I played Thief 3 for the first time in 2021, and I don't care what anyone says, the game is a masterpiece. Edit: I mean, after applying the mods of course.
It's honestly not that bad without them. A little finnicky in terms of control, rarely, but no where near as bad as people tell you - I played through it years ago before the mod/fix was out, and really, it's just not that bad.
Aren't there just a maximum of three haunts in TMA, depending on difficulty? Tucked away in crypts out of the way? I suppose the one(s) in Eavesdropping can get in your way for a little while. But yeah, no killing! I even did two 100% ghost playthroughs of both TDP and TMA, where everyone was left alive AND awake, every key put back in place (if a key had to be pickpocketed then I'd drop it back on the NPC's patrol route so he would think he must've dropped it), ever door was re-locked if possible, but at the very least closed. I stole nothing that wasn't of value (so no apples, bread or delicious cheese), all documents were read and put back where I found them, I got spotted by absolutely nobody, didn't douse any flames, used no moss arrows, only used rope arrows in places where I could retrieve them after doing my deed. I tells ya that was a test of my patience, but an interesting challenge for sure.
Garrett works along the Batman school of violence... a sharp blow to the head results in a guilt free conscience, regardless of the long-term damage done... XD
In the lockpicking part, you missed that you can click the mouse button to speed up the whoel thing, and once you learn about the types cf combinations you can get really good at them, thats why you can buy practice locks on the shops.
Amazing how atmospheric a game can be with the right use of the right tools; what they were able to achieve in the graphic and art department was amazing when it came out.
Thief would indeed make a great TV series, unless it goes the way of Thief 2014. Another great review video is "Thief vs AAA Gaming" that explains all the stuff Thief got right that AAA games forgot about.
33:45 Unfortunately, the vanilla game is not that nice. There are no cutscene briffings at the start of missions like in the first two games. Those have been added by the Sneak Upgrade.
My gosh, I love this game. Its story ends so well and while its story is a little derivative of the first game's in terms of the twist and everything, this is just more good Thief. I rarely can say that older games are among my favorites ever as I grew up playing in the 2004 era onwards, but all three Thief games immediately shot up to the front of the ranks. They're just so immersive and have that repeatable simple fun of making your own way through a good idea made manifest (in most levels anyway XD).
thief 3 is on par with thief 2 in terms of atmosphere. being hunted by the assassins, being hunted by the hag's stone golems. simply an amazing experience.
they ruined the movement/leaning/climbing, style and art direction. Other than the clocktower/cradle levels the rest sucked, the fishmen were laughable. The dialogue between the pagans was horrible, the ragdolls were broken as shit, the sound was broken, you could place something down on carpet and wake the entire level.
The Thief games are my favorite games of all time. Well, the first three of them anyway. The fan-made "T2X: Shadows Of The Metal Age" is amazing as well; nearly as good as the original games.
I by no means disagree with what was said in this review. You nailed it right on the head plus I learned what the development was like and even if I do love the game myself I don't expect everyone else to do so. The game is very janky and the AI is... awful but the amount of times I just laughed at it made it worth for me. And by god do I love garrets voice. Also hot tip to anyone who wants to try this game there is a faster way to lock pick. Press left mouse button when you find the sweetspot it makes this so much faster and less annoying. Overall I love the game and love the review keep it up.
A very good game indeed. Not quite as good as the first 2 games though. The movement just feels slightly off, and the loading portals broke the immersion a tad. But still a very good game.
When I saw the first two reviews, I had coincidentally just returned to Thief Gold and after watching them immediately searched for your Deadly Shadows video, but didn't find it because it hadn't been made yet.
Kinda disagree on Xbox hardware limitations. Yes its not as powerful as a PC but Bungie managed to pull off massive open spaces and seamless transitions to indoor spaces, with a vibrant and unique colour palette. Human NPC’s look waaaay better in Thief 3 vs Halo but I’d argue Covenant look better than Thief’s bestiary.
The color palette was definitely a developer choice. Level limits, though, not so much. The real time lighting engine asked way too much than what the first Xbox could muster, if applied on huge levels.
