Cheap Thief: Deadly Shadows (Video Games) (Xbox) Price

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Customer Reviews of Thief: Deadly Shadows

First of all, the game play is excellent, it really does stick with the stealthy play the whole time. But the first thing that caught my attention was the lighting. It's not just "lighting" for the sake of viewing.The lighting is actually a part of the game play. It's actually the -most- important part of the game, and in Thief DS, the lighting is beyond perfect. You sneak around in the shadows,and your "light gem" shows how visible you are to the AI in the game. Even having a small percentage of your body sticking out from the shadows will be reconized by the game's AI.

Now the AI... It's near-perfect. Characters will hear your footsteps, notice if you leave doors open, notice if you put out a torch, notice if you steal something and so on. If you kill someone with an arrow, or your dagger, it will leave a pool of blood (which you can wash away with water arrows), which the AI will notice, and alert other characters that something is wrong. One thing that bothers me is when Garrette (main character) gets caught. The guard/enemy will chase him for a bit, but not for long. Basically all I need to do, to lose them, is round a corner and get into a shadow. After that, wait about 20 seconds and they give up. After a while it gets to where getting caught is less of a dangerous problem, and more of a very annoying one. If you get cornered and all you have is a dagger, just hope you saved earlier. Garrette can only take about 5 hits. Which is good, in a way, because the game really is about stealth, not fighting.

Visually the game looks pretty good. At a medium distance you can't tell if a guard has his back turned, or if he's looking right at you (glad Garrette has that mechanical zoom-in eye). Some of the areas are beautifully detailed. And some are just 'okay'. Most of the areas will have great looking textures, and 'okay' textures right beside each other, which makes things look strange. The town is literally a big maze. It takes a while to figure out how to get around, because it all looks the same (besides a few landmarks). The maps aren't much help either, because they don't show any of the alleyways that you use to get around. It can get confusing.

The story is so-so. This game was definatly not made for the storyline, but made for excellent game play and freedom. The town that the story takes place in has no name, and unless you've played the other Thief games, you have no clue what the storyline is about. You just get "thrown" in at a certain point and do whatever you're told. The areas kind of melt in to each other after a while. Most of them seem the same, except a differant look. Hiding in most areas isn't very challenging. The stand out mission is the Abysmal Gale (ghost ship). Everything about it is made perfect. It's eerie, you don't know what lurking around the corners, and the fog and lighting just make everything look extra-creepy.

This game requires alot of patience. Watching which routes guards walk, slowly skulking in the shadows so you will not get caught, slowly pacing behind someone waiting for the right tim the strike, and searching everywhere for loot makes up the entire game.

So if you've read this much so far, I'll give my opinion on whether or not to buy it. For now, while it still costs $50, don't buy it. The game is just too short to pay $50. I got it in the mail 3 days ago, and I just finished it this morning. Secondly, the game isn't going to be one that you will replay more than twice. It's a linear story. Aside from a few side quests, the game goes in one direction and you have to do all the missions in order. After a while the game play gets repetitive. Skulk in shadows, hide from foes, watch the guard, mug him, hide the body, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Good title, but I wanted more from this franchise.
"Thief: Deadly Shadows" is one of those games that had it not the franchise name "Thief" I would have happily avoided.

The Stealth genre is at the moment one of the most developed in the videogame market.

Thief is what you would like to imagine as a fantasy version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Unfortunately it is not.

While the story is well scripted and the graphics are absolutely dazzling, the good side of the game sort of ends here. Thief DS offers nothing really new in the stealth genre.

Gameplay is good, action flows in a nice manner and you will be able to execute some awesome stealth kills. Control over your stealth kills is rewardingly well done; unfortunately as soon as you pass into real "combat mode" things kind of get messed up. Any action oriented situation seems to go by as a blur and you really end up doing random moves in order to get out of bad situations. Furthermore, acrobatic skills had me so frustrated I ended up whirling my joy pad against the floor and stomping it to pieces.

If graphics are exceptional, the game makes a good effort of not making you see them. The game is darker than a Balrog's Soul, and any sort of reflection on your tv (from a window, a light, whatever) will give you a big friggin headache.

Sound on the other hand is awesome.

Finally: I hated the game's AI. NPCs seem to be ok in intelligence, but have the memory of a Banana. They will actually forget you are around if you wait patiently hiding for a while, even if they wanted to gut you up till 10 seconds before.

Bottomline: Buy this game if you love stealth...otherwise PASS.

A Masterpiece among many stealth clones
Most people, I have noted, who have not played this game ALL the way through, usually give this game bad marks. The story here is far superior to anything on the market (yes, Percy, that includes Splinter Cell and Syphon Filter... BOTH of which were released way after the first game in the Thief franchise.
Garrett is easily the most endearing character in this game, and voice actor Stephen Russel absolutely shines as our aloof, embittered mercenary.
The sound is absolutely phenomenal, and one reason ANYONE should play this is because this game contains one of the top three levels EVER MADE in a video game, unfortunately, this level (The Shalebridge Cradle) is near the end, and the impatient and Attention-Defecite Afflicted (Again, like Percy) may be too frustrated by not seeing blood and flying heads to continue that long. This level is a masterpiece, as is the game as a whole. It is the most realistic simulation of what true medieval thievery would be like... but don't expect a huge body count... after all, you're a thief, not Rambo.

All in all, an absolute epic that you will be tempted to play at least twice.