The Dawn of The Metal Age: Part 1
So Garrett has just broken into the City Watch headquarters and framed Sheriff Truart’s second-in-command, I’m sure nothing bad will come of this for anybody involved.
“Ambush!”:
The lack of a loot objective in “Framed” makes sense given how “Ambush!” starts.
Even using New Dark the briefing videos will occasionally just not play.
Erm… That’s some foreshadowing.
Looks like Sammy sold old Garrett out. Fortunately a good thief is always prepared. Time to get off the streets and back home to safety.
That’s a pretty old school map. I have several problems with this level, the first is that this is supposedly Garrett’s home turf yet for the player it’s all new.
This layout is used again later when the player has to tail somebody through the streets. That serves as a better introduction as it’s partially directed. If the plot is that Garrett is escaping across familiar territory it should be familiar to the player too.
Oh look, only two objectives. I know what that means…
It’s safe to remain standing where you start, as it is with nearly all the levels, but Garrett is never going to get home if he doesn’t get moving.
After leaving the area I double back to the control room for the gate sealing off Shalebridge Road. The lever isn’t that important, but I take the key from the desk because it’ll be useful later. I like that you can just take it even if you don’t know why you’ll need it.
The city streets of “Ambush!” include some nice areas, though I think I prefer the narrower more intricate streets of “Assassins!” from The Dark Project.
Poor Benny, he doesn’t understand what is meant by an offer to “warm you up”.
Another area where there’s a divergence between how visible I think I’ll be crouching here, and how visible I actually am.
I should talk about how great the bow is. It takes time to get comfortable with its sight and the arc of your arrows, yet once you get the hang of it you can make shots you didn’t think possible: moving targets, targets at extended range, etc. The time it takes to fully draw, the satisfying thunk when you fire, the projectile speed of your arrows, the glorious splash of a Water Arrow against a wall. It’s all just so satisfying. It’s a shame now much faster everything about the bow is in Deadly Shadows.
If there’s anything more evocative of the Immersive Sim genre than a room full of lockers, it’s creeping up/down a staircase.
(Top: The Metal Age, Bottom: Dishonored).
Like this is literally my abiding memory of every Immersive Sim, creeping up stairs. If I close my eyes and think of Dishonored that’s the image I get, not Lady Boyle’s extravagant party, but the stairs in the house outside.
It’s easy to both get lost on the streets of the City, and to accidentally stumble on the way forward.
There are some nice interiors, but also lots of unusable doors and streets that just circle back on themselves. It’s a space in need of a reason to exist. The areas around Garrett’s home, and the gate to Shalebridge feel intentionally designed, the rest is unfocused
That’s a little harsh. I do like the level, I also like that I know it well enough now to be able to finish in just over half an hour.
The modified mantling in the New Dark patch is much better than the original version. I have so much more confidence in my movement abilities. I rarely miss a leaping mantle, and no longer struggle to get through low windows as I did when the game first came out.
Good old reliable crates, boon to thieves everywhere.
There are a lot of canals in this part of the City. Swimming through them will help you avoid the guard patrols on the streets, though you might not be able to get back onto dry land where you want to.
Uh oh. The City Watch are already waiting at Garrett’s home. It’s time to ditch this place and move on to Shalebridge. First I’ll need to grab Garrett’s copy of the gate key from the hidden stash in his bedroom.
There are a bunch of ways into Garrett’s building, my personal favourite is to leap across the street from the building opposite, directly into his bedroom.
With the guard patrols and various gates locked this part of the City is divided between the areas north of the market place (Garrett’s house, and the gate to Shalebridge) and those to the south (the Crippled Burrick Pub, and the gate control room).
The gate to Shalebridge isn’t that far from the Crippled Burrick where I started this level. Some more images from my journey back.
This fountain – in the middle of the canal bisecting the market – is a good way to cross between the two sides (north and south) without disturbing Benny on his bridge.
