Thief™ II: The Metal Age

nostalgia, still playing in 2025.

THIS IS HOW YOU DO A THIEF GAME
This game fixed the ONE THING I hated about Thief GOLD and that was LEVEL DESIGN. This game has brilliant level design, making you want to explore the missions in full and you get proper guidance on where you're located with detailed descriptions on the individual areas on the map. No more confusing labyrinths that take an hour to wrap your head around. THEY MANAGED TO MAKE THE LOST CITY MAP COMPREHENSIBLE NOW!

The new stealth items improved the Thief experience and gave a diverse amount of equipment to use, stuff like the Scouting Orb, Vine Rope, Invisibility and Slow Fall potion made the game fun and added a level of true stealth to the game. The cameras and Mechanist' Robots challenged you to find alternative routes, find dark spots or find ways to turn them off while trying to stay alert of roaming NPCs and remain hidden. Truly a challenge on hard and expert, especially if you do a pacifist run.

My only gripe throughout my experience was the SCOUTING mission as it felt very buggy. The mission would randomly fail even if NPCs were nowhere to be seen, after solving the ghost situation, the male ghost would still roam around, following me into the corridors of the mansion and some of the doorways made my character get stuck, unable to move and forcing me to reload a previous save.

The game was enjoyable and fun to play, I'm glad there's a bunch of mods to help run this game on newer hardware and texture packs to improve the games fidelity. Tfix 2 recommended

Excellent game - ignore it's age!

ye

She giggity on my quag and it made me add mire

not as good as 1

this probably the coolest stealth game ive ever played. everything seems like a step down now. absolutely bizzare world that forces you to be the magical ninja you always wanted to be.

downloaded t2fix to get widescreen support.

One of the best games of all time. A perfect sequel to Thief. It was a joy to play 25 years ago and it is still fun.

probably the closest we've ever gotten to a perfect game. it isnt, but its close. dirt cheap. requires a bit of set up, such is the curse of old games... its so good

Best stealth game of all time. It's old, but everything holds up nice, and it has amazing fan support. Play the game, play years worth of fan missions. You'll never run out of game to play. So much bang for your buck.

main character is really hot

O Woodsie Lord, you hide
Within the vanquished gardens,
Dreaming of vengeful spring
As metal manfools grow, mid fumes,
Their weeping towers that vex
Your old mansions of honeyed bloom.
The eyeless thief plots under moons,
Tangled twice more in prophets' runes.
Gazes wrought from glass do sway
Before your masked foe: tainted
Dreamless flesh-thing fated to woe.
The thief shall tangle with your friend,
Like the vines of your home,
Chanting with wolves, flowering
With the moth whispers. Till witherings.
And spring. From hushes, may you return.
You haunt us.

Stealth caviar but very old

Thief 2 is an incredible game and the perfect follow-up to Thief: The Dark Project/Gold. The gameplay and refinement of its themes are an improvement over its predecessor. While I generally preferred the level design and story of The Dark Project, Thief 2 enhances most of what was already great about the original.

As others have mentioned in their reviews, I recommend installing T2FIX for improved gameplay while maintaining much of the original design. I know many will use a keyboard, but for anyone like me who preferes a controller, I got on very well using a Steam’s controller mapping support, however, I discovered that a standard Xbox controller had too few buttons for full functionality, so I purchased a BIGBIGWON Blitz 2 controller. This controller includes four additional mappable buttons that are easily accessible while using both joysticks, and it works very well with this game and others in the series.

Thief 2 is a perfect example of a sequel done right. It is way more consistent in terms of quality, level design, story and balance than The Dark Project, expanding the lore and world of the series, while being faithful to the premise of the original.

This time the devs definitely knew what they were aiming for from the very start. No more painful and ugly "Thieves' Guild"-esque levels or bizarrely out-of-of place combat-focused sections. No, Thief 2 is a 100% stealth game.

This comes at a cost however. People who liked the Indiana Jones type of adventures of Thief 1, like "Down in the Bonehoard" might be disappointed. Supernatural stuff is still present here and there, but it's definitely not as prevalent as in the original. That said, it fits well with the shift in tone from dark ages to more industrial/steampunk setting.

