Thief™ 2: The Metal Age

"Hatht thou tried to avoid copy protectthionth, Garrett? It ith motht fruthtrating thpectacle, rendering your pricelethh game unworking on netbookth. And nothing was ever built..." Thus lamented the gaming public, and GOG answered - a nice copy of Thief II that's quite easy to install and run on modern optical-media-less environments. =) Thief II is basically more of the same after Thief: The Dark Project / Thief Gold. The environment evolves, the City has become a little bit less dark place in style - but as should be easily apparent, even in the elegant luster of the Metal Age, the shadows are still dark and deep. Mechanists, led by Karras, put the same nastiness of the Hammerites in a shinier jar. And Garrett does the same thing he always does: skulks in the shadows, swipes everything of value into his pockets, and no one is none the wiser. Oh, and he incidentally saves the world. Again. And this time, it's personal. The missions are bigger and more varied this time, and it takes some good time before the plot even picks up at all. We get more steampunk stuff - steam robots that react badly to well-aimed water arrows and completely freak you out. We get bank robberies. Most importantly we get the most epic stealth mission in any game ever, past, present and future - rooftop infiltration mission into Karras's tower of mechanical luxury. Along with its previous part this is stealth gaming at its finest.

there is no other game that can top this not even metal gear and hitman the stealth mechanics are perfect and it is really satisfying sneaking around an area

I have spent more hours playing Thief than anything else. The sequel introduced improved controls for accessing weapons and items, and there is a huge number of incredibly beautiful fan-made missions to run with the Darkloader program. The Thief games are in themselves quite cerebral and have attracted a lot of people who loved the balance between action, stealth and puzzles as well as object-triggered storylines. The game runs on Linux using Wine.

I remember getting the demo for Thief 2 and spending hours playing it. Naturally the next logical step was to get the actual game and when I got it for Christmas that same year, I must have sat in front of my computer for ten hours straight. Thief 2 is one of those rare gems that remains good no matter how old it gets. The graphics may be a bit dated but the tense and thrilling gameplay, superb level designs, and engaging story make this game a must-play for any and all PC gamers. Also fans of Thief 2 should check out the free fan-made expansion that builds upon the same lore as the base game while also starring a new protagonist and featuring several entirely new levels and missions as well as a couple new items and tools.

The second iteration of the Thief series sees a bigger, brighter and more technologically advancing world and our master thief, Garrett, once more seeking to pilfer the city of all its riches. - The environments are larger and more complex this time around and the variety of foes arrayed against you are much more diverse, lending even more need to using your expanded skill set to strong effect. Using such gadgets as your own mechanical eye, and a new host of tools you'll find yourself in a range of environments and a slowly expanding world with rich lore behind it, and great enemy factions. - The refinements to the graphics engine and general world as a whole help immerse you in the world, and from experience there have been some very tense missions flitting from shadow to shadow to avoid being detected, and with luck on my side a glorious haul to take home afterwards. A very rewarding game, great expansions on the plot, character and world as a whole and the host of improvements with the engine make Metal Age a must have for anyone that wants to enjoy a game that carved out its own niche in the market with the First person stealth genre.