Karras knows it was Garrett who stopped the Trickster. As we learn later Karras was a Hammer and the one who made Garrett’s mechanical replacement eye – Karras probably also helped make the fake copy of The Eye. During their meeting Viktoria says of the Mechanists: “It’s no secret that they wish to destroy you too, hero that you are…” Garrett is known, at least by Karras as the man who defeated the Trickster. Removing him from play is the prudent course of action. Viktoria‘s forces are strong in the Maw, strong enough probably to withstand a direct attack. Beyond its boundaries though the natural world is dying. If Viktoria is to stop it she needs help from somebody who has the power to act outside the confines of the Maw. Viktoria’s power, and limited ability to wield it beyond the confines of her own realm, will prove important later.
“Life Of The Party”:
I have written a LOT about this next level: “Life of the Party”. I’m sure my observations this time around will be things I’ve brought up in my exhaustive analysis. Hopefully I’ll also have some new insights.
Garrett: “The New Scripture of the Master Builder?”
Viktoria: “Karras is rewriting ancient Hammer texts. But to what end, we don’t know.”
Garrett: “So you want me to find out.”
Garrett: “Angelwatch? Is this how our arrangement is gonna work, you coming up with ways for me to get myself killed?”
Viktoria: “Is this really Garrett the Master Thief I hear talking? If danger is going to be a problem for you, then…”
Garrett: “Just- give me the details.”
Garrett is so easily played it’s a wonder he has managed to survive this long in the City.
All Viktoria wants is for him to infiltrate the giant Mechanist tower in Dayport, steal the latest entry in the “New Scripture of the Master Builder” and find out what he can about the “Cetus Project”. So nothing at all really… <_<
For her part Viktoria has had a couple of questionable items smuggled into the City. Vine Arrows are always welcome, Frogbeasts on the other hand? Not so much. I assume Frogbeast kills are attributed to Garrett so couldn’t be use on Expert anyway?
Huh, I think this will be the first time I’ve played this level with the fog working. It’s always been broken enough that I just disable it. Does make it look like I’m starting in daylight, which is novel.
Look, a Keeper. They might not be actively helping but they are certainly interested in what Garrett is up to.
That there are only four map pages belies the sheer size of this level. Angelwatch on its own would have been considered a large level in The Dark Project.
“Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck getting dirty and gritty, been down, isn’t it a pity, doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city.”
Not actually sure which season it is, The Dark Project ended at the start of winter, and this is at least a year later.
If you find the Star Gazer’s secret room you can cut out a huge chunk of this level, though why you’d want to do that I don’t really know.
Honestly I think stealing this dude’s Sunburst device is a public service.
… Yeah, this is definitely the best course of action for all concerned, especially Hilde.
Look, maybe I can quote this entire thing, maybe…
I always lose it at the end when Daniel Thron’s (?) voice almost breaks.
Once they start fighting it’s all simulated, and they won’t stop until their “enemies” are dead. So usually at least one guard remains alive, but it’s just possible that two fire fatal shots at the same time, killing each other and leaving everybody dead.
The fog is an odd choice, the Dark Engine loads an entire level at once and I don’t believe it has any form of geometry based LOD (?). So it’s not covering up anything tech wise. I mean it gives the level a unique feel but beyond that I’m not sure what it’s for.
Because this seems as relevant a point as any, Sean Barrett wrote up some notes on the technology behind rendering in the Dark Engine.
Well it would be foolish to waste a good tip like this.
The saga of Lucy and the Alchemist continues..
Mind you don’t trip and fall and die…
Despite the lack of trees in the City, its wealthiest inhabitants are still able to employ horticulturalists to maintain their gardens. A seemingly small fact that will become much more relevant as events unfold. I guess Longdaddy is out for a walk.
Again we return to the central theme of The Metal Age, that of progress and its impact on the City. Newer apartments of brick and wood abut ancient stone towers (full of secrets and horrors). Literal castles stand next to modern buildings made almost entirely of marble.
“Life of the Party” is an impressionistic journey through the City, nothing is complete enough, lasts long enough, to be more than the idea of a particular type of building. You cut through a bedroom here, an office there, it’s urban environment as means of traversal.
Where the rest of the City exists as a tangled and interconnected mass of urban existence Angelwatch stands alone. A monument to order and construction, it’s utterly out of place. An art deco tower in a barely post-medieval cityscape.
… We’re not quite there yet though. First there’s another encounter with a Keeper, possibly the same one as before given their para-urban means of navigation.