Towards the end it suffers similar issue to its predecessor. The levels are clearly rushed and unfinished. Even worse is that the two levels before the finale are on the very same map, just with some slight changes. As you can imagine, due to this it's probably the most boring section of the game.

But all in all I think it's an overall upgrade to Thief 1 and fixes most of the its frustrating issues. Can recommend.

back in thief gold, i felt that the zombie and tomb raiding sections held the game back from being something truly great
thief 2 thankfully learned from that, making 90% of this game just levels where you can sneak around and be a thief. there are a couple levels however that deviate a bit from that, and end up consequently being the worst levels in the game, one of which is a returning level from thief 1 essentially remixed (and it was one of the worst levels in that game turned into debatably the worst level in this game, idk why they did that)
for the most part this game feels less of a sequel and more like a really long expansion for thief gold, as it plays pretty much the same, controls the same, has a lot of the same assets, items, etc. (although now theres a map that tells you what room youre in so automatically its a step up). the only thing really new to this game is its new enemy types, coal-powered robots that actually give water arrows more of a purpose because thats the primary way of disabling them (by hitting the weak spot on their back) and robot cameras too. a welcome addition for the most part (until the final level)
and right out of the bat, after the introductory mission, the game drops you into one of the best levels in stealth games, with so much to explore and allowing you to do things any way you want, with plenty of options, none of which trivializing the others, plenty of loot to steal, guards to learn the paths of (or knock out) rooms with things to interract with, tons of secrets, locked doors you can open with codes to create shortcuts, its amazing. the next few levels genuinely keep up that pace as well. most missions just have you infiltrate a place, loot it and get out, with a couple extra steps here and there like taking one thing from one spot and placing it in another to frame someone like in the third mission. frankly its just pure stealth bliss, a must play for any fan of stealth games or immersive sims. admittedly the game starts to run out of steam around the late-middle part, where it gives you a trailing mission (not the worst one ive played but not very good either), followed by a mostly linear plot mission, then a rooftop mission with a cool concept and not somewhat weak execution (not that bad but it drags and should have been split into 2 missions), then a mission with a submarine that would be way better if the things you had to find weren't so annoying to look for, and then you get what might be the worst level from thief 1, and its just this combo of mid ending in straight up bad. but the next level does end up redeeming the game a bit. admittedly it does kinda prove what i said about the game losing its steam because the 2 levels following the bad one are essentially one mission given twice with the only differences being in loot, locked doors and guard placement. and yet, i will consider this one of the best examples of recycling content in a game, because the first time you do the level, its essentially in preparation for the big heist you perform next level. your sole objective is to scout the place out. find secrets, dont alert anyone, get out. it allows you to get a real feel for the place as you mark different things on your map such as where the various controls for the "cameras" are. theres plenty of conversations to listen to, some of which give hints on what you need to do, hidden halls behind walls that allow you to wander through much of the mansion without going past too many guards or cameras, even a little side plot with ghosts in the library, its a great level and i felt like a stealth master in the following level, going through all the areas again, knowing exactly how to avoid things, making my way to the top floor without alerting a soul, utilizing ceiling beams and then making my way to the rooms with all the prized valuable masks.... only to get gassed to death because i touched the floor... but im not complaining, because this is an immersive sim and the game allowed me to solve this little puzzle any way i saw fit, so i used my vine arrow to descend from the ceiling, grabbing the masks one by one without ever touching the floor, and it felt so rewarding because the game didnt tell me to do that, i was able to figure it out with my own wits, and the best part is, thats not the only way to do it, since i could have just turned off the gas. this is exactly what i love about the game. the moment where i discovered i could grab the masks like some movie burglar, it just felt so.... cinematic i guess. genuinely so, not in the tryhard way of modern AAA games that try to be movies with forced set pieces that give every player the same exact experience no matter what. no, this is the kind of stuff that makes you actually feel like you're in a movie by your own choices and actions. you dont get this kinda game anymore...
anyway then the game shits the bed with the final level by just throwing robots and cameras everywhere in this massive metal level where you have to do a bunch of cryptic stuff with dropping specific things in machines a bunch of times and also doing ubisoft towers for some reason and then just.... leaving. the first game at least tried to have a final boss. thief 2 hypes up this guy the entire game and then you beat him without really interacting with him. the game tells you not to alert him, but it doesnt matter if he is alerted because nothing will happen. its a very lengthy level too, maybe the longest and by god it drags. what a shame because i did love the rest of the game. even at its worst (besides the kidnap mission) i was still really enjoying the game and wanted to give this a full five stars, but while there are only about 2 actually bad levels in the entire game, with all the others ranging from good to masterpiece, the bad levels are just so bad that they ultimately hurt the game in my eyes. not fully of course, but the game would really benefit from a "thief 2 gold" to iron out the kinks and change up a couple levels like thief 1 had. but unfortunately looking glass shut down the same year thief 2 released, so it never happened. its a shame that such talented developers that revolutionized the first person genre at least 3 times in the 90s couldnt make it in the 2000s

