Thief: Deadly Shadows offers exceptional level design, outstanding stealth gameplay & a captivating story.
The level designs in Deadly Shadows are great. Each mission leaves the player deciding on how they're going to complete it & which route to take. Are you going to take out those two guards that are near an objective with a gas bomb? or are you going to use a noisemaker arrow down the hall so that the guards go to investigate whilst you get the job done? Theres alot of equipment at your disposal, ranging from gas bombs to fire arrows, so theres no shortage of options in how you how complete each misison.
The AI in Deadly Shadows is not it's without flaws, but it does work very well within the game. If an enemy sees or hears you, they will pull out a weapon & investigate the situation. If they get too close, they will chase you until you can no longer be seen. Some guards actually run out of breath & need to stop, giving you a perfect opportunity to escape. If you attack an enemy that is unaware of your presence with your bow & arrow, you will be able to kill them in one hit. If they are aware of your presence, it will take around 3-4 hits. You're encouraged to hide in the shadows, you're encouraged to be as silent as possible. This is the great thing about Deadly Shadows, it's a true stealth game.
Instead of going from mission to mission, Deadly Shadows has an adventure element involved. Once a mission is successful, a day will pass & Garrett will start a new night, either in his apartment or somewhere in the city. The city is a thiefs playground, theres plenty for you to do. You can sell your loot to fences for money, buy equipment from shops & do sidequests. Even though the city is packed full of detail which creates a late middle age setting brilliantly, it does leave the player wanting the city to be bigger with more depth to it. After roaming around the same parts of the city, hiding from the same guards, it can get repetitive.
As you progress through the game, the story starts to unfold. Most of the story will be shown via hand drawn & 3D cut scenes, which manages to get the message across rather good. The game itself doesn't look too bad at all, considering is was released in 2004. You can also make the game look even better by downloading a high resolution & detailed texture pack, which can be found here:
http://www.john-p.com/textures/Thief-DS/index.shtml
There are a few minor problems with the game. The game quits to desktop & restarts after every load. Sometimes Garrett will get stuck, pretty much making him useless, which forces you to restart.
Overall, Thief: Deadly Shadows is a great game which does many things right. If you're looking for a true stealth game, it's definitely worth taking a look.