Thief II: The Metal Age

aka: Dark Project II: L'Age de Métal, Dark Project II: The Metal Age, TMA, Thief 2, Thief 2: The Metal Age
Moby ID: 1261
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Description official descriptions

Following Garrett's previous adventure, the repercussions of his actions have changed the political landscape. The Hammerite religion has crumbled and a new leader named Karras has risen up to convert many of these fanatics over to the mysterious Order of Mechanists. Meanwhile, a new Sheriff has arrived in town and has been effective at cleaning up crime - maybe too much so. This is bad news for Garrett, whose profession of master thief puts him on the wrong side of the law. As the risk increases however, so too does the amount of treasure available to a skilled thief.

Thief II: The Metal Age keeps much of the same gameplay and abilities from the original Thief: The Dark Project, but also offers a few new items for the protagonist to use. Among them are scouting orbs, which can be thrown to see around corners and flash mines. The heart of the gameplay is still stealth, made up of Garrett's ability to stay quiet, stay hidden and keep signs of trouble out of anyone's view. Garrett's main weapons are his sword, his blackjack and an assortment of arrows, each with a special power. Each level features a variety of objectives as well as several items which don't belong to the protagonist, but are nonetheless valuable and can be stolen.

Spellings

  • Thief II: Эпоха металла - Russian spelling
  • 神偷2:金属时代 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

171 People (147 developers, 24 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 46 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 131 ratings with 9 reviews)

Great game only gets better with sequel

The Good
First was the concept, refined from the first game. A FPS, that doesn't play like a FPS. Who hasn't thought about being the world's best cat burglar or jewel thief? Here you actually get the opportunity to try it. Don't go into a room with bows blazing because you certainly won't last long. This game was a great idea from the beginning, and Looking Glass (R.I.P.) did a great job with the idea. Hide in the shadows, sneak through windows, pick pockets, eavesdrop, kidnap, backstab and any other thiefly skill are all included in ths deep game.

Second, the levels/maps were extremely large and well done. There is always more than one way to reach your level goals, and the variety of objectives ensured that none of the levels seemed repetitive. Puzzles were challenging but never impossible.

Third is the sound. This game has excellent sound and as you would expect if you were a thief, plays an integral part of the game. It is much easier to avoid people if you just stop for a second and listen. Your ears will save your life more times than naught.

Four, The story. The story to the sequel is much tighter and believable. The between mission cutscenes were excellent, even if they were just still frame art. The story kept me enthralled the entire game, and kept me interested in continuing. It is also nice to get side stories that help flesh out the main plot within the game.

Five, the weapons. The weapons are more tools than actually weapons. I must admit, my favorite are the frog-beast eggs. You have to love throwing eggs around, having them hatching into frogs that will follow your enemies around and then explode in their face.

The Bad
As to what was wrong with the game -

First and foremost, the long loading times. It takes over a minute to load the levels. Now granted the levels are huge, but I have seen similar sized levels in other games load much faster.

Second, the graphics. Though the graphics are slightly improved from the first game, there are an awful lot of instances of clipping. I can't tell you how many times I threw a guy in a closet only to have his foot or sword sticking through the door. There was even one point where a guard was stuck in the floor.

The Bottom Line
As you read above, the game is extremely "thief oriented". This is no shooter in the strict sense. You will find yourself climbing through windows, hiding in the shadows and crawling through the rafters, just to find that additional cndlestick that you can sell on hte balc market. Oh, and you get to save the world as well.

Windows · by Chris Gordy (4) · 2000

An inspired masterpiece that surpasses the original. An a most excellent farewell gift from LG

The Good
I could go on and on about the revolutionary gameplay aspects and technical achievements the Thief series is known for, instead I would prefer to point out the improvements this game makes over its predecessor. Thief 1 is and excellent game, and Thief 2 only goes up from there.

There are better graphics, better sounds, new cool options like listening through doors, the excellent "artsy" cutscenes are back and at a bigger resolution, etc. etc. etc. However there's something that for me really puts this one in the classics category, and it's got more to do with the creative side of things. Regardless of the gameplay/ technical improvements few sequels can claim to REALLY flesh out and surpass the original universe in which they are setted, yet Thief 2 does just that.

While the original cutted down on the excellent dark "steampunk" atmosphere by delivering some dungeon crawling and swashbuckling action in an effort to don't appear too "odd" to the masses its sequel pulls no punches. Gone are the endless nights spent fighting legions of monsters and undead creatures in caverns, tombs or whatever (now they can still be found around but they are merely to add color to the game). Now the emphasis is REALLY placed on being a Thief. Practically the entire game takes place on urban locations, and what was merely an interesting backdrop on the original becomes a major element in its sequel. You'll crawl through streets and rooftops, castles and mansions instead of the tombs and forgotten cities of the first one. The result, at least for me, was that it really made me want to get into the game, to the point that I made every mission (well almost, more on that later) on the expert difficulty mode, a feat I only did every now and then on the original and that encourages you to find and explore every nook and crany in the levels (which are many many times more complex than in the original).

