Thief: Deadly Shadows Review
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The sound, however, is exquisite. I never got tired of hearing the sound of a well placed arrow-to-the-head, the shatter and hiss of a water arrow extinguishing a torch, or the satisfying chime after acquiring some hard earned loot. Even the sound of the picks scraping inside the lock helps add to the genuine feel of the game. The voice acting is also fantastic, with Steven Russell returning to provide Garrett's familiar gravelly voice. There is more than enough dialogue and accents amongst the different characters to give them authenticity and variety, although the odd dialogue and speech patterns of the Pagans make them all sound like Gollum's illegitimate children. Interestingly, the game is essentially devoid of a soundtrack.there is almost no music at all. Instead, there is an assortment of ambient sound, strange and creepy effects that permeate the levels. In some levels this heightens the tension to a point that I felt a compelling need to stop playing and go listen to some Chipmunk Christmas music or something.just to eliminate the sounds of moaning zombies and phantom babies. While sneaking around the same bits of the city can seem a bit repetitive, I never got sick of the graphics. It's not that the detail in the buildings is particularly amazing, in fact it actually seems like they sacrificed detail for location size in certain areas, attempting to ease a little of the occasionally abysmal loading times. Instead, it was actually the lighting engine that kept me entertained. It is great just to watch Garrett sneak around in the shadows visible only by a slight hint of moonlight on the outline of his cloak. Or to experiment with different shadow scenarios you can create for a room by changing the position of a candle, or putting a box in front of the fire, creating that perfect ambush spot. While the framerate did seem to stutter at times, perhaps another casualty in the PC to console transfer, it never was dramatic enough to impede my enjoyment of the game. For the most part, the character animations are decent, if fairly standard. However, when Garrett is sneaking up stairs, he does a weird rhythmic bobbing that looks like he's dancing. This, of course, led to many loud choruses of the (I'm sneaking up the stairs) song.
Ultimately, this game is exactly what it needs to be.a medieval, supernatural stealth action game that pleases fans of the series as well as appeals to new players. Even avid PC fans might give it a shot on Xbox just to experience the tactile enjoyment of using the controller vibration to feel for the sweet spot when picking a lock. And after recently playing a plate-mail wearing, cutlass swinging uber-rogue in Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes, it felt good to be back in the shadows, where thieves belong.
