With the release of Thief: The Dark Project in 1998, developers Looking Glass Studios introduced something new in the stealth genre. The first game revolved around the life and times of a master thief named Garett, who slinked around the dark alleys, buildings and sewers of medieval England robbing wealthy and corrupt noblemen. The missions were based on infiltrating buildings using stealth and stealing valuable items and manuscripts without being detected. This unique concept spelled instant success and launched a riveting sequel called Thief II: The Metal Age.
Thief: Deadly Shadows is the third title of the Thief series, which at first would generally be thought of a simple sequel to previous Thief games. But the missions and gameplay are different from its predecessors. The plot is very mysterious and unfolds when you fulfill certain tasks laid down by your masters. What’s more, there are some RPG elements involved. With Deadly Shadows, the Thief series just got more interesting.
One of the key features introduced in Thief: Deadly Shadows is the open ended gameplay. Previous Thief games only allowed players to accomplish main tasks and escape undetected. Deadly Shadows lets you explore the city, and play additional mini quests besides the main missions. Most levels will also set tasks to steal some percent of loot scattered across the city to complete your missions. You will have your own apartment where you can train yourself using different weapons and will also have the choice to ally with major factions. Deadly Shadows also lets you interact with a variety of NPCs that may or may not have a direct impact on the overall missions. You can snoop in and hear dialogue exchanged between people, which may help you in solving certain quests and puzzles. These little RPGish elements add more to the gameplay value as they assure some amount of flexibility and replayability.
Thief games are widely known for their stealth elements. Deadly Shadows follows the same stealth route. You will have to stick to shadowy areas, crouch to avoid footstep noises, eliminate guards with your dagger silently and hide their bodies. The game also provides a non-violent option to go undetected. You can extinguish fire places, lamps and candle-lit chandeliers with your water arrows and sneak past guards without being detected. You can also distract guards with your dedicated noise-making arrows or lay a moss mat on metal floorings with your moss arrows to numb your footstep noises. In later missions, you will have access to an array of weapons including a very gothic-looking proximity mine, flash bombs, fire arrows and gas grenades.
One of the new features in the game is the ‘Wall Flatten’ key. All you have to do is press this key (Default ‘R’) to have Garrett flatten his back against the wall. This can make him undetectable if there’s no light source nearby. It can be a handy stealth position if you see too many guards strolling around. However, you won’t be able to attack any guards in this way. You will have to press the R button again to change to normal position.
Another key aspect of Deadly Shadows is the ability to lock pick doors and treasure chests as well as climb walls using special climbing gloves. These innovative features make gameplay immersive and engaging.
The AI in Deadly Shadows is pretty impressive. If enemies have the slightest idea of your presence, they will surely search each corner of the room to detect any unwanted elements. The game’s difficulty level measures the alertness of the guards. If you choose expert mode, chances of you getting detected are high unless you use tactics and cleverness to sneak past enemies. I would recommend avoiding normal mode as it can be too easy for hardcore gamers to play Deadly Shadows. Select the hard or expert level to ensure challenging moments during gameplay.
Thief: Deadly Shadows has a lot of new features and weapons. Gamers will love to operate the proximity mines and smoke bombs to deceive and eliminate enemies. They will also love its unique stealth features including climbing up building walls using special gloves, using noise arrows to distract guards and hiding behind walls and bushes to go undetected.