Official art for Thief The Metal Age

Before starting I want to mention that all my guide is based on a default version of the game with basic T2Fix improvements installed. Maybe there are some extreme patches out there that fix these issues and rewrite the game code - I don't know. This guide is based on Thief version I played myself and which most of other players will use.

The idea for this guide came to me after replaying Thief: The Metal Age recently. Though I always loved original Thief trilogy, because of its age and genre pioneering there are several things that will irritate you throughout the game and some which you wish you knew from the start. Thus, I decided to highlight them all for those, who are only starting to dive into the wonderful world of Thief and play The Metal Age for the first time. Nevertheless, if you are a person who likes to fully explore the game by themselves without any info beforehand then this guide might actually spoil your experience, but if you are like that, then what you are doing here in the first place?

First things first, I highly recommend reading my guide for The Dark Project beforehand, even if you already finished it, because the game generally uses the same engine and most of the basic features remained the same and I don't really want to repeat myself. I also I will not talk about installing patches and fixes, there are many other guides dedicated to it and essentially everything you need to comfortably play The Metal Age today is T2Fix[www.ttlg.com] and EAX Sound Fix. If you want HD textures, reworked models, additional mods - there are many other great guides about that like this one. Here I will be discussing game mechanics and tricks only.

The situation here is quite the same as in The Dark Project. Again, there is a way to use Xbox Controller for those who prefer gamepads over keyboards and the process is detailed in this guide. And, again, I will just give a ready layout for keyboard users, which you could later adjust for yourself: here it is[drive.google.com]. Just drop the file into ...\Steam\steamapps\common \thief_2\SAVES, enter the game, go to settings - controls and clear all existing bindings with Alt+Backspace (the game still merges bindings instead of overwriting them), then press Load and choose "My Binds".

However, there is one difference to The Dark Project. Now we finally have "Run" button instead of just "Run Forward" and "Walk Forward" and you don't need to go into the file to change it. Nevertheless, there is still no way to change hold\toggle modes for the "Run" and "Creep" ("Crouch"/"Hold Crouch" is still there buttons, and this is fixed… yes, again by manual modification of configuration file. Find either "bind shift +runon" or " bind alt +creepon" then remove the plus between key and the move, so it will go from "bind <key> +<move>" to "bind <key> <move >". Save the file, open the game, load "My Binds" again and now these buttons work like toggles.

Art by dominuself[www.deviantart.com]

All this is mostly the same in The Metal Age, except minor changes that I will go through one by one. Firstly, now with the slowest speed (crouching + creeping) you don't make any noise, but pacing is still more effective and fast, so use it instead. Secondly, bunny hop is now absent so you cannot flash through locations, but strafe-running still works, so you can still use it (just remember that it makes more noise). Parkour became kinda more weird: generally it became smoother and Garrett holds to the ledges more willingly, but from time to time you notice that he just refuses to climb on something or makes a loud noise by getting down from less than a meter ledge. And guaranteed ways to perform all the movements are still the same: jumping directly into the ledge, using moss arrows and sliding from the edges.

A more interesting situation is now with leaning. Now you cannot add up both forward and side leaning, which though was interesting, could lead up to some collision problems. However, it feels that the problems themselves escalated a lot: even if you just lean through the door frame you can get "rubberbanded" from it into the room and it happens more frequently than just sometimes, so be careful with it.

Art by WhaleOil1[www.furaffinity.net]

Now this was improved quite a lot. Guards became more attentive and smart, and because the game now has a lot of mechanical-nature enemies instead of animal-nature ones, you will have a great time mastering your stealth skills. But let's talk one thing at a time.

As for human guards they now react to opening doors and pick-locking, which will trigger level 1 alert and even wake up sleeping ones. However, for some reason guards are still indifferent to sounds any mechanisms like elevators or bay doors. They also don't care about any bots or cameras (they are called watchers in the game) deactivated but will look for you if find them destroyed.