anyway thief 2 is great go play it

A game so weighty, substantial and electrifying that it generates its own magnetic field.

Stealing all the guards' cock rings directly from under their noses.

Best in the the series IMO

I heard a lot of people saying this game hasn't aged well. As someone who wasn't even born yet when this game was released, I can say that isn't the case (okay, it is janky, but it isn't that bad). Have you considered that it is you that hasn't aged well?

The only game to capture pure stealth that’s ever been made. There will never be a better stealth game than this and that’s ok because Thief also has one of the best community’s ever to exist in gaming. The mods provide for unlimited replay ability. This game is a hardcore immersive sim that focuses on STEALTH. One of my top favorite game series of all time. Buy it, get a great pair of headphones, turn off the lights and get immersed in this fully grounded gothic world. 10/10 and yes it’s better then system shock I know what I said you taffer.

not nearly as good as the first but still super cool with the variety of levels and the satisfying looting, plus the sheer size of them is insane for the time of release. people way overhyped me on the story so i'll just say it's fine. passable. bad guy is bad. makes for neat set dressing and enemies so i don't mind too much but i just expected something as jaw-dropping and relevant to thief 1 the way system shock 2 was to its first title.

idk why everyone describes this as "the best imm-sim ever!!!" because the first game, system shock 2, or deus ex all beat it by a landslide. invis potion is neat though.

despite it being more annoying than its predecessor, it's ALWAYS fun to blackjack an entire army of guards in an hour, all the while discovering secrets and picking up a microscopic pile of coins hidden on some obscure second shelf of a table or accidentally saying an incantation and summoning zombies. big ol thumps up.

Great game! With genre defining gameplay.
The main story took like 15-20 hours to finish and it was wonderful. The rest of my hours are playing fan missions and a whole bunch of them are as good or better then the original games missions. There are years worth of great content for this game.
Be sure to install "T2fix" before playing. Its an community patch that adds quality of life improvements and tweaks that makes the game run properly on modern hardware.

best stealth game ever made, crazy how it still hasn't been topped

Played with T2Fix 1.27e w/ mods.
[hr][/hr]
Same great Thief gameplay but with:

• better mission structure - bonus objectives are a fun surprise and some missions even force you to do a Ghost run
  
• more thief-like atmosphere as compared to crypt/tombs/supernaturals in Thief 1
  
[*]Dialogue is funny as usual and with sprinklings of references to previous missions and games.

Thief II is the only game I've finished four times (though HL is also four times if you count Black Mesa), and replaying it every five years or so feels fresh every time. The game has so many secrets, little narrative elements and objectives, that you discover something new with each new playthrough. Or maybe you just forget the details, and thus everyting seels familiar but new.

Of course, Thief 1/2 looks not great now, after all, even upon its initial release it wasn't praised for its visuals, but for the gameplay and level design. And it's still great: I think only Dishonored 2 surpassed Thief series in both stealth mechanics and locations, not a single another game came close.

Just buy and play it: despite its age, it's still one of the greatest stealth games of all time.

average steampunk esoteric subterfuge of a brazilian politician experience

yes yes please!!!

Sneaky :)

This game is incredible. Every level now has purpose and gone are the annoying forced combat sequences. The lore is in abundance here if you're willing to sneak around to look for it and with the level design being a joy to explore that's not a big ask. Gadgets remain pretty much the same but it's how you can utilise them in more unique ways which is the real game changer.

