April 9th , 2011
By N65ultra

Genre: Stealth Action
Systems: Xbox and PC
Developer: ION Storm
Publisher: Eidos
Release Date: May 2011

Remember the champion of the stealth action genre before modern games such as Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid? Looking Glass Studios created the revolutionary Thief and its sequel Thief II years ago for the PC. Featuring many innovative concepts, including a lightness meter and intelligent A.I., the Thief series was unmatched in its gameplay. Unfortunately, due to struggling sales on their games, Looking Glass Studios went belly up, and it looked like the Thief series was gone forever.

That is, until Eidos and ION Storm recieved the rights to the franchise and decided on creating a true sequel. Thief: Deadly Shadows is more than just another stealth game; ION Storm has intorduced many new features never before seen in the Thief series. Most notably is you can control Garrett from both the third person and first person perspectives, switching between the two at any time.

Graphically, Thief: Deadly Shadows will use a dynamic lighting and shadow system. Every object in the game, including Garrett, will create realistic shadows. Also upgraded is the enemy A.I., which is even more realistic than before.

Thief: Deadly Shadows will be released in May 2011 for the Xbox and PC. For more information, you may read the fact sheet below, and look forward to reading the Games That Matter review on the most anticipated stealth game of the year!


Thief: Deadly Shadows Fact Sheet

You play Garrett, the master thief. Rarely seen and never caught, Garrett is the best that ever was. Able to sneak past any guard, pick any lock, and break into the most ingeniously secured residences, Garrett steals from the wealthy and gives to himself, making his living in the dark and foreboding City. World weary and cynical, Garrett wants nothing more than to be left alone to ply his trade. But things never work out that way.

Features:

• Brand New Game Perspective - Go to 3rd Person to see Garrett sneak up on guards, climb walls, fight with his dagger, peek around corners, and more! Cinematic 3rd Person and Immersive 1st Person modes are both fully supported and can be changed on the fly during gameplay.
• Cutting-edge Stealth- Hide in the shadows, sneak past the guards, or ambush them from the darkness!
• Action Gameplay - Breaking and Entering, Stealing, Sabotage, Evasion, Espionage, Combat, Assassination, and Setting up ambushes.
• Huge Arsenal of Thieves' Tools - Including lock picks, a blackjack, arrows with numerous purposes, wall climbing gloves, oil flasks, flash bombs, and a dagger.
• Advanced Artificial Intelligence - AI guards that see and hear, track evidence and suspiciousness, search for intruders, fight, give chase, and perform lip synching, facial expressions, and hundreds of lines of real-time dialog.
• Dynamic Lighting and Shadow System - Every character and object casts a real shadow that dynamically effects stealth gameplay. Dynamically manipulate lighting to create your own shadows, but make sure your own shadow doesn't betray you to those who hunt you!

Storyline:

Life is not easy in Garrett's town. Here crime and corruption are commonplace, wealthy nobles prey on the poor and each other, and magic and machinery coexist uneasily. Fanatical priests from the Order of the Hammer seek to exact their version of justice in the name of their stern and merciless god, the Master Builder. Primitive Pagans, worshipers of the ancient Trickster god, seek to return the City to primeval chaos with their strange and supernatural mastery over nature. Each the other's sworn enemy.

Attempting to stop the fabric of the City from unraveling are The Keepers, the secret society that trained Garrett in his youth. Garrett left the enigmatic Keepers long ago, scorning them for their reclusiveness and for meddling secretly with the fate of the City. But Garrett still remembers the Glyphs, the Keeper's mysterious language of magic symbols they use to remain hidden, powerful, and in control. According to the Glyphs, a Dark Age is approaching. Once again, Garrett's name appears in the prophecies...prominently.

The Keepers fear this Dark Age more than any before, and though he is no longer one of them, they turn to Garrett in their hour of need. Garrett has experience with Keeper prophecies, enough to know that maybe this time, he should listen to them. He's determined to stop this darkness before it comes, before someone loses an eye...or worse.

Reluctantly, Garrett begins a cautious collaboration with the Keepers. They supply the tomes and prophetic Glyphs he needs to avert the approaching doom, and he supplies the raw nerve, caustic wit, and artistic thievery that they lack. He sneaks his way through castles, mansions, prisons, cathedrals, dungeons, and museums, past armed guards, hired muscle, angry thugs, hideous monsters, and much worse. He's out to steal the City's oldest treasures - treasures that can help stop the darkness foretold in the prophecies.

But things quickly go awry. Disaster looms closer with every step Garrett takes. In his efforts to prevent the Dark Age, he has inadvertently roused an ancient hidden evil. To make matters worse, the Keepers, sworn to protect the City and maintain the balance, instead find themselves decaying from their very core. In their desperate search for the One who will betray them, their eyes turn to Garrett.

Once again, Garrett finds himself without allies, standing alone between the City and the forces that would crush it. Will his skills be enough to save the dying City? Can he survive betrayal, assassins, and war in the labyrinthine city streets? Will he destroy or be destroyed by the evil he awoke?