He disappears, but leaves a message behind. Really useful information there, as always.
The cache of equipment in the secret compartment at the end of the adjacent corridor is much more useful however, so I shall be taking all that.
A brief detour through Lady Louisa’s suite “Don’t mind me ladies…” And I’ve reached Angelwatch at last. Look at it, I mean just fucking look at it.
On a rooftop just before I reach Angelwatch I spot a merry drunk. That you Benny? Boy that’s a lot of empty bottles around. I’ll just creep over and see how he’s doing. Wait, what’s that over the edge? Erm… Oh shit there’s a dead guy down there. Benny what did you do?
The advice was to use the access hatch. Garrett, ever the iconoclast, has a better idea. I mean if they are going to leave a window open.
Entering through that window puts me on the 4th floor (I’m not going to start arguing about US/UK floor numbering, except that the US system is silly, and this should be the 3rd floor), which is made up of what look like guest rooms.
Remember what I said about recessed lights before?
Here we have one that is working reliably. In fact all the recessed lights in Angelwatch provide this area of shadow below them that conforms to the shadows on the ground.
Love these tacky chevron wallpapers – Dan Hindes.
Tacky yes, but also incredibly art deco inspired.
A more in-depth look at Angelwatch’s 4th floor can be found here.
For now I’m more interested in the next floor down. A little more subdued than those above, this floor has fewer visitors. Oh, what’s this..?
Narcissist much? Let’s have a listen to this voice machine then… 5 of 6? Servants? Wait, I remember those, they emit some kind of vapour that renders people unto dust. This can’t be good…
What? The floor was being loud.
So you want me to explore this art deco ideological monument and listen to the ravings of a narcissistic figurehead?
*Cough*BioShock*Cough*
Ahem…
Z FIGHT!
A library? Karras doesn’t seem the type to be interested in books, at least not ones he’s not writing. It’s almost as if the entirety of Angelwatch is really just for show. Anyway, there’s another portr- I mean voice machine.
Oh dear, Karras is gifting each of his guests with a servant. “The servant knows only how to tirelessly perform thy will, be it cooking, cleaning, or gardening.”
Back down to the 3rd floor and then down again to the 2nd. Once again a more thorough look at the 3rd floor can be found here.
This floor is unadorned and functional. It contains the sleeping quarters of the Mechanists and (second image) what I assume to be the “sleeping” station for the Mechanist Combat Bot patrolling this floor.
This floor also contains a Mechanist chapel. Here we see it both… before…
… and after.
These Worker Bots are on randomised patrols, which can occasionally cause them to get stuck. Even the save/load trick that works on other NPCs doesn’t work here. At least he won’t open his eye unless I make a noise, so I can still steal everything in the room.
“Friend” Vilnia as mentioned in Karras’ recording – presumably the person responsible for the day-to-day affairs of Angelwatch – has her rooms on this floor. Karras has helpfully provided her a note on all the locations for his voice machines. “Special guest” eh?
Down a ladder to the ground floor, and a brief game of hide the thief with this Combat Bot before I can listen to the next of Karras’ recordings. “[Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap] Is this functioning? [Breath] [Feedback] …” Stupid joke, makes me laugh every time.
I think I’ll take the elevator back up… I cover floors 1 and 2 here.
The 5th floor somehow manages to be slightly less ostentatious than the 4th, despite it housing Karras’ office. It also contains the dining room where the next voice machine can be found.
“A short while ago, these servants were confined to an asylum. Mentally feeble, they were of no use to anyone.” Karras’ disgust at that last sentence is palpable. As is mine at his entire servant project.
I guess I’m going to have to locate Friend Vilnia if I want to gain entry to Karras’ office. I imagine she’s on the top floor – I’ve not seen her anywhere else. I need to go there anyway to listen to the last recording.
The top floor is entirely taken up by the ballroom. I like to imagine that little Worker Bot strumming away at the harp while drunken lords and ladies awkwardly dance and flirt with each other.
I think that must be Vilnia in the corner over there… If I get a little closer I can hear what she’s saying.
Vilnia – “Remember, the servants are but a masterful deception. Master Karras has the ability to control them himself wheresoever he be… ”
Mechanist – “Ah yes, the rust gas…”
Uh oh.
After her conversation Vilnia leaves the ballroom, and the key to Karras’ office leaves her belt. ;)
Oh right, I have to locate a copy of the latest change to “The New Scripture of the Master Builder”. Fortunately it too can be found on the 5th floor.
