Shoshin on 19/2/2023 at 18:02

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Ah, a quintessential Thief level. Takes place in a mansion with guards (a lot of guards, for that small of a space, honestly), steal some stuff. It's got a nice twist in that you're breaking out Basso's girlfriend, with Garrett having a typical jaded attitude about feelings.

This is definitely an intro type level. I'm assuming that they didn't include a training level because this is a sequel, but they are clearly easing new players into the game world with this level. It's short, the requirements aren't overly onerous, even on expert.

So Basso has picked the lock of the butler's room (Garrett has apparently forgotten his lockpicks for this job). Luckily for Garrett, the butler has left the key to the rest of the house on a ledge in his room, making it easy to access the rest of the house. I head upstairs first, to fill my pockets with whatever I can find. There's a nice bonus objective of finding rings for Basso and Jenivere, and since Garrett has forgotten his lockpicks, it's fortunate that some of the guards have keys. Playing on expert, I have to score 8 knockouts, so every guard in the level is knocked out just to be safe. Luckily, I play this way anyway, otherwise I would find this objective a bit objectionable. It's part of the training aspect of this level, so I guess it's OK. On the third floor in the bedroom there is a secret wall safe, which is one of the three secrets in this level. After I've looted the upstairs, including the outside where the guards are surprisingly lax (I mean, the owner is gone but I unlock and open the front door and they're all "Hey what was that? Musta been nothing"), I head downstairs. The armory has another secret, with some additional weaponry, including a flashbomb which comes in handy. The wine cabinet has the third secret, a speed potion (I never use them, so it's not a great secret for me). Once the guards here are all knocked out, I go outside and tweet the bird whistle so Basso can break out Jenivere.

This is another well-designed space that feels functional, as in I could imagine it having been actually built for a rich person with servants. Strangely, only one servant in the kitchen and like 10 guards (and of course Jenivere locked in her room). And the rich owners always seem to be gone. Don't they sleep at their house?

The first thing I noticed when playing this level is the subtle color variations of the lights. I don't think I noticed that before. The torches have a red hue from the fire, and the electric lights are more bright white with maybe a hint of blue? The torch in front of the guard station is an area that really shows the colored lighting. Anyway, it's a nice touch, though very subtle and has no impact on the game play. The texture artists did a good job with the wood textures here, they look very rich and add to the wealth and opulence of the place. Though I am playing with some mods installed by T2Fix, so I know I don't have the original textures in all the places. Still, my memory of the first time I played it is that the places Garrett goes to and steals from got a bit richer, if that makes sense. The gas lights are another touch that make the place seem very wealthy, as I can only imagine that having gas lights would have been incredibly expensive in the world.

Overall, a bit of a lightweight level, but a nice introduction (or re-introduction if you played The Dark Project) to the world. Not a ton of hand-holding, but not a very hard mission either. It's got all the things that make a good Thief level, and it can be completed in under an hour, even if you go everywhere and find everything. It's not up to the standard set by Lord Bafford's Manor from the first game, but it does well enough.

Kubrick on 22/2/2023 at 14:42

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I am very annoying with this, but I loved finally being able to tweak the contrast and saturation to make the game's palette pop better. Clearly I have a low-saturation low-contrast monitor, and this helped a lot:

(https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151556)

edit: quoted the wrong post, sorry. Fixed now

downwinder on 24/2/2023 at 00:31

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the healing fruit comment was about just refreshing yourself while playing, it make a great crisp snapping sound when eating it,and on dewdrop level as they are in that level i think


in the wild the healing fruits are more fresh and when you get them from city they a bit older :P

Shoshin on 1/3/2023 at 02:52

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Playing this level always reminds me of this:

(https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/39.html) Crate Review System

That bit of satire aside, this is another solid thieving level. A warehouse with multiple locations that need to be broken into. The colored lighting jumped out at me again while playing this, making for a richer visual experience. The warehouse area is pretty well done, the way the building is structured is decently logical, there's plenty of guards on patrol, on multiple levels, so you do need to watch out for guards on the second level patrolling the outside of the building, as they can spot you on the ground. There's some nice story elements introduced, both in the pre-mission briefing (Sheriff Gorman Truart) and the overheard conversations (Hammers in decline, Mechanists rising, industrialization starting to happen and impacting animal and plant life). And you get to steal from a pirate, what's not to like?

The outside has some crates with some useful items in it, and a number of guards on patrol. I tend to loot everything on the outside, and though the one conversation was a bit long (about the soot and the trees dying), it is a nice bit of backstory for the world you now inhabit. After listening to that, I make my way to the pirate ship. It's well guarded, lucky there's a ladder off the back of the ship. Once on board, it's easy enough to knock out the pirate guy guarding the dock. The smuggler (can't remember his name) has a couple of secret hiding places in his quarters, and there's a dead guy in the casket in the hold. Wonder what happened? Then I head into the warehouse to find more stuff. Gotta gather some keys and break into some offices. Upstairs there's a recently installed security camera. I like the sound effects for it, a mix of an elementary school film projector and a steam iron or something. Loot the warehouse by the docks, find all the spice. Then it's time to continue on with the spaces that are rented out to others.

Once you learn the secret to the keypads, getting into each place is easy. There's some nice touches, like the guy who has the best steaks in town is clearly using spider meat, and poor Gilver (you redirect his shipment elsewhere) is on the verge of going broke due to piracy. I had a momentary twinge of ethics when stealing from him. It quickly passed. You find the first scouting orb in the Mechanist inventor room, which is a cool item in theory, but in general not super useful. At least not for me. There's also a Mechanist robot (one of the big ones) in a crate in one of the Mechanist storage areas, and the first time I saw it I freaked out a bit. Scared me initially.

There's a ton of secrets in this level, 14 according to the Stats screen after completing the mission. I found 12, and missed 50 loot.

Overall I find this to be a very enjoyable level, full of thieving and sneaking, and it does a very nice job giving you some background into the world and how it's changed since the end of The Dark Project. Much like The Dark Project, the first several levels are almost unconnected to the main story and function as fun standalone missions to introduce the world to the player. We do start the main story a bit earlier with the next mission, though it's not clear initially that's the case.

Framed is next, and I'm looking forward to it.

Hit Deity on 1/3/2023 at 14:20

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This is probably my most-played level in Thief 2. I don't know if I'd say it's my favorite, but it's the one I remember the most for some reason. It's just very Thief-y.