Thief 2: The Metal Age FAQ

Q: What is Thief 2: The Metal Age?
A: The sequel to the critically acclaimed "first-person sneaker," Thief: The Dark Project. Thief 2: The Metal Age continues the story of Garrett with all-new missions, improved graphics, and expanded gameplay that emphasizes stealth and problem solving over mindless killing.

Q: When will it be released?
A: Spring 2000

Q: What new graphical features have been added?
A: Look in the Study under Features for a complete list.

Q: What kind of new tools are there?
A: Among the new tools in Thief 2:

Flares that allow you to see in the dark


You can "listen at doors" by leaning into them


A slowfall potion that slows your fall from high jumps


An invisibility potion that will get you out of trouble fast


A Remote Camera that will let you stake out an area without having to go there - and be detected - yourself.

Q: What other improvements have you made for Thief
2?
A: Some of the new improvements in Thief 2 include:

Improved AI

The game's design is more focused on stealthy gameplay

Richer sound environment

Improved user interface

Q: What's going on with the story?
A: It's been over a year since the events portrayed in Thief: The Dark Project, and Garrett's life has returned to a kind of chaotic normalcy, marked by daring independent thieving runs and lucrative "jobs". Enter Gorman Truart, newly elected sheriff and bane of the city's underworld. More than just an elected official sworn to
uphold public office, Truart is a man with dark, unknown intentions. The poor and desolate are snatched from the streets, never seen nor heard from again. "Semi-legitimate" operations run by well-known wardens are raided and shut down. The increase of guard patrols has lulled the residents into a false sense of security, while corruption, graft, and treachery run rampant through the sheriff's organization. Look in the Study under Briefing for a more complete disclosure.

Q: I'm trying to find a Tech Support contact...
A: Look in the Study under Requirements for technical support contact information.

Q: Will Thief II ship with a level editor?
A: Yes, Thief II will include the new revision of Dromed.

Q: Why was the decision made to drop multiplayer?

A: The primary reason is that once we started seriously thinking about multiplayer for Thief we realized that we had an opportunity to come up with some interesting new gameplay that we hope will be as unique as the single player gameplay in Thief is. Unfortunately, given the schedule pressures we are under we knew that we didn't have time to explore and tune the multiplayer gameplay possibilities without sacrificing some tuning and polish on the single player game. We feared that we would end up shipping a single and multi player
experience that would not live up to their potentials.

So we decided to concentrate on building a triple A single player game, and then turn our focus to a triple A multiplayer game. This way we can focus all of our attention on making the best gameplay experience for both single and multi player.

Q: Will Thief II run on Windows 2000 Pro?
A: Thief II was developed and tested under Windows 95/98. While you may be able to run Thief
II under Windows 2000, it is not officially supported.

Q: Will Thief II require a 3D Card?
A: Yes, Thief II will require a 4MB hardware accelerator.

Q: Does Garrett's new mechanical eye involve a zoom feature like rumors say?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be more of those brilliant movies in "The Metal Age"?
A: Oh yeah!

Q:Will Thief 2 support mousewheel binding? (unlike Thief 1)
A: Yes!

Q: Will Thief 2 feature an annoying sidekick constantly pestering you with his/her horrible one-liners? Will it feature goats? If so, how many, and will one be able to set them on fire with fire arrows? If not, why?
A: What, are you psychic? It was a secret, but Garrett's going to have a sidekick who's a goat with flame-retardant fur! So besides all those guards, you'll also have to deal with "Billy" always trying to eat your cloak and giving away your position with his constant bleating.

Q: You're kidding about that goat-sidekick thing?
A: Of course.

Q: Will there be an option to turn off or at least turn down the ambient music in the game?
A: Yes.

Q: How many new levels will be introduced in Thief 2?
A: 15

Q: Do you still have the (excellent) Steven Russell as the voice of Garrett?
A: Yes, Of course!

Q: I've read in some places that Garrett's mechanical eye will give him different vision modes (such as infra-red). Is this true?
A: No. The mechanical eye allows Garrett to zoom/magnify and view remote areas using the Scouting Orb (a separate device), but the mechanical eye does not allow Garrett to see in the dark.

Q: How will the mechanical eye be retrieved if it is dropped off a building or something?
A: To clarify: It's not the mechanical eye that you're pulling out of Garrett's head and dropping. It's a remote Scouting Orb that sends images to Garrett's mechanical eye. If you lose the Scouting Orb, you have to find a new one.

Q: Right next to the visibility gem is a very small rectangle, its changes colors perodically--sometimes red, sometimes yellow. Whats this mean?
A: This is sort of a simplified version of the Visibility gem. When it's red, you're at or very near maximum visibility. When it's dark green, you're practically invisible. Everything in between is yellow.

Q: Why doesn't Thief 2 have an option to turn up brightness?
A: Thief2 does have that option. There are bindable commands to raise & lower Gamma (brightness), and there's a slider on the Video options screen. Most people keep them bound to + and -, as this allows the
convenience of changing gamma in-game.


Thanks to everyone who
posted questions to the FAQ. Now that the game has shipped, most of the
questions we have received have been tech support or game hint related, which
wasn't the focus of this FAQ.