dev. Ion Storm
Now available for Xbox and PC.
Stealth games require patience. Much patience. In games such as Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, it can sometimes take hours to complete a level; when the goal is to infiltrate a location, the only way to do it is to stay tucked deep within the shadows, your movement slowed to a painstaking pace. You try to avoid panicking when you stumble into a shaft of light. Your heart thumps while a guard strolls by. Your thumb twitches as you move your character as slowly as possible--one sudden movement could make your footstep echo loudly, signaling something amiss to those on the lookout.
Thief: Deadly Shadows is the latest installment in the stealth genre. It is also a sequel to the original stealth game, Thief, released in 1998 for the PC. The goal of the new game is the same--in medieval times, steal as much as you can as quietly as you can--but given the power of the Xbox, developer Ion Storm has amplified much of what made the first game great. Stealth games rely heavily on the intelligence of the villains, and the AI in Deadly Shadows doesn't disappoint. The guards patrolling your targets react not only to the sight of you, but also to your sounds, your shadows, and to everything you may have jostled--a chair, a door--along your way. Leave a door open and someone will investigate, or run for help. Bump into a barrel and it'll roll loudly against a wall, triggering a curious peek from a guard.
None of this is really new; Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (as well as its original) employed all the same tricks. In fact, playing Deadly Shadows feels a lot like playing Splinter Cell, albeit with few gadgets. Whereas Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher had the aid of both night-vision and thermal goggles, Deadly Shadows' Garrett spends most of his time inching his way through the darkness with no utensils at his disposal; doors and obstacles such as chairs and crates are barely visible, making the nonlinear design of the game's levels all the more challenging. And if you happen to get caught? Good luck: Armed with swords, your enemy will almost always overpower you; fleeing is always a wise choice.
If you choose to stay and fight, however, you are not entirely helpless. Along with a small sword, your arsenal contains a blackjack and bow and arrows. The blackjack is for sneaking up behind an enemy and giving his head a tap; the bow and arrows are useful mostly for shooting water arrows to extinguish torches, and noise arrows to draw attention to the other side of the room. But even if you happen to disable your enemies with one of these tools, you still have to clean up the mess. Which means hiding the bodies. And which also means cleaning up their puddles of blood; if another guard stumbles across the crime scene he'll become suitably alarmed.
These elements help make Thief: Deadly Shadows a solid entry into the genre its predecessor created. Graphically the game is smooth and polished--all moody blues and greens, with fire effects that are full and fully flickering. On the controls front, things aren't quite as tight as the graphics--jumping and climbing through windows can be a clumsy affair--but maneuvering Garrett is, for the most part, easy and smartly designed. A single button places you in a crouch mode, another places your back to the wall; your inventory is easily accessible, and the camera moves quickly and gracefully.
There is one complaint, however, and it is one that developers can't really be faulted for. As intelligent as the game's enemies are--able to investigate and choose whether or not to seek help, etc. --their conversation is often outright laughable. Alarmed guards will often blurt out, "What was that?" when they catch a glimpse of you, only to mutter, after you elude them, "Huh, it must've been the floorboards creaking," or something equally inane. Chatter is never easy in video games--the openness of most games would need thousands of lines of dialogue to keep it fresh--and though Deadly Shadows puts up a good effort, most conversation remains pretty silly. Luckily the rest of the game more than makes up for it.
