Thief
2: The Metal Age
Developer:
Looking Glass Studios
Publisher: Eidos
Interactive
Genre: First
Person/ Stealth
Release: March
23, 2000
Available:
Steam, GamersGate, and GOG
Price: $7-10
Platforms:
Windows
Mode:
Single-Player
Disclaimer:
-I love stealth games
-I play on the highest
difficulty
-I try to be as quiet
as possible, but I knock out all enemies I can.
-I'm harsh and picky.
-I'm not a professional
journalist.
-Most of my reviews are
usually the PC version. I am the PC master race.
-I try to 100% games
unless it's pointless or tediously stupid.
-No bribes were taken.
-No bribes were
offered.
-I'm a ghost who hides
in the shadows.
-DRM free
-DRM free
*Thief 2
is hard to review then when it was originally released. Playing Thief
2 out of the box requires you to instal the fan made 1.9 – 1.21
Tafferpatch. This leads to to issue of what was changed from what
Looking Glass Studios had intended. Unfortunately, there isn't any
full documentation of the 1.9 patch. The patch also contains optional
visual enhancements and a community fix patch which changes more
things. Then you have the issue of did you install the patch that has
the New Dark Engine or the Old Dark engine.
This makes
it hard to guaranty that my review will be the same as to how you
experience the game and how the game originally was. Now it is
possible to run Thief 2 with the 1.8 patch, but it requires a lot of
work to get it to run on modern operating systems like Windows 7.
Mostly this is the technical and visual qualities of the game. The
basic core thief experience will still be the same no matter what
patch or enhancements you are using.
This review
will be based on the New Dark Engine with Tafferpatch 1.21.
Story:
Some time
after Garret defeated the Trickster, a new faction has rose to power
from the weakened Hammerites, known as the Mechanists. Their new
inventions and robots, help them gain popularity among the populace.
While this is going on, the City Watch as been reformed under a man
named Sheriff Gordon Truart who is cleaning up crime. While things
may seam like they are improving, sinister forces are at work. For
Garret, it is hard times, and he needs money to pay the rent.
Garret's greed draws him into another adventure in Theif 2: The Metal
Age.
The primary
story this time around focuses on two factions; the City Watch and
the Mechanists, compared the Thief which focused on many factions
that lived in the city. This does hurt story wise, as there isn't a
lot of amazement and wonder to carry the player through the 15 long
missions. By mission 10, you will understand all that is going on
with the plot and each faction. So all you are doing is going through
the missions for the rest of the game. Unlike, Thief: The Dark
Project, which based it's levels around the story, Thief 2's story is
based around the levels. The other thing to consider is that, this
was Looking Glass Studio's last game and they were shut down two
months after. Never the less the plot isn't bad, but isn't as good as
it could be.
While the
primary plot isn't as great, the side stories are great. The side
stories are often not related to the plot, but deal with the everyday
lives of the NPC's. From the silly to the serious, the stories make
the levels and the thief universe entertaining. These side stories
can be found from scraps of paper, books, the level design, and
overheard dialogue.
Visuals:
While the
graphics were not the most advanced in the year 2000, they were not
bad and still manage to hold up today thanks to the great art style
and level designs. The art style is a mix of steam punk and Victorian
era style with a little bit of medieval touches. The blend of low res
textures and polygons with the art style creates a wonderful picture
to look at and admire.
 |
| 16 bit lighting |
Now with
the new patches available, you can install enhanced textures of
various categories. The enhanced sky, water, objects and npcs are
great as they do look better, but don't look out of place.
Unfortunately, the enhanced ground and building textures are too high
resolution that they stand out jarringly. They look too photo
realistic and the colors are different from what they are supposed to
be. They don't blend well with the art style and are awkward to look
at.
 |
| 32 bit lighting |
 |
| Enhanced Terrain and Wall textures |
Thief 2's
art style is somewhat different from Thief 1's. The art style is less
dark and fantastical compared to it's predecessor. It also looks
slightly cleaner and more sterile, which does fit with the story of
the game. This is a more notable jump rather then a gradual blend and
growth of the previous art style.
Audio:
Audio is
one of the major strengths that Thief 1 and 2 still retain today. It
play a major role in the game play and the immersion of the
atmosphere. To be good at Thief is to be able to listen carefully of
what is going on around you. So as you listen, you, the player become
immersed into the game naturally.
The sounds
you make when moving about play a major role in stealth. What type of
surface, how fast you are moving, and the noise the npc's are making
play a part in how you move. Rug and grass let you run freely with
little to no noise, while tile and metal are loud and travel far, so
you have to move slowly to remain undetected. With three movement
speeds to chose from, this adds to the challenge and tension of the
game.
