New Horizon on 3/10/2007 at 03:35

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I would give the games the following:

Thief 1: A- Perfect mix of everything.
Thief 2: B+ Went a little too far towards the victorian era, but still very good.
TDS: C- Where do I begin....?

Now, if TDS were to be ranked as a stand alone game, and not a part of the series, I would up that to a B.

Aja on 3/10/2007 at 07:03

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It's called a curve, son!

Thief Gold gets an A+. It's as close to perfect as possible. Thief 2 gets an A - still amazing, but more of the same. DS gets a B, because, in spite of its flaws, it was fun and atmospheric.

Dussander on 3/10/2007 at 19:09

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10/10 - T2 - A*
9/10 - TG - A
8/10 - TDS - B

TDS still floats my boat, so it's high up my favourite game list

JayDee on 4/10/2007 at 03:37

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Kinda how it works, maybe. With grades, or scores, there are usually (in education at least) set criteria for each grade. So everyone can get A++++, or maybe one year no-one gets higher than a B- this year. When you get a test marked, the mark is based on how many questions you got right. Not based on how everyone else in the class did. Or on how your older brother, who did this subject last year, performed. On the other hand, in Australia, for University entrance scores, we are actually given a percentile, so if you get a UAI of 85 that'd mean you scored better that 85% of students that year. But that isn't a grade, it's a percentile.

Having said that, reviews are a whole different kettle of fish...

Spaztick on 4/10/2007 at 08:47

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I'd give it a solid B/B+, 85/100, etc. The Metal Age did more for me as far as general immersion, although the last level taught me there can be such a thing as too big a level, and I'd give that an A, 92/100, with The Dark Project being somewhere in between.

Deadly Shadows wasn't a bad game at all, I just felt a few minor issues are what kept it from being the "perfect" game to end the Thief series - a problem that most would-be blockbusters run in to.

The controls felt very unresponsive and numb to me, though well playable, and that's probably just because there's a bit of a delay in pressing a button on a keyboard and having Garret move that nanosecond too slow. Forward lean wasn't important to me, though side lean could've been smoother. Aesthetically running would make my head swim as Garret's bobbed too much.

The openness I expected from the city and levels was restricted by the Unreal engine having to break the area up into cells, which was the biggest break in immersion, not necessarily the atmosphere or fine detailing. I don't know the reason why they choose Unreal to run Deadly Shadows, so not much else I can comment on. Graphic-wise it was top notch for a few years ago, although it doesn't run as smooth on my computer as say, Source engine games do, but then again Deadly Shadows used a lot of dynamic lighting, something HL2 didn't.

That being said I loved playing Deadly Shadows, especially the praised Shalebridge Cradle; it was a well-deserved ending to the Thief series despite the exchanging of hands and chaos the design team went through.