| Thief: Deadly Shadows |
|
| Developer(s) |
Ion Storm Inc. |
| Publisher(s) |
Eidos Interactive |
| Designer(s) |
Randy Smith; Jordan Thomas |
| Series |
Thief |
| Engine |
Heavily-modified Unreal Engine 2 (with flesh renderer) |
| Version |
1.1 |
| Platform(s) |
Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Mobile phone |
| Release date(s) |
NA May 25, 2004
EU June 11, 2004
|
| Genre(s) |
Stealth |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player |
| Rating(s) |
ESRB: M (Mature)
USK: 12+
PEGI: 12+ |
| Media |
CD-ROM (3), DVD-ROM (1), Steam |
| System requirements |
1.5 GHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB video card RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 9.0b, 3.0 GB available hard disk space, Windows XP (WIN) |
| Input methods |
Keyboard, Mouse or Gamepad |
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a stealth video game where the player takes the role of Garrett, a master thief. It is set in a fantasy/steampunk world resembling a cross between the Late Middle Ages and the Victorian era, with more advanced technologies interspersed. It is major departure from the first two games in the series, different in both appearance and gameplay.
One of the game's major new features was the ability to explore the City. While previous games sent Garrett straight from mission to mission, Thief: Deadly Shadows allows him to walk the City streets between missions where he can steal from passersby, spy on the townspeople's daily lives, and search for sidequests in addition to major story missions. The game also introduced an ability to switch between first and third person views, and to flatten against walls.
It was released for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox in 2004, on May 25 in North America, and on June 11 in Europe. Development for both platforms started simultaneously. Like its predecessors, Thief: Deadly Shadows has received almost universally positive reviews, winning IGN's "Editor's Choice" award and "Game of the Month" award for May 2004. A follow-up to this game, Thief 4, is confirmed to be in the early development stages by the "very best core team" of Eidos Montreal Studio.[1][2]
Gameplay
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a first-person and third-person 'sneaker', similar in gameplay to the previous games in the series. The player takes the role of a Garrett, an independent master thief who aims to steal his way through the City, using stealth, devices and weapons, in order to complete objectives and make profits on the side. The player may steal from or mug innocents for loot, and avoid, distract, attack or knock out guards. Loot and weapon ammunition may be stolen simply by 'touching' it, when close enough. Locked rooms and chests can be broken into after completing a lock-picking minigame.[3] Mission levels may be traversed by sneaking through the shadows, since walking or running will alert nearby guards, who detecting the presence of a vandal will search around for an unknown face. Upon discovering the player, the guards will give chase and possibly hunt him down. In order to make minimum noise, the player must actively monitor the noise each action creates. The player may usually view a hand-drawn map of the immediate surroundings, realistically, the player's location is not indicated on the map and must be deduced from the surrounding landmarks. The game has a fairly open-ended structure, allowing the player to approach every objective in multiple different ways. Upon completion of all objectives, the mission ends and the plot is further revealed through cutscenes.
The player then reappears into the nearest district within the City, which may be freely explored by foot. Most civilians don't recognize Garrett as a criminal, although wanted posters are frequently visible on City walls. City areas unlock as the player progresses through missions. Within the City, the player may sell previously stolen goods on the black market to Fences, for gold, which can be used at various Shops to purchase weapons, equipment and supplies.[4] Special loot such as "Artifacts" cannot be sold but are involved in the objectives and plot. As they are collected, loot, gold, equipment and weapons retain in the player's inventory through the game, making it possible to 'hoard' for later use. While exploring the City, the player may break into homes for additional loot, spy on and steal from the townspeople, and complete the occasional side quest. Allying with major factions will motivate its members to fight alongside the player, against the City Watch guards.
Controls
Both the PC and Xbox versions of the game are relatively easy to play, with conventional and reconfigurable shooter-style controls. The first mission is an interactive tutorial that guides the player through a typical robbery, set in an Inn. The player may save progress at any point, and must do so manually from time to time, since the game never autosaves.[5]
The Xbox version has considerably more tactile controls since it uses a game controller instead of an all purpose keyboard. Within the lock-picking minigame, a rumble effect can be felt based on the relation between the lock picks and tumblers. Moving the left analog stick gently makes Garrett creep, and forcefully makes him run.
Plot
In the initial missions, Garrett steals a bronze medallion from nobleman Lord Julian, a bloodline opal from the Rutherfords' castle, The "Builder's Chalice" from the Hammerites at St. Edgar's Church, and the "Jacknall's Paw" from the Pagans, at the underground Pagan Sanctuary. Orland, the First Keeper asks Garrett to find a lost book called the "Compendium of Reproach", which can give more information about a coming "Dark Age". Garrett manages to steal it back from Captain Moira's seaside mansion, and the "Glyph Key" to open the Compendium, along with the "Kurshok Crown" from the Kurshoks at the Sunken Citadel. In order to force the prophecy 'When the progress of time ceases, the evil one will be pointed out for all to see' to be fulfilled, Garrett enters the clocktower, run by Hammerites, and sabotages the gigantic mechanism, which stops the clock but causes the entire clocktower to collapse.