Sound
propagates depending on the size of the environment, how enclosed it
is, the sound made, and the shape of the environment. All of these
are factors a player will be constantly thinking of as they sneak
about. AI reacts to the sounds depending on the loudness, how long
it lasts and how far they are from the sounds origin. Manipulating
the AI's behavior statuses and movement patterns is a tactic one can
use in Thief. All of this is something you still don't typically see
in modern games.
The audio
also creates immersion when it comes to Thief games. Besides the
opening theme and the credits theme, the soundtrack is ambient audio
that sets the mood of the place and situation. Different parts of a
level can different soundtracks which act as like a story when it
comes to the mood. A level can start of as tame, grow more intense as
you get closer to your objective and reach it's climax when you get
there.
Voice
acting is well done in the Thief series. The tones of their voice,
the feeling conveyed, and the hidden messages all contribute to the
quality of the voice acting. None of the voices are jarring or sound
wrongly pitched, audio-wise. Steven Russell, does a wonderful job in
voicing Garret, conveyancing his cynical, dry wit that the player can
related to the character. This is due to the excellent writing and
talents of the voice actors. So much that fans were disappointed
when he was not coming back for Thief 2014 game.
AI:
AI play an
important role in Thief series. Their are five levels of awareness
for AI; relaxed, confused, aware, searching, alert. Relaxed is their
default state, and confused is when they think they herd or seen
something, but not sure. Aware is when they know something is their
and they are more sensitive to noise and see farther. Searching is
when they are confident enough to look for you and alert state is
when they will attack or warn people of your presence. This is done
in a gradual way that both helps the player understand what is going
on and gives the AI a more human like reaction.
The AI will
notice things like torches and lights being out and will even relight
them if they feel like it. They can unlock or lock doors, change the
length or time of their path, adjust their path-finding based on
object in their way, and even change their mind in the path they want
to take. This adds both an immersion element to them and adds to the
game-play options for a player.
The AI is
not far from perfect. They can get stuck around corners or partially
open doors, and their awareness statuses can get messed up or stuck.
Typical AI problems. Never the less, the AI stands as being well done
even in today's modern games.
Game-play:
If it
wasn't obvious already, Thief 2 is a first person stealth game set in
a 3d world. The goal is to remain unseen and complete your objectives
while leaving your opponents unaware. To do this, player must utilize
the shadows and cover to remain out of sight. Shadows vary in how
well they can hide the player from the sight of the AI. As the AI
becomes more alert, their ability to see improves and reduces the
effectiveness of the shadows. Once they see you, you won't be able to
hide until you can get out of their range. Levels are well designed
in the placement of shadows to utilize and the ability to create
shadows through turning out lights and putting out touches.
However, it
is impossible to take out all the lights so you must plan carefully.
You will be utilizing the light gem on your screen to gauge how well
you are hidden. Movement can decrease how hidden you are so you have
to pay attention. Most of the time, you can visually gage how well a
shadow will hide you without being in it, but sometimes can hide you
better or worse then it looks.
Hiding
behind cover is another important factor There will be plenty of
times where you can't hide in the shadows but must rely on your speed
and awareness to evade the sight of the AI. Luckily you have three
movement speeds to rely on; running, crouching, and the modifier
known as creeping. While the other two are obvious, creeping slows
your movement speed down significantly and makes you a lot quieter.
This can be used with both running and crouching. Unlike other games,
pressing the movement key doesn't instantly produce a sound. Instead,
it's reliant on the length of time you hold it down and the movement
speed. Once you make a sound, it's duration and sound level is
dependent on how long you keep moving.
Thief 2 has
three difficulty modes that you can select before each mission.
Normal allows you to kill anyone, has the most health, and the least
amount of objectives to worry about. Hard mode reduces your health,
an increases the amount of objectives. Expert, gives you less health,
all the objectives, and not being able to kill anyone. Also each
difficulty will adjust the AI's abilities.
Thief 2 has
plenty of weapons and tools to make use of during the levels. Thief
series brakes these down to weapons and items. Weapons such as
noisemaker arrows, or a black jack can be used along with an item at
hand like the flash bomb. Except for the blackjack, holding a weapon
does effect how you can be seen. From rope arrows, flash bombs, moss
arrows, and noise maker arrows; there is something that you can use
for any purpose. Each tool has a benefit and a consequence to it's
use so none of them overpower each other. On expert difficulty
though, The lethal tools will have limited use.
