There’s a wonderful video made in 2014 called Thief vs. AAA Gaming by dominic guica. A 27 minute video essay on why the Thief Games “...is still the most advanced stealth game ever made.” And you know what? I completely agree. It’s been over 25 years since both games originally launched and they still hold up today. Remarkable! I’ve played over 13 in the genre so far, from old Assassin’s Creed, Syphon filter, some Metal Gear Solid titles, most recently last year was my foray into the early Hitman ages. I’m no expert in the stealth genre though, just a fella who loves challenging stealth titles and want to share my love for them, especially in highlighting what makes Thief games so appealing and Thief 2 still knocks me out to greatness. Despite the somewhat clickbaity youtube title from dominic, it is 100% justified in outlining why. Because I firmly believe everything in the video is worth a watch. But first some general topics before we shift into the minute details.

Don’t expect the Metal Age to be a ‘safe’ sequel. Garrett is back once again, one year after the event of the first game, a new faction emerges, the Mechanists. They want to plunge The City into a technological age, among other things, so you'll find how this new 'Metal Age" has affected the world Garret inhabits. Especially, the police force is especially more of a threat this time. I primarily played on [expert difficulty] again. Meaning I must be a thorough Thief. Who checks everywhere, to find my objective/s then have to complete objective {B} then {C} while fulfilling my gold quota which is higher than on normal difficulty. All while maintaining a no killing status. Cleverly the developers make real extensive use of every inch of combing a level, since I generally had to check every nook and cranny, just in case I missed something important and usually 99% of the time I would find what I need without knocking my head against the wall in frustration in the form of cryptic clues.

The industrial nature is injected into all aspects subtly, where the music isn’t the main attraction, rather silence and sounds of footsteps from guards nearby, the chatter of nobles close by, and sight of smoke filling the air and the clash of machinery grinding left me with an genuinely surprised impression whenever I would learn a new nugget of lore, or come across a new information tailored for my objectives. Never in my face drowning in my text blurbs and needing to know information every time. Just letting players breathe in the world at their own pace with no tutorials is such a breath of fresh air compared to games where they love to hold your hand in fear of scaring you off with constant tutorial windows. None of that rubbish is here. And ultimately I felt there was enough to leave the player hanging for extra, and left me hungry/excited to revisit the Thief series once again, making me love the worldbuilding it offers so alluringly well.

Guards spill juicy info. every time when they’re ranting about their jobs, gossiping about other guards, envious of other’s pay, or just basic locker room talk. Most if not all of their conversations and many other non-guard npc’s are very humorous and often than not I told my friends some of these conversations. I swear if Thief wasn’t a stealth imsim I would generally watch a tv show with nothing but guards. Reminds me a lot of the *Monty Python* humor, but not so much to make me drastically laugh on the floor. They do have a lot of seriousness conveyed especially when I make a slight noise and they will immediately go into a sus mode “I’M COMING FOR YOU TAFFER!” summons chuckles from my throat everytime. Heh the fools.

Audio visual design and simulation is still ahead of its times and I’m amazed how much Looking Glass(the developers) pushed audio interactivity in stealth simulation. For those unaware here's a handy visual graph for core elements of game audio with article to discuss further. The spatial, locational, acoustic, silence, artificial intelligence(AI), immersion, immersive sim all worked in tandem to create a stealth sandbox designed to challenge/immerse players - in ways to keep the fun intact and test them thoroughly in unexpected ways. But allow a deep freedom to bend and twist within the confines of the rules set in the Thief world. Audio in particular plays a vital part in breathing every part of the above. The spatial occupance, individuals plays in interactivity with the environment: such as concrete, cobble, steel, wood determined different evocation of sounds being too loud or creating very little noise and the sheer range between those two decibels will play a key focus from locational detection from artificial intelligence, that being the common guards in hearing what could be an intruder in the dead of night.

Line of sight matters, actions and motions equally as significant such as: peeking behind walls, crouching, walking and running are interconnected via lesser or greater sound noises so its vital to keep in mind these main noise tenets while engaging in skillful skulduggery, using noisemaker arrows, tricking foolish males and females in covering grounds before me before succumbing to my blackjack! Man, never gets old I tell ya. So much freedom in traversing a level and finding multiple avenues to my destination, numerous obstacles be it in traps, patrols or secrets litter corridors and hidden pathways creating a sort of maze-like structure I relish in exploring. No shortage of cleverly secluded hideaways waiting to be discovered!