Meanwhile Interpreter Caduca of the Keepers is found murdered. First Keeper Orland blames Garrett and fixes up a trial at the Keeper Compound, where Garrett is found 'guilty', but he manages to escape, causing Orland to send the Keeper Enforcers, an elite unit of telepathically connected assassins, after him. Garrett is contacted by a group of friendly Keepers, who mention that 'the rubble (of the clocktower) forms an arrow, and it points directly at the Keeper Library'. To replace Caduca, Orland plans to promote Gamall, a little girl, to the position of Interpreter. Garrett believes that Orland is the 'Brethren and Betrayer', so he returns to the deserted lower library of the Keeper Compound, and finds a note addressed to him, despite the fact that no one should know of his presence. At the Hall of Statues, Garrett sees a hideous old woman, or a Hag, who knows magic and activates stone statues to look for him.
He escapes the ambush and finds Inspector Drept for help. Drept advises Garrett to search the abandoned Shalebridge Cradle as that was where he first saw the Hag. The Cradle had been an insane asylum, but before that it was an orphanage. And for a short time, both. One night a fire broke out, and the place was abandoned, and grew to be a dark and haunted place. In the attic of the Cradle, Garrett finds a picture of the Keeper Translator girl. Soon a glowing white spirit appears and introduces herself as Lauryl, beckoning Garrett to help her leave. The Cradle 'remembers' people's presence and traps them inside forever. Soon Garrett discovers that the previously unblocked storm cellar entrance which he used to get in, is somehow blocked by a wooden grate. Garrett gets rid of all of Lauryl's things in the building, so that the Cradle cannot remember her. For some of the items, he uses an old possession of the Cradle's old inmates to enter the Cradle's memory in their form. However Garrett is no longer able to leave, as the Cradle now remembers him. Garrett enters the past as himself and tricks the Cradle into thinking he commits suicide by jumping out of the highest tower, thereby escaping. Lauryl then leads Garrett to the nearby Hammerite Fort, Ironwood, where her body is buried. Garrett washes away the marks on the grave with Lauryl's blood and Lauryl gets her appearance back: Gamall's. The false Gamall, who is just being promoted to the position of interpreter, is revealed to be the Hag.
Gamall the Hag, has ruined the Keeper Library. She has found the "Final Glyph" and stolen the Chalice and the Paw. Orland wants Garrett to find Gamall's hidden lair, learn what she wants the Artifacts for, kill her, and find and destroy the Final Glyph. Inside Gamall's underground lair, Garrett steals back the Chalice, the Paw, and the "Glyph of Unbinding". He meets Artemus and from a map they figure out that the Artifacts—the Eye, the Heart, the Crown, the Chalice and the Paw—have to be placed in specific locations in the city to activate the Final Glyph, a safeguard in case the Keeper Glyphs are used for evil, which once activated, all glyph magic and Keepers' power will be destroyed. Garrett goes to the Wieldstrom Museum to steal the remaining Artifacts, the "Eye", the "Heart" and the "Kurshok Crown" before Gamall gets to them. Gamall does not show up in the museum, but when Garrett comes out, "Artemus" is outside waiting for him, asking Garrett to give him the Artifacts. Orland comes at that moment and tells Garrett that he must use the Artifacts to destroy all keeper magic, but not destroy the Final Glyph. At this moment "Artemus", actually the Gamall the Hag, grabs Orland and kills him, but Garrett sneaks away. Garrett puts all the Artifacts into the corresponding positions to activate the Final Glyph, causing all Keeper glyph magic to be destroyed, and leaving a key symbol on Garrett's left hand. Gamall the Hag, and her stone statues lose all their powers. All the Keepers have gone, and the Keeper Library is now seen by citizens. The Chalice and the Paw are returned to the Hammerites and the Pagans respectively.
When Garrett is walking down a street one night, a young girl tries to pickpocket him but fails. This conversation originates in the briefing to his original The Dark Project training.
Characters
- Garrett: Protagonist and master thief, Garrett received extensive training from the ancient sect known as the Keepers before rebelling against their secretive and hierarchical nature and leaving the order. Garrett's vision is augmented by a mechanical eye, given to him by the Hammerites after his natural eye was plucked out by Constantine the Trickster (The Woodsie Lord of the Pagans) and his consort Viktoria. Garrett has attained a fearsome reputation through his prodigious skills and his habit of becoming involved in the epic events portrayed in the Thief series. He speaks during cutscnes and makes occasional wry comments to himself, but never engages in conversation during gameplay.
