The cathedral is an impressive location. One of the things that has been done particularly well in this game is the moonlight leaking into the buildings. There is a sparkling shafts of light effect giving the illusion of dust drifting around infront of the windows which works really well in all these levels. I’ve also been using the EAX sound which is particularly in evidence in here with some serious echos although the transitions between rooms can be harsh and unrealistic. It’s all adding atmosphere though which is key to the Thief experience.

I explore the areas inside the main church and find a note mentioning a holy symbol which then appears as an objective in my list so I guess I’m going to have to find it.

There are a few subrooms but most of it is just the central worshipping area. I even steal from the offerings bowl in here which is pretty low but if I’m going to get that obligatory 90% of the treasure I’m not leaving anything behind. I find a route into the factory attached to the church but I leave this for now to attempt to explore this half of the level in full first.

I quickly find the holy symbol when I start exploring the living quarters off to the East side of the church. There is also a note saying how I must use it and a stamped gear to get to the chalice. I’ll need to head into the factory to do this but I finish exploring first. The treasure placement is a lot better in this level and I have 49% of the total before I leave for the factory.

The factory is the usual giant machines you would expect to see in a Hammer temple. I can turn a lot of them on and off with large switches. This one throws out fire when switched on which gives me an easy kill on the guard in this room. Most of the other switches I find just turn off light sources though.

I find a machine to use the holy symbol in but I still don’t have the gear I also need so I carry on looking around.

I find a room belonging to a builder inspector. This guy is the builder equivalent of the witchfinder general by the sound of it, going around the towns seeking out evil. He’s probably not someone I want to meet but his journal is interesting and talks of a hag he is chasing. I expect I’ll hear more of the hag.

Near here is a room where a man is burned alive the moment I walk in. Having knocked out the builder responsible, I turn off the fire, open up the door and steal the valuables off the cremated corpse. Garret is showing a definite lack of virtue in this mission even for him.

I find the gear I’m looking for nearby and get it stamped with the holy symbol.

There are some great looking locations in this game so far and rooms like this in the factory are some of the best yet with the curving staircases and giant machines. I was impressed with this engine in Deus Ex 2 but it’s really come into its own in this game.

I take my cog and use it on the machine from earlier which lowers a cage down from the roof containing the chalice + a few other treasures. I’m still slightly short of my treasure target although I’m in the high 80’s by now so very close.

I find the missing treasure I’m after back in the barracks in a chest I’d somehow failed to see first time around. This contains the last of 3 special loot items I had to find and also takes me over the 90% to complete the mission. I leave the way I came in and wake up back in my house.

After not enjoying the last level especially, this was much more like it. Finding 90% of the treasure should be about exploring the whole map, not spotting invisible items in the dark which is what happened in the last level. The downside was that I got through this one extremely quickly. I get the feeling that if I sat down to play this game as quickly as possible, I could probably finish it in one go. That’s not likely to happen for now though as I’m short on time this week. I’ll be interested to see what the keepers have to say next as so far the game has just been building up to the main plot. I’ve listened to some conversations about the hag the inspector is looking for, the quarantine in the city and a boat arriving carrying something dangerous which are hinting at what is to come but I still don’t know exactly what crisis it is that I’m going to have to solve. I’ve also noticed a faction value in my stats which suggests that I get to pick sides but there hasn’t been a side to choose so far.

I’m not the first person to come stealing in here and the first thing I see is a couple of thieves discussing their plan. I wait for them to finish and tail along behind. I’m glad I kept my distance as they are attacked by a load of pagans who throw green fireballs at them. The thieves don’t manage to take any Pagans out so I have to do it the hard way.

After I’ve dealt with the 3 Pagans, I make my way through another sewer. You can guarantee you end up crawling through a sewer at some point in near enough every fantasy game. I make my way through trying not to alert the giant thing that is stalking about. This creature is clearly on the Pagan’s side as there are loads of them around and it doesn’t attack them.

I soon find my way to the second part of the level. This part is where the Pagans live and is larger and more complicated, not to mention full of Pagans. There is a combat training area for them here with some sparring Pagans. I discover later that I could have crawled into the rafters and dropped a cog on them if I’d wanted. I manage to blackjack these two but really struggle for a while after this until I realise that I can kill any Pagans on this level and don’t need to knock them out. A headshot with an arrow does the trick and gets me through a few of the trickier situations.

