louder. It led me up some stairs, and to a door. This then, was where the noises were emanating from. It was at this point that the knocking was not so slow and subtle anymore, but had suddenly become a furious pounding noise. I opened it of course, but not before being completely freaked out.
I thought the former patients that populate the Cradle made for a great monster. They were every bit on par with the Hammer haunts in the Haunted Cathedral. For me, the key thing that made the haunts so horrifying were the sound effects: the slow and steady rattling of their chains, their hoarse and sepulchural groans to "join us", and their hideous laughter is enough to test a man's nerves. The patients in the Cradle tend to be far more quiet, save for the occasional hiss. This too is effective, but in a different way. You never know when they're just around the corner. And they are every bit a terror to behold as the haunts. They appear to be little more than rag dolls, with barely any vestige of humanity left in them. Their bodies are covered from head to foot in decaying restraints, a metal cage is bolted to their heads, and they walk with an unnatural and awkward shambling motion. This inhuman limp is the essence of the monster, so in this case, a picture is not worth a thousand words, as it cannot do this monster enough justice:
You know a monster has been designed well when you can barely suppress a shudder every time you encounter it. You also know a level is scary when you are glad to be done with it. Funny enough, that's also one of the criteria used to determine when a game sucks. But I was glad to be done with the cradle in a good way; my heart beat could finally stop beating so fast.
The Cradle level really steals the show, but the whole game manages to shine. Thief: Deadly Shadows is a great game that did justice to the legendary Thief legacy. For my own notes and reference, here are the main differences between Thief 3 and Thief 1/2:
1. Lock picking mini game
In the first two thief games, you had two lockpicks which you alternated between to bypass any locks. The more complex the lock, the more you had to alternate between the two picks. In Thief 3, they have added a lock picking mini game which involves you moving the mouse to various "sweet spots". The more complex the lock, the more sweet spots. I didn't care too much for it, but didn't mind it either.
2. Blackjack handles far differently
In the original game, you used the blackjack to club people unconscious without killing them. You simply ran up behind them and swung the thing and down they went. You could do this in rapid succession and take out a whole bunch of people in a room at once - providing they all did not see (or hear) you coming.
In Thief 3, the blackjack now has some startup and recovery time. Now you must be positioned directly behind your victim, which will then cause Garrett to lift the blackup over his victim's head. If the blow is not made in this position, it will not knock them unconscious. Furthermore, once the blow is made, there is some recovery time where Garrett is unable to move.
I liked this change, as it made it more challenging and slightly more realistic. After all, to deliver a knockout blow, you would need some time to gather up the necessary power, and of course you would need to follow through with it and recover.
3. You cannot knock someone out once they have been flashbombed.
In Thief 1/2, you could toss a flashbomb, and then club everyone with your blackjack to take them out as they fumbled about blindly. In Thief 3, the second you hit them, they are able to see once more and attack you immediately.
I liked this change as well, since it definitely made the game more challenging. The flashbomb has been nerfed so that it is no longer an offensive weapon, but rather a getaway device. Actually that's not entirely true, flashbombs still damage the undead (thankfully, or else the Cradle level would have been that much more nightmarish - more on this later).
4. No more speed potions
5. Oil potions
These cause enemies to slip, slide and fall on contact. Admittedly, being an old fashioned Thief player, I never actually used these.
6. No more rope arrows
In Thief 1/2, these were the equivalent of grappling hooks. Simply shoot an arrow up onto a wooden surface, and a rope drops down for you, which you can then use to climb up to that surface. In this case there is no rope arrow, but instead you get to purchase these broken climbing gloves, which allow you to pretty much climb up any surface. This means no epic jumping puzzles such as the Lost City pharaoh's tomb where you had to traverse a whole section of lava by shooting multiple rope arrows in succession.
7. The city
This is probably by far the biggest change to the game. In Thief 1/2, you played the missions one after the other. In Thief 3, the game is divided up into "days". On each day, you have two missions to complete, and in between each mission you get to explore the city, pick pocket civilians, rob stores and homes, sell your goods to fences, purchase equipment, and complete extra side quests.
The city where Thief takes place is quite large and is divided into different sections. There is plenty to see, do, and explore here. It adds additional replay value and provides a great open ended and immersive experience that supplements the gameplay of the missions, which are themselves already quite open ended.
8. Factions
In Thief 3, you can ally yourself with either the Pagans or the Hammerites. You start off as enemies of both and they attack you on site. You can improve your standing with them by doing favors/quests for them in the city. This will cause them to become neutral toward you. You can continue doing favors and become allies - at which point they will fight alongside you, as well as allow you into their base. Note that your standing is only relevant in the city. Even if they are your allies, when you perform the actual missions themselves, any allied pagans or hammerites will still attack you. In the end, it doesn't make a huge difference on the game ending which side you ally with. In fact you don't even have to ally with either side. But it definitely makes the game more interesting.
9. Loading areas
I did not like this and blame it on consoles. Every mission in the game (Except the training mission at the start) is now divided into two parts. To travel in between parts you step into a misty portal that takes you to a loading screen where you wait for that section to load. It totally ruins the game immersion and feels lame. It makes every level feel the "same", because you know there are going to be two sections. In thief 1/2, even though the levels were huge, they were not divided into different sections. I understand that the city needs to be broken up into different loading areas - after all - they are pretty big, but the missions? Come on now. And at the very least don't use the same misty fog type portal to indicate a new area. In Oblivion, at least they used doors and gates that didn't feel out of place.
10. Generic objectives
This is a nitpick, but the objectives in this game aren't nearly as descriptive or interesting as those in the previous games. True, every mission will have some unique objectives, but it will also tell you to steal x% of the loot, and steal y amount of special loot. These same plain objectives will appear on every level.
Compare this to Thief, where instead of the same bland "steal 90% of the loot", it instead says: "The Opera House is filled with precious adornments and attracts the city's wealthiest patrons, so don't leave without at least 2000 worth of loot." And instead of "steal y amount of special loot", each piece of special loot will have a description that really fleshes out the game world. This is also taken from the Song of Caverns level:
"When he was alive, your informant Giry often bragged about the cash take in just a single evening at the opera house. Find out if he was telling the truth - get to the ticket office and steal the contents of the cash box."
Its the attention to the small details such as this that distinguishes a good product from an excellent product. So it was a bit disappointing to see they skimped on the mission objectives.
11. Loot that glows in the dark. In this game, the loot glitters and sparkles, so its easier to spot and steal. I'm guessing the justification for this is that finding the necessary amount of loot at the harder difficulty levels was a problem. On the one hand it kind of ruins immersion and feels like the game was dumbed down, but on the other, I understand the need. On more than one occasion I had to reference a walkthrough to find some loot that I had missed in the original Thief games.
Well that about covers it. Unfortunately, Ion Storm has also gone out of business, so at the moment, it doesn't seem like there will be any new thief games. But between Dark Project, Metal Age, and Deadly Shadows (to say nothing of fan made mods such as T2X: Shadows of the metal age), there's more than enough gaming goodness to satisfy Thief lovers everywhere.
