Thief™ 3: Deadly Shadows

A gem. Gem so rare, 12 years have passed and no other game came this close to stealth perfection (with the exception of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory). The AI, levels, the feeling of weight and an actual, visible body in first person! Deadly Shadows refined almost every element from Garrett's previous adventures, but let's start from the beginning. For veterans the beginning, a training mission, might seem laughable, but while it's short, simple and easy, it perfectly captures the core gameplay. There's a valuable loot to steal, guards to avoid and torches to extinguish. Thief the 3rd was my first game in the series, so with no previous experience, this training mission laid out for me everything I needed to know for what was coming next. What came next was a proper mission, with a lot of hidden loot, a lot of guards, rooms and tension. There's nothing like a thrill of being just inches away from a guards who's looking for you. With the challenging AI at expert difficulty this game gave me some of the best moments, when I was chuckling while glued to the corner of the room, watching guards look for the source of sound I just made. Some of the critique for this game comes from levels, that they are not as huge or as open as in previous games from the series. While I agree that level design is very important, for me, AI is the most important thing in stealth game. I believe Thief 3 is the first game, where guards react to the reaction of other npcs, not just to what the player does. A sleeping guard will wake up at the sound of the voice of his colleague shouting in the dark, cursing Garrett. And levels are awesome too, especially Shalebridge Cradle, which is the first stealth-horror level ever created, and still the best among them all. It was so good, Kieron Gillen wrote a 10 pages article just about this level. I could go on and on, about how this game is the best, but there's a character limit. Don't listen to haters, just play the game. Install Sneaky upgrade!

Great game from the past that deserves another chance from new audience of gamers. I spend almost 100 hours in this game, trying many mechanics throught my life. My game from the childhood, masterpiece from adulthood. Love it very much/

Even though Thief - Deadly Shadows was also plagued by the "console-ification" virus, it is actually an awesome game with great atmosphere and gameplay. Not nearly as good as the original two of course, but still a very good game and I would say a worthy sequel.

Runs great with the "T3SneakyUpgrade"! No bugs. Best Thief game so far.

I really try not to do negative reviews these daysm so I'm gonna start with some of the positive. While I myself am not a fan of the addition of the third person perspective(I feel it makes things too easy), I do greatly appreciate that the game literally never once forces the player to use it. It is 100% up to you whether or not you want to use it at all, and if you use it, how much. And it definitely opened up this series to new players. I don't particularly like the brief detour to Silent Hill; still, I can't deny that it is quite effective. It's really no wonder that the 2014 game features a clear homage, even though most of those are to the first two. I find they tend to just be a nuisance, but I really respect the addition of loose objects that you can accidentally bump into to attract unwanted attention. Given that this is not supposed to be about fencing and that you are supposed to be a thief not a knight, it does make a lot of sense to replace your sword with a dagger. Of course the fact that you can technically use it against swords at all does feel like a very silly compromise. I get that making this somewhat similar to Deus Ex felt comfortable for the developers and I'm sure it attracted people who otherwise weren't interested in this and certainly these had not performed quite as well as hoped. The graphics get a distinct upgrade. Its plot contains at least one really compelling twist. This does allow you to use stealth even in situations where similar titles do not. The ties to the previous entries are genuinely handled well. It completely defangs Pagans & Hammerites. The idea that the two factions could coexist well enough that they could have bases within walking distance, and that the former would be so close to The City, makes it feel like the people behind this one did not appreciate that the games that came before this one in this franchise literally featured world ending scenarios that revolved around the unceasing conflict between the groups.