I bes loving this game. I played the shit out of it. Little did I know it was held back by the damn XBox! I still found myself returning to Thief 1&2. Then Thief 4 happened... 😒
Of all of the titles that went to consoles for their development.. coming out of both looking glass and irrational games, this was the only one that suffered from purely a technical complication.. well still managing to keep its gameplay and it's soul intact and that's more than I can say for invisible war or Bioshock which both of which completely destroyed the gameplay concept as a result of the switch.. so the level break up it's honestly the least of the problems that could have happened.. I think that's a testament to that second team, because we all know that the two others that were involved in the original group that came out of the Boston area, well.. they absolutely didn't even come close by comparison so I really don't think this one deserves anywhere near the dismissal that it gets, and if all of the console development teams had kept this same idea in in the mind of what their games identity should be, well we wouldn't have so many regressions in gameplay nowadays.. just look at the difference between crisis and crisis 2 or fear and fear 2.
I played this game for the first time recently. I think Thief 3 is really underrated, it has issues and I can see why fans don't think it's as much as the first two games but it's still a great game. I honestly liked it more than most story/single-player games that have come out this generation.
I'm going to be forthcoming and objective as much as possible, I Loved the Original Thief Games. I have played Thief 2014 twice and it came to a conclusion that it definitely wasn't the same as the OG Thief Games at all. Quite the contrary to believe but the OG Thief Games are more Better than the 2014 Reboot.
I agree, Thief 1 and 2 are exceptional. Their 3 was a massive step backwards and Thief 4 is an abomination. I recommend a BolderPunch video called "The importance of sound design in games"
Hey... I'm not sure because i haven't played it fore few years now... but... I think there was no cut scenes between the missions in thief 3. I think they are community made and added in mods :] PS. Thanks for reminding me i need to finish this great game :D
"Theif: Deadly Shadows" is a great game for sure. That said, it is just too easy. Being a veteran of "Thief: The Dark Project" and "Thief 2: The Metal Age" I hardly ever experienced a real challenge in this game. But it is atmospheric and, due to the more modern engine powering it, also much more beautiful to look at. The real challenge, however, is playing TDP and TMA on expert difficulty. I even prefer TDP in its original version since I found out that TMA and TDP Gold cheat on the player by letting the guards know just where you are hiding even if these guards had lost sight of you long ago. Garrett in TDP and TMA is an excellent swimmer so seeing him die at the very touch of water was quite hilarious. "Thief: Deadly Shadows" is the most beautiful game of the Thief trilogy for sure and in spite of its few flaws it is a rewarding experience. The utterly excellent Shalebridge Cradle stands out among the TDS levels, of course.
I love this game, it's my first Thief game. Never played one or two. Mainly because they're PC-only and I don't like playing on a PC. But I'm hoping Nightdive Studios will do all three and release a collection on console. Though I have never once seen that jump glitch animation in all the years I've played it on my Xbox original. Maybe it's a first-person bug? Cuz I always played third person.
Really like your content man, especially because I'm a huge Splinter Cell fan and quite a big fan of Thief games as well. But I will have to disagree with your final conclusion: Thief 3 really MUST be played in the present day (whatever "present day" is) by any gamer which is a fan of stealth games :) It simply is a must, you are not allowed to miss it :)
Also embracer isn't some conglomerate no one's heard of if they are THQ Nordic, the grown up version of THQ... More or less anyhow.. I I have a lot more faith in them just from the last few years then I would from square enix over the last few decades.
With all the games about shooting and swords; It's REALLY NICE to see a game about stealth and planning. DOS games were especially intense on that. And I had a lot of fun; analyzing, plotting which weapon(s) I was going to use.. Because in THOSE games, if you rushed in, you were pretty much going to die. *note* Windows 2024 is DROPPING DOS support - So HANG ON to your old games!!
I gotta disagree with the majority in the thief community, i remember preordering both thief 1 and 2 with box art for my trash box PC back in the day and this also includes the preorder for thief 3. Thief 3 to me felt like a badass ninja i felt like i finished a ninja game, when i finished the first 2 before it my only impression was what the f have i just played. 3 was a giant upgrade, wanted more.
I played the first two when they came out and skipped this because of bad press. What a mistake, I played it a few years ago and loved it very much! And it reminded me why I hate consoles. Today consoles usually only lack high frame rates with good image quality, but back then too many titles suffered because of their shitty hardware. Like Thief 3.
In terms of level complexity Thief 3 doesn't come close to the originals - that said what it does nail beautifully is a sense of creepiness and unease, and I love it for that regardless... I love the Thief series, all 3, not just in terms of nostalgia but for everything that makes the Thief world so mysterious and rich. Why the 2014 release (that doesn't even deserve to bear the Thief name imo...) ditched the lore, the world, the feel and the excellent voice work of Stephen Russell is beyond me. It was a mess and I hate that we'll probably never get a return to form for this IP.
