Thief: Deadly Shadows

[Deuce Traveler]

I just finished the game and I gave the lone dissenting Nay vote. This is not a good game. Now, it's not a bad game either, as it does some things quite well, but the bad drags the whole into mediocrity.

The game has some bugs, just like Thief 1 and 2 did, but overall movement is smooth and there are some improvements to the game, such as the easier use of ladders, Garrett being able to climb walls, and ducking allowing you to move quieter and hide better in shadows.

But man are there a whole slew of other issues. The ability to go into town is a nice feature at first, but it gets overused. The game has Garrett moving through the same streets trying to get to different destinations so often and face the same city guards over and over again that it is rage inducing. Even towards the end of the game, when the big bad evil is rampaging the city the guards would attack me despite the fact that I never killed anyone in game, and despite the nearby enemies that were on a murderous rampage. After awhile I knew exactly what guards were where and in what quantity in most parts of town. Thief 1 and 2 had you visit locales a couple of times in game, but in Thief 3 you will visit some neighborhoods many, many times.

Why is water my mortal enemy? I used to dive under submarines in Thief 2, just so I could creep up behind a bad guy and take him out Batman-style. This time I dove into the water by the docks in order to do the same and instantly died.

The pagans set-up a camp right in the center of the affluent neighborhood's park (and aren't pushed out...) and they had a grill on the floor. I opened the grill and didn't see anything inside. Curious, I jumped in and found Garrett thigh-deep in water. He instantly died. o_O

The lore in the first two games was mysterious and often chilling. Thief 3's bits of lore struck me as someone trying too hard.

There was a haunted house mission that I really enjoyed at first, and thought it might be the one big bright spot of the game. They ruin it, however, with a huge amount of FedEx missions.

I get asked to kill some insects in the city. So I see one and shoot, only to have everyone around me suddenly go apeshit and treat me as a murderer. Garrett isn't a murderer. At worse, he's a medieval Orkin man.

I fucking hate the shopkeepers. They repeat the same bits of dialogue no matter how far you are into the story. And their voices are horrible. One girl talked like a bad Mae West impersonator. Another practically squealed and acted like a band groupy, even going so far as to ask Garrett for his autograph. What the fuck, game?

All in all it was disappointing and I'm glad it's done. Now to play some Thief 2X to get the stink off.

Edit: I'll add one good thing. I thought the ending was a nice wrap-up of Garrett's story arc. I'm going to pretend Thief 4 never happened.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

and the cradle?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First off:


Then to answer Slaughter's question:

There was a haunted house mission that I really enjoyed at first, and thought it might be the one big bright spot of the game. They ruin it, however, with a huge amount of FedEx missions.

Which is a valid point of criticism for the second half of the Cradle.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I thought he said about widow moira. Long time I played it.

 

[Erebus]

Just finished the game. Not bad, all in all, though it could have been better.

There were some technical improvements over the first two games. The guards were smarter (though still not smart enough to notice when their colleagues start disappearing one after the other). Moving sources of light were a nice addition.

I liked the fact that Garrett finally replace his sword with a dagger, as it's a weapon more appropriate for a thief (mind you, I never used the dagger, just like I never used the sword). On the other hand, I missed the rope/vine arrows.

The blackjack, while it remains very useful, has been seriously nerfed. You have to be exactly behind your target to knock him out, which can be a bit annoying. Also, blinding your opponents no longer allows you to knock them out.

One of the reasons I like Thief 2 better than the first game is that it doesn't have many supernatural opponents. Thief 3 is somewhere between T1 and T2.

I didn't care that much for being able to travel through the City. I never really bothered with the mini-missions you can find in it. The missions that do happen in the street of the City are interesting, but made me wish the City was bigger.

I missed the style of the cutscenes used in the previous two games.

The game has some genuinely creepy places. The Cradle is nicely done (though the flickering light sometimes made me fear I was going to have an epileptic fit). The living statues were also nice (CRUSH AND KILL AND CRUSH AND...).

