Anything That Isn't Nailed Down

Ion Storm is taking great pains to create realistic artificial intelligence for Deadly Shadows' characters, such as guards that keep watch over treasure houses and peasants that roam the streets. Like in the previous games, other characters will give clear audio clues about whether or not they see you and whether or not they plan to attack you. However, they'll also have different personalities and physical attributes. Guards who are wearing heavy armor may tire after chasing you down, so they'll have to catch their breaths, which can give you an opportunity to escape. Other guards may be cowards at heart who will turn and run for help if you wound them severely enough. In addition, the developer is attempting to make sure that while fighting head-to-head will be far more difficult and dangerous than sneaking past the guards, but it won't always be a losing proposition, either. According to Spector, balancing out Garrett's fighting ability against the strength of the guards is a tricky prospect. If Garrett is too strong a combatant, most players will probably just play Deadly Shadows as a head-on action game, but if he's too weak, then getting caught by the guards will result in a frustrating failure that will cause most players to reload their last saved game.

Garrett can hold his own. But for how long?

Fortunately, Thief: Deadly Shadows has an improved combat system that, according to Spector, will let you play Garrett as a formidable assassin. Like in the previous games, Garrett can sneak up behind enemies and can club them with his blackjack, thus rendering them unconscious so that he can drag their bodies in to the shadows and go on with his work. He can also stab his enemies in the back with his dagger. In fact, a well-placed blow will kill most unaware opponents instantly, though Garrett will need to hide the body and clean up any blood left behind or risk being discovered later.Then again, in a few cases, Garrett may encounter enemies that aren't even human--and he'll need to employ different tactics to defeat them (though if you're a fan of the series, you may be relieved to hear that Deadly Shadows will have no steam-powered robots whatsoever).

If he's well hidden, Garrett can also instantly drop an enemy with a broadhead arrow to the noggin, though this will alert any other nearby characters. Enemy guards will immediately begin looking for you, while civilians will run for the guards. Gas arrows can be used to incapacitate enemies, and fire arrows can be used to finish off helpless ones. Garrett can also use smoke bombs to temporarily blind his enemies, or he can lay explosive mines in his enemies' paths, thus causing them to get blown sky-high. Unfortunately, if Garrett is discovered, he must go toe-to-toe with his enemies. Skilled players can weave in and out of the path of an enemy's sword while also attacking with a dagger or firing point-blank arrows. However, if you need to make a hasty retreat, you can also toss a smoke bomb into a guard's path and then run while he's blinded, or you can wound him badly enough to make him pause or flee. It will actually be possible to complete Thief: Deadly Shadows by killing off every single enemy, though it certainly won't be easy. Fortunately if you do get spotted by the guards, you'll have other options besides just running in the opposite direction or hiding and waiting until they lose your trail. According to Spector, being stuck with just these two options "just isn't fun." Garrett also has plenty of other tricks up his sleeve, such as the ability to flatten himself against walls to better hide himself from view or being able to simply scale walls when the defenses around the front door are too tight.

The City might be an interesting place for sightseeing, but Garrett needs to keep his wits about him to succeed.

We were able to see both the PC and Xbox versions of the game in action, and while the game is still in an early state, it looks quite good. The game features something that Spector refers to as "body awareness," whereby Garrett can look down or to his sides to see his own body and equipment, though you'll likely be more focused on the City around him. Deadly Shadows is powered by an enhanced version of the same proprietary game engine that Ion Storm used for Deus Ex: Invisible War, though it should have both shorter loading times and an improved frame rate over that previous game. The City itself is an anachronism. It's caught somewhere between a medieval European and a Victorian Age city, where armed guards wear chainmail armor and carry swords outside of buildings that are protected by steam-powered traps. Furthermore, it's in this City where a certain master thief has a prosthetic mechanized eyeball that lets him zoom in on his surroundings to help him case his next target.