Thief: Deadly Shadows Review

Other than what I had already mentioned I possibly would've liked to have seen more RPG elements thrown into the mix; or any RPG elements really. Then again, Garrett is a master thief so starting him off as a rookie and leveling him up would make no sense. (However, everyone learns as time passes, so in that respect even master thieves can improve their skills. - Six)

Another thing worth mentioning is that the ambient music and the sound effects are superb and make the best possible use of Creative's EAX technology and its dynamic environmental sound effects (which is not surprising as you'll be greeted with Creative's splash screen at the beginning of the game). The graphics are moody and polished - with excellent use of the bloom effect this time around (unlike what we've seen in Deus Ex: Invisible War), natural mapping for the detailed player models, and dynamic lighting to create beautiful scenes abundant with light dancing about and soft moonlight flickering through the painted glass of the medieval houses. I played the game on my office rig (AMD 3000+, Radeon 9800XT 256MB, 1GB RAM) and on my home rig (AMD 1600+, Radeon 9700PRO, 512 RAM), and both machines had very little problems running the game at max detail. The controls are very PC friendly and highly intuitive so you'll have very little problems there. Overall, it's clear that Thief: Deadly Shadows was designed with the PC in mind as the slow loading times and other such crap that the Xbox gamers are complaining about really isn't an issue in the PC version. In regards to the visuals however, I did notice that the animation of the characters seemed a little stiff, which is curiously the sentiment I seem to have about all the previous Thief games.

Even though Thief: Deadly Shadow lacks more polish in certain areas, and especially in the AI department, the fact remains that this is one very enjoyable and immersive PC game with plenty to offer to the fans of the series. The background story is great, the fantasy world is rich and enthralling, and the ability to explore the open-ended environment during intense and fun missions will certainly have you playing this one till you've finished it. Again, the third-person view is a non-issue and if you crank up the difficulty level to hard and endure some silly AI issues, I'm sure you'll have a blast playing this game. But...buy it - don't steal it. Garrett may be a master thief, but you're not. (This has been a Public Service Announcement by the Jolly AT Editors).