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Deadly Shadows< Metal Age< Dark Project

» Pros

really lives up to its rather lame name --deadly shadows when compared to the original master pieces,the metal age and the dark project.
ambience, story-line and voice-acting all quintessentially thief-like.
Both 1st and 3rd person perspectives present
Stephen Russel's voice as Garret
more realistic dynamic lightning; a slight improvement on this aspect of DX2's engine.
npcs more responsive to changes in light conditions and sounds and more intelligent 'AI barks' than in the previous games.
Garret's mechanical eye seen as a radiant emerald-hued eye ball in 3rd person perspective
the traditional eavesdroping on npc conversation
and the good old gab between the smart and dumb guard.

» Cons

dead npc bodies unrealistically flexible
npc faces more like wax dummies
NPC AI is a joke for thief veterans
irritating loading times in the same area
wall climbing gloves replace rope arrows
dagger replaces sword
garret's without his robe in 3rd person perspective (seen in many cinematics previously)
graphically the infamous DX2 graphics engine.
considering DX2-engine's total worth the game
lags reasonlessly on high end computers.
cinematics lack the sophistication which was present pre-LGS collapse.
holy scriptures stupidly and 'consolely' added to loading screens instead of being present in cinematics.

» Review

Die hard thief fans like my self will still like the game for what it has to offer----story line, garret's same old personality,the ocassional face-broadhead contact and the thief trademark ambience.
Basically its a thief game made in the graphically rudimentary DX2 engine with the ever-present lagginess and the frustratingly short levels-----and this is what takes the fun away. Thief games were all about the continuous flow of individual levels which was scarcely seen in deadly shadows.