Thief: Deadly Shadows is a solid stealth game regaling us with another adventure about cynical, seemingly indifferent master thief Garrett. The new developers, Ion Storm, managed to retain one extremely crucial aspect: atmosphere. Traversing the steampunk-themed dark-engrossed City in a newly introduced free roam mode; mansions, caves, ships, asylums, ruins in a mission mode is as enthralling as ever was. Figure of Garrett is still amazes with its awesomeness. Non-confrontational gameplay, where you have to silently steal some objects in maze-like level full of secrets, is well-done and entertaining… if you are not acquainted with previous installments. Comparatively to T:TDP and TII:TMA the level design is just weaker. The missions are smaller, more linear (usually no more than two useful ways to reach destination). The secret system was removed and replaced with special loot which is a severe simplification. The count of usable items is just two times shorter than in TII. For some unknown reason they removed such applicable devices as invisibility potion, speed potion, slowfall potion, eatable fruits etc. But the gravest insult: they removes rope arrows! They replaced it with climbing gloves but didn’t provided *any* fun ways to utilize it. Another blunder of Thief III is that it doesn’t manage or even tries to offer anything new on a higher, general, level. Thief I introduced us to initial, magical-oriented, setting, Thief II replaces all fairy parts with urban ones. And in Thief III… we are back in Thief I, trudging the same old caves filled with monsters, zombie-infested ruins, ghost-haunted houses and, of course, mansions and cathedrals... again. Thief: Deadly Shadows is a strong game which enchants you with its dark brooding atmosphere, legendary protagonist and classic, finely tuned stealth gameplay. Yet if you are fun of TI and TII don’t raise your hopes up because Thief III, sadly, loses to them on all fronts.
