Thief™ 3: Deadly Shadows

Thief Deadly Shadows has some flaws. But those flaws dont make it an imperfect game, they make it different mechanically from thief 1 and 2. The game had initially some drawbacks that saw its sprawling level design segmented into chunks. A factor that has mostly been remedied since 2015ish with the introduction of the thief 3 mod Sneaky upgrade, which fixes a ton of loading transitions and removes most of them entirely, merging the key setpiece levels into the form they should be seen as, making this game ON PAR with its predecessors with the ommision of the rope arrow being the only element from the old games not included. NOW FOR THE FUN PART! The improvements. and there ARE MANY. The lighting improvements and soundscape have forever changed the stealth for the better. The guards now react better to you, there are nuances to the shadows that are beautiful There are new stealth mechanics such as the ability to press yourself up to a nearby wall and sidle along it quietly, Good in a pinch when you need just the narrowest space between yourself and an enemy. And the lockpicking, which is awesome. its just awesome. its the first time i had ever seen a lockpicking mini game that i thought was cool. and made sense, and was in real time. and you could hear everything approaching because the audio is so crisp and immersive. AND A HUB. Now thief is a sort of metroidvania explorable level with merchants and citizens to rob inbetween your main missions, you have a pretty useless house but the ability to go to fence your ill gotten gains and constantly avoid guard patrols and factions you have pissed off is incredible. more games should steal from deadly shadows. its incredible how good this is in spite of how small scale it feels some times. Give thief 3 a chance. We didnt know how good it was and poor ion storm deserved our trust. We deserve a real thief game and this definitely was one.

Windows 10 stops me from using the complete list of controls. So far lock picking, climbing ladders does not work. I cam from windows 7 where it works on my other lap top just fine. Did I update with directx to try and see if it helped in windows 10? Yes. Did I reboot the computer yes.

When Looking Glass went bust in the early 2000s, Ion Storm took over the mantle to provide the final installment of the Thief Trilogy (I know there was another Thief game a couple of years ago but it is far removed from the universe of these games). The fan boys don't rate it so highly because they used a new game engine and tweaked with the mechanics so it was easier to play on the original XBox. Ok, I accept that but things had to move on and I don't think any of them were to the game's detriment. A lot of the game is pretty much the same as the original two. You still need to hide in the shadows, guards look for you and you get to steal loot at every opportunity. They changed lock picking but, quite honestly, it does add a little to the game. The original game you two lock picks and you 'used' them on the locks to start picking them. In this game, you do the actual lock picking. It's not overly complex but provides a challenge that adds to the experience. Graphics are good and the levels are challenging. The "Robbing the Cradle" level is one of the best experiences you'll have in the Thief trilogy. The general feel of the other reviews seems to agree with me. The game is enjoyable and worthy of the Thief title. If you enjoyed the first two games, the third should provide you with hours more fun. As with the original two, there is a level editor available to make your own levels and the community have made some too (although not as many as for the original two games). Just look for the Shadowdark Keep website if you want to try any or get any help with running them. So, in summary, if you loved the original games, this should complete the set and provide many hours of entertainment for you.

Deadly Shadows is objectively not the best Thief game, but it does a couple of things the first two couldn't. It actually makes you feel like you were living in the City: you have an apartment and it feels like home. Also, the smaller levels might be a bit disappointing to some veteran Thief players, but since I found lots of Thief 1-2 levels overzised, I don't mind it that much. Actually I think the tight city hubs are kinda charming. The story starts in a slightly janky way - and has a good couple of awkward plot holes in its first half - but turns out quite great in the end (the conclusion feels perhaps the most statisfying in this episode, a perfect closure).

The game had its moments. Good story, cool missions. I've never played any other Thief game before, so for me the game was fine, fans of the stealth genre must play it. Negatives: too many loading screens, game sometimes freezes (only ctrl+alt+del, sign out worked), i had problem with saving occasionally which was annoying so i sticked to the quicksave option that worked well. I encountered a few in-game bugs also (falling out of the map, jumping bugs, "stuck" bugs). I still give 4 stars, would be 5 if weren't for these things i listed.