Captain Spandex on 14/4/2013 at 12:47
I really like Deadly Shadows. I'd say overall, it's my second favorite in the series. It gains a lot of points with me for striking the best balance between The Dark Project's supernatural missions and The Metal Age's full-on stealthy burglary. In that sense, it's better balanced than either of the previous titles. And as someone who'd wanted the feature since I first booted up Thief: The Dark Project in '98... finally receiving an optional third-person perspective was awesome for me.
But it does have its faults. I think it's mainly a victim of its own ambition. They tried to expand the feature set too widely, but didn't have the time or money to polish any of it particularly well due to Ion Storm's impending collapse. They made some technical errors when making the engine, errors that cost them when porting to console.
That the game turned out as well as it did despite all that internal turmoil, budgetary restraints and the engine they were saddled with is a testament to the talent of Ion Storm Austin and the ex-Looking Glass people who made the jump there.
bartekb81 on 14/4/2013 at 13:00
I agree. If they stay focused on designing the game for pc from the very beginning it would be probably much better game. Ion Storm could have more time for their child, focusing on gameplay aspects only. After that, TDS could be thought to be ported on console. But it is not the fault of Ion Storm, I guess; Eidos wanted to get widest public possible.
FenrisUlf on 14/4/2013 at 13:53
Quote Posted by bartekb81
Yes, physics is awkward. But you've missed terrible and boring city sections, frequent loading zones, terrible engine-based cutscenes (looking much worse than the game itself), lack of comments of Garret on the missions (important part of his personality built through the previous titles), and lack of balance in your equipment (unlimited shopping).
yes....all that too....holy crap shopping spree :P
The city itself thing was kinda interesting as a choice. Actually living in this city and frequenting similar places. I liked the thought of it, making the place more real. But theory and practice are two different things. It meant going over the same areas again and again which can get boring.
Also, the prison idea was fantastic. The thought of not dying but having a new mission to break out of pruson was indeed neat. But all those gameplay things just kept putting me to sleep.
And you're right about Garrett not talking enough. :P
And no one's mentioned the ladders yet. :P
SlyFoxx on 14/4/2013 at 14:17
I just installed T3 again and am giving it a 3rd go before starting on the game's Fan Missions. With this machine I'm finally able to run the thing with a decent resolution so my fps is up. The game feels a little less clunky this time around but still has that "string tied around my mid section tugging from behind" feel. I do enjoy the game but the character movement really brings it down. Dark engine Garrett can move like a race car. T3 Garrett feels like an overloaded pick-up truck.
FenrisUlf on 14/4/2013 at 22:38
Quote Posted by SlyFoxx
I just installed T3 again and am giving it a 3rd go before starting on the game's Fan Missions. With this machine I'm finally able to run the thing with a decent resolution so my fps is up. The game feels a little less clunky this time around but still has that "string tied around my mid section tugging from behind" feel. I do enjoy the game but the character movement really brings it down. Dark engine Garrett can move like a race car. T3 Garrett feels like an overloaded pick-up truck.
Yes! Yes! Great way of putting it. Just raising his blackjack above his head for a strike looks and feels like you had to pull a puppet string just to raise the hand. And hitting other people doesn't look like an actual use of force but more marionette action. The blackjack is "lowered" onto the head and the other puppet just falls lifeless.
muncadunc on 15/4/2013 at 07:47
Funny you should say that, I was just thinking about this. The kinematics of T3 were completely screwed up. With good kinematics, you feel like your input is directly affecting your character ingame, objects, et cetera. T3 completely broke this because everything had to be tied to an animated character model.
What annoyed me the most was the blackjack. In T1+T2, you clicked to raise the blackjack and released to drop it on a guard's head. It felt satisfying. In T3 (if I remember right) you merely clicked to blackjack. It's a significant difference in how the game involves the player.
Azaran on 15/4/2013 at 08:59
My impression of T3 was positive overall, but there are a few big things that really annoy me, mainly: the level size, especially that cramped tiny excuse for a City (thanks to the X-Box and the studio finishing the game in a hurry). Secondly Garrett's movement, it's like he's trying to walk through a river of glue - I couldn't even stand to play it without installing the minimalist patch (which corrects the movement among a ton of other things - the movement's still not perfect, but way better than before). The other stuff is pretty minor.
Aside from these main issues, the positive elements generally outweighed the negative for me. I think it's still a great Thief game, albeit inferior to the previous 2.
Wizd3m on 15/4/2013 at 16:35
Having read a lot of the negative threads about that game, my expectations were pretty low, but I was pleasantly surprised when I played it. I really, really enjoyed it in fact, but I can see why so many dislike it. Luckily, and this is just my opinion, but the mods like the Minimalist Mod and John P. Textures Mod really fixed a lot of what bothered me initially. So my first ever playthrough of Thief 3 was heavily modded, and I loved it.
