THIEF DEADLY SHADOWS is a good solid gaming experience.

Solipso on 23/12/2005 at 00:01

I bought Thief Deadly Shadows because of the good impression I had from playing Thief The Metal Age. Then I read the unremarkable reviews that Deadly Shadows got. But I left it on my shelf and after playing Thief The Dark Project and replaying The Metal Age, I played Deadly Shadows.

I am pleased to have bought it, and I am pleased to have finished it.

I don't remember why it got those reviews. I played the fully patched version 1.1, and even so I ran into a ladder-climbing bug (getting out of the Abysmal Gale) and a wall-climbing bug (getting out of Gamall's secret library). I consider myself lucky to have got past the latter. Maybe another gamer won't be so lucky. So maybe the original release had more bugs, and maybe bugs were why the reviews were unremarkable.

Despite the bugs, if I follow my feelings I would have to say that Deadly Shadows was a better game than The Metal Age). If The Metal Age's villain, Karras, was not the best villain I have met in the scores of games I have completed, he was surely one of the best. Nevertheless, The Metal Age had some excessively difficult moments (which means I got frustrated and angry). The balance in Deadly Shadows was more agreeable, and therefore the game was more agreeable.

Setting aside the bugs in Deadly Shadows, I think it and The Dark Project are equally good and equally worthy of play.:thumb:

Yametha on 23/12/2005 at 07:35

For me, it's not bugs, or anything like that, it's the storyline. It's the 'dumbing down' revisions. what I really don't like is that now the city seems tiny.

I could go on for ages, but I'll stop here. I'm sure there are threads that discuss this.

Ziemanskye on 23/12/2005 at 11:11

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Now get Garrett Loader and start playing the FMs we're making for it :P
(I know it's quiet at the moment, but I think that's because everyone is working on entries to Komag 7)

Solipso on 23/12/2005 at 14:39

I've read somewhere between 500 and 1000 novels, more science fiction and fantasy than any other genre. I am certain that the Thief series' merging of medieval magic with industrial-revolution technology would make for an excellent novel.

I was perfectly pleased with TDS's story. The villain was interesting, and her end-sequence rampages in the City were exciting and a bit scary (good horror movie material). I also liked how Garrett rooted out the Hag's history by his investigation in the haunted sanitarium/orphanage.

The ending in TDS was vague, but vagueness allows the player to infuse his or her own imaginative value system into how things turn out. That's important for interactive media, and it was a good thing for me, with my deep philosophical convictions.

I probably will not be playing any Thief mods. I prefer to play new games rather than hack away at the same one. Also, at the moment I have only a dial-up connection.

I hope Ion Storm keeps churning out good games with good storylines. I thought their two Deus Ex titles were excellent. Deus Ex Invisible War was another example of a game that was better than the reviews led me to believe.:thumb:

van HellSing on 23/12/2005 at 14:44

Ion Storm is no more :erg:

GlasWolf on 23/12/2005 at 14:47

Quote Posted by Ziemanskye

(I know it's quiet at the moment, but I think that's because everyone is working on entries to Komag 7)

My mission is far too big for Komag, but I'm just going with the flow rather than risk losing momentum by changing horses at this stage...

kamyk on 23/12/2005 at 19:58

@ Solipso
I entirely agree with you about TDS, but playing FMs is not really just hacking away at the same game. Some people go to a lot of time and effort in creating them, and some have even gone far enough to create essentially a whole new game from the existing ones. (Maybe not TDS yet, but I'm sure that will come eventually).

It isn't like your standard mod, where someone makes a new level for say Doom or something which just creates a new "maze" to get lost in, and rehashes the shoot, run, blow stuff up formula. Making FMs for Thief is more like writing a story that you can realize in a 3d environment. At least give one or two of the best ones a try before you write FMs off.

Solipso on 23/12/2005 at 22:29

:( VanHellsing: Ion Storm is no more? I was afraid I had read about that, but I wasn't sure. Maybe if the important persons (Warren Spector, probably, among others) are still in the industry, they will continue to help make good games.

:rolleyes: Kamyk: I thought TDS did a good job of that--"writing a story that you can realize in a 3D environment." As for the mods, I don't mean to disparage anyone's work. On my shelf right now I have Bard's Tale, Dungeon Siege II, Gothic II Gold, Freedom Force vs The Third Reich, Chronicles of Riddick, KOTOR II The Sith Lords, and Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. I would rather play one of them than a mod.

van HellSing on 24/12/2005 at 10:39

Yup, Spector created his own independent studio, (http://www.junctionpoint.com/) Junction Point, and is working with some of the former Ion crew on some secret project using the Source engine, and most of the others are also working on stuff.

MrWynd on 27/12/2005 at 16:44

a source engine thief would be cool! :) Wish I knew something about modding hehe