I love all of the thief games they are entertaining with interesting stories. This is a good game if you like to use strategy and be naughty. :p Not a run up and kill stuff and make everything explode sort of game. Hours of fun and glory.

This is not a PC game. Good example of a game that is made especially for consoles and after it to PC. Horribly small levels, crashes, horribly bugging and very low resolution graphics, AI is very limited and stucks into corners and even archers run very next to you and after that they start shooting. I loved Thief 2 and especially Thief 1. But this 3rd Thief... it has some of the atmosphere as older Thiefs had, but still it looks, feels, smells and sounds like a crappy console port. Sorry, no bonus!… Expand

Sweet. Like theif 1 and 2, really good.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Thief: Deadly Shadows is truly the weakest game in the series, partially due to it being produced for the XBox. The levels are small, and the mini-maps are linked by this unexplained purple gas to connect them. Thus, you don't go through any of the city gates, but actually go around them through the purple gas. Other characters don't travel through the purple gas. As a result of the small levels, I found the cities somewhat boring. Further, some of the fun features of previous Thief games were removed (i.e. rope arrows) and were replaced with a wall-climbing ability, but it just wasn't as interesting. They really missed out on the opportunity to create a much more complex map (utilizing the "Thieves' highway" of the rooftops. Travel through water and flooded areas - once an interesting puzzle - has been disallowed. If you accidentally fall into water, you sink like a rock. No swimming, as in past games! A voice comes through and says you've been captured and taken to prison, which is fun to escape from -- once. Going through the city and picking pockets is an interesting diversion for a while, but having to sell your stuff at a fence can get tedious. You can befriend the Pagans and the Hammerites by doing things for them to increase your friendliness ranking. (Okay, that could be interesting... but...) But this just prevents them from attacking you later, and possibly defending you, and if you steal from them, your status goes down. Whether the faction noticed you stealing or not, they still lose respect for you. Also, the favors you do for them are pretty odd. Pagans, for example, like you to shoot moss arrows at green cornerstones to increase your status with them. Hammerites like you to shoot at dog-sized bugs which explode when you shoot them. (Huh?) To make matters worse, I encountered a few annoying bugs. Occasionally, the protagonist would get stuck in a jump and not descend until I exited the level. Occasionally, you could lean just right an look through an object to the horizon. Expect a few little screwball errors like this. The storyline, as opposed to Thief: The Dark Project, was lacking as well. You don't want to think about it too hard. The villain of the story uses inconsistent resources throughout the story, as if the level designers did not consult with each other when designing the characters or levels. So sloppy all around. So, yes, Thief 3 is a little disappointing, but possibly worth playing if you can get it cheaply and keep your expectations low. The game was obviously rushed to market, and could really have used another month or two of play-testing.… Expand

Clearly weaker than Thief 1 and 2 in terms of gameplay. I'm also surprised that som many thought the graphics were excellent. The gfx must have been developed with the Xbox in mind and I was bothered by that fact, a lot. Also the gfx isn't fluid, no matter how fast your pc. The sfx are great even though the vioce acting doesn't feel as fine tuned as in the prequels.

Outstanding.

Speechless...

Best game on steam so far - until thief 1 or 2 comes out. Do yourself a favour and play a different computer game for once...this one!

The athmosphere in this game is absolutely incredible! I have never seen anything like it. (and I am playing PC games since 1992) Once you got started, there is really no way that you can put it away before you have finished it. Especially that level in the cradle was just stunning. The gameplay and atmosphere in there just cannot be described, because there is simply no other game that has anything likewise. I would even say that it is worth buying the game just to see that level - it's a MUST PLAY. The only weakness of the game is the ending, which I felt was a bit weird, but that is probably just me and I don't want to spoil anything, so you can find out yourself.… Expand

Classic game, Beastly, You cannot find a better stealth action game anywhere, Except for maybe Thi4f

My fears are allayed, they kept the most important thing from the first two games: the unmistakable thief ATMOSPERE. There are a couple of design decisions that I don't agree with, but it feels like thief, and its just as fun and as engrossing

I DO feel that this game is a true Thief sequel in heart and soul, the developers obviously having spent a lot of time on the trademark series dialog and ambience. I have no beef with the third-person camera (it's useful and, best of all, optional) and I found myself occasionally picking my jaw up off the floor. Recommended without reservation.

