Reply With Quotedon't forget to grab dewdrop
This is another lightweight level to me. The mechanic of following someone is just not enough to sustain the whole level. The only challenges seem to come from the timing of the guard routes, and whether or not the person you're following has paused at some point to make a particular area harder or easier. I got stuck in one place, right after the Pagan picks up the letter where the Pagan's path crosses with two guards and a bridge, and it took a number of tries to get the timing right. Frustrating, and not something that I as a player had a lot of control over.
So I really don't have much to say about this level. It's currently tied with Ambush! as my least favorite. It's the first part of Assassins, turned into an entire mission, and there just isn't enough there to really support a whole mission.
Trail of Blood is next, which is good as my recollection is that this is a very good level.
don't forget to grab dewdrop
I have Dewdrop. I can't make Dewdrop do anything, but I have him/her/it.Originally Posted by downwinder
don't forget to grab dewdrop
hold dewdrop in hand when there is 2 or more mech guards by you and see what dewdrop can do
I already knocked out all the mechanists, so I wasn't able to see what Dewdrop does. I watched a few videos though. It's a nice addition to the game, though I did read about it not working all the time due to a bug?
Ok, this level has things back on track.
Even though we are still sort of following someone, this level starts out in a nice forested area with homes and farmland. Almost immediately we come across bodies, and ghosts from the conflict with the Mechanists. Even though the pagans were in some sense the enemy from the first game, seeing defenseless people slaughtered by the Mechanists really turns you against them, if you weren't already. Dewdrop is here, and willing to help if you have a run in with a couple of Mechanist bastards. It's an idyllic scene rendered horrifying by the slaughter. So I have no compunction defeating the Mechanists. Still, I don't kill them, partly because I play the game on Expert.
Follow the trail of blood to the meeting place, and then you're teleported to the Maw. It looks to have been redecorated since last time we were here. I really enjoyed the atmosphere here. The eyeball plants are a nice touch, though underused. It's very creepy they way they turn to always look at you once they see you. And the giant pitcher plants, breathing in and out. The ape beasts are an evolution of the previous rat guards (or were they monkey guards?).
Travel through spring, summer, fall, and winter (reading Lt. Mosely's correspondence on the way, discovering that it's been the Mechanists behind everything), and make it to the glade with the Tree beasts and a reunion with Victoria.
Here the story snaps fully into focus, and the remaining missions will involve the Mechanists from here on out.
This level was very enjoyable for me, and a return to form after the disappointing Trace the Courier level. And the next level is Life of the Party, one of the best levels in the game.
yes trail of blood is great as its has amazing distance in it, i love to travel in a thief fan mission
Now this level is very very well done. Maybe, as downwinder said, it's the travel that makes it great. Start on the rooftops, travel across a part of the city to Angelwatch, get what you came for, then travel back.
The city section is very nicely done, with the roofs acting as the Thieves Highway. Lots of little areas to explore (and rob). A nice bit of comedy involving Lady Van Vernon and Lord Willy and their guards. Always felt inspired by Monty Python. At least, it's a bit of John Cleese I hear in the Lady Van Vernon guard who gets so angry. Cleese always did do seething rage well. And of course the Rothchilds, upset that they weren't invited to the Mechanists big party. Neither set piece is essential in any way to the level or the broader story, but it adds to the background of the world and adds a bit of levity. Very nicely done. And if you're quick, you'll catch a glimpse of a Keeper along the way.
Once you get to Angelwatch, the cathedral itself is pretty easy to get around in. I typically go down to the bottom floor and work my way up. This does mean I listen to the recordings out of order, but that's not a huge issue. We discover more about Karras' plan, though not much more. The guard talking to Vilinia does make a reference to the Servants being weapons, so we know that Karras will be using them as a Trojan Horse with the nobility at some point, and there's the reference to rust gas. So the story is being fleshed out, and at this point I think my earlier issues with how the story flows are over.
Karras has anticipated Garrett's attendance at the party, and given him his own recording. That, along with the knowledge we gained from Trail of Blood that the Mechanists are behind Garrett's most recent troubles, does not bode well for Garrett going forward.