Rope arrows were dropped because of a combination of game engine limitations and laziness. Having rope arrows required much more forethought in level design. The levels in Thief 3 were simply not as intricate as the first two games. Despite a few of Ion Storm developers did come from Looking Glass Studios, the majority of the ex-LGS developers were gone. Ion Storm was just missing the talent to pull off rope arrows with a limited engine designed for the xbox console.
Is using the mouse to pick locks only available through the Sneaky Tweaker? I thought it was really enjoyable, and it's also faster because you don't have to wait. Though, I wasn't knocking everyone out; so, I needed to race against the patrolling guard. The true first-person is absolutely worth it, especially because I didn't have that "jitter." It's a huge deal to see your body as it exists in the world, even though it would have greatly benefitted from free-look. It deserves a remake considering the original intent. It is still a great game with the Sneaky Tweaker mod. It's so much better than he makes it sound, perhaps, because he kills/knocks everyone out. If you want to play in that way, you could use some of the AI changes that modders have added to make them more challenging.
Nice review. Thief 1 and 2 are still the best stealth games to date in my opinion, Thief 3 fell way short of the mark unfortunately, and we don't talk about Thief 4. 3rd person and HUD clutter have no place in a Thief game.
@@emulation2369 my issues with it is that it is indicative of the lack of design focus of the Dev team, evident in the game. Looking Glass Studio would have never let that stand.
This game is FAR better than MGS3 in spite of its flaws. At least Thief 3 wasn't a half baked menu fiddling mess and it had an actual camera, where MGS3 back in 2004 has a camera that was trash. MGS3 fanboys will act like that camera never was a thing.
Thief 3 has a number of problems but I think overall, in spite of it's problems it still delivers a gameplay experience not found in a lot of stealth adventures before or afterwards. Dishonored has terrible stealth mechanics that are way worse than this game's. The Prequel Deus Ex games while being solid in their own right has worse mechanics than this game. The only stealth games I consider to be better or Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Mark of the Ninja and Styx Shards of Darkness. You could compare Thief 3 to Thief 1 and 2 all day but I would rather compare games to the competition than games of it's own series. Honestly, my only big issue with this game is how awkward it is run on modern systems.
I'd say that Dishonored 2, done with all the HUD turned off and low chaos and etc, is as close to classic Thief as I've found. There were environmental clues, non-linear progress, places to hide out of sight, etc etc etc.
@@civilwarfare101 I tried Styx and didn't like it that much, but maybe I'll give it another go. I only did a couple of levels (up to the headaches near the lava I think), so maybe I just didn't get into it enough.
Multiply your technical problems by a thousand, and you'll get a glimpse of what it felt like to play back then. I understand that this game is above average, but I could never fully recover from how disappointing it was to me. Due to the aforementioned technicalities and the flaws you've outlined in this video (console parroting, first of all), I felt robbed of a proper Thief experience. And while I can enjoy Deadly Shadows today with mods, I still see it as being slightly off in every aspect. Oh yeah, I also didn't care much for that annoying hub. I don't get why so many people present this undercooked, repetitive feature as a virtue.
You know a game is good when the only critique salty fanboys can come up with is "it's not my preference". Still, I think it's insane to dislike cohesive level design, and very amusing to prefer the goofy colours that were always mocked in thief 1 & 2. The absurdly bad visual design is one of the reasons people avoid those two games.
You usually do good reviews, but I just can't watch this. With thousands of hours building fan missions, having finished all 4 games an uncountable amount of times, and Thief II being my favourite game of all time. I'm way too opinionated about the Thief series. I'd probably end up ranting about something in the comments. I'll just say this. Thief 3 suffered the most from the change from the dark engine to unreal. But the story and soundtrack is excellent.
@@GraveyardTricks I have my critisms but honestly Thief has been nothing but a treat and I am crossing my fingers tightly that whoever takes it on next can do it justice.
@@KIRKCOLLECTS I really thought that Eidos Montreal would be the right team, as they handled Deus Ex better than I could imagine anyone else doing it, but then they did worse with Thief. Thief remake still has some great aspects to it that I can really appreciate, but overall they got the story, characters, and level design so wrong. They actually planned to do a sequel, but dropped that idea pretty quick after release. I don't have any hope it will ever happen, but we never know. There's a Thief inspired VR game called Unknightly that's worth checking out.