Graphics are good. If you have a some-what good system it is not slow. The story could have been better, but overall it was a great game. I enjoyed it a lot.

An amazing game, not quite on par with the previous prequels but for what it lacks free form design it more than makes it up in atmosphere and plain intrigue. If your in the mood to try something with a different pace and style of its own then this game is a must buy especially for 20 bucks!

The concept of the city is handled in a great way, not to mention the AI is one of the best i've ever seen in a game and it retains all the old glorious features of the previous Thief games. And it manages to be even funnier.

Crashes, crashes, and more crashes. I finished the first mission but now can't get past the opening screen. Tried all the affinity hacks, etc. that I could find on the web but no dice. I am severely disappointed in this game, it ought to be a crime to sell something this lame and without any support past the ancient v1.1 upgrade.

It's a great basic engine, and I always had heaps of fun running around the city robbing people and places, but about a quarter way through the plotline goes pants-on-head stupid and the game suffers for it. I wanted the game to be like the first two or three levels, but once you've robbed the Hammerite cathedral the game apparently feels the need to include strange monsters and the like, none of whom respond well to a whack on the back of the head. It would have been one of my very favorite games - and is in my imagination, regardless - but, sheesh... The game starts off as nothing short of revolutionary, but unfortunately goes downhill fast as soon as the zombies pop up.… Expand

Crappy console port. But that's the least of its problems. The awful engine means that loading screens are plentiful and levels are small. It's been streamlined for the Xbox crowd and features a bunch of nonsensical elements which were not present in previous Thief games (also known as "lore rape"). Very buggy and crashes constantly even on top notch computers. Getting stuck in the scenery is not a rare event, and the ragdoll physics are lazy and unnatural compared to what they should have gone with - good animations. Quite a disgrace to the stealth genre and the Thief series as a whole, simply does not live up to the legacy. The game has a stupid City hub rather than the assumed natural progression between missions ala Thief 1 and 2. Deadly Shadows is also a lot more linear, and suddenly rope/vine arrows don't exist in the Thief universe and Garrett has forgotten the ability to swim (he dies the instant he touches water). I don't know why people seem to think of it as any better than Invisible War is to Deus Ex, it's honestly just as bad.… Expand

AWESOME game. Lots of fun. Couple glitches that need some attention, but this is a truly Immserisve, and best of all entertaining game. I cant believe i am saying this considering that i HATED the game, Deus Ex invisible war which was a console piece of crap and considering that Deadly Shadows has a similar engine, and similar physics...i had feared it might take the same route. Fortunately not! It's WAY longer than invisible war, and every moment is filled with tension and crafty joy. BUY IT!… Expand

Wow Ion Storm really outdid themselves with this game! I'm sorry to hear they had to lay off people!

After playing the first two titles over and over, I can't say how pleased I was with their follow up. The best stealth action game to be released in a long time.

Great.

A great game, worthy of its predecessors. While the rope arrows will be missed, and despite the various nitpicked issues about it, it still upholds the high standard set by the previous two games. As some fans of the series would agree, I'm just glad to be seeing the continuation of a great franchise. Thumbs up.

A very well designed game. Very similar to Thief: The dark project. Although it doesn't have any huge outdoor spaces like thief 2, this game does have great level design that is decidedly non-linear. Veterans of the series will notice some details from past games missing (in Thief 1 and 2 having a bow or sword out made you more visible and things like that are missing in this game) there is still so much fun to be had that I have to give this game a ten.… Expand

My comment about this game: Do not expect this to be the 3rd game of thief series. Try and act like it is a some sort of new spin off game. I say this because of 1) the game play is similar to that of the other horribly eidos third person stealth games. 2) The game (much like all the other 3rd person eidos games) relies heavily on lighting. The previous thief games was not such of a graphics whore. 3) The engine used for this game is known for its poor performance. Ontop of that, there is a graphics filter option which you can NOT turn off, makes your framerates drop dramatically. One other thing, there has been a known major bug in the console ports. Sadly enough, this shows through on how much this game was a rushed job. If you have an extremely fast computer, and are typical gamers who have bought farcry , hitman 3, and unreal2k4, you will enjoy this game solely because you have the money to pay for it and it is something new.… Expand