The storyline comes alive in a way the original never did and the allegoric aspect of the game gets the recognition it deserves....What am I talking about here? I'm talking about the strong message the game gives regarding fanatical religious beliefs (c'mon, like no one got the sledge hammer/christian cross thing). Garret is more than a thief, Garret is a completely unatached and neutral member of a world very much like ours, and though his actions can be moraly questionable, they are the vehicles from which we bear witness to a world blinded by its own faith. You see poor wretched souls lamenting over a fate brought only by their own submission; you see greedy powermongers use the desperate need to of the poor to believe in something, anything, to their advantage; you see innocent people slaughtered over nothing more than beliefs; you see soldiers marching on proudly, carrying out orders regardless of their reason or consequences, merely content on servicing their faiths; etc, etc, etc.

Don't get me wrong, Thief 2 doesn't question the validity of faith or beliefs, but it certainly shows it's consequences when they take a turn for the fanatical. Call it an atheist interpretation of the game, but it's what I think.

Now what other game you know makes you think about those things? ;)

The Bad
Minor gripes really. First of all the remote camera is useless, the view area is too small (I guess it was made with big monitors and 1024x resolutions in mind), it's got no zoom, and you can never perfectly control the way you place it. Also there's the issue of the AI, it looks so good because the game puts a big emphasis on sound detection and all that, but they have their holes. They walk by open doors like nothing's there and if they detect you, just hide yourself for a couple of minutes and then they resume their actions as if nothing happened!

Second and more important, the final mission and for that matter the entire climax of the game seems all off to me. Having spent the entire game on interesting locations, sneaking and thieving around (I did not kill a single person in this game) it was a real letdown to do a mission on a dull gray castle with nothing but robotic enemies. I know in the end the game had to find a way to "kill gonzo the bad guy" but I think it could have been handled better than that. Plus the ending sequence works very well if you consider there's supposed to be a Thief 3, but it shouldn't have left things on such an open note imho, not even The Empire Strikes Back was so unrewarding in the end.

The Bottom Line
In essence, despite some minor gripes, you simply have to have this game. There really is nothing quite like it and it's much better than the original, which is already a revolutionary masterpiece. It's the complete antithesis of Quake and Unreal, and if you like some thinking and atmosphere with your gaming then this is your holy grail.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2001

Brilliant!

The Good
- Incredible Atmosphere - Great Sound/Soundtrack - Brilliant, Intelligent Gamedesign - Nearly Perfect designed Missions: Challenging, but not unfair - Less Undead than in the first Thief - Nice Storyline - Garrett is an incredible Character

The Bad
- Graphics are still not as good as they could be - Not a lot of new Ideas compared to Thief1

The Bottom Line
Actually not a lot of new ideas compared to Thief1, but all Ideas are even better executed in this Title! This game surely entered my all time top10 - everyone who is interested in intelligent and incredibly atmospheric Games should take a close look at this one!

Windows · by Daniel Martin (12) · 2001

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Shadows of the Metal Age St. Martyne (3648) Jul 4, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Thief II: The Metal Age appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Covermount release

Computer Gaming World shipped the complete game on their January 2004 DVD.

Engine

Thief II was developed with an enhanced version of the Dark Engine.

Menus

On many of the menus used in Thief II, you can see moving gears and machinery through the glass which may look familiar. In fact the menus are identical to those of the original Thief: The Dark Project, only a faceplate ("fancy covering") has been added over the graphics of the machinery. As a result the sound of the machinery is also muted.

Mods

In May 2005, five years after the original release, fans of the game presented their unofficial expansion: T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, with 13 new levels, 10 new weapons, new characters and over 3.000 spoken lines. You play as a female thief, Zaya. The expansion can be downloaded here.

Multiplayer

Thief II had unused and underdeveloped code for a multiplayer mode. Fans have restored the mode with some additional coding and released a multiplayer beta patch.

References

Brahm Gervaisius' ill-fated librarian in missions 13 & 14 is named Giles. It's probably not a coincidence that in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy's watcher Giles was the school librarian.

Thief II: Gold

Thief II was to have a Gold edition with additional missions like Thief Gold, but the closure of Looking Glass Studios halted all development on the project.

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2011 – #23 Top PC Game of the 2000s

Information also contributed by Sciere, Scott Monster and WildKard

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Will D.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, ClydeFrog, Sciere, Dae, Havoc Crow, Klaster_1, CaesarZX, St. Martyne, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.

Game added April 2, 2000. Last modified March 17, 2024.