Erm… What. The. Fuck?!
Little cherub thing just appears out of nowhere, reacts to my presence, and runs off. He doesn’t sound the alarm or anything, just runs off… Alright then.
I’m going through this level fairly quickly. There are a few parts of the City I missed on the way here, which is why I decide to do what I do next, instead of “forgetting”.
Just going to hide in this cupboard a second. What’s this lever here? “Wall safe alarm” you say? Well, we can’t have that now can we?
There was a guard outside the door to Karras’ office. I also used to have a Gas Arrow. Ho-hum…
Amusingly it is 04:51 here, as I detail my entry into Karras’ office.
A little more reserved than I was expecting. A picture of a lighthouse seems a little out of place… Oh right, that’s where the safe is. Another voice recorder, interesting…
“Greetings, Garrett! Thou art expected, though not precisely welcomed. Feel not so surprised. I have anticipated thine arrival, just as I now anticipate thy departure. Art thou a religious man? It is time to say thy prayers! Thy sins will be thine own undoing.”
I’d be more nervous if I hadn’t already turned off your alarm. Speaking of which, I should probably actually see if you have anything in the safe about the Cetus Project.
Ah ha!
Markham’s Isle. Do we think that’s the lighthouse featured in the picture? Either way that seems likely to be our next destination.
The access hatch might not have been my preferred method of entry but it does make for a nice exit.
Sadly leaving this way means I don’t have the chance to take my Vine Arrow with me. Fortunately I have at least one left, and if you’re playing smart that’s all you need. Being able to recover them is easily their second best feature – their first should be obvious.
Analysis of the top two floors of Angelwatch is available here.
I realised I’d not talked about how cool Rope Arrows are, and Vine Arrows are just a straight replacement for them. My praise is due primarily to their core “Rope” functionality, not related to anything “Vine” specific.
Vine arrows… eh. Their only new thing is the ability to stick onto metal gratings, which are nowhere near as common as wood, dirt, and foliage. And the metal gratings where vine arrows are useful are placed with all the subtlety of the rope arrow points in Thief 4. Not a fan. – Andy Durdin.
This fucking guy… “Oh, but it’s just not fair! The season’s most ballyhooed social event, and we’re not even invited? I am a Rothchild, don’t they understand that? Don’t they understand how incredibly important I am?”
Here’s the thing dipshit, you were invited… I found the guest list. You just lost the fucking invitation, or maybe your wife hid it because you’re a whining little shit?
“Well, well… housebreakers. How quaint.” Oh this should be fun…
I’ll just sneak in and open the door to the room they are breaking into… Then make a little noise to alert the guard patrolling on the floor below.
And a Gas Mine on the floor to clean up the guard… Now was there actually anything of value in here?
*Steps over the bodies to search the room.*
Given my past experience with this level I didn’t explore it as much as I could have, so now I’m back at the bell tower and that’s “Life of the Party” done. Still a great level, I just wanted to get on to the next ones quickly.
Even skipping over parts of the City, going straight to the objectives once inside Angelwatch, and being fairly liberal with my blackjack usage, it still took nearly two hours to complete “Life of the Party”.
A final link to my 25K+ analysis of this level, and it’s onward to “Precious Cargo”.
A lot of talk has been had regarding the idea that The Metal Age was a bunch of levels with a plot added later. If you squint you can sort of see that. It still has a more coherent plot than a lot of games, while managing to remain subtle, and true to its noir roots.
Precious Cargo:
The Keepers over here shipping Garrett/Viktoria.
The notes Garrett found on the Cetus Project indicate Mechanist activity on Markham’s Isle under the direction of Brother Cavador. Viktoria had suspect this already, a fact which Garrett wasn’t pleased to discover. Oh and while he’s there can he locate her agent, Lotus?
Erm, Garrett? If your plan was to bring Brother Cavador back to your boat and escape that way there’s something important I need to tell you.
A relatively simply map for a change, this one provided by Viktoria. No doubt the work of one of her agents, maybe Lotus himself.
Well that’s… Hmm…
I like how the skull and crossswords here uses a fucking Terminator skull.
That’s quite a climb. I suspect using the elevator would be a less than optimal idea.
Really leaning into the whole “pirate island” concept.
If you stay where you are when the level starts you’ll eventually be spotted by a patrolling Mechanist. First time a level has started you in an unsafe position since “Into the Maw of Chaos.”
