Thief™ Gold

Original game is the best game ever. The mods/fan missions are even better.

Thief pioneered stealth mechanics revolving around light and sound and manipulating them to your needs. Thief is at its best when its allowing you to do this. However, it likes to take detours in to the supernatural with entire levels that see you not being stealthy at all but rather running from or fighting monsters in labyrinths without a good idea of where you are in it. This brings down the experience immensely as it happens more than once. Despite the games dtracting detours, the stealth sections still hold up very well today and feel intuitive. Part of this is due to the audio design. Guards often have noises they make as well as footsteps so even when they are out of line of sight, you still have an idea of where they are. on the other side of that you must also be aware of your noises as different surfaces produce different amounts of noise which is a brilliant touch that even games today don't even touch on. If you can get past the oldness of the game and the parts that are not oriented around sneaking, you'll find an immersive experience with fun voice acting and a decent narrative.

make sure you get the first 3 games as a bundle

The stealth is finicky at best, the combat is bad, the movement is bad, and theres so much inconsistent stuff it almost leads me to believe this game has hidden RNG mechanics. Sometimes enemies will hear you from the other room while you are sneaking and other times you can practically sprint up behind them without being detected. There are also traps on some missions which can only be triggered by the player even though they are just pressure plate traps. The lighting engine is also bad. This is esp a problem as one of the core game mechanics is built around the lighting system. If you are "in the light" you are much easier to be seen vs "in the dark." Problem is, sometimes very dark areas are considered "light" and lighter areas are considered "dark." There are even areas with the same level of light, in direct view of or even right next to each other, which are not treated as the same light level by the game. Do not bother with this game, just find a more modern stealth game. This genere is one of my favorites of all time. Even lots of the Assassins Creed games others didnt like I still somewhat enjoyed just because I like stealth mechanics. But Thief was so tedius, frustrating, and poorly executed that I could not enjoy it. From what Ive seen in later games they got the execution much better overall

Thief is one of the best games that has ever been made. I can still remember when I first bought the game (it used to come in those weird triangle boxes that Eidos shipped their games in). It was like no other game I had ever played. The game rewards you for being stealthy and taking your time. I can't even count how many times I had to replay each level before being able to move on. This game was revolutionary for the time, and in many ways, is still way beyond any stealth game that has come since. The GOLD version of the game adds even more levels to the fun. Seriously, buy this game, you will not be disappointed.