@@GraveyardTricks Well, thankfully, we have things like The Dark Mod to fill the void. Gloomwood goes early access on August 16th, too, seems to have that telltale Thief tinge. Unknightly looks amazing, btw, thanks for the shoutout.
What you forgot to mention are the awful maps in this game. Such a downgrade, the maps are worse than Thief 1. I too recently started to play the Thief games for the first time, and wow Thief 1 & 2 hold up quite well today! The same can't be said about Deadly Shadows... I wonder how the game would've turned out if it were PC only, as what happened here is similar to what FEAR was subjected to after the first installment. Everything is limited, and the City is riddled with load screens. The game is janky beyond compare as you said in the video, and one thing that got my goat in particular was the quick save and quick load mechanic. In Thief 1 & 2 you could easily go back and forth and experiment with options or tools. In Deadly Shadows, every time I wanted to quick load I almost always dreaded resorting to it due to the immersion-breaking load screens. The stealth was quite annoying too. You can't just boink guards with a blackjack as gracefully and simply as the previous 2 games: you have to absolutely be right behind the enemy and at the right angle to successfully knock them out or kill them. It is too precise! Not to mention that I kind of gave up on a nonlethal approach and killed a lot of human guards because of the cramped environments and the horrible combat: it's much worse than 1 & 2! Those games are old! And what was the climbing mechanic? Or the lock-picking? Or the third-person perspective? There are only 2 factions in the game, and I only effectively interacted with the Hammerites, because where even were the Pagans? The game did not bother to gently push me to place [the item you could either give them or the Hammers] where it was supposed to be put. The story and voice acting are the highlight of Thief: Deadly Shadows. I love the goofy guard VA who always drawls his words and says the silliest things. The narrative fits well into the universe, and brings everything to a full circle at the end, which I really appreciated. The still images in the briefing cutscenes conveyed the feeling that I was still playing a Thief game... but the hair graphics took away from the dark, serious tone of the videos. There is a lot to be said in favor of Shoalbridge Cradle, but in 2023 it is annoying. I have always been reluctant to play games like Amnesia where there is practically no way to fight back the enemy, and this level has some of the most annoying baddies, ever. That level to me was not fun at all, but I do appreciate its ambition. Overall, I think Thief: Deadly Shadows was limited by console hardware, as Morrowind and Oblivion too were held back because of Xbox (never mind the PS2 which was hard to develop for and significantly weaker). The ideas are there, the core is present, but the execution is wildly jarring, especially considering the amazingly immersive graphics, the lighting, and the little particles floating in the air. The coloring was limited too, looking back at 1 & 2. In an alternative universe, Looking Glass Studios never shut down and Thief 3 is a PC-only masterpiece.
I played Thief 3 for the first time in 2021, and I don't care what anyone says, the game is a masterpiece. Edit: I mean, after applying the mods of course.
It's honestly not that bad without them. A little finnicky in terms of control, rarely, but no where near as bad as people tell you - I played through it years ago before the mod/fix was out, and really, it's just not that bad.
*Whenever I play Thief, I NEVER KILL ANYONE (Unless it is a Hammer Haunt in TMA), as Garrett HIMSELF considers it to be the "Mark of an amateur".*
Yeah but it makes for great transitions in a youtube video 😁
Aren't there just a maximum of three haunts in TMA, depending on difficulty? Tucked away in crypts out of the way? I suppose the one(s) in Eavesdropping can get in your way for a little while.
But yeah, no killing! I even did two 100% ghost playthroughs of both TDP and TMA, where everyone was left alive AND awake, every key put back in place (if a key had to be pickpocketed then I'd drop it back on the NPC's patrol route so he would think he must've dropped it), ever door was re-locked if possible, but at the very least closed. I stole nothing that wasn't of value (so no apples, bread or delicious cheese), all documents were read and put back where I found them, I got spotted by absolutely nobody, didn't douse any flames, used no moss arrows, only used rope arrows in places where I could retrieve them after doing my deed. I tells ya that was a test of my patience, but an interesting challenge for sure.
Garrett works along the Batman school of violence... a sharp blow to the head results in a guilt free conscience, regardless of the long-term damage done... XD
haha, frog beast go BOOM
That may be true but someone has to put deadly in The Deadly Shadows...
In the lockpicking part, you missed that you can click the mouse button to speed up the whoel thing, and once you learn about the types cf combinations you can get really good at them, thats why you can buy practice locks on the shops.
