Thief™ 2: The Metal Age

Around the time I was building my second computer, I got this game for free with the video card I bought. Being a bit starved for games at the time, I installed it, despite the usual low quality of "free" games. To say it surprised me is an enormous understatement. I have installed (and attempted to play) it on every computer I have purchased since then. It is among my top 5 games, along with Deus Ex and Arcanum. The Good: Better stealth than has been found in almost any game since, including Thief 3. Water arrows for torches, noise arrows for distracting guards, camera arrows for taking a peak around that corner, and more. The guards are optimally placed to make it challenging, but not impossible. The surface on which you are walking actually matters, with stone making more sound than carpet. Harder difficulties encourage no-kill runs. A main character with character. Finally, there is a way to determine how dark that shadow is: The light gem. (I still catch myself looking for the light gem in Skyrim.) The Bad: Guards aren't the brightest, though it can provide amusement sometimes. The later levels prevent stealthy runs. Some of the harder difficulty objectives are absolutely brutal. Zombies. The Ugly: The graphics are, to say the least, dated. Fortunately, the cutscenes are usually 2D painting-style. If you have ever played Deus Ex, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls, Splinter Cell, or any other game which purports to contain stealth in it, and you enjoyed those parts, get this game now. If the thought of sitting in darkness for 5 minutes, watching guards patrol back and forth, waiting for their patrols to sync up, so you can steal that delicious golden statue, doesn't appeal to you, then you probably don't want this game. As one final note: This is the first review I have ever written online. I have been gaming for 23 years, and have had my own computer for 14 of those years, yet I have never felt strongly enough about a game to write about it until now. Thank you, GOG, for allowing me to retire my poor game discs.

I was unfortunate enough to have missed out on the Thief series back when it was new, and just recently played through the first two games out of the three in the series. Thief II: The Metal Age is, without a doubt in my mind, one of the best games I've ever played. You play as Garrett, a master thief just trying to pay the bills and make a little extra cash on the side. For better or worse, however, Garrett always seems to end up involved in something much deeper than he'd like to be, and he just has to roll with it. I'd go more into the story, but I don't want to take a second of this awesome game away from any potential players out there. We live in a gaming society where everyone immediate thinks of guns when they hear the term "first person." This game is very, very different. While killing is definitely a possibility, it's noisy, and this is a stealth game. The Thief series encourages you to stick to the shadows and either avoid contact with enemies completely, or knock them out quietly. You can even distract them and make them walk in a direction that's far, far away from you. Thief II takes the core gameplay elements of the original Thief and Thief Gold and makes some noticeable improvements. The main thing I liked about this second game is that there weren't more than a couple zombies, which were abundant in the first game. When they showed up in the original Thief, the whole stealth aspect was kind of thrown out the window, and the game turned into a much more action-oriented experience. This game deals almost purely with humans, and strategy is almost ALWAYS a necessity. You can never just run into a room and expect everything to go your way, because you'll be seen and/or heard. You need to take a minute to plan your every move, and to make sure you stay virtually invisible if you want to succeed in your missions. It's an amazing experience that's impossible to describe in typewritten words. If you want a real first person experience, and not just another game lost in a sea of shooters, pick Thief II up. You won't regret a second of it, and you'll see that even to this day, we've never gotten anything quite like it.

Yes, this is the finest stealth game ever made. MGS, Splinter Cell, Deus Ex, and Hitman may be great, but none of them nail stealth quite as much as this game does. Thief 1 is also great, and Thief 3 is okay, but neither quite come as close to perfection as Thief 2. This game delivers what many modern games are missing: a likeable non-generic protagonist, open-ended and complex missions with stellar level design, great atmosphere, humor, easter eggs + hidden secrets galore. You can really tell the developers at Looking Glass really put their hearts and souls into making this, My only gripe is that sometimes climbing and mantling certain surfaces doesn't work like its supposed to (Garret will fail to grab the ledge). Thats easily forgivable though. For real, this game here is the #1 reason to have a GOG.com account. Nothing beats the satisfaction of completing a mission without being heard or seen once.

It baffles me that a game that defined the genre has yet to be bettered, by sequels or imitators. Thief 2 blew my expectations away. It is a prime example of developers both realizing what they have, and listening smartly to the feedback of the community. Thief 2 has larger, more complex levels, few if any monsters and zombies, and a superb sense of art deco style. It's as gorgeous sounding as its predecessor, better looking, better playing, and takes the player to some wonderful locales. It's a superb, timeless game.

Thief, especially the second game in the series is something that everyone with love for free, unrestrained exploration, immersive gameplay, interesting lore and steampunk-ish setting with art-deco influnce should try, especially if they prefer it to be served in the FFP form. Ideally after completing the first game in the series, of course. In my opinion, the second installment had done everything better than its predecessor though, with complex maps, captivating missions and many technical improvements (fixing the bunnyhopping physics from T1, introducing coloured light, more audio channels, etc.) The only complaints i have are related to AI which didn't get improved much since TG (but still can be challenging) and lack of fully dynamic lighting. Nevertheless, that is just me nitpicking, given how well the lightmapped environment works usually Gameplay-wise, there's some interesting additions like flares which allow you to shed a bit of light in the darkests places, and scouting orbs, acting like remote cameras, letting you see what's behind the corner or in a place which is hardly accessible otherwise. And best friends of every taffer, rope arrows are still there, at your disposal! This game has also received a really massive unofficial engine update, NewDark, bundled with GOG release (original executable is still there, in the backup directory, should you wish to use it.) making it much less cumbersome to run Thief on modern machines, without the need to elevate process privileges or to constrain yourself to 4:3 screen ratio, and adds support for EAX via OpenAL or OpenAL-Soft. Last but not least, whe have fan missions, being created by active community surrounding Thief. many of which very elaborate and interesting (with absolutely amazing full campaigns like Thief 2X being the shining highlights among them), making for a really refreshing experience and securing the longevity of Thief for many years to come. Definitely a must have for any taffer!