One of the other nice touches is with the Servants. This was the level where it became clear just how creepy they are. There are two voices, one the voice of the original person who says things like "I'm cold" and the other voice that controls them. They giggle and say thank you when you knock them out. Very creepy. It reminds me a little of the headcrab zombies in Half-Life 2 that shriek in pain in a muffled voice (because of the headcrab on their head) when they are lit on fire. It disturbed me when I realized I was hearing the voice of the original scientist screaming.
My recollection of the rest of the game is that all the levels are good, so I'm off to Markham's Isle to see if I can find Brother Cavador.
Life of the Party was one of my favourites besides First City Bank, Trail of Blood and Shipping & Receiving.
It was outstanding and the only rooftop-themed mission that established a whole fan mission category on its own.
I only wished the Angelwatch Tower was placed central in the map not remote for a more fitting cityscape. Also it was possible to climb through the towers chimneys to the roof, at least in the alpha version. Sadly they removed that "feature" too.
Shoshin, if you can hurry up with your Kidnap review, and it could get included in the next podcast episode, would love to see you in there!
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthre...=1#post2501518
We start off in a cave with a river running nearby. There's a rowboat, so I assume Garrett took that rowboat to get there. These caves have old buildings left behind by pirates. There's a boring machine there, and turning it on results in a nugget of silver. I thought that was a nice touch, as was "It's a long way up" from Garrett as he looked at where he needs to go. Climb up the ropes and rock outcroppings, disable the camera, knock out a few guards, and we emerge to a lighthouse. The mechanists are all over the place, so I deal with them and the Children of Karras first. Once the guards are unconscious I can gather the loot and find Victoria's agent, Lotus. Lotus. What a sad thing, freezing to death and asking a random thief to kill you. I always felt bad about that, though I understand full well the value in a mercy killing, or euthanasia, or death with dignity, however you want to name it. Turns out if you don't kill him, he dies anyway, but still. Again, it's an easy shorthand in the story to keep in your mind that the Mechanists are bad people who need to be stopped, at all costs. Like slaughtering the pagan children.
Once you meet with Lotus and get the piece of the ships wheel, you can take the elevator that's been retrofitted to the lighthouse down to the main Mechanist base. There they have an honest to god submarine, Jules Verne style, as well as some underwater buildings. Everything they made is metal, but luckily for us, wet metal is slippery, so they put down rubber mats that prevent slipping, and also prevent noisy metallic footsteps. I like the steampunk 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea vibe. And of course there's a pirate ship with cursed treasure to be found.
Brother Cavador is not here, so time to stow away on the terror of the seas.
Overall, I enjoyed this level. There's interesting environments, lots of classic sneaking, and the idea of stowing away on a ship and not being found is a good one. The rain and fog are also a nice touch, though there's the occasional bug where the fog appears inside the lighthouse building. Since it is raining, it would have been nice for there to be one Child of Karras out of commission because of the weather, maybe with a Mechanist trying to restart the boiler? Missed opportunity perhaps. This isn't the strongest level, but it is definitely not the weakest either. In my ranking, I think it'll end up in the middle somewhere.
Kidnap is next.
I need to play Kidnap first, just finished Precious Cargo.
Parts of this mission I really liked. It's cool to revisit a location from the first game, and see how things have changed as the Mechanists invade and mine for whatever they're mining for. I am a bit disappointed that Burricks and the Fire Elementals are missing, it would have been nice for there to be a few in an isolated area, thus justifying Cavador's mask wearing. Otherwise he just seems a bit paranoid.
On this play through, I ran into Cavador almost immediately, but as I took out his escort he ran away to his quarters in Site 5. So I went through all the other areas first, then went there & got him. Once I had him unconscious it was just a matter of carrying him out.
Each individual area is relatively small and self-contained, so setting off an alarm in one spot doesn't alert every mechanist everywhere, which is a nice gameplay feature, but definitely wouldn't be that way in real life. The guards that patrol a wider area can catch you by surprise, or if you are not careful with where you leave the bodies, they'll be alerted when you come up on them later. I expended quite a few flashbombs and gas arrows on the random patrols, whereas in the tighter site areas it was easier to sneak up and knock them out.
