At first I was concerned that this game would not live up to its predecessors, but after completing Thief: Deadly Shadows, my worries were for not. Ion Storm did an excellent job of fine-tuning the engine from Deus Ex: Invisible War. Most bugs were worked out and the graphics were improved. But instead of making a comparison between T:DS and DX:IW, let instead concentrate on the game at hand. Lets start with some of the faults and bugs. The most obvious bug that I ran into on several occasions was one where Garrett's body seemed to float and jumping became deactivated. It was as if Garrett was in a constant state of falling, even though he was on the ground. This was caused by jumping to or from walls or jumping over small ledges. I am sure that this will be fixed in an upcoming patch. Another fault that people seem to have is that you can knock out two guards standing next to each other as long as they don't see each other. But in my opinion, this is not really a fault, but rather a carry over from the previous two games. The last thing I would like to mention is the shadowing. Although extremely innovating in terms of movement and flicker, still quite unrealistic. In the real world, shadows don't have crisp clear edges. Also, you can see wall sections were the light would stop suddenly. Now on to the good stuff. The levels are beautiful, the artist obviously spent a tremendous amount of time getting all the details and bump mapping to look right. For those who don't think this is true, you obviously haven't been to the Shalebridge Cradle mission yet. This mission is by far one of the best and scariest that I have ever played, in any game. The sound is absolutely amazing, but in the SC mission, it shines. The town areas in between the missions are a love/hate relationship. It is wonderful how they tie the story together and allow the player to do there own thing in between mission, but on the other hand, sometimes you have to go through three load screens to get were you want. In addition, the story is excellent and slides right along side with the other Thief games. I am hoping that Ion Storm didn't right themselves in a corner so that they can make another Thief game. So here is the lowdown: Gameplay - The gameplay is almost exactly like the previous Thief games with the exception of a few new toys (and the removal of a few as well), I rated this an 9 do to the many load zones through the game. Graphics - While not excellent, they are great. Some of the shadowing effects could be better, so it gets a 9. Sound - The sound is top notch, especially on a surround sound system. It definitely adds to the tension of a first person sneaker. A 10! Value - Finally a game that takes longer than a day or two to beat. It is absolutely worth the 45 bones for the PC version. Another 10!!! Tilt - IMO, I think Ion Storm should have stuck with just a PC version; there are several obvious sacrifices to make it for the XBox, most notably, the mass amounts of load screens. So in protest, I give it a 9. If you are expecting a fast paced, kill everyone ask questions never sort of game, T:DS might not be for you. But if you like sneaking around, tension building, covert sort of game, Thief: Deadly Shadows is a must. ~L7L
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