I discover a note that tells me that I will need to perform a ritual to get the Paw. I now need to find out what this ritual is.

While I’m looking around I discover a few of the special loot items I need to find. Finding these is never a huge problem as they tend to be noticeable and/or have notes hinting at their location.

I’ve soon found a book detailing the ritual. I need to offer water, moss and blood to the giant root in that order.

The giant root is at the base of the level. There is another of the creatures wandering around. I manage to kill it off with about 4 headshots so I can explore in peace. By this point I’ve practically cleared both levels of Pagans. The Paw is being held onto by roots so I need to perform the ritual before I can prise it out. The water and moss are obvious and I shoot arrows at the root partially freeing the Paw. The blood is less obvious but I carry an unconscious Pagan up to the root and in grim fashion stab away at her until there is a good splash of blood and the Paw is released.

This just leaves finding the required 90% of treasure and this takes far longer than the rest of the level did. I was up to maybe 50-60% at this point. Getting to 80 was just a case of exploring but the last 10% was a nightmare as I end up going backwards and forwards over the levels looking for what I’ve missed. I manage to get agonisingly close at 88% but end up resorting to a walkthrough. This points me towards this cup in the rafters, which is near invisible in the dark and doesn’t even put out a glow like I’d assumed all the treasure was supposed to so I wouldn’t have bothered picking it up even if I had seen it. I guess this means I have to pick up every single object on the off chance it might be valuable from here on out then. I’m not impressed with this, if the next level gives me as much trouble I may well drop to a lower difficulty level.

As soon as I finish the level, I’m returned back to my house a day later. This time I don’t bother to explore the city and just sell my loot, buy some more arrows and head straight to the church running through any guards. There appears to be no reason whatsoever not to simply run through the guards as I know I’ll be returned safe and sound back to my house after the mission.

There is another creepy cutscene showing the hammers worshipping in their factory. At least I shouldn’t have to worry about giant monsters in this level, although I’m curious to see if they have any of the Thief 2 technology such as security cameras.

I had been intending to play through a couple of levels today but spent that long looking for treasure that I didn’t get chance in the end. I wasn’t too struck with this level if I’m honest although I started enjoying it more once I realised that I could just kill everyone. It’s not easy sneaking up on people in expert mode as they are extremely alert even when approached from behind and it feels a little like Expert mode would be more fun if I knew more about the level already (i.e. a second playthrough). I’ll stick with it for now but it’s likely to be fairly slow progress as I just complete a level at a time.

The treasure placement seemed arbitrary a lot of the time and a lot of the items are extremely small with little chance of me seeing them unless I happen to be looking when they are glowing. In other games, treasure has been where you would expect it and not among the rafters and the like or lying around in some hidden corner. I always did prefer the house/mansion levels in Thief anyway and the next level in the church should be more along those lines with any luck.

Just a short post today as I just had about half an hour on Friday to play a bit more Thief 3. I start out in my house which is small and basic but there are a couple of arrows I can pick up at least.

I take the opportunity to explore and pick a few locks while I’m here and break into my landlords room. I learn that he is being blackmailed and where to pick up his bribe money.

After looting all the apartments, it’s outside to explore the city. The engine handles the outdoor environment very well and it looks excellent. I figure that I’m going to steal everything I can although all I really need to do is find my fence.

There are quarantine notices up and I overhear a conversation about a boat coming into the docks possibly carrying some sort of plague. I’m sure for now this is just a way of locking me out of part of the city although the quarantine might be relevant to the plot.

There are plenty of city watch around. I knock them out where possible and attempt not to get caught. I’m not always successful though and I end up being chased by the watch occasionally. After half a minute of running they always get tired and stop for a rest which would make just running through these levels a definite possibility. It certainly makes escaping from them very easy as I can just run round in circles until they need to catch their breath.

After collecting my landlords bribe money I visit my fence in a shady area of town. He has been beaten by Lady Elizabeth’s thugs and has told them I was responsible for stealing the opal. He can’t trade my opal because of this but I do sell him all my other stuff. He tells me to go to Black Market Bertha in stonemarket. There is also a shop next door where I can buy arrows, flashbombs and the various tools of the trade from the last 2 games.

