Thief Deadly Shadows - Game Review

Thief is one of the most memorable games ever created. I believe it even stands out compared to the first two Thief games. Ion Storm really created an amazing masterpiece that can be played with the Unreal Engine.

The game is intense, immersive, engaging, scary, and has such a compelling storyline too. But is that enough to make it so memorable after all these years? And why was it slightly negatively reviewed when it first came out? Let's dive deeper and understand all of that to realize just how good this game really was.

You get to play Garret, the master thief, who is the same protagonist in the previous two games too. You're in a fantasy-driven world based in the late Victorian era or the middle ages. The game has this ominous about it; it's so dark and mysterious from the first mission. It grips you into your seat with its amazing design and plot.

The graphics are very good, considering the fact that the game came out almost 16 years ago. The visuals are astonishing. The best part about it is that you can see how perfectly synced it is when it handled light and shadows. The dynamic lighting system is just too good and well designed for the Unreal engine it works on.

Compared to the previous game, you can see a huge difference in how both the light and shadow were projected in the game. I love the fact that you could see a character's shadow on the wall in a dark room if they passed next to a light source.

You can see moonlight coming through the windows and the fire torches or candles flickering perfectly too. The character models aren't the best, but it was good enough to see the facial expressions of every character you encounter.

The cinematics and cutscenes are amazing as well, but they divided it between actual videos or story-like drawings. I liked both, especially the drawing cutscenes which are so beautifully created. The voice acting in every scene, every mission, and every interaction are just spot-on amazing. The characters had this way of speaking that still sticks to my memory to this day.

The music and sounds are memorable, dark, iconic, and horrific most of the time. The audio, visual, and music elements combined together in the gameplay are so perfectly synced together. It made missions, interactions, cutscenes, and the actual game so much better than the previous two. This game followed their footsteps but perfected it marvelously.

The menu, inventory, and quest log were gorgeously designed. Garret didn't have a sword anymore, instead, he uses a dagger, but that just adds more flair to his character. The iconic water arrow is back, and I think it's the best item you have in your arsenal to take out any torch or light source. The idea behind the game is stealth, so I didn't use the dagger too much unless I had to.

I used the blackjack and knocked enemies out from behind instead. It was much easier in most cases. I loved the three bombs/grenades that you could throw and you had fire arrows, which inflicted a great amount of damage on monsters, normal broadhead arrows, moss arrows which made green patches, gas arrows that came in handy many times, and a noise arrow that was used for distractions.

Garret had a lot to bring too in this game, other than his combat skills, he has the chance to buy special climbing gloves that can make him climb stone walls. This made the gameplay so much easier and fun for me, especially when I had to hide or run away from difficult situations.

Also, this game is mainly about thievery and looting stuff, so you had a nice set of lock picks that helps you open various doors and chests. I loved how you needed to do it properly and see each hinge getting to its right spot; it doesn’t just let you press a button and the chest would open.