Amazing how atmospheric a game can be with the right use of the right tools; what they were able to achieve in the graphic and art department was amazing when it came out.
Thief would indeed make a great TV series, unless it goes the way of Thief 2014.
Another great review video is "Thief vs AAA Gaming" that explains all the stuff Thief got right that AAA games forgot about.
That's a great video, I recommend the video "The sounds of a thief" by StratEdgy.
Would love a book on Thief. Adventures of Garrett
33:45 Unfortunately, the vanilla game is not that nice. There are no cutscene briffings at the start of missions like in the first two games. Those have been added by the Sneak Upgrade.
My gosh, I love this game. Its story ends so well and while its story is a little derivative of the first game's in terms of the twist and everything, this is just more good Thief. I rarely can say that older games are among my favorites ever as I grew up playing in the 2004 era onwards, but all three Thief games immediately shot up to the front of the ranks. They're just so immersive and have that repeatable simple fun of making your own way through a good idea made manifest (in most levels anyway XD).
You could significantly speed up the lockpicking in this game by using the mouse and clicking once you found the spot that makes a cylinder wiggle :>
I must say, Thief: Deadly Shadows is my favorite of the bunch.
Mine too. I really enjoyed the first two, but Deadly Shadows will always be my favorite.
thief 3 is on par with thief 2 in terms of atmosphere. being hunted by the assassins, being hunted by the hag's stone golems. simply an amazing experience.
they ruined the movement/leaning/climbing, style and art direction. Other than the clocktower/cradle levels the rest sucked, the fishmen were laughable. The dialogue between the pagans was horrible, the ragdolls were broken as shit, the sound was broken, you could place something down on carpet and wake the entire level.
The Thief games are my favorite games of all time. Well, the first three of them anyway.
The fan-made "T2X: Shadows Of The Metal Age" is amazing as well; nearly as good as the original games.
I by no means disagree with what was said in this review. You nailed it right on the head plus I learned what the development was like and even if I do love the game myself I don't expect everyone else to do so. The game is very janky and the AI is... awful but the amount of times I just laughed at it made it worth for me. And by god do I love garrets voice.
Also hot tip to anyone who wants to try this game there is a faster way to lock pick. Press left mouse button when you find the sweetspot it makes this so much faster and less annoying. Overall I love the game and love the review keep it up.
A very good game indeed. Not quite as good as the first 2 games though. The movement just feels slightly off, and the loading portals broke the immersion a tad. But still a very good game.
Mods removed those "portals"
30 minutes about the third Thief? What a treat!
When I saw the first two reviews, I had coincidentally just returned to Thief Gold and after watching them immediately searched for your Deadly Shadows video, but didn't find it because it hadn't been made yet.
Madness ! Don't skip this one, it's not the kind of masterpiece that is Thief 2 but it's a fantastic game without a doubt.
Gotta love the Brown age of video games. Those early 2k's really loved the drab browns.
Kinda disagree on Xbox hardware limitations. Yes its not as powerful as a PC but Bungie managed to pull off massive open spaces and seamless transitions to indoor spaces, with a vibrant and unique colour palette. Human NPC’s look waaaay better in Thief 3 vs Halo but I’d argue Covenant look better than Thief’s bestiary.
This is Unreal Engine we're talking about.
The color palette was definitely a developer choice. Level limits, though, not so much. The real time lighting engine asked way too much than what the first Xbox could muster, if applied on huge levels.
I bes loving this game. I played the shit out of it. Little did I know it was held back by the damn XBox!
I still found myself returning to Thief 1&2. Then Thief 4 happened... 😒
Of all of the titles that went to consoles for their development.. coming out of both looking glass and irrational games, this was the only one that suffered from purely a technical complication.. well still managing to keep its gameplay and it's soul intact and that's more than I can say for invisible war or Bioshock which both of which completely destroyed the gameplay concept as a result of the switch.. so the level break up it's honestly the least of the problems that could have happened.. I think that's a testament to that second team, because we all know that the two others that were involved in the original group that came out of the Boston area, well.. they absolutely didn't even come close by comparison so I really don't think this one deserves anywhere near the dismissal that it gets, and if all of the console development teams had kept this same idea in in the mind of what their games identity should be, well we wouldn't have so many regressions in gameplay nowadays.. just look at the difference between crisis and crisis 2 or fear and fear 2.
Awesome game, the atmosphere is so thick.
