Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1915529-20140702204420/@comment-1915529-20141118054028

Thinking about it: there is one thing that is clear, Karras is a genius. He is also a raging lunatic who believes that it is proper that all life be destroyed to make way for the Builder’s world. If you think something HAS to be done for the greater good of the world, you are not going to take many risks. So in this regard it makes sense that the masks can not be removed (at least without some specialist mechanist equipment). If they could be removed by anyone then that would foil the plan completely because these servants are spread across the city and they need to be secure with the cultivator hidden and untouched so that they are ready for Karras to give his order. I think the person wanting to see behind the mask is a testament that it is not possible.

There is one way to see it that makes going after loot make sense. At the time of going for the masks, Garrett and Viktoria still don’t know what Karras is planning or how they will stop him. So perhaps Garrett decided it was best to get some funding so that he can ensure he has the equipment he needs to take on Karras. You can accept that there is no point in finding out what to do and then not having the proper equipment to do it. It would waste even more time to get to Soulforge sooner but then find out you can’t do anything. If Garrett didn’t spend time figuring out Karras’ plan, he’d have arrived at Soulforge and found Karras only to find out he could not touch the maniac.

There is no doubt Thief is well liked, after all the Stealth genre it helped shape is very large. However there is also no doubt that games are made to sell for the most money. So the fact Thief exists at all when making a Quake clone would probably have made more fiscal sense on paper is a brilliant gift. It was more than likely changed to having less super natural to appease gamers who preferred human levels (the fact it makes sense story wise is a little genius on LGS part) but Metal Age would not be the same without its uber-technology story and LGS probably thought ‘no zombie levels so let’s do just human enemies, but we’ll also add grenade launching robots’. Of course the Combat Bots play a big part in the back story and without them the message of the story would not get told as much. But LGS made that decision and although some idiot people hate the robots, it does not matter because LGS wanted it and they did it. And THAT is the second gift within a gift.

I completed Soulforge yesterday. Knowing what I had to do made it very daunting. Making the beacon is a level on its own but then getting to the signal towers, knowing some of them are difficult to get to, made me think 'oh wow'. And with Karras taunting you and the fact you were confronting him to save the world makes this the best level in the game. Plus it is well designed. The creation of the beacon, getting the plans, the raw materials and putting them together is so unique, I don't recall another FPS level like it.

Glad you like Minecraft and it is great it is made better by that fact. Sometimes just digging and finding a cave and seeing how deep and long it can go is the best. Perhaps we can now try multiplayer. I’ve not played it for over a year now so I would not mind playing it again. Two-player would be so cool. What do you think?