Thief

Info

"Despite the technical issues, Thief: Deadly Shadows does more than just a few things right..."

One glance at Thief: Deadly Shadows, and you might possibly mistake it for a medieval Splinter Cell. That description might not be too inaccurate – instead of shooting out light bulbs, you extinguish torches with water arrows. Instead of a visibility bar, you have a "light gem". Outside of an optional first person mode, even the controls are the same. But beyond the surface, there's a lot more to Thief: Deadly Shadows. This makes sense, as the series has been around for a little while. Although previously confined to the PC, master thief Garrett has been pulling his sneaky tricks back when Ubisoft was still making nothing but Rayman games.

The best feature is the pure freedom you have. Deadly Shadows still has a linear structure of levels, but they're all built around the central hub city that you inhabit. The levels themselves are far more expansive as well, allowing multiple entrance points and lots of different nooks, crannies, and lofts to aid your infiltration -- vaguely reminiscent of Hitman. There's a lot to explore too, and exploring is what you're going to want to do. Thief doesn't hand you your weapons and give you a slap on the back. No, you've got to work for every arrow you sling, every land mine you toss, every health drink you imbibe. If you don't find them lying around in chests, you can just steal some of the precious jewelry lying around and sell it on black market, earning you some nice cash to outfit yourself with more pointy objects. Obsessive completionists can also amuse themselves by trying to complete each level with 100% loot stolen.

Most of the time, you're not even given a map to a level – you have to go out and find it yourself. They aren't always entirely useful, as they are crudely drawn, and there's no magical "You Are Here" indicator, so you still spend a lot of time trying to identify your surroundings. As you progress in the game, you even meet up with two different factions, of whom you can complete various subquests for. They don't drastically alter the outcome of the game or the levels you play through, but it does make the game feel less stringent.