Thief: Deadly Shadows : Games : Web Wombat

I'm big on stealing stuff. There's something about the idea of nicking out through the French windows with someone else's silverware under your arm that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Although, on the advice of my legal team, I've been venting my kleptomaniacal urges on the Thief series for as long as I can remember.

Brainchild of the shiny-headed boffins at (now defunct) Looking Glass Studios, Thief cast you in the role of Garrett, cynical master thief and professional miscreant of the City, a cleverly conceived cobblestoned steampunk conurbation where horse-driven carts and steam powered machina mix and magic is an everyday given.

Charged with keeping the rent paid, Garrett will take on any challenge…provided the payoff is good enough.

Unfortunately, as we all know, even the most careful anti-hero tends to end up having to save the world, and in that Garrett is no different, having had to keep the City from total destruction on two separate occasions (losing an eye in the process), despite his best laid plans.

Unlike most first person games of the time, Thief and its sequel (The Metal Age) focused almost entirely on avoiding conflict, finding shelter from the prying eyes of wandering sentries in shadowy corners and the occasional alcove, dousing flickering torches with water arrows and, most importantly, stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.

When not absorbing you with its mix of atmosphere and constant tension, Thief charmed you with beautifully drawn cutscenes and the riveting narration of Garrett, courtesy of gravel-voiced boy wonder Stephan Russell.

Sure, it had its share of quirks and flaws, but when the overall experience was as good as all that, it was easy to overlook the occasional glitch. Despite selling bundles, Thief couldn't save Looking Glass Studios from the inevitable, and they folded at the dawn of the new millennium, to the dismay of many a Garrett groupie.

So, as 2004 winds down towards Final Business Quarter, we are confronted by the third and possibly final release in the Thief series, Deadly Shadows, produced by good old Ion Storm Austin, and the question on everyone's lips is, 'Well, should we be disappointed?'

"And then he said: 'Oh Lord of Badgering Downs,
I beseech thee - pleez don't cut off me nadz!'"

The answer to that, my dear munchkins, is 'no.'

You can put your daggers away and hide the garrotte under the pillow once more, for Warren Spector et al have done a masterful job of surpassing the benchmark set by Deadly Shadows' predecessors.

The City has never looked more beautiful or malevolent, and a mixture of subtle innovation and quality control creates an experience like no other when it comes to gluing one's eyes to the screen.

Before we begin, however, I'd like to let you know that you are getting not one word from me on the subject of plot nor character development, apart from that Stephan Russell has reprised his role as Garrett for the third time running (cheers, Steve, you're a legend).

Other than that, my lips are sealed. Why, you may ask? Because I don't want to spoil it by revealing something that has obviously been crafted with such care and attention to detail.

Suffice to say that, if you thought the previous two games were full of underhanded double-dealing and intrigue, Deadly Shadows will rock your socks.

Yes, you can quote me on that. Rock. Your. Socks. Thankyou.

Besides the main story, you can at almost any time head off into the City and simply explore, searching for rich lords to pickpocket or residences with unlocked windows.

On more than one occasion, you'll get the chance to participate in sub-quests for either/both of the diametrically opposed factions vying for control of the City, i.e. the Pagans or the Hammerites (the former being a group of magic-using greenies and the latter being sledgehammer-wielding geeks dosed up with religious fervour).

In this, Deadly Shadows is the most non-linear of the trilogy, and it's appreciated, for 'tis not often that a game gives you the opportunity to cut loose and go on a loot-crazy rampage across rooftops and through alleyways.

Admittedly, you could try the same thing in real life, but I hear the neighbours tend not to take too kindly to that kind of thing, and a breakdown in talks is inevitable if they catch you making off over the back fence with their garden gnomes.

Thanks to the time gap between The Metal Age and Thief 3, Ion Storm have been able to take advantage of and code for current graphics chipsets.

Watch as Garrett attempts to poke a broken
chair leg where the sun don't shine... Riveting!

This equates to, simply put, much prettiness going on, Deadly Shadows running as it is on a tweaked version of the Deus Ex: Invisible War engine, with bump-mapping, particle bloom, a real-time physics engine and, most importantly, the funkiest lighting you've ever seen, playing big roles.