This door is the most tense encounter of the entire level. It’s locked, but obviously you can’t tell that from here. It’s on a well patrolled section of street, and lit by electric lights that you can’t dowse.
I wait until the patrol has gone past to my left then dart across the road and start picking the lock. It requires both lock picks and has three separate phases. You have to use one pick, then the other, then the first again.
All the while I can hear the guards’ footsteps getting louder again. I can’t turn around because that’ll halt the lock picking. I could cancel it and dart back into the shadows – partially picked locks don’t reset – but if left too late that’s just as risky. I get the lock picked and bundle myself through the door just before the guards round the corner. I have to be careful not to make too much noise while they pass as that could alert them. So I just back up into the corner and only close the door once they are gone.
It was worth it because that door let me get above the later part of their patrol route, and past this one guard who refuses to move from her post.
Liberal application of Moss Arrows (see previous comment about there being no such thing as too many) and it’s safe to drop down behind her and make a dash for the door ahead which is also locked, but situated in a nice shadowy nook.
The kitchen at the back of this building has a window that opens onto the end of Shalebridge Road, and the gate to the Shalebridge district itself. More Moss Arrows just to be safe, a quick dash, and…
… That’s “Ambush!” done. More detailed thoughts can be found here.
(I must have taken that first image just before the objective popped… It can sometimes take a while for the game to register that you’ve finished the level.)
It’s not one of my favourite levels, nor is it particularly bad, I just find it a little dull. I wish it felt more focused around the escape. Though this could be my knowledge that it’s a reused layout impacting my perception of the level, it’s hard to tell. From the moment they revealed themselves at the Crippled Burrick Pub it was clear the City Watch had no intention of arresting Garrett. Fortunately he’s evaded them, recovered his stuff, and moved to a new safe house in Shalebridge.
It doesn’t seem like the events at Shoalsgate Station were to blame as nobody knows Garrett was responsible. Truart specifically came after Garrett for other reasons. Why would the Sheriff go to this much trouble to kill a thief like Garrett?
After everything that’s happened Garrett was just hoping for a quiet night in replacing the fluid in his eye. Huh, it’s never actually come up yet. Garrett has a mechanical eye now, to replace the one Viktoria “borrowed”.
Sadly the Keepers had other plans, and something they wanted Garrett to see.
Interpreter Caduca (background) and Translator Gamall (foreground). I don’t believe they are ever named until Deadly Shadows. Caduca reads the ancient texts aloud while Gamall translates for her.
“My hand is copper. My brow is lead. Suffer me in a red patina, swept along in a molten flow to a sad eternity. My stride interrupted my thoughts untimed my tears are become drops of silver and shattered the crystalline fern. I plead the wind to sweep us away.”
The Metal Age is upon us, the trees in the City are dead or dying. Change is coming. Garrett is unconvinced, but takes the sealed letter handed to him as he leaves. After all, there’s a difference between unconvinced and unconcerned.
“My heart it ceases, my breath undrawn. My eyes forever focused on the sanguine metal dawn.”
Onward we head into Act 2. A less clear divide between acts than in The Dark Project, Garrett is being swept along by events around him rather than being directly invited to participate. Things are in motion though, Garrett needs to act before Truart finds him again. Heh, I’m getting chills remember things to come over this and the next game. For all its fault the story of Deadly Shadows is a fantastic conclusion to the triptych. I also really glad y’all convinced me (haha) to play through all three. I’ve never done them all back to back like this, and I think the overarching story will be the better for it. That previous cutscene is also the first utterance of the phrase “the renegade who is both brethren and betrayer”. That will become much more important later. For now it certainly sounds like it could be referring to Garrett. In fact the nature of who is the “brethren and betrayer” is a pretty factious topic in the Thief fan-community. I wonder how much of the events of Deadly Shadows were planned out when The Metal Age was being written. There was going to be a third one at Looking Glass (using the near mythical Siege engine), and both Terri Brosius and Laura Baldwin who wrote for the first two games were writers on Deadly Shadows, so it’s possible the general plot ideas didn’t change much.
