Thief II: The Metal Age

It's a very good game, although there is a noticeable drop in quality and fun in the last three missions. Some missions can be excessively dark, to the point of the gamma setting is useless. Still absolutely worth playing.

It’s Thief 1 but bigger and better, with most of the flaws of the original ironed out. Like the first game, Thief 2 struggles to run on modern systems and you will likely need the T2Fix patch to play it ([url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113169312]guide I used[/url]). Thief 2 retains the strengths of the first game. Here is a summary of what made Thief 1 so effective: - A rich stealth system based on sound, light levels, line of sight, movement speed, the surfaces you creep/walk/run on, whether you have a weapon drawn, and enemy alert levels (most stealth games are based on a small subset of these mechanics) - A large toolkit of arrow types, potions, and consumables that provide multiple approaches for overcoming obstacles and dispatching foes: for example, water arrows extinguish torches, moss arrows silence your footsteps, rope arrows allow you to climb to new heights, flash bombs briefly stun enemies, etc. - You are not a tank – enemies are tough and fighting them head-on is suicidal, so stealth and planning are essential for success - An excellent difficulty system where higher settings add side quests, higher loot requirements, and no kill rules that encourage full exploration of the mission and mastery over all challenges within it - Fantastic mission design featuring multiple paths to your goals, countless secrets to discover, plenty of treasure to steal, lots of verticality (you can even mantle up ledges + use rope arrows to reach upper areas), and rich environmental storytelling - A seductive dark fantasy + steampunk setting brought to life through rival factions with well-defined beliefs and pulpy fantasy-noir stories full of twists and turns to contextualize each mission - Legendary sound design with proper sound propagation that serves as your main way of detecting nearby enemies (and vice versa) - No modern conveniences like mini maps, quest markers, vision cones, peering around corners in third-person, icons above heads, or X-Ray vision Thief 2 sports many improvements over its already superb predecessor. The enemy AI has been polished; the in-game map is more detailed and marks rooms you have already visited; and almost all the undead enemies have been removed (good riddance to the zombie in particular – the first game had too many of them) and replaced with equally dangerous new Mechanist machines like the Watchers, combat bots, and turrets (analogous to security cameras, maintenance robots, and blast turrets from System Shock 2). There are more items to play around with such as scouting orbs for looking around corners or invisibility potions for bypassing that one area, and everything else in your toolkit seems more useful this time around – even the previously useless explosives like fire arrows and mines are slightly less useless this time thanks to the new Mechanist threats. The medieval aesthetic from Thief 1 has been swapped with an equally striking art deco theme, and the new OST is haunting and oppressive, perfectly conveying The City’s descent into a surveillance state. The best part about Thief 2 is the improved mission design – it was already incredible in Thief 1, but it is perfected here. Missions are larger and denser yet have even less wasted space; sneaking challenges are better designed; rooms are better decorated and furnished; there are way more secrets to find; and there are plenty more fun side-stories to read. Thief 2 features the best building interiors ever – for instance, First City Bank and Trust is replete with meeting rooms, vault rooms, office cubicles, a records library, and a statue hall. I hesitate to call Thief missions “levels”, they are much more than that… they are not just arbitrary hallways and rooms for the sake of content, but rather they are real, inhabited places with proper world-building, stories, characters, and history, offering glimpses into a far greater world. It is this attention to world-building that makes the Thief games so much more memorable and immersive. Special shoutout to Life of the Party, the best mission in the entire franchise and the mission this entire game was designed around – a legendary journey across the city rooftops ending at Angelwatch Tower, a 6-storey skyscraper hosting a party for the city’s nobility. This mission has some of the best “level”/mission design in any game ever, whether it is the varying heights of the rooftops or the glorious art deco halls of Angelwatch, and every corner is packed with loot, challenges, secrets, and side-stories. Memorable moments include the 4 guards arguing over Lady Van Vernon, the astronomer’s workshop, a wealthy bank you can rob, the Rothchilds (wow, how subtle) complaining they weren't invited to Karras’ party, the novice thief, the necromancer's spire, the greenhouse with the friendly spider... and that’s before reaching Angelwatch Tower. Sadly, Thief 2 keeps some faults from Thief 1. Shadows are still inconsistent – areas that look pitch black register as yellow on the light gem; enemies constantly get stuck on level geometries like ladders and railings; and climbing ladders and rope/vine arrows is still painful. Half the game is still running around 1-tapping everyone with the blackjack, and metal/ceramic are still the only surfaces you really need to worry about. Water arrows are even more OP – on top of extinguishing fires and cleaning blood stains, they can now shut down the new robots (and are by far the safest way to dispatch these enemies). There is evidence everywhere that Thief 2 is rushed: there is no tutorial to bring new players up to speed; some of the new enemies like the worker bot and mechanical cherub pose no threat; many factions from the first game such as the Hand Brotherhood are absent; and there are underdeveloped missions everywhere (more on this later). The story is weaker this time around (mostly because the devs built the missions first and scribbled a story piecing them together later) and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. Unfortunately, like the first game, Thief 2 has its share of underwhelming missions due to its rushed development cycle. The first disappointing mission is Ambush, where you must trek through a dull and mostly empty city with too many impassable gates. The next weak mission is Tracing the Courier, which reuses the map from Ambush and suffers from awful pacing. Another divisive mission is Kidnap, which recycles the Lost City from Thief 1 and has a time-consuming main objective. There is also the infamous pair of Casing The Joint + Masks, which take place in the same mansion and are blatant filler missions. [spoiler]The final mission, Sabotage at Soulforge, will make or break the game for you: on one hand, it is a highly ambitious and dramatic finale with an oppressive atmosphere that serves as the ultimate test of your sneaking abilities. On the other hand, it is way too long, you are massively undersupplied, there is 0 loot to steal, rooms are too large and empty, and there are unfinished areas everywhere. The signal rooms are rushed: they consist of a bunch of arbitrarily placed enemies and platforms with no environmental storytelling, and later rooms like the turret and conveyor belt rooms are badly designed. The devs should have split Soulforge into 2 missions and combined Casing the Joint + Masks into one.[/spoiler] Thief 2 may not be a perfect game due to many rushed missions and an unremarkable plot, but it is a perfect sequel that retains and builds upon the best elements of Thief 1. If you are deciding which of these two games to play, the correct answer is both – Thief 1 and 2 are must-play stealth titles even for those who do not like this genre. When you are done with the base game, there are a truly insane amount of Thief 2 fan missions (FM) to check out (the number of FMs for this title dwarfs the number of FMs for the other Thief games). 9/10, RIP Looking Glass Studios.