I wasn’t really thinking and tried to take a picture of this in motion…
Garrett looks too old to be a miner… Sorry.
Shoo… Go look the other way.
As this bridge is lit from underneath by luminescent fungi, I’m able to hide using the shadows created by the bridge itself.
Ah ha! The switch for the Watcher is on top of the beam it’s attached too. This is one of my few complaints about Thief, there’s a lack of consistency in certain object behaviours. Ala not all Watchers have associated switches. It makes for bespoke encounters at the expense of some degree of systemic predictability. Sometimes all you can do is sneak past the Watchers, other times you can find the switch to disable them. You never know which is possible until afterward.
For now though I’m just going to deactivate this one and continue on up.
Hmm… That’s a problem.
So I knocked out the Mechanist on watch, now I need to find somewhere to dump her body where she’s hidden but won’t slide to her death. And here comes another one… Some days, you just can’t get rid of a body.
An entirely metal ramp… This is going to be tough. Also it’s raining, which is new and pretty cool. The fog works well here, feels isolating and atmospheric.
There has to be a better way… Wait a second… What was that guy by the Watcher doing? Oh switches… Here we go.
Oh… Looks like Lotus got captured, though he took a Combat Bot down with him, nice work. The scroll is positioned in such a way that if you immediately try to read it you activate the head instead and it starts talking; fortunately nobody’s listening.
Up via the well at the back of the workshop, and onto ground level again. One issue with the fog is that it has the effect of making everything look brighter, meaning it’s hard to judge which areas are in shadow.
The interior of the light house reminds me a lot of the tower in the first level (non-tutorial) of Deadly Shadows. “… She can write in both ancient Brillian and modern Prinkish.” No idea why that one dialogue is so stuck in my brain.
Straightforward building still makes for a good stealth encounter space. A lot of torches and closed doors mean you either have to expend resources to make the area safe, or take your time and listen carefully at doors to hear if anybody is in the rooms beyond.
Some more nice use of elemental crystals as environmental detail.
I always think what I’m trying to find is a sextant and not a navigation globe, I don’t know why. I think I see the sextant and just expect it to be important.
After a brief detour into the old house I nabbed a key from the Mechanist at the top of the lighthouse, “Cold Storage Shed” key? Let’s see what’s in there shall we?
Found Lotus… Urgh.
Lotus – “Garrett, yes. The Lady knows me you would come.”
Garrett – “Knew I would come, but-”
Viktoria, real confident in her ability to get Garrett to do what she wants. I mean she’s not wrong.
Lotus – “Y-you need… takes you the key, beware… and… Garrett…”
Garrett – “Yes, my friend, what can I do?”
Lotus – “Th-the cold… feels nothing now. Garrett I begs, return me to the green, kill me…”
I guess I know why the objectives were so specific about “Don’t kill any Mechanists”. Rest awhiles Lotus, mays the lady of the greens keepsie you safe.
Let’s see what sort of “key” this is then… Holly Shi-
Heh… Squishy floor mats “soft as carpet”, nice. I mean, sure, that’s shitty for Friend Ventus but still…
Buddy, you just staring at a blocked window?
Oh, alright then. Jules Verne called he…. Oh you get the joke. Maybe this is a little too high tech for the Mechanists, but they did create autonomous robots so maybe not.
Lotus said Cetus Amicus meant “horror of the seas”… Except Cetus is the Latinized name of a mythical Greek whale, and Amicus is Latin for friend or “friend of the court”. So really it’s not so much “Horror of the Seas” as “Friendly Whale”.
I’d just like to take a moment to say… Fuck this camera!
A single Mechanist patrols the tunnel beyond. There are nice alcoves off to the side where you can hide and let him pass. Digging the Mechanist branded wetsuit, you got an Etsy store for those?
I see it’s like that again…
Tunnel ends in a storage space, which I’ll admit is a little anticlimactic.
A quick mantle into a side passage to avoid the patrolling Combat Bot. If I’m going to get aboard a Mechanist submarine I’m probably going to have to get wet at some point… So…
… Now this is more like it. I’d forgotten most of the start of this level, my abiding memory is of this space.
A bunch of objectives now, and I can complete them in any order. Though I guess I need to be aboard the Cetus Amicus to read the Captain’s log.
I really do love this space.
Heh, there’s that nice non-slip rubber matting.
Metal floors? Well that’s no fun.
The cover of the “Karras and the Mechanists” first album was a little uninspired.
