Thief: Deadly Shadows
A master thief stalks a steampunk city in the third Thief game.
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a 2004 stealth video game and the third entry in the Thief series. The game introduced an open city hub, allowing players to explore freely between missions.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Ion Storm
- Publisher
- Eidos Interactive
- Director
- Randy Smith
- Producer
- Denise Fulton
- Designer
- Jordan Thomas
- Programmer
- Ian Dunlop
- Artist
- Sergio Rosas
- Writer
- Terri Brosius
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a first-person and third-person sneaker where the player controls Garrett, an independent master thief. The goal is to steal through the City using stealth, devices, and weapons, completing objectives and making profit. The player can steal from or mug innocents, and avoid, distract, attack, or knock out guards. Loot and ammunition are collected by touching them when close enough. Locked containers require a lock-picking minigame to open. Mission levels are traversed by staying in shadows, as walking or running alerts guards, who search for the player upon detection. Guards chase and may hunt down the player if discovered. The player must monitor noise from actions to remain quiet. A hand-drawn map of the surroundings is available, but the player's location is not marked and must be deduced from landmarks. The game has an open-ended structure, allowing multiple approaches to objectives. Missions end after all objectives are completed, with cutscenes advancing the plot. City and mission levels are divided into parts connected by load zones due to limited memory. After each mission, the player reappears in the nearest district of the City, which can be freely explored on foot. Most civilians do not recognize Garrett as a criminal, though wanted posters appear on walls. City areas unlock as the player progresses. Stolen goods can be sold to fences for gold, used at shops to buy weapons, equipment, and supplies. Special loot like artifacts cannot be sold but are tied to objectives and plot. Loot, gold, equipment, and weapons are retained in the inventory throughout the game, allowing hoarding. While exploring the City, the player can break into homes, spy on townspeople, steal, and complete side quests. Allying with major factions makes their members fight alongside the player against the City Watch guards.
Plot
Garrett steals a rare opal from a nobleman's castle. After fencing it, Keeper Artemus offers him access to the Keeper Prophecies if he brings two Artifacts: the Builder's Chalice from the Hammerites and the Jacknall's Paw from the Pagans. Learning of a coming Dark Age, Garrett steals the Compendium of Reproach, an ancient book detailing the event, along with a third Artifact called the Kurshok Crown. The Keepers read the prophecy, which says an evil one will be revealed when time ceases to exist. Garrett suspects the city's clocktower is involved and sabotages it, causing the tower to collapse. Caduca, the Keepers' Interpreter of the Prophecies, is found murdered. Keeper Orland blames Garrett, who is found guilty in a trial but escapes. Orland sends Keeper Enforcers, elite assassins, after Garrett. Garrett eludes them and learns from sympathetic Keepers that the clocktower's rubble points toward the Keeper Library. Believing Orland's betrayal is foretold, Garrett goes to the library for evidence. He encounters a mysterious old woman using Glyph magic who tries to kill him, but he escapes. Drept advises searching the abandoned Shalebridge Cradle, where he saw the Hag as a child. The Cradle was once an orphanage and insane asylum, abandoned after a fire killed its inhabitants.
Development
The studio behind Thief II, Looking Glass Studios, was in deep financial trouble and shut down in May 2000, just months after that game came out. According to PC Zone's Keith Pullin, work on a third Thief game was already fairly far along. Randy Smith and Terri Brosius, who had designed Thief II, were leading the project and had spent months on concepts. The plan was for an open-ended city where players could freely explore, with a story centered on the Keepers. Garrett was meant to mature and learn to give instead of just taking. After Looking Glass went under, the rights to Thief were sold off. In August 2000, publisher Eidos Interactive bought them and announced that Ion Storm would make Thief III. The Austin team, fresh off finishing Deus Ex, was led by Warren Spector. He said Eidos would have handed the game to Core Design or Crystal Dynamics if he hadn't taken it. The game was first announced for Windows and PlayStation 2. Ion Storm built a core team that included ex-Looking Glass staff: Randy Smith, Emil Pagliarulo, Lulu Lamer, and Terri Brosius, with others consulting. Pre-production started in September 2000, with the goal of tying up the series' loose ends.
Reception
Thief: Deadly Shadows received generally positive reviews on Metacritic. Computer Gaming World nominated it for Action Game of the Year in 2004, but the award went to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It was a runner-up for Computer Games Magazine's list of the 10 best computer games of 2004, and won the magazine's special award for Best Sound Effects. The PC version won GameSpy's 2004 Best Sound award. Despite positive reviews, the game failed to meet financial targets and may have led to the cancellation of a follow-up title, Thief 4: Dagger of Ways. In a 2023 interview, Randy Smith said he was most proud of the open world segments, calling it a good accomplishment to pull that off while ramping up a new team, switching to consoles, and building another Thief game.
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