Ancient texts translated by creepy women, portentous prophecies, magical glyphs, paganism, oppressive religious sects, precursor civilisations, old gods, corruption, politics, murder and betrayal, urgh, yes, inject that shit into my veins!
“Eavesdropping”:
“I know they’re trying to manipulate me, but Keepers never alter the truth, just keep it in the shadows.”
According to the Keepers, if Garrett wants to know the Sheriff’s secrets he must go to the Eastport Mechanist seminary and listen to what is said at a meeting there, tomorrow night.
“This situation does have one advantage, things can’t get any worse. Who could hire someone like the sheriff to kill me?” Oh Garrett, buddy, if only you knew.
“Eavesdropping” – which I guess is also a pun given Garrett predilection for non-standard building entry – another level with an objective to return to your starting point when all other objectives are met; forcing you to consider spaces from multiple directions.
That omnidirectional nature of levels is what elevates Thief and games influenced by it, from the likes of Splinter Cell. The latter are focused around stealth encounter bubbles, which you deal with in sequence and then never have to consider again.
It’s also why I am wary of Immersive Sim style games that do away with loading screens. The pinch-points needed to support efficient streaming encourage a level design that incorporates unidirectional spaces and a “string of pearls” approach to encounter design.
The alternate approach is open-world games which allow for omnidirectional encounter spaces, but at the expense of any long term consequences for your actions: spaces repopulate once you leave, changes to the environment aren’t persistent, etc.
The Eastport Mechanist seminary is built around an old Hammer cathedral… No not that one. It’s a narratively evocative combination of old and modern construction. Despite their heraldry being everywhere the Mechanists can’t hide the Hammerite roots of their order.
The giant Hammer symbol in their stained glass windows being one element they seem either unwilling, or incapable, of removing.
Getting to one of the doors you need to stand by to overheard the meeting is actually pretty easy, so of course there’s much more to “Eavesdropping” than that.
Karras is making mechanical Masked Servants out of the City’s destitute and Sheriff Truart is helping him. Their relationship is maintained through bribery, fear, and Karras having recorded their meetings as leverage. The Masked Servants also have the ability to kill those in their proximity, turning them into a substance resembling dust… But to what end?
I’m still impressed:
- That Karras and Garrett are both voiced by Stephen Russell.
- That a key plot reveal is handled by letting the player overhear a meeting their cannot see.
- By how much mileage The Metal Age gets out of a villain who sounds like Elmer Fudd.
The location of the safety deposit box key is randomised, with several possible locations, and you only ever hear its true location once. So best to write it down somewhere. Where the key is can change how challenging the overall level is.
I have lucked in to the safety deposit box key being in the best possible location. Everything I need to make a copy of it is in the factory area too.
Here’s the key, and around the corner is the wax press, and voila. Now to just return the key and scour the level for loot.
That’s a big design flaw you’ve got there Brother Coltus, it’d be a shame is some taffer were to learn about it.
Look, it’s nothing personal I’ve just had some real bad experiences with you lot.
I found this dead Mechanist in the catacombs, nabbed the key from their belt and Garrett just said “Nope”, which was weird.
Any time you want to just turn around that’d be cool. No? Alright then…
Shh… Sleep tight. Don’t worry, the Haunts are all dead… I think.
Sometimes NPCs will get stuck on geometry, reloading a save will cause them to break out of it. That’s a use of Quick Save/Quick Load I have zero problem justifying.
Another level where consideration has been given to providing adequate sleeping facilities for the number of NPCs in the level. The guards get individual beds, while the acolytes have bunk beds. I not sure who gets the better deal there.
Ah yes, the classic “open a chest and automatically pick up something heavy” trick. Now I have to make sure I put it down carefully so as to not alert the guards. Cheap gag, but an effective gotcha for players who aren’t paying attention or are in a rush.
