That Shalebridge Cradle in the third Thief The game remains the scariest experience I’ve ever had playing games. For much of the game, it’s this ominous building that you’ll pass by on your way to other locations in the city. You hear rumors about it, hear its name muttered in fear until it already possesses a sense of terror before you even have to go inside.
When you do, it’s so much worse than you could have imagined. This segment of Ion Storm’s outstanding game, overseen by dishonored‘s Harvey Smith, is a masterpiece of environmental storytelling. Yes, there are horrifying, shambling creatures that feverishly need to be hidden among its dank, cruel corridors, and yes, they scare me to death, but they’re not the true horror of The Cradle. The real threat that makes this level a level you can never shake from your consciousness is the history of the building.
You know that Shalebridge Cradle was once a sanatorium for the clinically insane. You also know that Shalebridge Cradle was once an orphanage. What you learn as you play (and for heaven’s sake if you haven’t already, stop reading and play it now) is that the two things happened at the same time.
That moment of realization is as brutal as you summarize, these poor kids lived in constant fear of the murderous, dangerous patients while cruel doctors conducted experiments, and, well, there’s a witch too.
This cataclysmic moment rewrites your entire understanding of the place and makes the rest of the already terrifying section seem so, so much worse. It’s bad enough when my muscles spasm while trying to avoid a shambling, masked monstrosity, leaning against my monitor as if that makes me smaller and less likely to be spotted, but it’s a whole different level of Horror when you hear the haunted anxious voices of the long-dead child residents of this horrid place. Brrrrrr. —John Walker