There is not much to talk about mechanical ones, but some tips can still be given. Firstly, smaller bots (worker bots) don't have vision by default and activate it only if they hear a loud noise or bump at you. Just like the servants they will run to the nearest combat bot. Large ones are combat bots and can both see and hear you. Secondly, cameras can notice you even in the dim light and will trigger the alarm if you don't freeze until they go into the green state again – just try to always stay in shadows near them. Or you can just slide under them quickly, because they are unable to peek down. There is also another kind of bot, which is met in the last level, but I don't want to give spoilers, so I will just say that they can both see and hear you and it's safer to just pass by them without disturbing.

Official cover for German release of the game

Again, the English in game is quite solid and not everyone might be able to understand it. Now there is no separate subtitles mod to install because they are included as an option in T2Fix installation. As for the full-fledged translations, the game had same official German and French localizations and there are some unofficial ones like Polish and Russian. Again, I cannot say anything about their quality and can only recommend leaving original voices because English voiceover is still very solid. If you are in need of localization just google it or browse ttlg.com forums – I'm sure there is some information on your language there.

Art by Debonair

As for all other things, that I thoroughly described in the guide for The Dark Project and did not touch upon here, they are quite the same. Lighting system became slightly better but still not perfect, and actually uninventive more than rarely. Walkthrough reading is still informative, some loot is still unreachable and the game is still a challenge to beat even without ghosting. And I could finish at this point leaving a small guide, which feels more like a supplement to The Dark Project one, regarding The Metal Age, but there is actually one more thing that I want to tell you.

Official cover for DVD release of the campaign

This is a fan-made campaign, which because of its quality and length nearly became a semi-official cannon, so I just cannot miss it in this guide. Because I've got some peculiar problems with it, which I described in my review and which I hope you won't encounter, I will divide this section in two parts. Firstly, I will go through my problems and their solutions, so you will know, what to do if you stumble upon them, and then I will describe general peculiarities of the campaign.

Official art for Thief Shadows Of The Metal Age

Addon Doesn't Work

If you like me cannot work out why the taffer this addon just doesn't want to work, try to start it as a fan mission campaign, if that doesn't work too just go to torrents and download a full-fledged repack with an installer. I won't give any links here not to trigger Steam administration by piracy links (though it's funny to mention piracy when the campaign itself is totally free to download), but I feel that you know where to thieve it.

Addon Starts On Wrong Monitor

If you have several monitors and this addon starts on the second\third monitor, then know that it will always start on the last monitor by number in windows desktop settings. To fix that before starting the game make the primary monitor the last one, then start the game, and after that revert monitor settings back. The game should stay on the primary monitor as long as you don't restart it.

Sounds Missing

I actually didn't manage to figure out how to fix that, but if there are no footsteps sounds from guards and bots just use lines that they say to know their position, because they mumble quite a lot here. As for doors, picklocking, arrows, bombs, just keep in mind that though you don't hear them, your enemies do.

OBS Black Screen

When I tried to stream it to my friends OBS just couldn't capture the game, it had the sounds but the picture was just black (printscreen button also has the same effect), however for some reason Fraps could capture the game fine. Dunno what is the problem but if you are planning to stream this addon you might have to go tricky.

Official art for Thief Shadows of the Metal Age


Default Controls

Fortunately, the addon has a fine modern layout by default and you don't really need to change anything. However, there is one major flaw, which the developers missed or couldn't fix for some reason. The controls menu is just a copy of default Thief 2 controls menu and doesn't have options for new tools and items like lockpicks, crystal or emp grenade, so you will have to switch to them by scrolling with next\previous item buttons.


