Thief™ 3: Deadly Shadows

Desperately needs to be added to the GOG Preservation Program. I recently tried running it on Steam, and couldn't change the game. I then bought it of GoG, and now I can't adjust the gamma, nor change the difficulty to anything other than Normal, and even the latest Sneaky Upgrade (1.1.5) it will not fix those problems. Manually adjusting the brightness/gamma in the Default.ini file will not change it in-game either. The game was not the best in the series, but with the unofficial Sneaky Upgrade patch, it fixed a bunch of the annoying shortcomings, such as the obnoxious frequent loadi zones that existed due to system/console hardware limitations at he time of release and lowered it's score. Unfortunately, not being able to adjust gamma or difficulty leaves in an unplayable/unenjoyable mess, since most of the gameplay takes place in/depends on shadows and a lot of the enjoyment comes from being able to set the level of challenge to the desired level, so it desperately needs a fix or maybe Win XP/Win 8 emulation to work on current systems properly.

While Thief Deadly Shadows is decidedly different from Thief 1 and 2 (different engine, different team, third person and first persons versus just first person and on and on) it's not a bad game. The changes offended longtime fans: Unreal engin instead of Dark, a new third person mode in addition to the first person mode, an open world to explore between missions, and on and on. But what counts is that the writers were Thief pros and the story is great, it fulfills all the hopes of ending the trilogy in a satisfying manor while also serving up tense stealth gameplay and one particular mission well regarded as the scariest thing out there. Don't believe the haters!

While the game is suffering from the effects of having been ported to the Xbox, it still is an otherwise good entry in the series. Infact, this entry has one of the most scariest levels of all time in video games, the Shalebridge Cradle. That level has scared many players because of its incredibly eerie atmosphere as well as its "residents".

As a veteran of the other Thief games, this one was far too easy for my liking. In most missions, I didn't use any water arrows and in the whole game I didn't use any moss arrows. The most loud surface was somewhat disappointment, not giving the right feeling of fear. The idea of roaming the City between missions and (pick)pocketing some extra cash sounded fun, but in the end I avoided it as much as possible. I didn't even need the extra cash. I had over 20 thousand gold to spare when finishing the game. Also the idea of first hauling your ill-gained loot to a fence before getting any cash was interesting, but the annoyance to zigzag between three different fences between different sections of the City was really frustrating. Also I didn't like the way you could accomplish the missions using the hardest difficulty. In the other Thief-games, the expert difficulty level forbid any killings, as in this one it only forbit of killing any non-combatants. But the game is not all bad. I really liked the new way of lockpicking. Also I liked the way the AI reacted to my presence. The idea of guards with torches was also neat and the idea of roaming the City between missions is great. Unfortunately in the most parts this game doesn't use its full potential. Still, it was a good run and especially the mission "Robbing the Cradle" was really good. If you're not familiar with the other Thief games, you might get more out of it than I.

Everyone has their favourite Thief game (often Thief 2, because that level design is hard to beat) but regardless of which you think is best Thief 3 is very solid in its own right. The third game in the series (focusing on the mysterious Keepers) deviates from the formula of the previous two games, with all the hits and misses that come from experimentation. Unlike the previous two games, which provide you with one mission after the other, in Thief: Deadly Shadows you have relatively free rein to explore a persistent yet changing City. It's definitely the most beautiful game in the series, and has aged well too, and its use of light and shadows is amazing. It also features what is probably the most memorable scene in the entire series - Shalebridge Cradle. What I liked about Deadly Shadows is that - unlike most first-person games - you can actually see your own arms, legs and body instead of simply being a disembodied floating camera. What I didn't like is the lack of rope arrows. Overall, I strongly recommend this game.