Thief: Deadly Shadows
Ion Storm Austin
Let's just get right down to it: Deadly Shadows is undeniably a mess, having a lot of the same problems as Invisible War. Developed around the same time, both of them use the same engine, a poorly-optimized, modified version of Unreal Engine 2 that I regret to inform you is called the Flesh Engine. Targeting the original Xbox, with its hardware already quite outdated by that point, necessitated some drastic cutbacks on design: where their predecessors were famous for large and complex mission design, levels in these sequels were small and fairly simple, and even then they still had to be split into two to run on the underpowered console hardware. Gameplay also took a hit, with many features and abilities from the original games removed or simplified. In Deadly Shadows' case, Garrett can no longer swim (he dies if he falls into water) and due to a wonky physics engine, rope arrows are out of the question, replaced by climbing gloves (which, in fairness, are almost a decent replacement.) All that being said, one aspect of the gameplay has actually been expanded on from the originals: rather than standing at a door and waiting for a lockpick to unlock it, you actually enter a lockpicking minigame where you must find the sweet spot. (There's supposed to be a UI element here to help, but it's been so long since I've played the game unmodded that I have no idea what it looks like anymore.)
It remains a mystery why Ion Storm chose to target the Xbox for their last two games. The engine development was, I'm given to understand, something of a disaster; their primary coder left mid-development but left no notes for their replacement. The engine itself, despite being actually quite visually impressive for the era with some really cool lighting effects, was a broken, janky mess. In order to work on the Xbox's 64 megabytes of ram, the game would completely restart itself upon map transition or reloading a save; this behavior was mysteriously retained for the PC version, much to the chagrin of anyone playing these games on modern hardware. Nevertheless, while Invisible War is by most accounts a travesty, Deadly Shadows fares somewhat better. I think this boils down to Thief gameplay being objectively simpler: break into a place, dodge guards, steal shit, and leave; moreover, the majority of your thieving tools are fancy arrows. Getting into combat is a bad idea, there's no guns, and there's very little in the way of actually talking to people. Despite the smaller, less complex level design, it's still recognizably Thief.
Continuing on from the themes presented in the first two games, Deadly Shadows is about the setting's most important faction of all: the Keepers. Originally a secretive sect of nerds who sometimes manipulated things from behind the scenes, Deadly Shadows reveals them to be the ineffectual, bickering architects of their own demise. There's an (admittedly stupid) political allegory to be made here: with the Pagans and Hammerites representing, variously, naturalism versus progress, free living versus social conservatism, chaos versus order, left versus right or whatever you want to project onto them, the Keepers in this allegory embody liberal/centrist inaction and incrementalism, too wrapped up in internal politicking, an overriding paranoia of exposure, and a policy of "trust the process" to be willing to actually get their hands dirty. This is made all the more absurd given that in the first two games, they're so willing to trust their own prophecies, which are borne out with 100% accuracy, but when the prophecies start spelling out their own dissolution they argue, they deny, they blame Garrett. All the while, rumors abound that a long-standing children's boogeyman, the Gray Lady, might be real after all and is behind a rash of disappearances and murders plaguing the city for years, if not centuries.
I've spent a lot of time in this review talking about the game's shortcomings. But in spite of all that, I feel that Thief: Deadly Shadows is a success. Much of that is due to the quality writing the series is known for, as well as excellent audio design and bringing back much of the classic voice actors (including the iconic Dumb Guard and Smart Guard voice archetypes.) But even within the constraints of the Xbox hardware limitations, the design team were able to pull off a little magic. Deadly Shadows is one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played, a beautifully-rendered adventure through a steampunk medieval city. The game uses subtle color grading to really paint a nighttime feel, relying heavily on various shades of blue and purple. Even the "frob" color when you're able to click on something that can be activated or picked up is a bright atomic blue. This was controversial back in the day but it's grown on me. Some of the mission design is fairly inspired: "House of the Widow Moira," the requisite manor heist, is set in a windswept oceanside mansion the night of a funeral as a thunderstorm rumbles outside, the people in the house indulging in petty posturing and quiet plots to steal from the grieving widow. "Robbing the Cradle" is the most famous mission in the entire series, an emotionally-draining nightmare through an abandoned insane asylum that leans heavily on the legacy of institutional violence, a level so uniquely twisted I almost can't believe they put it in a Thief game.
