Shoshin on 19/3/2023 at 19:40

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After Ambush, we get a nice cut scene with the Keepers, and their prophecies. Garrett is of course cynical and skeptical, but the Keepers know enough to manipulate Garrett into going to the Mechanist seminary. There he overhears Karras and Truart, with Karras recording the conversation to keep Truart in line with the threat of scandal.

This is a mission that works really well. Coming off the lackluster Ambush mission, Eavesdropping recovers the Thief vibe very nicely. Once you get to the door outside the room where Karras and Truart have their meeting, you really get a chance to use the new gameplay mechanic of leaning into the door to hear what's going on on the other side better. This was a nice addition to the game. Overhearing this conversation introduces a number of story elements. You now know who is behind Truart, and you are introduced to the slightly creepy Servants, as well as the rust gas. Karras is of course not entirely truthful with Truart about what he plans to do with the rust gas, but he is a super villain after all. Whatever he is planning, it isn't good for anyone else.

After eavesdropping on this conversation, the rest of the mission is a pretty straightforward looting mission. We are introduced to the Children of Karras, as well as being introduced to their weakness. Gotta practice your archery to make sure you hit those boilers. On my initial playthrough, I didn't realize that the small children are blind until they are alerted. The small ones take one water arrow, the large ones two.

There's a nice touch with the safe deposit box key, where it moves around each time you play. And there are a bunch of decoy keys that don't seem to open anything. I forgot about that this time through, and picked up the key before I overheard the conversation. So I wasn't really paying attention to where I found it. So when I had to put it back, I had to try a number of spots before I found the right place. This time, it was in the shed on the rooftop.

With the key, and the copy I made of it, the next stop will be the bank, and the story gets a little more coherent from here on out. I liked this mission quite a bit, as there are plenty of places to explore, lots of loot to get, interesting new enemies (as Garrett says, "I could really learn to hate these guys"), and the story starts to come into focus.

Next up is First City Bank and Trust, a classic place for a thief to go.

Shoshin on 18/4/2023 at 23:44

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Whew, that was a bit of a long break for me. Medical stuff, family stuff, all kinds of fun. But I have finished the Bank, and it took about 2 hours of play time.

This is a classic mission, full of all kinds of good Thief stuff. I will say that the basement part is a bit overloaded with those small Children of Karras, but other than that, this is about a perfect mission. It's tough, there's lots of guards to avoid, plenty of tiled flooring, some nice bits of background with the owner terminally ill and his son being incompetent, and two of the higher up employees vying for the soon-to-be-vacated leadership position.

I have also read that there's an easter egg related to the vault, in that it opens up at a certain time in the morning? Has anyone actually waited for that to happen?

Anyway, this will be a short write up, as I am tired from the aforementioned medical stuff, and I finished the mission several days ago, so it's not so fresh in my memory. Suffice to say I loved this mission, hard though it was, unrealistic as it may be to have however many small robots wandering around the basement. The objectives make sense for a bank job: find the number of the safety deposit box Garrett has to get into, find the vault, figure out how to open the vault, get around the security system and guards, and steal whatever extra loot is laying around. I don't have any real complaints or nits to pick, it was just pure thiefy enjoyment for me.

Next time I'll be blackmailing our good Sheriff with the recording.

Shoshin on 30/4/2023 at 15:04

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This is another place in the overall story that I feel isn't as coherent as it could be. The mission itself is very well done, and quite enjoyable from a thieving point of view, but I find myself detached from the overall story being played out. It's a bit of a shame, as one of the things that leads me to my personal opinion that Thief Gold is the better game is the way the story flows together. I think overall the mission quality in Thief The Metal Age is better, but the story is weaker. I'm also finding something curious about myself and my memories of this game. There aren't as many moments that are burned into my memory with Thief 2 as there was with Thief Gold. That game blew my mind and redefined for me what gaming could be. Thief 2, while extremely well done, does not have that revolutionary feel to me. It would if I'd played it first, but since I played it after Thief Gold it just didn't have the same impact. So my write-ups are shorter, and consist mostly of impressions from this playthrough, rather than a mix of the playthrough and my memories from the time.

Anyway, The first thing I notice about this mission is the houses in front of Truart's mansion. I have to assume this is for servants to live in, but it's nice to see just that little bit more of the environments around your targets.

Sneaking around back, seeing the grounds, getting the lucky coins out of the well... It's clear that Truart's family is vastly wealthy, and that Truart overall is corrupt. It's a shame we don't actually get to interact with the good Sheriff. This mission is another very well done straight up thieving mission. It's clear that Truart is in deep with the Mechanists, and in fact he has a number of mechanist security devices all around his mansion, as well as new locks that take gears instead of keys. Lots of guards around, including a drunken Benny with an amusing performance: "Hey! Bad Guy!".

In the end, once you get up to Truart's personal room, you find out someone else has been there first. So no confrontation with the recording. Burying Truart is a nice touch, the first optional objective I think?

If I take a step back, and look at the story, there are two factions having a quiet war. Garrett is on the outside, and has been pulled into the conflict by as yet unknown persons, though Lt. Mosley is looking more and more like she's neck deep in this. Truart is dead, and we've read a number of letters indicating that Truart has suspicions about her, and we were hired by "someone" to frame Lt. Hagen, the other power player in the Sheriff's department. But from inside, playing the game mission by mission, there's a lot of feeling like Garrett is being jerked around. Someone hired me to frame someone. Oh, there's an ambush. Now the Keepers want me to eavesdrop on someone. Now I need the recording of that meeting so I can blackmail Truart. Wait, Truart's dead. It's a bit frustrating from a story point of view.

Luckily, the story is about to become much more coherent as we move into the next few levels.

downwinder on 2/5/2023 at 20:07

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don't forget to grab dewdrop :)

downwinder on 3/5/2023 at 00:12

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hold dewdrop in hand when there is 2 or more mech guards by you and see what dewdrop can do :)