Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief: Deadly Shadows is a stealth-based game developed by Ion Storm Austin rather than Looking Glass Studios (albeit with many of the same people), and is a major departure from the first two games in the series. The game is powered by the Unreal-based Deus Ex: Invisible War engine and unlike the original two titles, Deadly Shadows (Eidos and Ion Storm chose not to name the game "Thief III" for fear that it would alienate gamers new to the series) was developed simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox.
Because of all these factors and many more (such as the project lead being fired before the game was finished), Thief: Deadly Shadows was very different from the first two games in the series in both appearance and gameplay.
One of the game's major new features was the ability to explore the City. While previous games sent Garrett straight from mission to mission, Thief: Deadly Shadows allows him to walk the City streets between missions where he can steal from passersby, spy on the townspeople, and complete the occasional sidequest in addition to major story missions. Unlike games such as Grand Theft Auto III, the city is not one large continuous map, but rather several small neighbourhood maps connected by load zones (similar to Postal²).
Characters
- See Thief (computer game series) for information on recurring characters.
- The Hag: A mythical serial killer who purportedly stalks the night, slaying victims and stealing their skin. Even the Pagans, who deal regularly with monstrous creatures, regard her as an abomination. The Hag appears to be the Boogeyman of the Thief world, and features in a variety of children's rhymes and night-time tales. However few believe she actually exists, except Garrett and a Hammerite called Inspector Drept. According to Drept the Hag 'wears death upon her as a cloak. Some who meet her doth vanish. Others perished with bloody work upon their bodies. There are hints spoken of creatures made of stone. The tale of a Hag, a bent of woman, ever old but grow no older'. She has connections to the prophecy of 'When the progress of the time ceases, the evil one will be pointed out for all to see'.
- Moira: The captain of 'Abysmal Gale' in Thief: Deadly Shadows, living in an overlook mansion on an island not faraway from the city. The ship comes to the dock one day, but Moira and all his crew are missing. According to his log, he has found a strange golden slab in a cave and has brought back to his mansion. The ship is battered and occupied by zombies. The City Watch has sent at least two people, including one named Reggy, on board to investigate, but they never come back, so it is assumed that Moira and his crew are either killed or turned to zombies. According to a sailor's log, Moira had been acting strange one day suddenly, turning over everything, kept shouting 'where have you hidden it' and had not eaten anything. The crew had planned to rebel, but the log ends here and thus nothing can be known.
- Widow Moira: The wife of captain Moira. She seems to have lost her mind and does not know that her husband is never going to be back.
- Inspector Drept: A Hammerite bent on tracing and finding the Hag in Thief: Deadly Shadows, due to his childhood experience. When he was little, he lived in the Shalebridge Cradle. One day he was playing hide-and-seek in the attic with his friend, Lauryl. During the game, while Lauryl was searching for the hidden Drept, the Hag appeared and killed her. Drept was frozen with fear and could do nothing. Afterward he informed the Cradle staff that it was done by a hag, not an insane patient, although no one believed him. When he grew up, he joined the Hammerites, and began searching for the Hag. His working desk in St. Edgar's Temple has a small monument plaque hanged above on the wall, in memorial of Lauryl.
- Lauryl: Originally an orphan who lived in the Shalebridge Cradle, as did the eventual Inspector Drept, but was killed and skinned by the Hag. Her body was buried in a secret room in the catacombs in Fort Ironwood, with a spell marked on the tomb. Since her death, her ghost haunted the attic in the now-abandoned Cradle. During the events of "Thief: Deadly Shadows", Garrett manages to liberate her spirit.
The storyline
- Checking Inn, Cashing out
- This is a training mission. Garrett has got a tip from his fence, Heartless Perry, that a nobleman named Lord Julian has some sort of quarrel and showed up at Blue Heron Inn, in a foul mood. He is carrying a velvet bag and he never takes his eyes off it. Garrett thinks that may contain something valuable.
