Thief: Deadly Shadows

Thief: Deadly Shadows is a first-person and third-person 'sneaker', similar in gameplay to the previous games in the series. The player takes the role of Garrett, an independent master thief who aims to steal his way through the City, using stealth, devices and weapons, in order to complete objectives and make profits on the side. The player may steal from or mug innocents for loot, and avoid, distract, attack or knock out guards. Loot and weapon ammunition may be stolen simply by 'touching' it, when close enough. Locked rooms and chests can be broken into after completing a lock-picking minigame.

Mission levels may be traversed by sneaking through the shadows, since walking or running will alert nearby guards, who detecting the presence of a vandal will search around for an unknown face. Upon discovering the player, the guards will give chase and possibly hunt them down. In order to make minimum noise, the player must actively monitor the noise each action creates. The player may usually view a hand-drawn map of the immediate surroundings; realistically, the player's location is not indicated on the map and must be deduced from the surrounding landmarks.

The game begins when Garrett steals a rare opal from a nobleman's castle. After fencing it, he is contacted by Keeper Artemus, who offers Garrett access to the Keeper Prophecies if he brings to the Keepers two Artifacts: The Builder's Chalice and the Jacknall's Paw, which is kept by the Hammerites and the Pagans, respectively. After learning of a coming "Dark Age", Garrett steals an ancient book, the Compendium of Reproach, that details more about the event, along with a third Artifact called the Kurshok Crown. The Keepers read the Compendium's prophecy, which mentions that an "evil one" will be revealed when time ceases to exist. Garrett suspects that the prophecy might refer to the city's clocktower, rather than time itself, and sabotages the clock, inadvertently causing the tower to collapse.

Caduca, the Keepers' Interpreter of the Prophecies, is found murdered. Keeper Orland blames Garrett, and fixes a trial where Garrett is found guilty. Garrett escapes, causing Orland to send the Keeper Enforcers, an elite unit of assassins, after Garrett. Garrett eludes them and is contacted by a group of sympathetic Keepers, who mention that the clocktower's rubble formed an arrow which points towards the Keeper Library at their compound.

During the production of Thief II: The Metal Age, developer Looking Glass Studios fell into serious financial turmoil. This led to the company's closure in May 2000, a few months after Thief II's release. However, the Thief series had been planned as a trilogy, and work on Thief III was "in a fairly advanced stage" when the company closed, according to PC Zone's Keith Pullin. Thief II designers Randy Smith and Terri Brosius had been appointed as lead designers on Thief III, and they had done several months of concept work for the project.

According to Smith, the game was planned to take place in an "open-ended, self-directed city", and its plot was intended to focus on the Keepers. Brosius explained that the game would have seen Garrett grow as a person and become "ready to give, rather than always take." The player would have uncovered the plot gradually, while exploring a free-roam environment. Following the bankruptcy of Looking Glass, the Thief intellectual property was liquidated and the future of Thief III became unclear.

Thief: Deadly Shadows received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated Deadly Shadows for their 2004 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It was also a runner-up for Computer Games Magazine's list of the 10 best computer games of 2004. However, the game won the magazine's special award for "Best Sound Effects". The PC version of Deadly Shadows won GameSpy's 2004 "Best Sound" award.