I’m nearly at the loot objective already. I’ll explore as much of the level as I can anyway because, why wouldn’t I? Also given the complexity of the next level I want to go in as well equipped as possible.
I’m carrying around a Holy Symbol for some reason. This, and the golden hammers I’m finding around the graveyard and catacombs, are much more meaningful to me now I’ve actually played through The Dark Project.
“Hi, so… Erm… Come here often?”
“Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but look over there and…”
As much as I love The Metal Age, I am starting to realise how one-note a lot of the early sections are compared to The Dark Project.
“Eavesdropping” is a solid level, the randomisation of the key location makes it dynamic and interesting to return to, but it still plays similarly to the levels before it.
So far The Metal Age is focusing on variation in tone over more high concept format breakers.
What is it with all these Angel statues? I shall continue watching them. (Is this joke getting old yet?)
Found in the guard barracks. The first mention of Angelwatch by name. It’s not yet clear that this is also the “Mechanist tower in Dayport” that the guards were talking about in “Shipping… and Receiving”.
“I could really learn to hate these guys.” Those masks look oddly familiar…
Just two Mechanists discussing the metaphysics of the soul… Oh and a giant fucking robot!
That’s “Eavesdropping” done. Currently the last of the levels I’ve covered for Sneaky Bastards. The rest are coming, I promise.
The limited variety is notable, but so is the fact that by this point in The Dark Project I’d already threatened to quit at least once, and would do so several more times before it was over.
The Dark Project is certainly a less inconsistent game than I had the impression of it being, it still focuses on aspects of its series’ design space that I don’t find as appealing, and runs out of steam three or four levels before it’s over. The Metal Age is an over-correction, though one that is thematically supported by the narrative. Mechanically at least its focused on a region of the design space that I find most appealing. Deadly Shadows was never quite it, but a third game that had the mechanical focus and consistency of The Metal Age with the weirdness and variety of The Dark Project would have been incredible.
“First City Bank and Trust”:
Garrett has the key to the Mechanist’s safety deposit box where they are keeping the incriminating recording of Truart’s meeting with Karras. Now he just needs to break into the biggest bank in the City and steal that recording, no worries.
Thanks to his helmet I always have a trouble telling which way Karras is facing.
Time for “First City Bank and Trust”. Garrett needs that recording. So I’m going to have to navigate the – partially randomised – Mechanist security devices, obtain the deposit box number from the Hall of Records, and then “acquire” the recording itself.
No clear reason is provided for why Garrett has a map of the bank this detailed. The font treatment would suggest it’s some form of official blueprint.
If you enter the bank via anything other than the roof just know I’m judging you…
Weird panels on part of the roof. I still have no idea what these are. They aren’t glass, maybe they were once supposed to be skylights but they needed to be sealed off for visibility reasons?
You can pay Zhan for a tip. The abundance of tiled floors would have been good to know before I spent all my money… Oh, I spent it on Moss Arrows anyway? Never mind then.
Zhan was not kidding about all the tiled floors.
For the longest time I thought those mechanical heads on the ground could hear me (they can’t). I’d always creep past even if the area was too dark for the Watcher to see me. I knew they were turrets, but I thought they could activate themselves.
The large Mechanist Combat Bot can see and hear you, the smaller Worker Bot can only hear you – until it’s been alerted. I thought the two “Faces” complimented each other so one could only see you, and the other could only hear you. The simple differentiation of the AI sensory model for the Worker Bots makes them more interesting to deal with. As does the fact you have to invest resources into disabling them; a Water Arrow or a Gas Arrow.
Or possibly… One face can only see you, another can only hear you, the third can only speak to you…
This is how I thought this tweet was going to work out – The large Mechanist Combat Bot can see and hear you, the smaller Worker Bot can only hear you – until it’s been alerted. You have one question. – Nathan Cocks.