You can’t see me because I’m being sneaky… Also you have no peripheral vision apparently.
I guess I’d better get on with finding that then hadn’t I? I mean I sort of have to since it’s one of my objectives, but now I like, extra have to.
According to the sign outside this room is “Watcher Control”. Thus answer the question of “who watches the watchers”.
Don’t have any real sense of where to go, and it’s easy to get turned around in the water as everything looks so similar.
I can’t find a way to enter the water quietly either. It’s a mild frustration but a persistent one.
Using the water to hide and move through the environment is a cool idea, undercut by the difficulty of determining how visible you will be in any given area of water.
Found half a pirate ship, with a skeleton leaning over the wheel. This was pinned – well daggered – to their back.
Yeah, yeah whatever… I’m a thief, there’s treasure, you can guess what’s coming next…
Fucking ghost pirate! Running away now.
A portion of the underwater structure is half flooded, and I was able to use it to find my way to another classic Immersive Sim locker room.
Plot scroll! I assume Cavador is at this “KD site”.
I’d turned the Watchers off earlier, though hadn’t dealt with the guard. Luckily there’s grating in the roof above. That’s it buddy, just walk on by.
I did that more because it looked cool than anything else. I could have left the same way I got in, via the half flooded areas that run below this section of the structure; Subaquatic Post 1.
I assume Garrett is using waterproof materials for this map. Also at this stage his cloak must be utterly sodden, good thing he doesn’t need to run too much.
Well I found Friend Ventus, you’d have thought they’d bother to fish his body out of the water.
This note led to a good twenty minutes of trying to find a flooded area, only to realise I had to actually climb up to reach it, which doesn’t really make much sense. Getting a bit annoyed at this level now.
Here’s the entrance to the “flooded living area”, approximately twenty feet above sea level.
Some more pages of “The New Scripture of the Master Builder”. Of course the Builder wants Karras to be safe. Pretty creepy that the Mechanist’s vision of hell – well purgatory I guess really – is a forest.
When I started out playing this level I noticed the grated metal texture on multiple surfaces and thought it was nice how they’d just included that as a normal Mechanist related surface.
The more time I spent in the level the more clear it became that, beside its occasional use on the ground, whenever it was used on the ceiling or walls it was effectively a “Use Vine Arrow here!” marker. Which is a shame.
Catherine’s Folly? Feels like there’s a story behind that name, both in game and out of if.
Look, if you have a level on a boat I’m going to like your game, that’s just the way it is, I can’t do anything about it. Not pictured: Mechanist in full Scuba gear.
There are multiple ways aboard the Cetus Amicus, obviously I used the underwater one.
Yes I probably used “aboard” wrong… Shh… Here have the Captain’s log – minus the page moaning about fish for dinner again.
Reading the Captain’s log updates the objectives again, but clever thief that I am I’ve already completed them. This was sheer luck as I’d forgotten most of this level.
Of course Karras has another portrait of himself aboard the submarine he apparently never actually uses. Still, while I’m here… Yoink!
You can overhear a couple of different conversations that highlight how a large number of the Mechanists used to be Hammers, but not all. The Mechanists seems to have more popular support, maybe because their fanaticism is better veiled.
It feels like the history of the Hammers and the Mechanists – the divergence in the rigidity of their dogma – is referencing a particular religious schism. That’s a topic I don’t know enough about to draw any direct parallels though.
I’m not completely convinced Garrett can fit in there.
That’s “Precious Cargo” completed. “Back Stabs: 1” and “Innocents Killed: Some” that’s a little unfair. I looked Lotus in the eye while I killed him, and yes he was innocent but he was also asking to be put out of his misery.
“Precious Cargo” is able to be a strong format breaker though level design alone. No special restrictions or system changes needed.
It’s also a level with a twist that isn’t spoilt by the level’s name. “Precious Cargo” makes sense for your given objectives, unlike “Assassins”.
Brother Cavador is not on Markham’s Isle. He is instead at somewhere called the “KD site”. The Cetus Amicus is due to make a return trip there, with Garrett as a stowaway.
The quality of certain levels in this series is so high that those that aren’t quite there can feel much worse. I’d say The Dark Project is the more spiky in terms of quality. The Metal Age is more consistent, but it rarely peaks as high.
When The Dark Project was bad it made me angry. When The Metal Age is bad it makes me bored; something “Precious Cargo” occasionally managed, sadly.
Next: “Kidnap”