Thief II: The Metal Age

Looking Glass Studios

While the concept of the sequel goes back at least to the rise of popular literature at the turn of the 18th century, if not even further back (arguably The Aeneid was an unofficial sequel to The Odyssey, if not outright fan fiction) in today's world it represents a peculiar array of tensions between commercial interests, popular demand, and the ever-present question of whether a story even needs a follow-up. A cynic would say sequels exist to cash in on the first entry's popularity, but while that's certainly true, I think on balance, sequels are great. Like I wrote in my review for Forgive Me Father 2, sequels are an opportunity for creators (be they authors, filmmakers or game devs or whoever you like) to improve on an uneven first iteration. Sometimes, they exist for creators to experiment with new ideas. And sometimes they really are just a cash-in, but even that isn't necessarily a bad thing. While Looking Glass Studios' rationale for making a sequel to their stealth fantasy horror classic Thief: The Dark Project are a little hard to pin down given the studio's looming financial insolvency, Thief II: The Metal Age seems to sit squarely in the middle of all these seemingly-conflicting motivations.

The first thing you notice when you fire up Thief II is how much more colorful it is. The new version of the Dark Engine, iterating on the version seen in System Shock 2, allowed for such things like colored lighting, weather and fog, allowing for a major change in aesthetic that really helps differentiate it from the original game. Where the original game's look at times evoked the original Quake, the sequel seems more in line with early Unreal Engine games like Deus Ex. The subtle use of fog and rain makes for suitably atmospheric settings, like breaking into a nobleman's house would have a completely different vibe without the gentle early autumn rain.

The second thing you'll notice is the mission design ethos is very different. Gone are the dungeoneering and fantasy horror elements of the first game (minus a few scares here and there.) There's a significantly greater emphasis on stealth; more than that, a great emphasis on machines and security systems that must be defeated, from the simple (security cameras, here called "watchers" with little explanation as to how they function) to the complex (getting into storage units requires manually inputting their number at a control dial to open their bay doors.) The steampunk elements of the Thief universe are also given significantly more prominence, with the introduction of a new faction, a religious splinter sect of the Hammerites called the Mechanists, who wear blue, curry great favor with the city nobility, and have created all manner of interesting new devices from the watchers to actual steam-powered robots, some of which are walking tanks. Art deco also features much more prominently as an aesthetic, a reflection of Mechanist influence, a symbol of their forward-thinking ideology. After all, it's not enough to build the future, you have to look like it too, right?

But here's the thing about Thief II: the missions were created before the story was written, and it shows. While the story is largely coherent, borrowing a lot of film noir tropes (The Third Man and other classic noir films were shown at the studio office) it was fairly obviously written to suit the maps. You can see this in the overall design; one map is missing (MISS3), one is an edited version from the original game, and two separate maps get reused, the latter being used twice in a row. In this, I think both story and design were compromised.

I like Thief II, don't get me wrong. But it's a lot like Doom II: Hell on Earth in that I think it's far more interesting for what it brings to the fan mission scene than its campaign. The new features like weather, colored lighting, fog, and some increased design limits all helped contribute to making some of the most memorable experiences I've had in video games, such as the Circle of Stone and Shadow and A Night in Rocksbourg series (both lamentably incomplete,) the classic Thief 2X: Shadow of the Metal Age campaign, and Rose Cottage. While the original game has gotten a resurgence thanks to The Black Parade, it's probably not a surprise that the vast majority of fan missions over the years are for Thief II: thiefguild.com lists 312 for the original game (both versions), versus a whopping 1,010 for Thief II. (For reference: it lists 53 for Thief: Deadly Shadows, which is about 40 more than I thought there'd be, 206 for The Dark Mod, and even the Thievery mod for Unreal Tournament has 69 maps for it. Nice.)

Like the original game, there was an intention of a Thief II Gold release. New missions would have included an undercover visit to some kind of university, a trip to the museum, and a horror mission that would have wrapped up some plot threads introduced in Thief Gold's "Mage Towers" mission. While there have been attempts by the community to sort of recreate Thief II Gold from the design notes, it ultimately fell through.