This differentiation of perception and behaviour led me to expect the Trickster’s minions in The Dark Project would also have different sensory models. That they didn’t, and that they were so easily dispatched with a back stab, made encounters with them a little bland.
I spoke about this before, but it’s a big part of why I found the last three levels of The Dark Project disappointing. For all their weirdness I felt like I was facing reskinned guards – if they were literally that it would have been super creepy though.
Last time I played there was a security camera in that corner, because I remember getting fucked over by.
Oh, hello there.
So…. I know I need to go to the basement first before I can open the vault door. But Garrett doesn’t know that yet, so in some sense I shouldn’t go there now without some other reason. I’m going to do it because it saves time, though.
Regarding my previous statement about randomised locations for Mechanist security devices. First is from a previous attempt, second is from today. Same difficulty level.
I understand changing the deployment pattern for Moss Arrows from a random splash (ala The Dark Project) to a cross makes it clearer which areas are covered, but it still looks fucking silly.
I think maybe I’ll avoid stepping on those four tiles there.
I see somebody has been to Level Design school. ;)
If you don’t explore the basement beforehand you’ll find the vault door blocked by a metal bar, and be forced to go down there to find a way to remove it.
Silly reference… The buttons on the machine controlling the metal bar are numbered 0-5 going top-to-bottom left-to-right. Hitting 0451 will activate the machine and remove the bar. To avoid frustration it’ll automatically unlock if you just keep pressing buttons.
I know some aren’t fond of the generic room-corridor-room layout of the basement, I find it a nice contrast to the rabbit warren above. It’s a space occupied exclusively by Mechanist machines and its lack of adornment or sense of a human touch is fitting.
There are three distinct sections to the basement: storage areas, maintenance tunnels, and vault security. Each has its own layout and texture style. The sense I got was that the latter two were recent additions, built by the Mechanists to support their machinery.
Look, I maybe forgot to actually go into the Hall of Records when I passed it earlier.
Who the fuck stores Moss Arrows (well the crystals that make them anyway) in a safe? Seriously?
The vault and the western side of the bank are sealed off from the larger eastern side by a series of gated doorways and locked doors. Without the key you can cross over by passing through either the guard room or the lobby. Each presents its own challenges.
Huh, cool.
*spoilers* the devs put a script (and a clue due the many clocks with the same hour on the mission) if you spend 8hs on the mission the vault unlocks itself because it made logical sense (bank opening in the morning, end of the night shift). It’s on TTLG forums – El Gordo Freeman.
The way I personally prefer to get between the two sections of the bank is via the guard room, using a Rope Arrow. Provided you don’t alert the Mechanist Combat Bot you can pick the door on the walkway, and you’ll be in the room above the vault door.
As I’m now in the western side of the bank I don’t need to grab the key to unlock the doors between the two sections, but that key also unlocks the doors between the the vault and the outside, if I unlock them now it’ll make things easier.
The key is in what I presume is the bank manager’s office, which is part of an unlabeled portion of the map. Once this guard is out of the way, a leap across to that ledge and in through the window will put me just outside.
Now I have everything I need to enter the vault, steal the recording, and escape. Despite my issues with them during The Dark Project it’s still weird to not have loot objectives.
Two Watchers in the vault; easily avoided provided you don’t try and get cocky. Box 11 is what I need. And there we go. I do wish I had a Slow-Fall Potion so I could just leap off.
Obviously Garrett isn’t going to leave yet, he’s in a fucking bank, there’s loot to be had. And what is one of the first things he finds? A Slow-Fall Potion.
The purple indicator of where you’ve been is neat. I’d prefer its availability to be tied to difficulty, part of mastering Thief is mastering your ability to mentally map complex spaces. I’d love to see a full “this was the route you took” map after each level though.
Jeez… That was close. I’m not entirely sure why he didn’t see me, but I’ll take it. Time to move.
If you don’t wish to cross the lobby the very top floor of the bank is optional. If you do you’ll need to go up there to disable the security systems guarding it.