Movement And Parkour

The movement is quite the same to the original Thief 2 here, except several tweaks that I will go through. First of all, movable crates and barrels have strange collisions and it's quite hard to stand on them without sliding, and moreover you cannot climb on a pile of them like in previous games and will have to jump on them one by one. Secondly, parkour became much more clumsy and buggy: for some reason Zaya cannot climb on objects by pressing space near them, so you always have to run and jump into the ledge, holding jump button. Climbing from ropes and ladders is also a nightmare, and if it's more or less fine with the latter one the former is just hell. If your arrow is stuck right in the ladder and the only thing you have to is climb onto it then prepare for several tries (and don't forget not to save on the ropes and ladders too), because character will usually refuse to hold onto the ledge and will just fall from rope. The most effective way to climb in that situation is pointing the camera directly up, hold jump button and hope that you won't have to reshoot the arrow. In addition, Zaya seems to weigh twice or triple as Garret because even a slight fall from 2-3 meters will completely destroy the boxes that you fall on. Lastly, though this is not directly connected to movement, item dropping works very strange here: in Thief 2 though there were no crosshair you approximately understood where the Garrett will lay the item, and here it's always random, so stacking boxes is very difficult. Remember what I said about climbing crates and you will understand that trying to create your own path using surrounding becomes a pain.


Light System

Eh, I can't say for sure whether it was my version bugged or that's a problem of the addon itself, but I feel it’s the latter one. So, the light system is even worse than in Dark Project, if there you had occasional light bugs and differences between visible light and light gem indicator, here you never can be sure. You stand at the start of the alley – you are visible, you stand in the middle – you are not, though whole alley is covered by the same shadow. Moreover, I cannot even be sure whether it's due to the bad lightmaps or buggy light gem, because several times I was in situations where I was standing in the clear shadow and, though light gem showed that I'm visible, guards didn't notice me. So, all I can say is forget about visible lighting and always prioritize the light gem… and prepare for many saves and loads.


Enemy And AI

It's generally the same as in default game, maybe a bit more attentive to sounds and lights, however there is one thing that is either some kind of bug or an intentional design to make the game harder. You see, if you were in a full shadow in thief two and enemies were not on level 2 alert, they couldn't notice you even if you were right next to them unless you made some noise or bumped into them. But here, even if all these conditions are true, the enemies will still detect you until you get like 1-2 meters from them. So, forget about hiding in tight corridors next to a guard and keep that fact in mind, if you've just finished Thief 2.


Tools And Shopping

I won't go through describing all the new tools and trinkets of this addon, but will just note that flare arrow kills undead only if they are constantly under its effect, so use them more like repellers, rather than weapons. For some reasons, though EMP grenades visibly just shut down electronics, guards treat it as if they were destroyed and immediately go to level 2 alert. As for the shopping, the prices became higher and general assortment shrank, which makes the game more challenging and that's nice. What is not nice is that on some levels you start with nearly no or just no except basic equipment, which is quite irritating and not nice. Though through level exploration helps a bit it still doesn’t solve the problem fully.


Walkthroughs

As for walkthroughs, you may have a hard time looking for one, but there is actually a good one[www.thief2x.com] on the official addon site. It highlights all the secrets and crucial loot, so it will definitely be useful, especially because on some levels there are no clear notes about the location of some of the items.


Translations And Subtitles

There are Spanish and Polish translations (text + subtitles) that are available to download on the official site[www.thief2x.com]. I don't know about other languages and English subtitles specifically, but I'm sure ttlg.com has some information on it. As for the voice overs, as far as I know there are none except English version and I highly doubt there ever will be - though it's a very popular campaign, it's still a fan-made one and will be completed by fewer people in comparison to the original game. Besides, default voice over is great and there is no real reason to change it.

Thanks for reading this guide. It ended up to be a bit repetitive on the things that were already discussed in guide for The Dark Project, so I hope you didn't get tired of reading it and it helped you. You can also suggest your own tips in the comments or correct me on some of the mentioned one, if you are a more experienced Thief player. And though it's obvious, I want to clarify one more time that I DO NOT OWN ANY RIGHTS on the drawn images used in the guide and all regards go to their original authors. I used them to bring more people to original trilogy fan arts, which are now quite difficult to find, because google usually give you tons of arts on the mediocre remake with few on the real series. Nevertheless, I didn't manage to find proper links for some of the fan artists, so you can send them in the comments, or if you are an actual author you can also leave your own comment with proper links - you guys rock!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your travelling through the mysterious world of Thief

Art by Alexandru Negoiță[www.artstation.com]