Speaking of mission design, unlike the previous two games, we really have no idea who worked on what for the most part. "Robbing the Cradle" seems to have been Jordan Thomas' baby, and he took the lead on the game's overall design; other design credits include Steven E. Allen, Nathan Blaisdell, Brian Glines, Jeremy Graves, Heather Kelley, Monte Martinez, and David Riegel. What parts any of these people worked on, your guess is as good as mine.
The game is 22 years old this year and as such, it's only gotten harder to get running. Your best bet is to get yourself Sneaky Upgrade, which is your one-stop shop for all your Deadly Shadows modding needs. Aside from allowing some much-needed technical magic to get the game behaving as well as it can on modern hardware, it comes with a variety of (often conflicting or overlapping) mods to improve the game, most of which can be managed in the included SneakyTweaker app. Some of this is just objectively better, such as the Thief 3 Gold mod that welds together the mission maps. Others are a matter of taste, like the Collective Texture Pack (which is one of the vanishingly rare times I'll ever admit an "HD" pack for an old game improves the look of the game) or the Minimalist Project, which attempts to rebuild the UI to more closely match the original games. My preference was to keep as much of the stock UI as possible, including the aforementioned atomic blue frob highlight, but I did use the texture pack as well as the bespoke briefing videos (the game does not come with them by default, which was a disappointment.)
I really like Thief: Deadly Shadows. It's a flawed masterpiece desperately in need of a remaster or even an outright remake; we can see the ghost of it in games like Dishonored or even the 2014 Thief reboot, but if there ever was a game that deserved a new lease on life it's Deadly Shadows.
Checking Inn, Cashing out
Unlike last time, where you were mostly just given a refresher course and expected to figure out the rest, the opening minutes of the third game are a linear training mission through a quiet little inn. By default you're locked into the easiest difficulty, though with fan patches you can select your own difficulty and it will affect whether you'll get the training popups or not. It's been a solid decade, maybe more, since I played through the whole trilogy, so I went with the developers' intentions. It's extremely linear, so don't expect to be doing a lot, but it's enough to get your feet wet.
End of the Bloodline
Now we're talking. "End of the Bloodline" has you infiltrating a castle in search of a fancy opal that has some connection to the family politics roiling the castle. The castle is split into two sections as befits an Xbox game. The south end is home to the front of the castle, with barracks, storage, and a grand staircase that leads to the upper level. The north end is the actual residential part, where Lord Ember and his betrothed keep their (separate) chambers. It's ironically busier up front with more guards, but there's less room to maneuver on the way to Lord Ember's room.
Day 1: South Quarter and Stonemarket
In a departure from the linear nature of the first two games, you're now treated to a semi-open world kinda dealie where you get to triapse around the city. The city is divided into districts that you'll be able to travel to and from, as well as sub areas with their own maps like Garrett's apartment. Right now you only have two districts open to you, South Quarter (where Garrett's apartment is) and Stonemarket, the latter of which is further divided into two sections, Stonemarket Plaza and Stonemarket Proper. The streets are narrow and patrolled by City Watch, but you can nevertheless duck down an alley here and there. There's a few things to do, like robbing your neighbors, getting thrown in prison (which triggers its whole own little mini-mission,) or getting the jump on an impersonator and grabbing the dagger he was hired to pilfer. Otherwise, you're best off moving on to one of the two missions you've been tasked with. For this playthrough I went with the Pagans first.
