VIDEO GAME Complicated protagonist appeals to adult players

The anti-hero is given the task of saving the city he's been stealing from.
By PETER HARTLAUB
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Once used almost solely as a pastime for short-attention-span children, video games are suddenly demanding a lot of patience from consumers.
Thoughe stealth elements have been included in action games since the 1990s, some of the highest-profile titles in the past year have focused almost entirely on sneaking around in the shadows while occasionally slitting someone's throat or knocking him over the head with a pipe.
"Thief: Deadly Shadows," a new release by Eidos, is the newest and one of the best recent stealth-based games, combining a strong story line with a complicated protagonist who moves and dispatches enemies in a realistic manner.
The central character is Garrett, a legendary scoundrel who spends most of the evening and early-morning hours robbing the richest occupants of the city ("Thief: Deadly Shadows" is the third game in a series that goes back more than five years, and the town still can't find a proper name).
After a series of sinister events that play out slowly, the anti-hero is thrust into the position of saving the community he's been stealing from, spending most of the game sneaking valuable objects out of various fortified castles, dungeons and other strongholds.
He's no hunk
If it all sounds very "Ladyhawk," set those worries aside. For starters, Garrett is quite ugly (one of his eyes glows a slimy greenish hue), ensuring that there won't be any juvenile save-the-damsel subplots.
The game doesn't try to tug hard on gamers' emotions, but it will make you think. Half of the thief's weapons are nonviolent devices such as water arrows for extinguishing torches or flash bombs for creating distractions.
In most cases, there are several ways to use your tools to solve a problem, and the variety helps draw players into the game more than the typical cartoonish shooting gallery title.
There are some weird design choices in "Thief" that detract from the experience. Although many of the medieval touches are fun (you receive only lousy hand-drawn maps, not the impossibly detailed blueprints in most other games), the makers of "Thief" have inserted some distracting modern elements.
The voice work is too monotonous and often repetitious, and the choice of dialogue doesn't always support the medieval atmosphere. I'll bet 12 gold pieces that castle guards in the Middle Ages didn't really say, "It's go time!"
There's a lot of inconsistency when it comes to the value of money in the city as well. Garrett can buy all kinds of useless equipment -- why can't he buy a nice condo to replace the Tenderloin SRO-style hovel that he sleeps in throughout the game?
Control problems
"Thief" also has a few problems with the game-play controls. Though the stealth controls are tight, the game tends to fall apart with confusing camera angles in the rare instances when melee combat against several foes is necessary.
Kids will find "Thief" boring, which is probably a good thing because it's an occasionally brutal game that deserves its Mature rating.
Still, there's nothing gratuitous about it, which is refreshing after the recent release of Rockstar's therapy-inducing stealth title "Manhunt." Gamers still curled in the fetal position after playing that insanely graphic killing spree of a video game will find little here to cause further torment.
If anything, "Thief: Deadly Shadows" is a sign that video games are growing up.
X"Thief: Deadly Shadows," by Eidos for Xbox and PC, is for mature gamers.