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)

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

Immersive, incredible gaming

The Good
Thief 2 was one of the most riveting gameplaying experiences I have ever had. The interface is setup like a first person shooter, but if you think you can hack and slash your way to victory, fuhgeddabouit.

Thief 2 works because you must take on the persona of the main character, Garrett. As a thief you must pay attention to your elements. Are you being quiet enough, moving slowly enough, staying concealed enough? There is a light monitor (a gem) that shows how visible you are. Moss arrows pad your footsteps and noisemaker ones distract guards.

Sound is incredible. Guards whistle and gripe, wood floors sound different than carpet ones, your arrow whooshes through the night. Great narration too.

Missions are varying and there are different ways to accomplish them. Settings are incredible from breaking into a prison to jumping along rooftops. I was disappointed to see this game end.

The Bad
Enemy AI is a little weak. You should be able to carry supplies over from mission to mission. I would also like to see longer missions and branching gameplay in the next one.

What's with Garrett's shoes? Would you really wear clodhoppers if you were a thief?

The last level was disappointing and the "bad guy" has a weak voice.

The Bottom Line
Thrilling fps features stealth and secrecy over face-to-face combat. A must for fans of the first person sneaker genre.

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2001

Thief II : Is it better then the beer-coke/pepsi-pizza combo? Yep.

The Good
Everything. First off, the in-game color is now in full 16-bit splendor, with colored lighting improving graphical quality substantially. The 3D models for the various people you'll encounter have improved a great deal as well, due to an increase in polygons used with their models. Also, instead of the slow, gradual plot of the first game (which was excellent, mind you), the new plot, while still being gradual, moves along at faster clip, and it still is just as good, perhaps better in some ways, in comparison to the plot of Thief I.

The audio for Thief II is also much improved, as sounds (well, some of them at least) play at CD quality (44.1khz) now and better sound propagation in general is evident (you can even listen through doors if you lean up against them). As far as voice acting, it's as top-notch as in the first game of the series, with both the in-game voices and cutscene acting being excellent. Also, on a final note, the major cutscenes are extremely well produced, and still have an quality unique the Thief series.

The Bad
Now that I've beat it, I have to wait at least a year for Thief III (it's 11-July-2001 on the clock right now as I write this) to be on shelves for more thieving fun in The City. Oh, wait, I forgot about the fan missions...

Well, scratch that...not significant complaints with Thief II then.

The Bottom Line
Get Thief II as soon as possible. It's probably no more than $30US in a store right now, and it's more than worth the money you'll spend for it.

Windows · by Longwalker (723) · 2008

[ 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.