I can't think of any game that has done sneaking better. HUGE levels, superb use of audio and light. It is so much fun I quickly forgot about the 10-year-old graphics (and I believe there are mods for correcting that now).

This game isn't linear or easy. Loot quotas force you to explore your surroundings and it rewards the observant with many a secret stash or alternatve point of entry.

There is some slog in the middle as the thief universe has always had a mystical bent that I could do without and the last level can get very frustrating but that didn't stop me playing it through twice in a row.

What really sells me in the end is I *feel* like a proper thief when I play this. I can't recommend it enough.

Thief 2 (along with its predecessor) will shine on as timeless gems in the PC goldmine that is the turn of the millenium - apart from its chilling sound base, Thief 2 carves its own niche in the art of level design. This is one of the only 1st person games with a truly realistic environment - entire wings of a building may contain no leads, no loot, no nothing. Or it might just hold a secret. As a gamer, you are left guessing, until you take the time to explore it. Forget polygon counts, forget sloped terrain - Thief 2's calibur of level design, in and of itself, makes it a winner. P.S Let's not talk about the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ re-make.

Thief II: The Metal Age sets the high water mark for stealth gaming. Bar none. No game before or since can compare to the immersiveness of this game and it's fine-tuned mechanics. It manages to mix the fantasy, strategy and adventure aspects of the first with a more prescient storyline than the first Thief game. The first game was an excellent stealth game that occasionally drifted too far into Tomb Raider territory with it's platformy style missions, devious traps and creature threats. The fact that Eidos was the publisher of both Thief and Tomb Raider, and that one of the missions had you raiding an underground tomb frought with booby traps and monsters, ought to tell you something. Thief 2 , thankfully, focuses on the strengths of the stealth system and makes that the core of the game and not just an aspect of it. That's not to say you won't be jumping across ravines and encountering creatures, but the heist-pulling, pick-pocketing and blackjacking really comes into thier own in Thief 2. I've read that the developers created the missions of the first game to suit the plot, while the missions of the second were produced first with the plot retrofitted. In any case, the levels are larger and more complex than the first.

The graphics had gotten a slight bump from the first game with higher poly models, better texturing and weather effects. They even added dithering to the hardware renderer, which was a nice addition. It did have the effect of dampening the deep shadows that were such a part of the first game, but it generally made the game more pleasing to the eye.

The sound design is, again, excellent. Sound propagation is one of the core facets of gameplay. Listening to footsteps draw near or fade into the distance allow you to judge from your hiding place in the shadows whether or not you can risk stepping into lit areas. Leaning against doors to listen to conversations or the presence of sounds in the next room allow you to determine if opening a door is wise or not. Sound is fundamental to this game. You will not be able to play this game successfully while blasting Megadeth or Slayer. Just not happening. And that's one of the things that makes this game so damn immersive. You are literally concerned with the environment both visually and aurally at all times. It sucks you in.

There are some new gadgets in this game. Garrett lost an eye in the first game, and that has been replaced by a mechanical eye that can zoom in and out like a telescope. A new object called the Scouting Orb allows you to take a peak over walls or around corners without exposing yourself. There are also new potions and a new arrow: the vine arrow. Similar to the rope arrow, but it can "stick" to things rope arrows can't, like metal gratings.

The design went from a predominantly dark age style steampunk in Thief 1 to a predominantly Victorian era style steampunk in Thief 2, in much of it's architecture. Actually, art deco also makes an appearance as part of the design of buildings operated by a faction that's new to Thief 2, the Mechanists. The European old world oozes in these games. In fact, many of the textures from Thief 1 and Thief 2 were from photos of architecture taken by the developers while vacationing in Europe. The overall design is pretty immaculate.