- End of the Bloodline
- The bag contains a bronze medallion stamped with a griffin. It belongs to the Rutherfords who own a castle in South Quarter. It also has some connection with a huge opal locked in the castle vault. Garrett would hate to have anyone but him get a stone like that.
- St. Edgar's Eve
- Garrett sells the opal at Black Market Bertha's and gets a letter from Artemus. The Keepers need him to obtain two objects for further study: The Builder's Chalice from the Hammerites and the Jacknall's Paw from the Pagans. In return Garrett can listen to their prophecies.
- St. Edgar's Church is where the Hammerites keep the Chalice. The temple holds the crypt of some long-ago Hammerite hero St. Edgar. This day is his holy day and there is an all-night service. Hopefully the Hammerites will sit down praying rather than looking for Garrett.
- Into the Pagan Sanctuary
- The Jacknall's Paw is a mummified hand, hidden deep inside the underground Pagan territory. Artemus tips Garrett that the South Quarter well has underground tunnels beneath.
- House of the Widow Moira
- First Keeper Orland welcomes Garrett very reluctantly. From the books Garrett learns that a Dark Age is coming. The Keepers have been looking for a lost book called the Compendium of Reproach, which can give more information about the Dark Age. A ship called Abysmal Gale has recently arrived at the Dock and it appears in the prophecies that its arrival has connection to it also. No one is alive in the ship, and the former captain Moira's log talks about a golden slab in his seaside mansion. Garrett decides to go to his home and steal it back.
- The Sunken Citadel
- The Compendium needs the Glyph Key to be opened. The Key has disappeared underground a very long time ago. According to the missing Keeper Rafe, the place 'swarms with strange creatures' which are Kurshoks.
- Killing Time
- 'When the progress of the time ceases, the evil one will be pointed out for all to see.' First Keeper Orland responds by 'we must wait and watch', but Garrett responds by 'I could break into the clocktower in Stonemarket, find some way to stop the clock from running', in order to force the prophecy to be fulfilled. The clocktower is a very high building, run by Hammerites. The ground floor main door is locked, but the pipes that lead into the clocktower is unblocked.
- Of Brethren... And Betrayers
- Sabotaging the gigantic mechanism stops the clock, but also causes the entire clocktower to collapse. Meanwhile Interpreter Caduca is found murdered and Orland points his finger at Garrett and fixes up a trial at the Keeper Compound. Garrett escapes with the help of a group of friendly Keepers. They mention 'the rubble (of the clocktower) forms an arrow, and it points directly at the Keeper Library'. Until Garrett is found, no one is allowed to enter nor leave the Compound. All the glyph doors are sealed and Keeper Enforcers are sent out to hunt Garrett. To replace Caduca, Orland plans to promote Gamall to the position of interpreter. Garrett believes that Orland is the 'Brethren and Betrayer', so he decides to find some guilty evidence of Orland and goes to the Compound.
- Robbing the Cradle
- In the deserted lower library of the Compound, Garrett finds a note addressed to him, despite no one should know that he is there. At the Hall of Statues, Garrett sees a hideous old woman, or a hag, activated stone statues to look for him. He escapes the ambush and finds Inspector Drept for help. Drept advises Garrett to search the abandoned Shalebridge Cradle for clues as this was his first sight of the hag. The Cradle had been an insane asylum, but before that it was an orphanage. One night a fire broke out. No one knew why, and the place was abandoned, and haunted. According to an in-game note, a man claimed that he dared to sleep one night in the Cradle, and he was not seen again for nine years. In the Cradle Garrett inexplicably finds a picture, at least as old as the building has lain empty, of the Keeper Translator, Gamall in the attic. At this moment, a glowing blue spirit appears and introduces herself as Lauryl, who beckons Garrett to help her leave. It turns out that the Cradle has the ability to 'remember' people's presence in the Cradle territory to trap them inside forever. Soon Garrett discovers that the previously unblocked storm cellar entrance where he used to get in is somehow blocked by a wooden grate. Now Garrett has to get rid of all Lauryl's things (a bottle of her blood which is still warm in the storm cellar, her nightgown in one of the patient cells, her diary in the nursery tower and her blood stain in the attic)in the building, such that the Cradle cannot remember her and both of them can leave. Lauryl leads Garrett to the nearby Hammerite Fort, Ironwood, where her body is buried. Garrett washes away the marks on the grave with Lauryl's blood and Lauryl gets her appearance back: Gamall's. The true Gamall, who is being promoted by Orland at that moment, at the same time reveals her own appearance: a monster.