I carry on exploring and find the Lady and her goons blocking my path to Stonemarket. They soon split up when one goes to collect his payment and I take them out one at a time, as well as stealing the payment money from Elizabeth, knocking her out for the second time in as many levels.

When I arrive in Stonemarket, these two are stood in front of the Hammerite temple discussing burgling it. While they argue I pinch the map one of them has pinned to his belt. I don’t find a way into the temple for now but I’m sure I’ll be going in there later.

I find Bertha’s shop behind the temple and sell her my opal. She gives me a note from the keepers saying that they want to meet with me in the plaza.

I head straight to the rendezvous. The keepers are going to allow me to see their prophecies apparently but first I have to prove myself by carrying out two missions for them.

I’m given a note with the two missions. I head for the well first to steal a paw from the Pagans.

There is another strange and creepy cutscene to start the mission where a pagan is apparently growing plants using his blood. I’m not sure I want to be stealing from these guys, especially after we were starting to get on so well in Thief 2.

I left it here for now. I quite like the way the city hub level works so far. I don’t feel like I got any real benefit for exploring it thoroughly though. There was a little treasure but one of the things with playing on expert mode is that I’m always forced to burgle huge amounts of treasure in each mission so I’m never short of it anyway. The little bit of the city I played through here was split into 3 zones + another for my house all of which load far too slowly, I just hope I don’t end up having to do too much crossing the city later on to sell and buy stuff. I’ve been warned that the hub level gets tiresome later on so I may just go straight to my objectives from here on out in the interests of keeping things moving along quickly.

As usual, it’s been longer than I intended since the last post but I’m back again for another game. I’ve been playing more Steam games in the last few weeks including the Penumbra series and Bully which has been keeping me away from here. I saw that the Ultima 4 Neverwinter Nights mod has been updated over on Ultima Aiera and was going to play that next with the aim of doing a trilogy of Ultima remakes with Lazarus + the U6 project but I found out I needed the second expansion pack for NWN and I only own the first one. I’ve ordered the second off Amazon for all of 1p+postage so I’ll have to wait for it to arrive before I start on those so in the meanwhile I’ve decided to finish off the Thief series with Thief Deadly Shadows.

There isn’t an intro movie and it’s straight into the game’s first mission. The first thing I notice is how big the text and interface is. This is similar to Deus Ex II and clearly designed more for consoles than PC gaming. It does feel in my face using a monitor but it does the job even if I do feel like I should be sat a few feet further away. The first mission involves stealing a medallion from a Lord Julian who is staying at a local inn.

I should mention that I’m having to use a hack to get the game to play in widescreen. This appears to work well at first but I later discover than it causes the savegame screen to crash and the game also crashes when I finish the level so I’m forced into playing this in 4:3 in the end.

I can’t set the difficulty in the first level so I’m stuck on normal mode. It’s a training mission where I’m guided through every stage, right down to glowing footprints on the ground with my trail to follow.

The gameplay mechanics are very familiar after 2 other Thief games. The new engine is a serious improvement visually. There are real time shadows all over the place and it still looks excellent. The character models don’t bear up too well sometimes when you get close to them but they are well animated and look fine at any sort of distance. The only snag to this engine is just like Deus Ex 2 it doesn’t half load slowly. I’m really going to have to be careful in this game not to get into fights with the guards as I can live without the 30 second load time when I get killed.

The lockpicking mechanic has changed in this new game. I have to swing a pointer around to one of the four compass directions until I see the lock start to move then hold it steady until the lock clicks. This is easy enough once I know what I’m doing, although the instructions just mention finding the sweet spot and I only work out that this is only ever in the same 4 places by trial and error. It may get more complex later in the game I guess but even if it doesn’t it’s still more interesting than swapping between two picks as in the earlier games.

I knock out the innkeeper and have a look at his book to learn where the Lord’s room is. The blackjacking is slightly different. I just click to swing and I can’t hold to build up power. I prefer the original games system over this but it’s only a minor change. Combat with a dagger is similar – I try to avoid this but I do end up taking out one guard this way later on. If anything my combat prowess is reduced further than eaelier game and I really cannot afford to get in fights if this is anything to go by.