In each
level there is loot that you can find. This loot has a certain look
to it that you will instantly recognize no time. For many levels, you
will need to collect a certain amount and that value changes from
level to level. Besides using it for completion an objective, this
loot can be used to purchase equipment.
Before most levels, you will
have access to a cash shop to purchase equipment based on the loot
you picked up in a level. Each item has a description that you can
read before purchasing. However, even if you get all the lot in a
level, you will not be able to purchase everything so chose wisely.
You will be given a default set of equipment that is the minimum need
to complete a level so do not worry about being stuck.
Level
Design:
One of the
biggest changes of Thief 2 is how large and more open they are. Each
level is very non-linear with multiple pathways to discover in a
level. This doesn't mean everything is open up to you though. You
will need to explore everywhere to find loot and keys need to open up
more area's of the level. If you don't think you can go further, you
can find away to go around or the a way to open your progress
further. Sometimes you will have to travel both vertically and out
of order to proceed.
Levels take
place in a variety of places from manors, rooftops, a city district,
and even industrial buildings. This helps mix things and provide new
add different challenges you face. The challenges feel natural and
the places feel real instead of being just another level or rpg
dungeon. The difficulty gradually grows as each level introduces new
concepts, weapons, tools and game-play elements for the player to
learn and master.
My
criticism though is that compared to Thief 1, there isn't as much
variety. Thief 1 mixed things up by having undead levels and varied
places such as caverns and crypts that took you through both the
natural and super natural worlds. This doesn't mean Thief 2 is bad,
but the noticeable drop in variety is something I missed.
Thoughts:
Thief 2 is
a great stealth game that improves on Thief 1 in most cases. More
open and larger levels give you more options and ways to proceed.
The art style, story, audio, and game-play all work together to
create a world to naturally immerse you in. Thanks to the new patches
and new engine, The old thief games are easy to install on modern
systems. Despite my criticisms, I would whole heatedly recommend
Thief 2 as a game that is worth playing for both fan's of the stealth
genre and even new players.
Notes:
- You may need the patches to install the game from a disk.
- You will need one of the two patches to play Thief 2 easily on modern systems.
Comparison
of the New Dark and Old Dark engines
New Dark is
an engine that was made by a french Thief fan with the source code of
the Old Dark engine. While it is similar the Old Dark engine, it is
made differently so it is not a 100% replica of the Old Dark engine.
Most of the differences are minor, but are noticeable and can affect
how you play. Fan Missions, in particular, may be affected more
noticeably, so keep it in mind if you notice something off. Below is
a comparison of the difference of the two patches based on my
findings.
New Dark
patch:
- Frontal ambushes very unreliable.
- More sensitive to sound
- Switch through levels of alertness faster.
- Fan Missions may not work correctly or a little different then what was intended.
- May need to use the community fix which changes the lighting to 32 bit, which is visually and technically different. i.e. The light gem might not be accurate. No colorful lights.
- Compatible with the majority of Fan Missions.
- Supports 32 bit color and a variety of Resolutions.
- EAX sound is emulated so no need for a Creative labs sound card.
- No monitor flickering when starting Thief 2 up.
- Fan mission selector built into the patch
- No other downloads needed.
- 48 audio channels.
- More reliable mantel system. Handy for some Fan missions.
Old Dark
patch:
- Supports many resolutions , but has to be adjusted in the DDfix.ini file.
- Supports 16 bit colors only.
- Screen flickers when starting up. (not harmful)
- Need to download Garret-loader (recommended) or Dark-loader and a script to play fan missions.
- Enemies have gradual switching of alert levels and sight.
- Not hyper sensitive to noise.
- Will still kill somebody when Black Jack fighting on Expert difficulty.
- Can do quick ambushes.
- Audio channels go up to 24 channels.
- Need creative labs sound card to emulate EAX sound
- Will not play fan missions made with New Dark engine.
Warning:
Don't download and use the New Dark graphics setting exe as it will
mess up your graphical settings and the AI alertness. You don't want
AI having 180 degree's of vision.
Thoughts:
My personal
recommendation is to stick with the original engine. It still looks
good and run at 60 fps or more in the original missions. Most fan
missions run great in it except for a few that push the engine to
it's limits. Also, The AI functions the way it originally worked
which is balanced for the original missions and fan missions made
before 2012.
You will
need New Dark to run the fan missions made for it, but you can instal
thief twice to take care of that. New Dark isn't a bad engine, but
the increased sensitivity of the AI creates more annoyances then
needed when trying to be perfectly sneaky. These issues might be
fixed in time.
Thief 2 patches
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