The first two Thief games share a cult status, along with System Shock2 (uses the same game engine and made by some of the same people), as games of remarkable vision and quality. They are all lauded as excellent games by the gaming press and continue to make the top # lists. The gameplay transcends gaming. To play this game is to embark on an existential and metaphysical experience. This game seems to attract a higher-brow gaming audience. There is a community forum that has been the stomping grounds of its players since the games were released. They have created hundreds of fan missions to play; you can find it here: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forum.php

Here you can get a community made patch that updates the rendering of the game and allows for some nice effects, like bloom, while also fixing a number of leftover bugs: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131106

Here you can get a high resolution patch that updates some models, textures and also adds a numbder of new effects to the game: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144312

Here you can read about and find fan missions to play: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100

Unlike the first game, this one is much more steampunk-oriented. Much more so than even Deadly Shadows.
This was a very deliberate choice as the main antagonist created a morphed Hammerite order obsessed with techonology, steam-powered engines and such.

There are no more supernatural, mysterious creatures around the world. This is the triumph of technology, so a good part of the game is spent with human AI's if you enjoyed that. About half of the game is spent "rubbing shoulders" with the rich, going to various mansions of flexible level design, especially by the end when Looking Glass was close to bankruptcy.

It's just that same, immersive game as always. I did find it to be a little disappointing to see fewer horror sequences, but it's all the same great. The story picks up right after Thief 1. Without saying too much I think everyone owes it to themselves to try the game for themselves, simply because this is as much of a breakthrough in the stealth genre as Half Life for shooters.

You can find the free demo of the game here: http://www.thief-thecircle.com/media/demos/

The game never disappointed me since the first one. It has really good maps, and stealthy as usual. Though it doesnt seem to be as horrifying than the first. Lost its bit of touch with horror. Regardless, there are some levels that are rather challenging, especially on highest difficulty. I just love the challenge in this game.

One thing that bugs me however...... No fan missions in workshop. Would RECOMMEND having THAT in steam. Would definitely try whatever maps that throws in steam workshop. I know its in a website, but i feel it would be nice if it was in steam workshop, dont we agree?

Anyways, this game i recommend anyone. I dont recommend to people that never played the first though. :P

Played Thief: GOLD first and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thief II is no different offering a similar experience, but with some improvements. The levels look much better and flow better. Like the first, the story and cutscenes are great. Garrett is awesome and so is Thief II.

Really great stealth game, the 1st game has more horror elements, this 2nd really bring out the feel of the steampunk universe that the series is set in even more than the 1st game and brings a host of different challenges that the 1st game did not.

Thief 2: The Metal Age, developped by (the long since defunct) Looking Glass Studios, is the direct sequel to 1998's Thief:The Dark Project. To summarize, you play as master thief Garret (voiced by the great Stephen Russel) who is trying to unravel The City's new religious order, The Mechanists (the replacement of the first game's Hammerites, who believed in the Creator and that industrial construction was the way to keep evil influences, such as the Trickster (a Pan-esque God who worships chaos and nature) at bay. If you don't understand you should check out the first game, it's great!) and their leader, Father Karras, the likes of which are inventing new mechanical innovations in security and industry (robot guards, cameras,etc).

The core stealth gameplay is still here from Thief 1, with the ability to deal with guards either lethally or nonlethally (avoiding or blackjacking them) and either playstyles are sufficiently suitable for every mission. This is primarily because the level design in Thief 2 (like its predecessor) contains many hidden paths and secrets to find and explore to deal with mission objectives and secure the most amount of loot possible. Also with new items such as invisibility potions and old ones such as noisemaker arrows (used to distract guards and clear paths), as previously stated, both playstyles are equally supported in the game.

The stealth mechanics are still as great as the first game, with the "light gem" still in effect( flashing white if you are visible; dark if you are not), the ability to lean around corners to see guards/ cameras/etc. and the aforementioned items to facilitate being stealthy. One improvement I loved from Thief 2 is the change of setting for the missions, from looting ancient crypts and supernatural dimensions( still awesome but not very thief-like) to looting actual mansions and houses (especially the amount of loot in every level, with multiple areas to scour and explore). And whilst these houses and mansions may not look too good, i feel the art style has a certain charm to it.