Ah. Consoles and holding back games. Name a more iconic duo
I played this game for the first time recently. I think Thief 3 is really underrated, it has issues and I can see why fans don't think it's as much as the first two games but it's still a great game. I honestly liked it more than most story/single-player games that have come out this generation.
I'm going to be forthcoming and objective as much as possible, I Loved the Original Thief Games. I have played Thief 2014 twice and it came to a conclusion that it definitely wasn't the same as the OG Thief Games at all. Quite the contrary to believe but the OG Thief Games are more Better than the 2014 Reboot.
I agree, Thief 1 and 2 are exceptional.
Their 3 was a massive step backwards and Thief 4 is an abomination.
I recommend a BolderPunch video called "The importance of sound design in games"
Hey... I'm not sure because i haven't played it fore few years now... but... I think there was no cut scenes between the missions in thief 3. I think they are community made and added in mods :]
PS. Thanks for reminding me i need to finish this great game :D
"Theif: Deadly Shadows" is a great game for sure. That said, it is just too easy.
Being a veteran of "Thief: The Dark Project" and "Thief 2: The Metal Age" I hardly ever experienced a real challenge in this game. But it is atmospheric and, due to the more modern engine powering it, also much more beautiful to look at.
The real challenge, however, is playing TDP and TMA on expert difficulty. I even prefer TDP in its original version since I found out that TMA and TDP Gold cheat on the player by letting the guards know just where you are hiding even if these guards had lost sight of you long ago.
Garrett in TDP and TMA is an excellent swimmer so seeing him die at the very touch of water was quite hilarious.
"Thief: Deadly Shadows" is the most beautiful game of the Thief trilogy for sure and in spite of its few flaws it is a rewarding experience.
The utterly excellent Shalebridge Cradle stands out among the TDS levels, of course.
I love this game, it's my first Thief game. Never played one or two. Mainly because they're PC-only and I don't like playing on a PC. But I'm hoping Nightdive Studios will do all three and release a collection on console. Though I have never once seen that jump glitch animation in all the years I've played it on my Xbox original. Maybe it's a first-person bug? Cuz I always played third person.
I think this game is amazing as well. All 3 are great. As a kid i spent so much time in 3 just putting oil everywhere and giggling.
Really like your content man, especially because I'm a huge Splinter Cell fan and quite a big fan of Thief games as well. But I will have to disagree with your final conclusion: Thief 3 really MUST be played in the present day (whatever "present day" is) by any gamer which is a fan of stealth games :) It simply is a must, you are not allowed to miss it :)
Also embracer isn't some conglomerate no one's heard of if they are THQ Nordic, the grown up version of THQ... More or less anyhow.. I I have a lot more faith in them just from the last few years then I would from square enix over the last few decades.
With all the games about shooting and swords; It's REALLY NICE to see a game about stealth and planning. DOS games were especially intense on that. And I had a lot of fun; analyzing, plotting which weapon(s) I was going to use.. Because in THOSE games, if you rushed in, you were pretty much going to die. *note* Windows 2024 is DROPPING DOS support - So HANG ON to your old games!!
the graphics are so incredible
You can speed the lockpicking up with a left mouse click when you've found the right position. Not that you really have to try 🙄
Yep, it makes it fast but tense and fun, assuming you haven't taken out all of the nearby guards.
I don't want a movie or show adaptation, I just want a good game with a budget and the map designs to show for it, plus Garretts voice actor.
Heck yes i love this game!
The rope arrows wwre pribably dropped due to the 3rd person camera
I love this game. thanks 😊
Bees nuts
I gotta disagree with the majority in the thief community, i remember preordering both thief 1 and 2 with box art for my trash box PC back in the day and this also includes the preorder for thief 3. Thief 3 to me felt like a badass ninja i felt like i finished a ninja game, when i finished the first 2 before it my only impression was what the f have i just played. 3 was a giant upgrade, wanted more.
I played the first two when they came out and skipped this because of bad press. What a mistake, I played it a few years ago and loved it very much!
And it reminded me why I hate consoles. Today consoles usually only lack high frame rates with good image quality, but back then too many titles suffered because of their shitty hardware. Like Thief 3.
3:40 goddammit, not again!
In terms of level complexity Thief 3 doesn't come close to the originals - that said what it does nail beautifully is a sense of creepiness and unease, and I love it for that regardless... I love the Thief series, all 3, not just in terms of nostalgia but for everything that makes the Thief world so mysterious and rich.