I really wish the last mission had been more challenging. It was too quick and too easy (especially since your enemies were often distracted by other people, leaving you free to avoid them).

The scenario was okay and a fairly decent conclusion to Garrett's story.

 

[taxalot]

Yeah, I haven't played it yet (nor actually played any of the Thief series), but if Deus Ex : IW is any indication, it's probably much worse than the original series but still a lot better than most of today's shit.

 

[skacky]

You HAVE TO play the Thief games, like right now.

 

[Jack]

I liked the fact that Garrett finally replace his sword with a dagger, as it's a weapon more appropriate for a thief (mind you, I never used the dagger, just like I never used the sword).

The sword made more sense to me, you could use it as a tool and cut down banners with it and you had something to defend yourself with if you totally fugged up as a last resort. The knife on the other hand is entirely pointless since it fills exactly the same function as the blackjack, making it redundant.

 

[Erebus]

The sword made more sense to me, you could use it as a tool and cut down banners with it and you had something to defend yourself with if you totally fugged up as a last resort. The knife on the other hand is entirely pointless since it fills exactly the same function as the blackjack, making it redundant.

The sword just feels too cumbersome a weapon for a thief.

Mind you, considering all the shit Garrett is able to carry around while still remaining as stealthy as a ghost, I guess it doesn't really matter.

 

[retardation]

Guys, Thief is not about realism, it had explosive arrows, mines, zombies, etc. Sword is fucking awesome, if I were a Thief, I sure as hell wouldn't want to walk around zombies with a pocket knife. It's just a fun exploration/mystery game.

 

[CSM]

Played the game with the following mod config:

T3Minimalist-1.4.1
CollectiveTexturePackv1.0.3
Setup_T3SneakyUpgrade_1.1.3.1

I couldn't get further than the first area in my last attempt because of all the horrible blue/purple shit and third person view. But these mods make it a lot more akin to the original Thief games. Deadly Shadows isn't that bad once you remove some of the horrible interface and such. Unfortunately the levels are less inspired than the first two. With the notable exception of Shalebridge Cradle of course (excluding the annoying "ghost" parts). The city hub also wasn't the greatest idea and gets annoying to traverse. Still it has a lot of that old Thief atmosphere, and keeps the gameplay mostly the same. And the story isn't completely retarded.

 

[Gord]

I couldn't get further than the first area in my last attempt because of all the horrible blue/purple shit and third person view.

You know that third person is optional? I think I played it completely without using it outside of some very few cases when I thought looking at Garrett would be cool.

 

[CSM]

I remember it reverting a couple of times or at least functioning weird.

 

[Gord]

Hm, dunno, probbly too long since I played it to remember the details.
I know I was butturt when I first heard that it had 3rd person perspective, but was relieved when I found out that it wasn't necessary to use it.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Minimalist mod eliminates 3rd person view. You can't change to 3rd person in any circumstance. The only problem with minimalist is that it changes difficult levels to playstyles, with kind of break the game. But you can get the original dificultty levels by replacing the difficulty settings of the .ini file with the one from the original .ini.

Anyway, 3rd person was completely optional in vanilla.

But it's the only way to play TDS.

The main problem with FMs in TDS for is that it doesn't use the high res textures and modifications made by the minimalist mod.

But in the next version of the sneaky upgrade, they plan to have it bundled with minimalist with difficulty toned down a little, the high res textures, and the new levels without the loading zones.

 

[Martyr]

today I started playing my gog version of Thief 3 for the first time and there's this weird bug: lockpicking and climbing ladders doesn't work most of the time. seriously, I've been standing in front of that locked door (in the tutorial) for 5 minutes, spamming the right mouse button. suddenly it worked, next thing to do is climb up a ladder, press rmb, nothing happens. another minute of nonstop clicking and up I go, lol.
can't remember this from when I played the DVD version. mayhap it's another Win10 problem?! but at least it's playable...
great game though. not as great as my beloved Thief 2, but still better than modern "stealth" games ( I'm looking at you MGS 5 Phantom Pain, Dishonored, Hitman).