After successful jobs depicted in both Lieutenant 1 and 2 our hero, agent of so-called Western Empire is sent to some generic "arabian"-themed country to track down traces of this country's agent who stole some important blueprints. So this is the setup of Lieutenant 3.

Thief/TDM stealth-oriented gameplay overall is not the worst match for spy and cold (secret) war-themed stories. At the end we have franchises like Metal Gear (Solid), Splinter Cell and Deus Ex that both feature similar (more or less) shadow (or cover)-based stealth while at the same time telling stories about shadow and covert affairs of secret government and non-government institutes. Sometimes they envisions those institutes in more optimistic way - like the defenders of state's security and teams of passionate individuals. That is what Splinter Cell games often did. Another way is to show such institutes as self-serving and repressive - like Deus Ex suggests. The mission here close to the former than to the latter. We have letter of our superior which points our target and that's it. Our hero is executor, not the task-giver or independent player. While I myself in general like latter approach more, there are some merits in this way of story constructing.

The layout here shows evolution of Frost Salamander's skills as mapper. The mission is not as linearly progressed as Lieutenant 1: In The Plain Sight and not as big (and sometimes empty) as Lieutenant 2: High Expectations. It's size just feels appropriate. It's typical city metroidvania-like mission that encourages (but not forces - since loot goal and side quests are optional) you to explore this small sandbox. It often teases you with view of locations that you can access but not in straight up manner. The "arabian"-themed city here is highly vertical with several loops in height. Sometimes the way in is quite unobvious as it is with the Magic Shop. It's not as big as Panter's Wife or Iris, two behemots of TDM city exploration but it doesn't need to be, with its densely packed cityscape. TRust me, you will find yourself wandering here for hours trying to find way to this window or behind that door. There are some bits of environmental storytelling - like the maps of Western Empire in so-called "war-planning room".

As for nitpicks - aside from story positioning stuff - I was occasionally annoyed with how linear sometimes seemed the ways inside important locations (especially within Ministry of Defense). The fact that we are tasked with loot gathering is (for me at least) a bit in odds with spy theme. Also the mission here - just like already mentioned Painter's Wife and Iris - tends more towards exploration, with stealth being secondary - which could be small bummer for more hardcore fans of latter.