Rays of moonlight cascade through stained glass windows, dust motes sparkling in the incandescent beams, flaming torches cast flickering shadows across bluestone walls, and through all this moves the slight mass of Garrett, mechanical eye glowing green as he peers from the darkness.

If you're a Thief fan who hasn't been keeping in touch with the news (and shame on you if this is the case) you'll be staring at the above paragraph and scratching your pasty white mug in confusion.

Hang about, you'll say, see Garrett?

The past two Thief games were first-person, how does that work? Answer: For reasons that have only become clear with the final release of Deadly Shadows, Ion Storm have added a third-person camera to Garrett's already considerable arsenal. Chief amongst said reasons? It looks dead sexy.

Of course, it's not always suitable for all situations; so the die-hards amongst us can switch back to their precious point-of-view camera with impunity, as will most likely be their wont.

Speaking of arsenals, it's worthwhile pointing out that some significant changes have taken place in the toolkit section of the game. Firstly, you no longer attain your thief gear at the beginning of each mission.

Instead, you must find a fence for the loot on your person and sell it off (sometimes having to trek to another district of the City because that particular fence doesn't deal in, say, gems), before taking your ill-gotten gains and splurging on such modern conveniences as explosive land mines or, wait for it, climbing gloves.

Yep, climbing gloves. Replacing the rope arrows of the Dark Project and Metal Age, these nifty bits of kit allow Garrett to take to the sky like Peter Parker with cooler dialogue, provided there happens to be a nice piece of stone wall in the vicinity.

Another clever change is the complete re-implementation of the lockpicking system. Originally, one had to either hope he had the right lockpick for the right door, or otherwise go traipsing throughout the level looking for a key.

Garrett muses: "It's just like Ikea..."

Now, you can open almost any door on approach, by moving the lockpicks, through a mini-interface, in a 360-arc looking for the 'sweet spot' of each particular tumbler, much like the interface found within fellow stealth-'em-up Pandora Tomorrow.

Admittedly, all this good comes at a price, small though it may be and the AI, whilst impressive, sometimes manages to glitch, with walk cycles leading guards to stand on rather than sit in chairs, and, most irritatingly, forget about any corpses lying around a few minutes after having had a good shout about them.

Still, by and large, the liveliness and occasional ingenuity of Garrett's opposition makes up for any quirks.

Ingenuity and the odd stuff-up aside, what makes the biggest impression on the player when first faced with the task of sizing up Ion Storm Austin's (as far as I'm concerned) magnum opus, apart from its good looks, is its equally brilliant audio, with every line of dialogue in the game, no matter how inconsequential, voiced-over with a conviction and clarity that even puts some big-budget Hollywood productions to shame (see John Carpenter's Vampires for a perfect example of what I'm on about here, folks), although the sharp and infinitely witty script plays a big part in said brilliance.

I daresay even the most hardened gamer will crack a wry smile when eavesdropping on some of the conversations held between the City's many inhabitants and, as already mentioned, one is instantly captivated on hearing Stephan Russell's Garrett speak.

Finally, there are the environs. The City itself is a great stomping ground, but where this latest incarnation of Thief really shines is in its self-contained levels, including such memorable locations as the inner workings of a massive Hammerite clocktower, an abandoned insane-asylum-cum-orphanage, a forgotten underground citadel ruled by the entrancing Kurshok fish/lizard-men, and the City Museum (complete with electrified security grids).

Each of these, in their own many and various ways, help to solidify the viewer's "suspension of disbelief", and also provide wicked opportunities to get at highly prized goodies.

Compelling, clever, darkly satisfying, mature, razor-sharp and, most of all, fun, Thief: Deadly Shadows sets not only a new benchmark for the Thief series, but also for the entire games industry by proxy.

Remember though, kiddies, whatever happens, don't try this at home, because trying to stealth your old man's collection of Playboys out from under his bed really isn't good for your health.

It'll make you go blind, so don't do it.

Game: Thief: Deadly Shadows
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Ion Storm (Austin)

Rating: 95%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Thief: Deadly Shadows is on the shelves now.

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