Why the 2014 release (that doesn't even deserve to bear the Thief name imo...) ditched the lore, the world, the feel and the excellent voice work of Stephen Russell is beyond me. It was a mess and I hate that we'll probably never get a return to form for this IP.
I really wish for a new Thief game that based on first series not that last one which was like a joke.
fihrist.
Rope arrows were dropped because of a combination of game engine limitations and laziness. Having rope arrows required much more forethought in level design. The levels in Thief 3 were simply not as intricate as the first two games. Despite a few of Ion Storm developers did come from Looking Glass Studios, the majority of the ex-LGS developers were gone. Ion Storm was just missing the talent to pull off rope arrows with a limited engine designed for the xbox console.
Is using the mouse to pick locks only available through the Sneaky Tweaker? I thought it was really enjoyable, and it's also faster because you don't have to wait. Though, I wasn't knocking everyone out; so, I needed to race against the patrolling guard.
The true first-person is absolutely worth it, especially because I didn't have that "jitter." It's a huge deal to see your body as it exists in the world, even though it would have greatly benefitted from free-look.
It deserves a remake considering the original intent. It is still a great game with the Sneaky Tweaker mod. It's so much better than he makes it sound, perhaps, because he kills/knocks everyone out. If you want to play in that way, you could use some of the AI changes that modders have added to make them more challenging.
I love this game to death, amazing atmosphere, music, sound and gameplay... I prefer it to the older game, bc the city actually looks like city
So developing it for Xbox screwed over this game over just like Deus Ex 2
Disagree on Embracer! They are like the “Thief” of BIG publishers.
Why would you trust modern woke Hollywood to make a show or movie based on a game you like
Nice review.
Thief 1 and 2 are still the best stealth games to date in my opinion, Thief 3 fell way short of the mark unfortunately, and we don't talk about Thief 4.
3rd person and HUD clutter have no place in a Thief game.
No one forced the player to play in 3rd person, you could play through it in 1st person
@@emulation2369 my issues with it is that it is indicative of the lack of design focus of the Dev team, evident in the game.
Looking Glass Studio would have never let that stand.
Beez Nuts.
To be fair, Metal Gear Solid 3 also came out in 2004, so Thief 3 had some stiff competition.
And Chaos Theory the next year. Yeah the competition was overwhelming.
This game is FAR better than MGS3 in spite of its flaws. At least Thief 3 wasn't a half baked menu fiddling mess and it had an actual camera, where MGS3 back in 2004 has a camera that was trash. MGS3 fanboys will act like that camera never was a thing.
@@civilwarfare101 Eh, it was fixed later
It's not "bees", it's "bes" :p creator being creative with grammar and how they use the word "be"
Thief 3 has a number of problems but I think overall, in spite of it's problems it still delivers a gameplay experience not found in a lot of stealth adventures before or afterwards. Dishonored has terrible stealth mechanics that are way worse than this game's. The Prequel Deus Ex games while being solid in their own right has worse mechanics than this game. The only stealth games I consider to be better or Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Mark of the Ninja and Styx Shards of Darkness.
You could compare Thief 3 to Thief 1 and 2 all day but I would rather compare games to the competition than games of it's own series.
Honestly, my only big issue with this game is how awkward it is run on modern systems.
I'd say that Dishonored 2, done with all the HUD turned off and low chaos and etc, is as close to classic Thief as I've found. There were environmental clues, non-linear progress, places to hide out of sight, etc etc etc.
@@darrennew8211
Too bad the AI and mechanics of Dishonored 2 sucks. The Styx games is as close to classic Thief you'll get.
@@civilwarfare101 I tried Styx and didn't like it that much, but maybe I'll give it another go. I only did a couple of levels (up to the headaches near the lava I think), so maybe I just didn't get into it enough.
@@darrennew8211
The sequel is better, the first game is rough in places.
lol I feel like I’m the only person who thought tthe resident evil Netflix show was fine.
Ehh i played it when I was a kid instead of the second one
Mods
Multiply your technical problems by a thousand, and you'll get a glimpse of what it felt like to play back then. I understand that this game is above average, but I could never fully recover from how disappointing it was to me. Due to the aforementioned technicalities and the flaws you've outlined in this video (console parroting, first of all), I felt robbed of a proper Thief experience. And while I can enjoy Deadly Shadows today with mods, I still see it as being slightly off in every aspect. Oh yeah, I also didn't care much for that annoying hub. I don't get why so many people present this undercooked, repetitive feature as a virtue.
