Then of course, there’s Life Of the Party, an absolutely massive, semi-open level that offers a whole city’s worth of rooftops for you to explore, including several major buildings such a bank and a couple of manor houses. At the time, these offered a glimpse of what1 games would become, a taste of the open-world sandbox that now dominates the industry. Certain levels, like “Ambushed” and “Trace the Courier” take place in an open cityscape where you can choose your own paths to get to your objective, climbing over portcullises and slipping through back-alleys to get to your destination. “Now I know I’m a master Thief,” Garrett chuckles when he achieves this “Waltzing right into a bank vault.”īut Thief’s levels are more than just clever, they’re ahead of their time. In another, you must infiltrate First City Bank and Trust and rob what is arguably the most secure location in the entire city. In one level, you need to frame the deputy chief of the City Watch, breaking into the evidence vault and leaving a trail that leads back to his desk. The 15 missions of Thief II sport incredible range, throwing out high-stakes, high-concept designs at you. The architect who builds and outfits the contraptions and security systems which safeguard the city’s treasures in its newly industrial age. ![]() Karras is also the lock to Garrett’s lockpick. His wheedling, nasal voice is a good example of this, similarly distinctive yet directly opposed to Garrett’s gruff and gravelly tone. But it’s a mirror image, similar yet inverse. Sly and dissembling, Karras is a master of subterfuge who always goes unseen, and always manages to be one step ahead of the master Thief. Karras is the perfect antagonist for Garrett. Thief II also offers a more interesting villain than the first game, the Mechanist cult leader Karras. ![]() It shows us that Garrett, however much he tries to deny it, has a care for others. Although he paints this first mission as an opportunity to make a little profit, ultimately he’s doing it as a favour for Basso. Whereas The Dark Project was all about Garrett pulling off the ultimate score, only to find himself caught up in events that went way beyond his pay-grade, Thief II paints him much more directly as the reluctant hero. Here, you need to clear a path through a manor house for your friend and fence Basso, who’s fallen in love with a serving maid of the house and wants to quietly free her from that service. Both get in the way of my money,” Garrett says as he outlines the premise of the first mission – Running Interference. “I’ve always acquainted feelings with getting caught. Looking Glass looked at what they’d done with Thief and thought “OK, now we know what we’re doing, how do we make the most out of it?” The result is a tour-de-force of sneaking and stealing that, two decades on from release, remains the best pure stealth game ever made.įrom the opening cutscene, there’s a boldness and confidence to Thief II that separates it from that initial, more furtive experience. What Thief II does it maximise the original’s stealth concept. They’d cut their teeth on Thief, made all the rookie mistakes and knew exactly how to correct them. With Thief II, Looking Glass knew exactly what game they were making. Why the latter third of the game is so much weaker than the rest. Why there are so many odd fantasy creatures knocking about. It’s why the levels don’t always feel attuned to sneaking around. Some of those rough edges are still visible in the final product. The veterans of Looking Glass have frequently stated the game was a hot mess until near the end of development. The studio essentially had to invent a bunch of new mechanics to make it work, light-based stealth, AI that had three states of awareness, realistic sound propagation, all of these were necessary to create Thief’s fundamental experience. For much of its early development, Thief was a fantasy RPG called Dark Camelot, and when it transitioned into a stealth game, Looking Glass were entering uncharted territory. When Looking Glass made Thief, they didn’t know what game they were making until relatively late in the project. The key difference between Thief: The Dark Project and its sequel is this. But the truth is that, yes, Thief II really is the game that got Thief right. I was hoping to argue for this when I returned to Thief II in anticipation of its 20th anniversary. ![]() I’ve often felt like this assumption is unfair on the first game, which is a groundbreaking masterpiece that paved the way for a whole new genre. Thief II is generally considered to be the game that got Thief right.
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