Into the Pagan Sanctuary
The Pagans, normally a rural bunch, have established an outpost inside a dilapidated, overgrown part of the city. Getting there requires a trip through some caves and sewers; once you're actually there, though, the mission opens up a bit, with confusing dead ends and blind alleys, but also plenty of ways to get above things, which is a good deal considering there's treebeasts lurking about too. There's a ritual you have to perform to get the thing you need, but it's pretty simple, and you'll helpfully be provided the materials.
Day 2: St. Edgar's Eve
By far the largest mission the game has offered to this point, it's a big cathedral with a factory to one side and barracks to the other. Despite its size, or perhaps because of it, guard patrols are pretty light, which should make navigation a little safer. The tricky part is that you'll need to find out exactly how to get the item you need; as with the Pagans it requires a little mini quest. Beautiful cathedral, though.
Day 3: Keeper Library and Docks
Now that you've gotten the relics the Keepers want, you'll be given the opportunity to visit the Keeper Library in Stonemarket. The library itself is pretty expansive, with its characteristic circular stacks and an entire forbidden section. You won't have much reason to visit the forbidden section right now, but that doesn't mean you can't. Later you'll travel to the Docks, where your next two missions are located. It's narrow, and crowded with City Watch and Pagans, but buying the climbing gloves will take out some of the hassle of traversing the streets. Lastly is the Abysmal Gale, currently berthed at the Docks and full of zombies. It's all narrow corridors and small rooms, so go in prepared for a fight.
The House of the Widow Moira
What you learned on the Abysmal Gale has sent you to the Overlook Mansion, a seaside manor owned by the now-deceased captain and his wife. Arriving under cover of a rainy night, and with the distraction of the funeral, it's a classic mansion heist with a hefty dose of atmosphere and even a little bit of a sad vibe, reminding me of the classic Thief II fan mission The 7th Crystal, a similarly atmospheric, slightly depressing adventure from 2001. Cool bits like the occasional flash of lightning coming through the windows and the sound of rolling thunder, a little side quest to bring someone some wine, and even a minor ethical dilemma all serves to make "House of the Widow Moira" one of the most atmospheric missions in the game, and my favorite "normal" mission.
Day 4: The Sunken Citadel
The other Docks mission takes you below the streets... way below. The Lost City of Karath-Din isn't the only forgotten civilization beneath the cobblestone; there's also a long-forgotten civilization of fishmen who lived in a vaguely Grecian/Mesopotamian-looking city along the shoreline, before suffering some great cataclysm that buried the city. Now they grimly maintain their civilization amidst the sunken ruins, having lost the ability to read and write, though they can still speak, reason and fight. And they're not alone: a group of hostile Pagans and their ratmen soldiers are down here too, looking for something. It's not as intricate a level as the original game's Lost City, but there's a lot to see down here by Thief 3 standards and it's actually easy to get a little... lost. Let's just ignore the irony of a lost, watery kingdom of fishmen in a game where you can't swim.
Day 5: Killing Time
This might be the most vertical a mission has ever been in Thief; the entirety of it takes place within a single large clocktower. You'll start at the top, dodging the massive pendulums, and work your way down, through worker dormitories and clock mechanisms, and finally into the basement, where the boilers that keep everything running are. The toughest spot is definitely the middle, where you'll have to find a safe way down a large, five-story shaft that doesn't have a lot of walkways, ladders or other logical ways to descend. The climbing gloves will definitely come in handy here. Luckily there's plenty of loot for the savvy thief, which is good because while there's a lot of shadows, it's generally a pretty linear affair.
Day 6: Old Quarter and Fort Ironwood
If you thought the other city zones were too spacious, the Old Quarter ought to make you happy. Its streets are narrow and confined, but there's a few different ways to get around that don't require feet on cobblestone — which could be useful when you first get here and you're being hunted by Keeper Enforcers. Nearby is Fort Ironwood, a small Hammerite outpost that hosts a graveyard and catacombs with a bit of a zombie problem. There's also no fence here, which isn't a huge deal, but still a minor inconvenience.