There is another new element for Thief 3 where I can hug a wall to hide against it. Not sure how much benefit this will really be in the game but it reduces my visibility a little so it might be useful somewhere.

I find the Lord’s room but he’s not here and neither is his treasure. A note suggests that I should look in the Lancaster room.

He is sat by the fire discussing a plan to steal an opal. This plan requires a medallion which he has in a bag on the table next to him which can be used to open the vault containing the opal. I sneak to this table and grab the bag before heading out to finish the level.

The games first cutscene follows. A man is writing smoking letters in a book. These letters then morph into other symbols, he rips the page out shoves it in his desk and I see a blinding light coming through the drawers keyhole (from an in-drawer viewpoint). I have absolutely no idea what this was about but it will no doubt mean something later.

In the mission briefing, I learn that my fence has identified the medallion’s crest as belonging to the Rutherford family. The opal is in the hands of Lord Ember (Julians cousin) and I like Julians plan so much that I decide to follow it myself. I get close to the mansion on a supply cart and then I have to signal the cook to open a door to get in by dousing a torch outside the building.

I’m facing the torch I need to douse at the start of the mission so I just shoot a water arrow into it and then a door opens up above and I climb up and into the building.

I spot a note on my way in which hints that the mission isn’t going to be entirely straightforward. I’m also playing this at expert level, which looks to be the same as normal except I need to find 90% of the treasure in the level as well as 3 “special loot” items so I’m going to have to explore everywhere.

I start exploring the house. There are plenty of guards but also loads of shadows to hide in. I struggle taking out my first few guards but I soon find my feet and things get easier after that. This place is much bigger than the previous level although still not huge and I soon find the staircase down to the cellar. There is a guard standing watch but he never changes direction so I just creep up behind him and wallop.

The portcullis I read about earlier is in place and I’m going to have to figure out how to open it.

I spot a strange looking fog at the end of a corridor. This looks sinister but I walk into it to see what happens – it turns out that this is just the exit to the next part of the level. I don’t exit the level yet as I figure I may as well explore every nook and cranny of this one first.

The exploration pays off. In a locked room, I find a box I can push to reveal a hole in the wall. Crawling through here gets me to a balcony with a valuable portrait I can nick.

I move onto the next part of the level and get a new set of guards to cope with. Some carry torches which doesn’t make them any easier to hide from and I need to make sure I approach them from behind.

The inner quarters of the Lord and Lady are in this part of the castle. I steal the two other special loot items from their rooms but I’m still a long way from the 90% treasure I need. I learn that the Lord and Lady don’t exactly get on and she has plans to poison him.

I search the Lords room until I find the secret switch in the form a torch on the wall. This opens up the portcullis back in the first level.

Before I head for that, I explore the rest of this level to find any treasure I can. There is a lift to get me down to the ground level and the working quarters for the house are all down here with a few treasures to steal along the way.

When I think I’ve explored everywhere, I head back and find the portcullis has swung open and I can now get into the vault and steal the monumentally large opal as well as a couple of jewels.

This still doesn’t get me the 90% treasure I need to I end up spending about 20 minutes wandering around trying to find the last bits. I eventually spot a ring on this statue which gets me to exactly 90%. God knows where the other 10% is but I don’t worry about it and instead head for the level exit.

The next mission looks a bit different as it isn’t really a mission. I just need to wander through the city and find my fence to take him the opal to be cut up and sold. I guess this is going to be a hub level of sorts but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

I’m liking the look of what I’ve seen in this game so far. It’s a modern version of the older games in the series with slightly tweaked gameplay. My major reservations for now are to do with the engines limitations. The game certainly looks good but the loading times are really poor, especially when I’m running this on a machine far faster than anything that was out in 2004. If I have any serious difficulties anywhere in the game and end up having to reload a lot, it will get seriously annoying. The size of the levels could also be an issue. The fact that it had to split the first real level into 2 sections doesn’t bode well. The whole thing put together would still have been a small level in Thief 1. Ion Storm appear to have compensated by slowing down the speed I move and this was a further irritation when I was searching around for the last bits of treasure. I’m also concerned about the games longevity, I understand their are only 10 missions in total and I’ve already done two after playing for just an hour or so. A hub level smacks of padding although I don’t necessarily have a problem with the idea provided it doesn’t prove too much of a chore.