Graphics are s ... l.... o .... w ..... even on my somewhat respectable rig (Athlon XP 2800, 512 MB 333Mhz RAM, nVidia GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 128 MB DDRII vid card) the gameplay suffered horribly, until I turned down just about all the graphic options. Absolute poo. (by contrast, Unreal Tournament 2004 *freakin' flies* on my rig, as does BF: Vietnam, others). Don't buy this game new ... wait for it to drop in price, else you'll be continually annoyed by the stuck-in-molasses framerates. Unless, of course, you own an absolute top-of-the-line PC. Overall: Story, missions, gameplay, sound: great. Graphics: crap.… Expand

Requires a pretty hi-end machine to be fully enjoyed. Good graphics, good sound. Excellent story as usual. The Thief series has provided me with hours and hours of quality amusement! If you liked Thief 1&2 you will definatly like (love...) this game! Even though I still think that the first thief is the greatest of them all (even though the sequels outperfom it when it comes to graphics it still has the best story...). I also miss the rope arrows! Why did you cut them out ION Storm??? Climbinggloves are less fun :) Oh and btw... If you don't plan to make another sequel please sell the filmrights or I'll miss Garret terribly he's my NO 1 anti hero of all games!!! //Nick … Expand

I have a Athalon 1700+, 256MB of ram, and a GeForce 6600GT and the rendering and framerate are fantastic. As a hardcore fan of the previous two titles, I'm very happy with the gameplay and level design. They've included all the little details that put this title over the top. There are the patented plot twists, a decent amount of exploration and enough tools to let you try a variety of tactics in any situation. This game is flat-out fun. I just spent two days in a row putting in 10-hour shifts on this game. That hasn't happened in a long time. The only reason it doesn't get a ten is because of a lack of modding tools. I would also like a larger "sandbox" of a city, but I'm glad it is there for between missions and it is big enough and detailed enough to not cost them points.… Expand

Very good, not just amazing graphics, but good level designs and use of lighting, as we're used to from the other Thief games. Definately my favourite of the series.

Best soundscapes ever!

A good game in the wrong engine and not enough polish. The games main feature: stealth, is sadly broken and as such the good story, great acting and strong ideas can't overcome the niggles that cause prolonged play to be a keyboard smashing pain. The game is now more about the light detecting crystal at the bottom of your screen than true sneaking and planning. I found myself constantly watching it as much as the enviroment since, often, the amount of light onscreen and how hidden I was did not correlate. Not that it matters much as the inconsistent AI will sometimes "detect" you motionless in the dark and othertimes miss you running infront of their nose waving a torch in their face and bellowing out rock anthems. "Oh,it must've been a rat". Where the Ai seems to have the most problems is when it's scripted. The NPCs will be told to start fighting each other by some Ai routine and their state of alertness raised to attack mode. Unfortunately that often results in them forgetting about killing each other and either homing in psychically on your hidey hole or beginning to search for you. If they do kill each other, even if you remain hidden, they'll begin looking for you. These bugs are 100% replicable and one in particular (a merman homing in on me) happened everytime no matter what i did. This lack of testing extends to the enviroment and the AI's pathing as well. I found myself stuck on objects far too often and other times had to make several (loud) jumps to get up or on to ledges only to find myself sliding off and unable to do anything but slowly fall. These aren't obscure locations. This is a largely linear game with little deviance from set paths. It just shows a lack of testing! The other area where the enviroment causes trouble is to those mindless AI drones. I dropped a book I'd swiped by mistake (due to the occasional difficulty in targeting loot, very annoying when you're trying to time a quick grab) next to a fireplace. The AI swerved it... And walked to a firey death. I've observed other NPCs throwing a wobbly and falling off platforms to their death without any intervention from me. Discovery of these bodies puts the AI into search mode and once again you're paying for the games bugs. At the end of each level you're given your mission stats. A perfect thief will glide through the level undetected leaving only empty shelves as a sign of his passing. No deaths, no knockouts and no alerted guards. For the reasons above this is impossible the AI stupidity means that even if you go through the level undetected you'll still not have perfect stats thanks to the dead bodies of the suicidal AI. So with no true incentive to play the game in the true Thief style you're cajoled into playing like an action game. there's no reason not to just knock the guard out or to run through the level grabbing everything with a train of guards at your back, you'll just ditch them at the next load point!… Expand

I have to say that, although not the longest of the trilogy, it had the most involved gameplay. I really enjoyed the more freedom that living in the world offered instead of the pre level purchasing in the originals. The graphics were incredible and the cradle level freaked me right out. Thanks for another great game!