I used to be annoyed at the doors opening in whatever direction they felt like, but the number of times I’ve successfully hid behind them have changed my feelings on that somewhat. (I may have talked about this before..?)
This is one of those things that seems like a great solution to a problem: you want to light the space but also provide nice shadows to allow the player to hide. Solution: recess the light. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work, underneath is brightly lit regardless.
He shoots…
… He scores!
Along with this Watcher there’s another on the other side of the doorway (to the right of this image), with a slightly out of sync rotation. Getting past here is always a challenge. Fortunately I have Moss Arrows and a Speed Potion.
Unfortunately, I’m about to enter the Hall of Statues and I only have a single Moss Arrow left.
Boy, those Mechanists sure sound like fun folks. First indication that Angelwatch and the tower in Dayport might be the same thing.
I found the skeleton!
And that’s that done. I suppose I should actually visit the lobby now then.
“First City Bank and Trust” is a mixture of unique rooms and short – nearly identical – sections of corridor. It’s easy to get turned around and lose track of which direction you are heading in, even with the map.
There aren’t many conversations to overhear but those there are reinforce the class divides between the guards, the bank employees, and the bank’s patrons.
The building itself is baroque and extravagant where the public can see it, drab and utilitarian where they can’t. It’s both bureaucracy and the service industry incarnate. All gilt and smiles on the surface, all rote paper pushing and veiled condescension underneath. It’s the perfect example of the connection between materiality and wealth. Marble, tile, and carpet create extreme of tension and release in the public spaces, while stone and wood make the private spaces muted and unremarkable. So much of this level – of this game – only works because of the way sound is handled. Tile floors are not threatening until you make it so they are painfully loud to walk on. Wealthy materials therefore make for more hostile environments, it’s almost comically elegant. I love many levels from the Dishonored series, but even they were never able to evoke so much with just simple texturing. Tile floors with a carpet in the middle, immediate feelings of wealth, opulence. Also hostility, challenge. But there’s safety there too, if you reach the carpet you have some degree of freedom, but it’s constrained by the physical size of the carpet. The more wealthy the location the more it makes use of tile and carpet, the more spiky your feelings of threat and safety, of tension and release, become. And that’s without adding anything beyond materials.
This is a rare area where The Dark Project missteps. By casting the forces of the natural world as the antagonists it undercut this materiality. The materials of nature are grass, and stone, and wood. But these are not naturally hostile to Garrett, they read as safe. The variation throughout The Dark Project means you don’t have enough time to solidify the association between natural materials and safety. You understand it but it’s not ingrained, so when it’s altered it’s not as powerful a shift as it could be. This is easy for me to say years later. It’s also only after playing The Metal Age that I really get that sense of nature as refuge. Which in itself is an impressively on theme sensation. Nature is leaving the City just as I need it to be around. The very materiality of this new City is hostile to Garrett, the one force that could help him is dying and he helped bring that about.
The Metal Age is about how progress has altered the City, the people. What the Trickster feared in The Dark Project is coming to pass. In its attempt to correct itself the City is tilting too far away from nature. Balance must be restored. … These games, fuck.
In an ultimate act of refutation (or maybe acceptance) of the unwelcoming nature of the tiled lobby Garrett makes his escape across it, leaving the bank by the main entrance.
“First City Bank and Trust” completed, with no damage dealt nor taken. There will be a write-up of this one for http://SneakyBastards.net at some point, but not just yet.
Here’s a breakdown of how the randomised elements of “First City Bank and Trust” were implemented.
I never noticed that the security cameras in “First City Bank and Trust” were randomised! Telliamed documented the script here: http://thiefmissions.com/telliamed/scripts2.html#camerakiller – Andy Durdin.
I hadn’t intended my run at “First City Bank and Trust” to be zero damage dealt. I had managed to get to the basement without confrontation (having entered via the roof) so then felt compelled to keep to it.
Next: “Blackmail”