Of Brethren... and Betrayers
For the first time the whole trilogy, you're up against Keepers. The Keeper Compound is a decent-sized institution, roughly symmetrical. A lot of the patrolling guards carry torches and candles, more than usual in fact, but there's still plenty of shadows to hide in. How can anyone read anything in this place? Anyway, you're here to learn what you can, steal everything that's not nailed down, and maybe "influence" a couple of council votes your way.
Day 7: Auldale
It's the rich part of town, with wide quiet streets and watchful guards. The path more or less makes a complete circle, though part of the loop goes through a Pagan hideout. (Nevermind that they're immediate neighbors with the city's Hammerite inquisitor, but given that at this point the Pagans and Hammerites are in open warfare on the streets, maybe they just wanted to keep an eye on him.) Compared to the Old Quarter it's pretty easy to get around, but some of the guards can be tricky to ghost. Despite its simplicity, it holds some secrets of its own, which will be revealed to you in good time...
Robbing the Cradle
This is it: one of the scariest single levels in a non-horror game ever made, the level so fucking scary it got its own article in PC Gamer. Inspired by Silent Hill, Session 9 and the long, sordid history of mental health care, "Robbing the Cradle" is the ultimate haunted house nightmare: an orphange-slash-insane asylum (yes it was both at the same time, and I'm betting for economic reasons) long-since abandoned after a fire and numerous deaths. The Cradle squats like an ill omen in the Old Quarter (and likely not too far from the Barricades separating the city from the haunted streets of the abandoned section seen in the first game.) Rumors abound about the place, and nobody who's ever snuck into its ruins has ever returned. Like most Thief: Deadly Shadows missions, it's split into two halves, north and south; the southern half is eerily empty, with only ghostly noises for company. The inner, northern half is home to the Puppets, what remains of the institution's most dangerous patients, now undead and forced to roam the building in search of some artifact of their former lives. The mission proper is mostly a series of fetch quests, much in the same fashion as "Return to the Cathedral;" nonetheless, it's carried significantly by its atmosphere and notes laying around revealing just how grim life in the Cradle really was. Did I mention the place is alive and won't let you leave?
Day 8: Still Life With Blackjack
As a fitting finale for the original trilogy, your final full-sized mission for Thief: Deadly Shadows is a museum heist, with the primary objectives being collecting some artifacts that figure into the final plan. One of these artifacts is none other than our old friend the Eye, that creepy l'il salt lamp that likes to taunt people and start zombie apocalypses. In terms of size and complexity, "Still Life With Blackjack" is comparable with the first two game; while it's not the sprawling maze of Thief II's bank level, it's a sizeable location with quite a bit to steal. (There's an irony in the last mission of the game being the most profitable, when you could have used that cash to buy supplies for this very mission.) The game makes some hash about the security systems, but it's so easy to defeat it's almost insulting. All the more reason to rob the place like you're the British Museum.
Day 9: Finale
The final moments of Thief: Deadly Shadows are shockingly brief, a big switchup from the lengthy finales of the previous two games. ("Sabotage at Soulforge" all by itself typically takes me about two hours!) Rather than a full mission, after a short cutscene you're given the run of the city, where you must visit all of the local landmarks and insert one of the artifacts, with the last one appropriately being inserting the Eye into the fountain outside of Garrett's apartment. This is easier said than done, however, as the game's ultimate villain and a horde of angry walking statues are roaming the city, attacking indiscriminately. On the plus side, the utter chaos in the streets (including the Pagans and Hammerites still fighting each other) results in somewhat less attention on you. It's an interesting way to finish the game and justify having an open-world city, but I don't know, it feels a little anticlimactic as executed. Still, that's the end of the game, and by extension the trilogy, and Garrett's story. Now to play all those fan missions, yeah?
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