I just love this game where you don't have to kill everybody. I like sneaking around. Another sneaky game is Splinter Cell, which I also enjoy very much. I noticed that many comment on light and shadow effect. This is all fine but, to me, all that matter is that its a good game to play. I mean, what's the point with all visual effects in a game, when it is perhaps boring to play?

I would sign under what Reiver wrote, but there is a Shalebridge Cradle (one of most scary locations in games), Garret by Stephen Russel and sound by Eric Brosius. Game is very buggy, there is no AI, there is AS (Artificial Stupidity), very linear, without true darkness (everything is glowing blue), with many unlogical situations (Pagans under Hammers nose, masacres on streets, Keepers who are really blind and stupid, Enforcers killing innocents etc.), but still: "among the blind, the one-eyed man is king" - there is a lack of true stealth games (btw: Garrett has only one eye).… Expand

Absolutely amazing, ive played it 4 times and still ain't sick of it, lot of whining going on from old fans, but theres no reason for it. I grew on on theif 1 and 2 and think they did a great job with this game, and made it up to par with the old ones. Get It, atmosphere is unbeatable!

Although this game is dated, I still found it thoroughly enjoyable. Great stealth system (may not be the best in today's standards, but definitely above par). Fun gadgets and great story.

This game is one of the all time greats! I thought I would never get to play it again because it would not run well or at all on Win XP. Thanks to Steam and Eidos they have updated it so it will run on the newer OS's. The story line and graphics are excellent, until you finish the first 4 levells. After that you have to start fighting gouls and monsters that your weapons just don't always work on. At that point it's still OK but it was better when you were a sneaky thief having to rely on stealth and outwit the law. The graphics are superb considering when this game was published, and the AI's are excellent also. They really come up with some funny funny little stories when they talk to each other or when they are looking for you. This game will entertain you for hours. I wish they would get Thief Gold updated to run on the newer OS's. and The Dark Project. I would purchase both of them even though I already have the original retail versions that don't work on anything but Win 98.… Expand

This is one of the best games i have ever played, the story and atmosphere just sucks you in to this world of its own. Every single level is a masterpiece and all of the supporting voice acting, sounds and music is there to spellbound you, it feels like every single character in this game has a personality. This is really a thriller with a story that makes you want to find out whats going on and whose dark hand it is moving the pawns in such a sinister way. What is locked - can be opened. What is hidden - can be found. What is yours - can be mine… Expand

Thief was very strong in some elements and very weak in others. The combat system is not very good, as it mostly involves taking out your dagger, your only combat weapon other than your bow, and clicking as fast as your little arm can swing, while the enemies swing at you with big heavy swords. It is, of course, a sneaking game, but I would still like a few more options on head to head combat, other than stabbing or flashbanging them. As far as the sneak system goes, it's good, if a little choppy. If enemies are looking for you, they can see you even in a dark room, pressed against a wall, but I do enjoy the feeling of being a spy when I backstab a guard, who probably has parents who love him, maybe a girlfriend, and he instantly dies (Which does leave me to question how I'm supposed to be the good guy in this.) I like the variance in bombs, mines and arrows that I can use, but I think the normal bow is not powerful enough, considering it has an effective range of half a foot. The plotline is interesting, but like I said, I still don't understand how I'm the good guy in it when I murder an innocent man over a silver candlestick worth 25-75 bucks. Now about the audio... I guess its nice that the guards talk, but first off, who jeers at me by asking me "Are we fighting or dancing?" while I jab him to death with my pointy little needle of doom, and secondly, all the voices hurt my ears. Apparently they had 2 voice actors for the guards. One with a Wallace Shawn voice, and the other with what I guess is supposed to be a manly deep gravely voice but I believe is really a bear. What else haven't I covered? Oh, glitches. I hope you're one of the people that doesn't mind an occasional glitch because I found thief to be very frustrating. Not frustrating in the "Awww... i got killed by the final boss again" sense, but in the "Oh look, while hiding in the dark with my light gem as dark as it can go,the guard somehow found me" or the "Oh, apparently that guard has a neck of steel because I just drove a knife into the back of his neck and he turned around and smashed my head open with a hammer" sense.… Expand

i recently finished this game.i have to say i have never played a game like this before.you have option to either kill or sneak through.AI is excellent.the only thing lacking was a good map system.it doesnt tell the player position or destination which can be frustrating at times.