Thief™ 3: Deadly Shadows

Thief 3 has the best story out of the three, and the atmosphere, hiding, sneaking, stealing is still top notch, in footsteps of the first two. Graphics are not bad for its age, the design is good enough to prevail and set and atmosphere. Sounds are good, voice acting is still on par and familiar for players of 1 & 2. Game mechanics are largely the same as in previous games, only rope arrow was switched to climbing gloves. The map designs allow some freedom during the walkthrough, while the player will not get lost. This can be a good or bad thing according to the taste of some, but I think it is still on the line that is acceptable for the most. And as I mentioned the story is great, sometimes referencing to previous installments and rounding up the trilogy. The only possible issue is the compatibility on contemporary machines. I hope GoG implements the Sneaky upgrade mod (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138607), or at least it gets a sticky in the forum, because it would be a shame if someone abandoned this game only due to this.

Thief Deadly Shadows was actually my first foray into the Thief world. I originally played it on the Xbox, and I remember being sucked into it like no other. The detail of the world, portrayed through plot missions, snippets of dialog overheard and the text found in notes and books really impressed me at the time, and made the world seem alive. While I agree with many that the first two Thief instalments are better, Thief:DS is still well worth playing!

First of all, is it as good as it's predessesors IMO? No. There are several little, and I stress the LITTLE, things that I don't like which have been previously stated like loading screens, lack of rope arrows, getting stuck in the environment, loot glint, novelty, etc. It did seem to be have lost something from the originals. However, I don't think that they retract enough from the gameplay to make it unenjoyable. The story continues with Garret, still voiced by Stephen Russell, as he continues to steal from the rich... and give to himself. He may be the protagonist, but he's also an anti-hero. He is a thief after all. Despite his intriguing personality and selfish attitutde, he always ends up being involved in a world-saving plot, and thus shows us that even taffers can be life-savers. This game seems to gravitate a little more back to TDP in that it goes back to it's fantasy roots as opposed the the metal age shown in TMA. It pulls it off quite well, while keeping it's dark steampunk environment. Most of the same factions make an appearance again: The pagans, the hammerites, and the keepers. This time they seem to go into more detail with these factions, and you will see all of them throughout the game. They have added a faction meter, which some people dislike. It didn't hinder gameplay for me personally. I also greatly enjoyed pitting them against each other. Sometimes I created small-scale battles! The plot, climax, and over-all story was very well done. The new antagonist was highly entertaining, and all of the secondary characters fit the story well. Every mission seems to contribute to the main storyline in even if in a small way. Although the load scenes do get annoying, I greatly appreciated the addition of the street areas (quarters) where you can do side-quests and enjoy pickpocketing the citizens, guards, and other factions between missions. I hope that they continue to implement and improve this idea in Thief 4. Most importantly, the ambient environment is back. They did a great job on the music, and I still had many hold-your-breath moments as I traversed the different levels. Shalebridge Cradle=(shudder). Playing at the hardest difficulty is where the game shines the most. Not harming the innocent, finding as much obvious and hidden loot as possible, and not being seen at all is the most rewarding. All in all, I thought it was a great game. Many Thief fans don't give it the credit it deserves. I give it 4/5 stars due to the afore-mentioned hiccups that it suffers from, but it didn't by any means ruin the gameplay for me. Definately my favorite stealth game series ever.

I think the description is a bit misleading, saying that the game "improves" upon the previous games; while this is true in the change of engine (and Thief 3 can definitely get pretty at times), gameplay wise it feels like a step backwards with tiny levels (that still kinda feel big mind you), frequent loading times and reduced inventory (no rope arrows). But still, I like the hub-like city roaming stuff, giving the steam punk world of Thief more life than ever and expanding the world even more. I also liked the optional third person perspective, wich can get very handy for peeking around corners without risking your cover and the full body (and I do mean full body, not just your legs like in some shooters) of Garret while in first person mode definitely helps a lot while platforming and jumping. Overall, it's definitely the worst of the series, but based on it's own merits, it's still a great game on it's own and it still feels like Thief, although a bit watered down.

Beware - On my Windows 8 Pro x64 machine Garrett gets "stuck" when trying to pick a lock or climb a ladder. I googled this problem and other people are also having this problem with both the GOG.com and Steam editions. I reinstalled the GOG.com edition several times to see if this problem would go away, but it never did. I still have an original box copy of this game, so I removed the GOG.com edition and installed my box copy on the same machine. This time it worked fine. My conclusion is that the GOG.com and Steam editions have a serious flaw that is not immediately apparent until you try to pick a lock, at least on some systems. Otherwise this is a great game, as are all of the Thief games. Doom 3 owners should also check out The Dark Mod.