Review: Thief: Deadly Shadows (XBX)

Believe it or not, Gamestyle is just like you. It may like to think it's an autonomous website, its many cogs of personality working in tandem, but at the end of the day it's (we're) irrepressibly human - and driven by the same idealism and gaming idolatry as its readers. Which means we're doubly pissed at Ion Storm and the autonomous(?) Edge review of Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Whoa, hold the phone. Is that legally permissible, even ethically beholden, to smite the most literate gaming publication on the planet? Well, if you're 'defending' idealism and gaming idolatry, it is.

"There's a compelling density to the world, a suggestion that behind the environments isn't just skybox and void but layer upon layer of history, right down to an unfathomable (and certainly unconventional) blackness." - Edge, Issue 138, p. 100

We're not exactly sure who's shooting who in the foot here, but there's a case to be made for "seeing" density (as opposed to suggesting it). Because the careful spell woven by Ion Storm's iconic thief comes undone when the player - ruefully or no - avails himself of Garrett's Climbing Gloves (an optional accessory) and thereto tackles the strictures of Ion Storm's design.

For Gamestyle, it happened in Auldale; a location only visitable after the requisite signposts have been posted, but conceivably, "it" could've happened to anybody, at any given time of play (and provided of course they were suitably attired). Via the in-game tips, Garrett had been instructed to meet with an Inspector Drept, whose abode could be accessed via a window. So there we were, looking high and low for open windows - never mind that the window in question was merely a picture, another cut-scene - when we chanced upon a critical juncture in the game design. Given the "autonomous" freedom, as it were, to reach for the heavens - what might we espy from our lofty perch? Why, nothing but SKYBOX AND VOID as it happened...

Buildings which appeared solid at ground level were revealed to be frontispiece...hollow textures leading to nowhere. It's one thing to shoot for freedom in games, idealistically providing the means to an envisioned end, but what price that freedom when your gameworld is "exposed" as nothing but trickery to thine eyes? And Gamestyle isn't being pragmatic; of course we're aware that EVERY game is a sham, a mathematical foci of blinds and shutters, but why "invite" the player to unmask its frailties? The short answer: laziness. Ion Storm couldn't be arsed.

Couldn't be arsed to fill out the landscape with navigable - much less viewable - terrain. It makes an albatross of that endless Xbox shoreline, the oceanic capital of DVD. And don't even accuse Gamestyle of being spoilt; of wanting our digital 'cake' and eating it...because we've been swept away by idealism before, and landed in uncharted (yet playable) game space.

At the risk of repeating ourselves (duh!), it happened in Serious Sam. Thrust aloft by rampaging werebulls, we hit a ceiling, nay plateau, of discovery. On the supposed outer reaches of the Luxor map, we were freely able to backtrack...move above and beyond the "strictures" of game design. Not because we had to, not because the programmers (Croteam, by the way) deemed that we'd be doing so, but simply because the overworld existed. Huge expanses of navigable territory; a roof and far-reaching barriers which discreetly hid the contours of the skybox and peripheral detail. Idealism...in 3D space. It can be done. It DOES count...

However, in Gamestyle's evaluation of Thief: Deadly Shadows, it counts heavily against it. That's not to say the travails of a master thief aren't worth enduring, but why spend a 'Mechanist' Age in development, elaborately colouring your pages with turn-of-whichever-century phraseology and ideology, when even the lowliest of scalawags might turn the other cheek (ie, write off the effort)? And Gamestyle isn't being superficial either; in order to visit Auldale (and the ghastly rigmarole that is Shalebridge Cradle) we've had to delve deeper, invest of ourselves in the backstory of Garrett. And here's what we've found:

By pre-empting this Third Age of Darkness, Ion Storm has arguably diluted the series' appeal. Certainly, you've got a choice of first- or third-person POV, but neither feels clean or particularly robust; Garrett lunges about in first-person, his extremities only visible when looking for them (nb, the FPS canon decrees that your weapon should be uppermost at all times; your cross-hairs trained and signalling intent). Third-person too is fundamentally broken...by a slipshod fudging of parameters; animation is akin to 'rigor mortis' when climbing. And neither viewpoint is helped by a sludgy framerate - the net result of halving one's endeavours (to implement both). A sad indictment for an A-list developer.

If it seems we're being overly critical of Ion Storm, it's partly because Garrett's history is steeped in mythology, and 'sentient' players feel indebted. That debt has not been paid...or else left to accumulate at the hands (or feet) of ridiculous agents. Example: you're cowering in the grounds of a cathedral. You're meant to believe the Hammerite Priest is a worthy deity, a firebrand who would cut you down in an instant. You furtively ascend the stairwell, checking your heartbeat as you go, and suddenly encounter the Priest and his minion. Fear turns to fearless and thence laughter...the guy is walking on the spot, his pathfinder apparently stumped by a doorframe. Hilarity ensues...until Garrett douses a nearby torch and rejigs the priest's AI.

Speaking of which: the AI is symptomatic of a larger malaise which envelops the game and hems in the player. Missions are bookended by Keeper Glyphs (ie, symbols) which adorn key structures along your route. By 'using' the glyph (activating it), you are plunged ever deeper into the convoluted storyline - which flings you back and forth like tumbleweed through the same portals and locations. Much is made of the abitrary ability to overhear conversations - supposedly leading to a bevy of side-quests - but the illusion of "freedom" is again shattered when you arbitrarily discover the Museum tunnel in Auldale, for instance, but are unable to use it until the story arc sends you there. It's horribly constrictive and reeks of shoddy execution - which incidentally is borne out by yet another bizarre encounter in Auldale (fancy!) whereat you've just disturbed Fogerty the goldsmith, whose 'arbitrary' conversation MUST take place...even if it does so with a blank wall! Absolute bollocks.

On the plus side, the 'Save Anywhere' paradigm virtually saves the game from collapsing under its own weight. Why spend even a moment in the Pavelock jail when you can simply reload your last save? If Thief: Deadly Shadows was memorable for anything other than its glitchy asides (and feeble finale), it's the rock solid ability to pick locks. The tactile feedback is satisfying and immediate and caters to the deepest and darkest of pilfering hearts.

We've already addressed the issue of idealism in games...Edge #138 accorded Thief: Deadly Shadows a seven out of ten (ie, distinguished). They were being charitable. Perhaps gaming idolatry has its blinds and shutters too.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Steven Wrangell