- Still Life with Blackjack
- Gamall has ruined the Keeper Library. She has found the 'Final Glyph' and stolen the Chalice and the Paw. A Keeper Elder guesses that she must have a hidden lair, and Orland wants Garrett to find it, learn what she wants the two things for, kill her, and find and destroy the Final Glyph. The lair is located in Audale's underground. Inside Garrett steals back the Chalice and the Paw. He meets Artemus and from a map they figure out that the Artefacts - the Eye, the Heart, the Crown, the Chalice and the Paw - have to be placed in specific locations in the city to activate the Final Glyph, which acts as a safeguard in case the Keeper Glyphs are used for evil. Once activated, all glyph magic and all Keepers' power will be destroyed. Artemus tells Garrett that Gamall does not want to activate but to destroy the Final Glyph, which contradicts to what the Keepers have told Garrett to do. Artemus goes back to Orland to get the truth while Garrett goes to the Wieldstrom Museum to steal the remaining three Artefacts (two if the Kurshok crown is not sold)before Gamall gets to them. They shall meet again at Stonemarket Plaza.
- The End
- Turns out Gamall does not show up in the museum. When Garrett comes out, Artemus is outside waiting for him, asking Garrett to give him the Artefacts. Orland comes at that moment and decides to tell Garrett the truth - he is the one to use the Artefacts, but not to destroy the Final Glyph. At this moment 'Artemus' grabs Orland in the neck and transforms back to Gamall's monstrous appearance. Orland is killed but Garrett sneaks away during the process. He has to put all the Artefacts into the corresponding positions to activate the Final Glyph. Finally when he places the Eye at South Quarter Fountain, the glyph activates and all the stone statues become ordinary ones. Gamall has changed back to her normal old woman appearance with all her power lost. The hidden Keeper Library is seen by citizens because all glyph magic is destroyed. The Chalice and the Paw is returned to the Hammerites and the Pagans.
When Garrett is walking down a street at one night, a child tries to pickpocket him but fails. Their conversation is almost identical to that between young Garrett and Keeper Artemus many years ago.
The Shalebridge Cradle
One of the most notable parts of Thief: Deadly Shadows was the mission "Robbing the Cradle," carrying on the tradition of creating atmospheric levels in the Thief series. The level takes place at the Shalebridge Cradle Orphanage, which also served as an insane asylum and at the time of the game lies abandoned, following a fire. It quickly became a fan favourite due to what fans felt was an impressive use of ambiance and atmosphere to create a chilling environment of fear rarely explored in many computer and video games, with the notable exceptions of games such as Silent Hill. For example, the first part of the mission created what many fans found to be an unnerving environment through ambient sound and lighting effects. The level also featured zombie-like enemies called "Puppets." However dead, like the average console gaming zombie, the Puppets are presumably former insane inmates. The eerie sounds and light flickers note the player that the puppets are close. The level itself is widely assumed to be the largest part of Thief: Deadly Shadows, though it can be completed quite quickly, as noted by fans.
The "Cradle" itself was designed in a traditional format of using an abandoned haunted house as a backdrop but contained a developed backstory for the location, as mentioned above. It also has many other backstory strands containing in-game information (through the medium of old books and notes) about the inmates in the high security areas of the "Cradle."