Much the same as the original game, getting Thief II going on modern machines requires some setup. The GOG version comes with T2Fix, as far as I know the only patch utility for the game existing right now (replacing the older Tafferpatcher.) It's however an outdated version; get more recent updates here. Other than enhancements like subtitles and better water textures, the only outright mod I used was the portable lantern, which came in handy here and there despite the presence of disposable flares in the game.

Thief II is ultimately a great game. But a lot of what makes it great was built on the back of throwing out some of the stuff that made the original game great. I don't know if it's exactly worse, but it's definitely different, in a way that often makes me miss the design ethos of the original game. But that's why we have fan missions, is it not?

MISS1: Running Interference

Tim Stellmach, Rich Carlson, Rick Ernst, Terri Brosius

While it's not treated as a training mission, "Running Interference" works as something of a refresher course for people coming back from Thief I. You're tasked with clearing a path for Garrett's friend Basso to his girlfriend, who's currently being held as an indentured servant in some rich noblewoman's manor. The manor itself is absolutely sprawling, but it's also lightly guarded, so you should have no trouble getting the cute couple out while snagging a ton of loot.

MISS2: Shipping... and Receiving

Mike Chrzanowski

Here's a sprawling warehouse complex, ripe for the plundering. Divided into two buildings, the basic idea is that you'll need to remotely open the bay doors of each warehouse unit to access it. Inside is a lock that handles the human-sized door, and if you can grab the building's master key, all the better. It's a lot of running around back and forth, with a brief jaunt out to a pirate ship on the dock for some increasingly-rare spices. Fun mission; I like the music.

MISS4: Framed

Rich Carlson, Rob Caminos

Where's Mission 3? It was originally going to be a trip to the museum, but was cut for time. And by the time anyone thought to make a Thief II Gold, Looking Glass was just about out of money. Anyway, "Framed" has Garrett taking a commission to raid the local cop shop at Shoalsgate, specifically the one where the hated Sheriff Truart and his lieutenants keep their offices. The job involves implicating one Lieutenant Hagen in crimes, and to do that you'll need to figure out the station's security system. On higher difficulties it's a rare example of forced ghosting in a stock mission, with absolutely no knockouts, murders, or alarms allowed. Fortunately the station is mostly empty after business hours, and with a lot of secret passages to make getting around easier. I really like the kinda police-sireny ambient music. Despite the forced ghosting, it's probably my favorite mission in the game.

MISS5: Ambush!

Iikka Keränen, Sara Verrilli

A trip to meet a fence turns sour and now you've got to outrun the cops. The streets are crawling with the City Watch, and what civilians are walking around are all too eager to turn you in, too. It's an open-ended section of the city with lots of alleys, canals and second stories to break into, but your main goal is to get back to Garrett's apartment, and then find a way out of this neighborhood.

MISS6: Eavesdropping

Rich Carlson, Emil Pagliarulo, Sara Verilli, Mike Chrzanowski

The requisite Hammerite mission with a twist: instead of the Hammers, it's their weird spinoff sect, the Mechanists. You're here to eavesdrop on their leader, Karras, who's supposed to be meeting someone important at midnight. The place is a small cathedral complex, still in the process of being converted to the Mechanist aesthetic (the upper towers still have the old Hammer stained glass, and the catacombs are too, er, Haunt-ed to deal with.) Even on expert it's not the most well-patrolled locale, but the sanctuary is dangerously well-lit. Interesting randomization system for one of the objectives.

MISS7: First City Bank and Trust

Randy Smith

Randy likes to make big maps, with big locations and big prizes. "The Haunted Cathedral" was his; two of the largest locations in Thief II are his as well. The First City Bank and Trust is home to a secure storage box deep in the bank vault. The bank has had a big upgrade of its security recently, and camera masks and robots keep a close eye on the nobility's wealth. Nothing a master thief can't handle, though, with multiple means of ingress including a rooftop entry, plenty of shadows, and a few switches to turn off lights and cameras, so you can get to the action in relative safety. The trick is figuring out how to defeat the vault security, and the building is ginormous so you'll be exploring for quite a while. It's like a manor heist on steroids. One of my favorite missions in the game.