Overall, this mission did have a lot of frustrating parts to it, and won't be in my top 5 ranking when it's all over. But it was better than Ambush or Trace the Courier. I did enjoy the Cthuhlu statue still being there, and it's a nice touch to bring back elements from the first game to this game, though I liked the Lost City mission way more. The large numbers of mechanists made this a challenging and sometimes frustrating level. And even though the cutscene lets you know that the mechanists were there for masks to use to make servants, that isn't very clear from the level itself. There's little indication as to why the mechanists are there in such numbers, and it adds to the overall story issues that I think Thief 2 suffers from.
Three missions left, and up next is Casing the Joint.
I've finished both of these missions now, and since they are in the same location I'm combining them into a single post. Honestly I'm running out of steam with these write-ups in the second game, and I struggle a bit to make them interesting.
In general, I like the idea of visiting a location (casing it) and then revisiting it later when you know the layout. This was done well in Thief, with revisiting the haunted cathedral and the Hammerite temple. Even revisiting the lost city from Thief in Thief 2 was nice. The bad part in this game with these two is that the missions are back to back. Having just been there it's frustrating to go back immediately. Some things changed I suppose, and you can access the third floor now, but generally the back to back nature of these missions didn't work for me.
There are several things that did work for me though. I liked the callback to Garrett getting the masks from the Lost City in Thief. I liked the design of the house, and the wood paneling textures, as well as the secret passages in the house. If I were very rich and built my own house, I would totally have secret passages. And I recall very clearly thinking, when stealing the masks in the Masks mission, that using rope (vine) arrows to descend, grab a mask, and then go back up to the rafters was such a Thiefy thing to be doing. There are also many paths to each room with the masks in them. I know you can disable the gas traps with the colored lights in one of the third floor rooms, but I love using the vine arrows to accomplish this.
Overall, though, having these two missions back to back kind of spoils the fun when you get to Masks. These aren't bad missions, but they aren't great either.
I'll be finishing up with Sabotage at Soulforge next.
say hi to the golden child for me ok
I've just gotten to it. I'll tell it hello from you.
The last mission of the game. I do like that the final mission of The Metal Age is quite a bit longer and more involved than the final mission of The Dark Project. But it is also quite a bit longer and more involved than most of the missions in The Metal Age, which is both a strength and a weakness. The level is huge, with lots of areas to visit. Lots of Children of Karras, too, including a new enemy, the spider bot. Luckily the spider bots don't have the greatest aim, cause otherwise these are the toughest enemies. They can be disabled with water arrows, but their boilers are small and hard to see.
Overall, I enjoyed this mission, though I also found it frustrating in places. Lots of metal floors, lots of bots, lots of nooks and crannies to explore. I liked the new mechanic of being able to manufacture things from raw materials sprinkled around the place. From the in-game texts, I think we are supposed to assume that Karras had converted all the other mechanists into Servants, and that at the end, all the mechanists were destroyed, but there just weren't that many human opponents in Soulforge.
It was satisfying to destroy Karras in the end, as he was obviously a murderous nutjob who needed killing. It's nice when the enemy is unambiguously evil so you can kill them without a second thought.
This was a good mission, probably in my top 5 for the game.
i wish there was a way to get the golden child out of the building before you end mission, but he is random on where he goes
And so I come to the end of Thief: The Metal Age. I enjoyed playing the game, but the nostalgia factor for this game was much less than it was for Thief Gold. And overall I liked Thief Gold quite a bit more on this final playthrough than I did Thief 2. I had such clear memories of playing Thief Gold for the first time, and I found that I did not have the same experience with The Metal Age. The Metal Age is my second favorite video game of all time, but Thief Gold is first, and by a fair amount.
Thanks to those who read along with this. I may or may not do Thief Deadly Shadows. I think there is a lot of good in that game, and that it was brought down by necessary compromises due to the limitations of the original Xbox, which is a shame.
good job shoshin,i also a a big fan of thief 1 more then 2,i have thief 3 on pc but garretts broken hip, the game is only hard due to movement limitations in my view if thief 3 moved like thief 1/g/2 it would have been a way easy game
how many time in thief 3 we hide in shadow wait for perfect time to sping into action and the npc turns and all hell breaks loose over bad movement,run to water and dive in just to get into the jail level lol
Thanks downwinder.
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