One of the game’s major new features is the ability to explore the City. While previous games (Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age) sent Garrett straight from mission to mission, Thief: Deadly Shadows allows him to walk the city streets between missions where he can steal from passersby, spy on the townspeople, and complete the occasional side quest in addition to major story missions. Unlike games such as Grand Theft Auto III, the city is not one large continuous map, but rather several small neighbourhood maps connected by load zones (similar to Postal).