User Rating: 5.3 | Thief: Deadly Shadows PC
This had the potential to be a truely great game and in one respect, the plot and storyline, it is great. However, I have some advice for Eidos and Ion Storm. Give those members of the team who write the plotline a raise and fire the designers and programmers. Once again we have a game, like Deus Ex 2, the has hugely good elements that is let down by X-box dumbing, tiny levels with hugely annoying SLOW level transitions, bugs and design flaws. The stealth elements are particularly poorly developed given that this is....eeerrrr...a stealth game. Climbing is almost unuseable, except in the rare places that the designers have decided to deign to let you use it; you can't slimb round corners, onto pitched rooves etc etc etc. You can't crawl. etc etc. SPlinter cell does it SO much better. As for bugs, even with the patched version I've lost count of the number of times I've found myself sticking to solid objects, getting trappedin open boxes and unable to jump/climb over said obstructions without making a hell of a racket. Overall one is left with the impression that the designers and programmers focused their attentio on the "authorised" route (a very console way of doing things since in stops it being too demanding) and didn't really bother with the rest. Oh yes, graphics are realy pretty average. Having said all of this the physics engine works a great deal better than it did in Deus Ex 2 and the sound is often highly effective. But that really is the only positive thing one can say abouit the technical side of the game. A real shame since from he atmosphere and storyline side it really is quite hard to fault. Just very, very frustrating to play since it could have been so much more. As I said, give the plot writers a raise and find some new designers and programmers. 