1st - I won’t beat around the bush, If there is one big mark against Thief 2 then it is lacking a heavy story gut punch compared to the first game. Despite the welcome atmosphere of feeling the industrial steampunk revolution occurring in the City. I felt like the narrative did suffer during the final parts which created some weird suspension of disbelief knockouts to my head.

2nd - The sin of reusing old maps in uninteresting ways. I won’t spoil the exact specifics, but when you reuse the same maps not once, not twice, but three times. Especially if done in a way where nothing much changes and you’ll have to go through the whole gauntlet of again.

Despite all these hurdles, I still believe Garret’s transition from the 1st game and what he undergoes is still important enough. I do recommend seeing what narrative 2 has to offer which has me intrigued where he will undergo in the third installment Deadly Shadows.


Thief 2: The Metal Age is one hell of a marvel and one most deserving as “most advanced stealth game” ever made as dominic said more than a decade ago. Sure there are newer stealth titles made since Thief died down,(with only a recent VR game coming about) breaching the boundary of what stealth can operate on. Immaculate attention and effort all without being thrown gazillion amounts of cash back in the day. No hand-holding or smexy graphics to wow us, just pure stealth immersive gameplay and Garret's next page turner to see what he's gotten up to nowadays. I wholeheartedly recommend Thief II: The Metal Age to veterans in the dark and seedy type or those curious to give it a shot. Excelling in aspects of audio simulation to make you appreciate sound quality in every element, A robust cool stealth system that almost didn’t work, displays with confidence a delicate balance of not shoving humor/seriousness without being overbearing, injecting a subtle approach to worldbuilding if you wish it, combines fun immersive mechanics and clever level design to make me yearn for more, all coalescing into a magnificent sequel that has only aged like fine wine. If this is how Looking Glass decided to go out with a bang then I applaud their earnest efforts in granting us one hell of a last bow to the stealth genre back in the day…

8.5/10

Mostly great sequel. Almost identical to the first game but with a few new enemies and items added. Basically like DOOM 2 was to DOOM 1.

Unlike the first Thief, which I do not think has any bad levels, and maybe only 1 mediocre level, this sequel has 7 missions which were ranging from bad to mediocre.
M1 Running Interference. A mediocre start to the game. It is a simple and unmemorable mission.
M4 Ambush! Mixed level design, I love the final section of this mission, but most of it was very bland.
M6 First City Bank and Trust was mediocre. The map is massive and a mess.
M8 Trace the Courier. The same location was reused from M4. The trailing part is awful, and you can softlock the game. Most of the mission was bad, but the ending of it was very cool. Overall, it was pretty bad.
M12 Kidnap. It would be superb on its own, but it's a reused level from the first game; some new additions and changes are very good, but I believe it was still lazy for them to reuse the level. It's not a bad level, but I have mixed feelings about it.
M13 Casing the Joint is bad. Very long and repetitive design. Lacks creativity.
M14 Masks. Literally the previous mission all over again, with only 5% or so new stuff added like notes in random spots and a few new guards, and traps. This is beyond lazy; that was 4-5 hours of reused content. The worst part about it is that you could have done the objective of this level in the previous level (or maybe it was a glitch? Cause the masks were there already and you could pick them up), but they did not count it, removed them from your inventory and you had to play the identical level once again to pick them once again. This is unbelievably bad design.

Also, this sequel had less of amazing missions than the first game as well. But still, the credit is where credit is due.
M7 Blackmail. Pretty iconic. It is quite simple, but done exceptionally well.
M9 Trail of Blood. Thief 2 really lacked supernatural, mysterious missions that the first game had. Glad it had at least one. I thought this mission would easily be my favourite, but the game surprised me again when I least expected it.
M10 Life of the Party. Massive, yet it was not cluttered. Very well designed and iconic.
M15 Sabotage at Soulforge. My favourite mission of the game. What an amazing finale. It is grandeur, huge in size, involves puzzle solving and great survival and stealth skills, as there were tons of enemies and very few resources. The layout was wonderful.

Overall, I found Thief 2 to be a bit worse than the first game, but still a great one.


7/10

The mfers industrialized