- The Hag: A mythical serial killer who purportedly stalks the night, slaying victims and stealing their skin. Even the Pagans, who deal regularly with monstrous creatures, regard her as an abomination. The Hag appears to be the bogeyman of the Thief world and is featured in a variety of children's rhymes and night-time tales. However, few believe she actually exists except Garrett and a Hammerite inspector named Drept, who actually encountered her as a child and survived. According to Drept, the Hag "wears death upon her as a cloak. Some who meet her doth vanish. Others perished with bloody work upon their bodies." There are hints spoken of creatures made of stone. The tale of a Hag, a bent old woman, who is ever old but grows no older. She has connections to the prophecy that states: "When the progress of the time ceases, the evil one will be pointed out for all to see".
- Robert Moira: The captain of the ship Abysmal Gale and resident of a mansion on an island not far from the City. A battered Abysmal Gale docked in the City one day as a ghost ship, devoid of crew and occupied by zombies. The City Watch quarantined the ship and dispatched at least two people to investigate, including one named Reggy, but they did not return. Moira's log indicates that he had found a strange golden slab in a cave and brought it back to his mansion. According to a sailor's log, Moira had begun acting strangely, forsaking food and furiously searching for an unknown item. The crew had decided to mutiny at one point. It is assumed that Moira and his crew were either killed or transformed into zombies.
- Edwina Moira: The wife of captain Moira. She sits in a room facing the sea, murmuring, and seems to have lost her mind, probably due to the shock from hearing of her husband's death.
- Lord Julian: A nobleman who has sworn revenge over his cousin, Lord Ember, who resides in Rutherford Castle. He has vowed to find the Bloodline Opal, but in the End of the Bloodline mission Garrett beats him to it and the opal is sold on the black market.
- Inspector Drept: A Hammerite bent on tracing and finding the Hag due to his childhood experience. When he was a young child, he lived in the Shalebridge Cradle, an orphanage and insane asylum. One day he was playing hide-and-seek in the attic with his friend Lauryl. During the game while Lauryl was searching for the hidden Drept, the Hag appeared and killed her. Drept was frozen with fear and could do nothing. Afterward he informed the Cradle staff that it was done by a hag and not an insane patient, although no one believed him. When he grew up he joined the Hammerites and began searching for the Hag. His working desk in St. Edgar's Temple has a small monument plaque hanging on the wall above in memorial of Lauryl.
- Lauryl: Originally an orphan who resided in the Shalebridge Cradle, as did the eventual Inspector Drept, but was killed and skinned by the Hag. Her body was buried in a secret room in the catacombs in Fort Ironwood with a spell marked on the tomb. Since her death her ghost haunted the attic in the now-abandoned Cradle. During the events of Thief: Deadly Shadows, Garrett liberates her spirit.
- First Keeper Orland: The elected leader of a secretive faction of guardians known as the Keepers, who quietly watch over the City and attempt to maintain a near-equilibrium of power in the City. Orland held a life-long distrust of Garrett, believing him to be too unpredictable, and retained negative feelings toward him after he left their order.
- Keeper Artemus: Artemus is the Keeper who Garrett attempted to steal from in the beginning of the first game, and was the one who introduced him to the Keepers. He was sent to find Garrett and inform him about two lost artifacts, the Jacknall's Paw and the Builder's Chalice. Near the end of the game, however, he is murdered by The Hag, who steals his skin and wears it as a disguise. Though Garrett doesn't show it, he seems to like Keeper Artemus more than any other Keeper.
Development
After Looking Glass Studios, the developer of the original two titles, went out of business in 2000, many former employees moved to Ion Storm Austin. Here they began developing the long-anticipated third part of the series, Deadly Shadows. The same voice actor, Stephen Russell, was selected for the lead character, Garrett.
Unlike the original two titles, Deadly Shadows was developed simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox. The game is powered by a heavily-modified and tweaked version of Unreal Engine 2, which Ion Storm had previously used in Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Ion Storm decided not to entitle the game Thief III for fear that it would alienate console gamers who had never played the previous two titles.[citation needed]
It is the last game produced by Ion Storm before its demise in February 2005.
Reception
Like its predecessors, Thief: Deadly Shadows has received almost universally positive reviews, garnering a GameSpot rating of 8.3 with an 8.5 rating from selected notable critics[6] and the PC version has reached an average score of 8.6 on IGN. The game also won IGN's "Editor's Choice" award and "Game of the Month" award for May 2004.[7][8]
Most reviewers praised its artistry, exceptionally refined standard of lighting, graphical and level design, visual and sound effects, music, immersiveness, voice acting and solid gameplay.[6][7][8]
References
External links
See also