Threef
You know a game is good when the only critique salty fanboys can come up with is "it's not my preference". Still, I think it's insane to dislike cohesive level design, and very amusing to prefer the goofy colours that were always mocked in thief 1 & 2. The absurdly bad visual design is one of the reasons people avoid those two games.
I couldn't disagree more with the "art direction" section.
Everything you criticize is EXACTLY what people want for this kind of game. lol
You usually do good reviews, but I just can't watch this. With thousands of hours building fan missions, having finished all 4 games an uncountable amount of times, and Thief II being my favourite game of all time. I'm way too opinionated about the Thief series. I'd probably end up ranting about something in the comments.
I'll just say this. Thief 3 suffered the most from the change from the dark engine to unreal. But the story and soundtrack is excellent.
Fair enough. I appreciate the comment none the less!
@@KIRKCOLLECTS You undoubtedly would have put a lot of effort into the video though. Thanks for covering the best game series of all time.
@@GraveyardTricks I have my critisms but honestly Thief has been nothing but a treat and I am crossing my fingers tightly that whoever takes it on next can do it justice.
@@KIRKCOLLECTS I really thought that Eidos Montreal would be the right team, as they handled Deus Ex better than I could imagine anyone else doing it, but then they did worse with Thief. Thief remake still has some great aspects to it that I can really appreciate, but overall they got the story, characters, and level design so wrong. They actually planned to do a sequel, but dropped that idea pretty quick after release. I don't have any hope it will ever happen, but we never know.
There's a Thief inspired VR game called Unknightly that's worth checking out.
@@GraveyardTricks Well, thankfully, we have things like The Dark Mod to fill the void. Gloomwood goes early access on August 16th, too, seems to have that telltale Thief tinge. Unknightly looks amazing, btw, thanks for the shoutout.
What you forgot to mention are the awful maps in this game. Such a downgrade, the maps are worse than Thief 1. I too recently started to play the Thief games for the first time, and wow Thief 1 & 2 hold up quite well today! The same can't be said about Deadly Shadows...
I wonder how the game would've turned out if it were PC only, as what happened here is similar to what FEAR was subjected to after the first installment. Everything is limited, and the City is riddled with load screens. The game is janky beyond compare as you said in the video, and one thing that got my goat in particular was the quick save and quick load mechanic. In Thief 1 & 2 you could easily go back and forth and experiment with options or tools. In Deadly Shadows, every time I wanted to quick load I almost always dreaded resorting to it due to the immersion-breaking load screens.
The stealth was quite annoying too. You can't just boink guards with a blackjack as gracefully and simply as the previous 2 games: you have to absolutely be right behind the enemy and at the right angle to successfully knock them out or kill them. It is too precise! Not to mention that I kind of gave up on a nonlethal approach and killed a lot of human guards because of the cramped environments and the horrible combat: it's much worse than 1 & 2! Those games are old!
And what was the climbing mechanic? Or the lock-picking? Or the third-person perspective? There are only 2 factions in the game, and I only effectively interacted with the Hammerites, because where even were the Pagans? The game did not bother to gently push me to place [the item you could either give them or the Hammers] where it was supposed to be put.
The story and voice acting are the highlight of Thief: Deadly Shadows. I love the goofy guard VA who always drawls his words and says the silliest things. The narrative fits well into the universe, and brings everything to a full circle at the end, which I really appreciated. The still images in the briefing cutscenes conveyed the feeling that I was still playing a Thief game... but the hair graphics took away from the dark, serious tone of the videos.
There is a lot to be said in favor of Shoalbridge Cradle, but in 2023 it is annoying. I have always been reluctant to play games like Amnesia where there is practically no way to fight back the enemy, and this level has some of the most annoying baddies, ever. That level to me was not fun at all, but I do appreciate its ambition.
Overall, I think Thief: Deadly Shadows was limited by console hardware, as Morrowind and Oblivion too were held back because of Xbox (never mind the PS2 which was hard to develop for and significantly weaker). The ideas are there, the core is present, but the execution is wildly jarring, especially considering the amazingly immersive graphics, the lighting, and the little particles floating in the air. The coloring was limited too, looking back at 1 & 2. In an alternative universe, Looking Glass Studios never shut down and Thief 3 is a PC-only masterpiece.
all the video parts of this game just show you're an absolute noob in this game.