Thief:Deadly Shadow is a great addition to the stealth genre with enough captivating gameplay mechanics to make it shine
User Rating: 8.2 | Thief: Deadly Shadows XBOX
Having never played a Thief game before,i took a considerable risk in purchasing it and was pleasantly suprised finding it to be a well thought out stealth game which throws a few nods towards the splinter cell series,but with enough of its own innovations to make it stand out. First and foremost,Thiefs gameplay is what hit me as its strongest point.Namely it rely's heavily on stealth and discourages confrontations completely.You play as Garett,a Master Thief who lives in a shadowy city split up between different factions,with Garett basically playing between these factions and plying his trade wherever he can.Missions typically consist of breaking into different locations and stealing a certain amount of loot which is required to complete the mission,which can then be sold to various merchants around the city,earning you more gold to buy more weapons,items etc.Garett comes equipped with a knife,a blackjack(for knocking foes out) and a bow.The bow in particular has various different arrows that can be bought for different situations such as a water arrow,which can extinguish flame or clean up blood,or a moss arrow,which can be used to lessen the sound of loud surfaces or choke enemies.There are aslo a multitude of secondary items such as flash grenandes,health potions,and gas grendades which can help with your criminal activities.Missions themselves are long and challenging,even on a normal difficulty setting,due to great enemy A.I.,for instance:Enemies notice the most minute things,such as missing comrades,stolen loot,doors left open,screams,or puddles of blood,and they will actively search for you if they feel something is amiss,which makes your job more difficult due to the often claustrophobic enviroments of the levels.Asides from primary missions,there is also the option of walking the streets of the city and thieving various residences at your leisure,adding a bit of replay value.Of coarse,there are downsides,notably that the missions are all exactly the same in nature and can be become repetetive quickly,but for anyone who enjoys slow paced stealth games,this shoudlnt bother you. Thief:Deadly Shadows is played from an optional first or third person perspective,which is new to the series i believe,and can be quite useful.The graphics in the game are of good quality,making excellent use of real time shadows,(as seen in splinter cell)flames can be put out,your shadow can give you away,and light bends around your charachter etc.For me,the level design in Thief really stood out,the architecture of levels are suitabley gothic in nature,really adding to the overall dark feel of the game,levels are also varied and provide multiple ways of breaking into residences etc.Unfortunately,this attention to enviromental detail is downplayed by ridged charachter animation,and repetetive characther models,which sacrifices the overall realism of the city and levels.But personally,i didnt find this to be too discouraging. The music in Thief,is slow and eerie,there is no musical score to speak of,rather an assortment of atmopheric sounds which really add to the tension of the game.Sound effects are varied and effective,as much as you would expect from a stealth based game,with different surface sounds that can give you away,and a general ambience to each level.The voice acting in Thief leaves a little to be desired,especially in the case of NPC's,which can become extremely repetetive,although Garett himself is suitably gruff and uncaring,he alone is not enough to save this aspect of the game. Thief has a decent replay value,which really depends on the player,if played on the hardest difficulty,while attempting to find every piece of loot that can be stolen in the game,thief can be suprisingly long and fufilling and well worth a buy. Overall,i really enjoyed Thief ,it has a few minor problems here and there,but for any stealth fan,Thief delivers an atmopheric and memorable world to plunder all you like. 