Another reason why i enjoy this game? Its story and atmosphere, Garret's tale and The City's backstory is thoroughly established in the pre mission cutscenes and books and texts found throughout levels. And the game's soundtrack is simply amazing, with chilling sweeping synths and general dark tones, the game's soundtrack gives the player a sense of always being watched, of potentially being hunted down, which gives the game's world such a distinctive feeling of ambience and general eerieness. But these are just my thoughts so feel free to check this amazing game out if you'd like, but I'd recommend checking out the first game beforehand, then diving into The Metal Age's world.

They don't make stealth games like this any more

I've been a Thief fan since The Dark Project came out, first introducing "first-person sneakers". I just deided to play Thief 2 again after buying it on Steam. WOW is it different than "THIEF" (the newest one, not part of the original trilogy). It's in a league of its own. Strategy, timing, and pure stealth are key in the Thief trilogy. The graphics are very much outdated, but it is still a ridiculously immersive game, partly because the creators put a LOT of time into sounds. This was also true in the first one, Thief: The Dark Project. When you're getting your bearings and trying to find a safe time to move (which is a constant throughout the game), listening is key. If you have a busy or otherwise noisy household, you're gonna have a hard time playing this game. It is absolutely reliant upon being able to listen closely to the movements of nearby NPCs, and sometimes the spoken hints as you're listening to their conversations.

To make Thief 2 even better, it not only has zombies sometimes like Thief 1, but it also has "metal beasts" -- creations of the Mechanists (a splinter of the Hammerite cult), which are creepy in their own way, but also very hard to kill if you find yourself in that position.

I miss games back in the day. In the bank level, the first time I played it, it took me just over 4 hours to beat. That's just one of many levels. What made so many older games awesome was that some games had absolutely gargantuan levels, and in the Thief trilogy they had a dozen ways of being completed, increasing replayability, whereas games today tend to be so linear, with the exception of a rare few.

Enjoy it!

Thief II was, and is an iconic game, and definitely one of my favorites. I've beaten this game over and over again on every difficulty. It really never gets old, even if you feel it does, there are hundreds of fan missions to play with surprising quality. Classic.

Highly recommend this game with thief gold as well. The first and second are amazingly beautiful games

Genre-defining, still viable and exciting after all these years. Welcome back, old friend, you live again thanks to Steam. Are the graphics dated? You bet. Have other stealth games moved beyond the style and focus of this series? Sure thing. Has anything topped the excitement and (with DarkLoader) the moddability and community of this series? Not really -- only the TES games can say that. Great series, and this is the best of the lot.

Thief 2 is a game an old game thats amazing, numerous ways of achieving objectives, great stealth mechanics, lots of secrets , the game trusts that your not a ♥♥♥♥♥ can be a bad thing especialy for me i have got lost inumerous times. Conclusion its a great stealth game that is old but its still up to this day pretty amazing that doesnt mean it has its flaws (guards ai is buggy, etc ... ) you should probably go into this game expecting not that great of graphics (u can fix this with mods) and some ocasional bugs but the pros out weight the cons ... so buy the game if you're a stealth fan :D

This game is absolutly amaizing. Huge open levels that you can play time and time again, good blend of action and stealth, tons of interesting items... 10/10

My new favorite Stealth game. It has anything you'd want in one, different difficulties, all giving you different tasks to complete each mission, multiple ways to get the job done, and (mostly) clever AI. I wish I would've found this game sooner, it's one of the most explicitly stealth oriented games I've ever played. It also removed the annoying dungeon-crawling levels from the first game, replacing them with no-violence stealth missions. Unlike most modern stealth games, this one doesn't let you get away with getting spotted by killing whoever has seen you, you'd better have some flash bombs or a good escape route, or else the only way you're leaving is in a bodybag.

Thief II: The Metal Age is one of the finest games ever made. It boasts one of the deepest stealth systems ever created as part of a deeply simulation-oriented approach to all aspects of design which is both breathtaking and sadly rare. Don't miss it; especially if the only Thief you've ever played is Eidos Montreal's hideous attempt.

The first two Thief games are still the best. Dated graphics that even a phone can out do, but the game play and story are top notch!.

Even better than its predecessor

Instant knockout with club + horrid graphics + amazing gameplay = 11/10 would buy again.