Thief II, Mission #10: "Life of the Party"

            This mission is a favorite among fans, many calling it the best official Thief mission and all agreeing it’s at least one of the best. It accomplishes to near-perfect degree everything that a Thief mission should be. It starts out in a place no other Thief mission does—high atop the roofs.
             In the following briefing, Garrett is speaking with another character: Victoria. If you remember, she is the one who contacted Garrett about getting the sword from Constantine's manor (see Thief I, Mission #5: The Sword). She would go on to play a big role in Thief I's story. I won't go over that here. In short, she and Garrett end up meeting in Thief II and working together, and are an unlikely alliance. They share a common enemy in the Mechanists.
             The later briefing scenes in Thief II are the only ones in which Garrett is not speaking by himself. I enjoy the banter between Garrett and Victoria. Victoria is voiced by Terri Brosius, an excellent voice actor who also voiced the evil artificial intelligence 'Shodan' in System Shock 2.

                                      

            “The City looks almost bearable from up here,” Garrett says at the start of the mission. It is a long way up. The rooftops themselves, as the briefing notes, are the “thieves’ highway.". It is a practice of thieves in the City to get from different places by jumping and running across the rooftops. Garrett is trying to infiltrate a high society ball that the Mechanists are throwing at their tower, called “Angelwatch,” in Dayport. With tight security on the ground, Garrett will head there via the rooftops.

            A la Cragscleft, there are two distinct worlds to this mission that blend together: the rooftops, and the tower Angelwatch. The player travels across the rooftops, enters the tower, and, when done inside, will then leave the tower and travel back across the rooftops. It’s quite an adventure, with lots of areas to explore off the beaten path—i.e., plenty of open windows—and lots of story development once in the tower. It’s a Thief fan’s dream.
             In the following video, Garrett starts out at the belltower, enters some open windows, overhears a rather heated argument between some private guards, and comes across some housebreakers (how quaint!).

            While exploring the rooftops, the player can take different directions. There is no set path, though all paths will eventually lead to Angelwatch. Open windows and any doorways the player can lockpick lead to new nooks to explore and treasure to pick up. There are interesting story elements as well. One secret passage players may discover leads into an old “star gazers’” private room. In addition to a telescope and star charts, there is also a journal in the room, from which players may read of the star gazers’ endeavors to travel to another world—another planet—he’s been seeing through his telescope. A large explosive device, a box, and a fire arrow (for ignition) are what he’s decided on for interstellar travel—very crude, of course.

            Another area the player may discover is an old mages’ study. The player may read a tome he has laying out as they would any readable in a Thief mission. But reading this tome causes two zombies to spawn nearby; one of the rare appearances of the undead in Thief II. The player may also read in this place of a powerful book, “The Book of Ash.” This book originally was to be part of a mission for this game, but was cut and so here is simply a brief side story.

            In addition to interesting places, the player may also overhear intriguing, and funny, conversations. One such is in the video above. It complements Thief I’s “bear pits” conversation as this game’s “funny guard conversation.” In it, guards engage in a light-hearted argument about who is the better of their respective nobles: Lady Van Vernon, or Master Willey. The horseplay ends in arrows being fired, though.

            Another humorous conversation relates to the party at Angelwatch. From an open window players may hear a nobleman complaining to his wife: “They invited the Bumblesons! The Bumblesons!” And he, as a “Rothschild,” is offended, to no end, that he was not invited. Players may also read a note in the Angelwatch tower, though, that one of the Mechanists accidentally misplaced the invite for the Rothschilds. Oops.

            Adventures like these and more are to be had during Garrett’s memorable rooftop escapade, but eventually players will reach, and must infiltrate, Angelwatch. Infiltration from so high up is as easy as sneaking into a ventilation shaft. Garrett remarks, “That wasn’t so tough. I guess tower security isn’t as tight as I thought.”

            Security is a bit tighter inside, as plenty of well-lit areas with patrolling Mechanists and security robots test Garrett. Karras, the Mechanists’ leader, and the reason why Garrett is there—to spy on him—isn’t even at the party. In his stead, Karras has placed several viktrolas with pre-recorded messages on them for the guests to listen to. Garrett must listen to each of these as he sneaks through the towers’ six massive floors.

            Players eventually make their way into Karras’ office, where a viktrola with a message for the evening’s “special guest” sits. The message is addressed to Garrett—indeed, he was the anticipated “special guest.” Karras warns Garrett to say his prayers; and after Garrett steals some detailed blue prints from Karras’ office, the security alarm is activated and players understand why Garrett needed to say his prayers. With alarms ringing and Mechanist guards on high alert, Garrett must make his way back out of the Angelwatch tower and across the rooftops to the bell tower he had started out on. It’s a great ending to a great mission.

            (It is possible to avoid setting off the alarm. A secret area in the tower has a switch which shuts off the alarm trigger in Karras’ office. The keen-eyed player, then, can leave the tower in peace and quiet.)