A massive improvement upon the first game in every way, it's astonishing that they managed to make this sequel in one year.

Great game. Much better than the first (No need for a walkthrough, apart from maybe the last level). Lots of the levels are great, bar a trailing mission and possibly the last one (Interesting mission but far too long and too much backtracking). Story is as good as the first if not better, praise be to Karass being a great villain.

awesome 👍

A perfect sequel

-It preserves what made the original so fun and appealing, you pretty much can't notice a difference in style or gameplay
-Innovates with new mechanics, story, enemies
-Custscenes work without mods now, excellent
-Adresses almost all issues from the original. Any "confusing" or just convoluted level design that had you walking in circles was reworked into a much more fun to explore great levels, all the aspects that made navigation tedious we're combated, you have flares to see in the dark, a better map that tracks where you've been. Levels that feel more believable, immersive and also easier to make your way across

It's just an amazing game all together, chef's kiss

Not a bad sequel but a couple of the levels are annoying, especially the final level.

Amazing stealth game. Dark and engrossing atmosphere. Extremely cheap price. It's a shame you have to mod it to work properly on modern hardware.

9/10

Greatest Game Ever

Like the first one, but with metal. Cool

Good

its cool, the story is really well made, definitely on par with thief 1, but the last few levels i dont think hold up to the quality of the original's last few levels. wouldve been cool if the expansion looking glass had planned panned out, but 25 years later and yknow how it goes. from the looks of it, i dont think ill play thief 3.

Meh...

solid snake is somewhere in garretts balls

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Thief 1 minus the zombie, monsters and horror bullshit and greatly expanded level design.

Worth playing. One of the best stealth games I've played.

In exchange for fixed cutscenes unlike Thief Gold, the Steam version of Thief II has a few map alterations that make the game harder (Masks and Casing The Joint both have removed textures that allow for Vine arrows in the center room) and has removed the brightness scale.
Seems like a fair trade to me. Apart from only being able to play this on rainy days or night time it's a great game. Better than the first. The ledge grabbing mechanic is broken in a lot of places, but that aside it won't impede the experience much.
10/10. It let me put a bunch of guards bodies together after knocking them out. Much fun is had with implications.
Like when you kidnap Cavador he has 8 guards and they all get taken out with one invisibility potion.
Those guys are dead. "Oh sorry boss, we just got knocked out by some invisible force and then forced into a giant dark corner, we weren't having an orgy and ignoring our duty."
Those guys are dead, they're 100% getting executed. They probably got turned into the slave robots at the Cathedral.

Good sequel to the Taffer Simulator

This latest installment in the O.G. Thief series offers a compelling experience that I found nearly as enjoyable as the original. While some of the later levels exhibited a noticeable drop in quality, it did not significantly detract from my overall enjoyment. There were a few frustrating bugs, and the enemy AI could be bothersome at times, as they would pursue you even when the noise you made originated from a different location, despite moving quietly in the dark. However, this may not be an issue on lower difficulty settings, as I played on Expert throughout.

On a more positive note, the game retains the loot, secrets, and sense of exploration that fans of Thief have come to love.

In summary, if you appreciated Thief 1, I would confidently recommend Thief 2. While it may not be flawless, it certainly upholds the legacy of the Thief series. The ultimate thief returns! Move carefully through 15 intricate, non-linear levels filled with treasures to pilfer and guards to outsmart. Enhanced enemy AI, new gadgets, and an engaging narrative will immerse you in the world of Thief™ II: The Metal Age, characterized by advanced technologies, fervent religions, and deep-rooted corruption.

So, this is the infamous Garrett? I must say, he doesn't quite match the looks I had imagined.

So that's the famous Garrett, huh? Guess he's not as good looking as I'd heard.

The greatest stealth game, a master class lesson in level design (up until Casing the Joint) and enjoyment. They don't make games like this anymore.

If I had to summarize in a few words, I'd say this game is good but not great.

The main change from the first game to the second is the shift from a more supernatural world to a mechanical one. The addition of robots was an interesting change, forcing you to change your path and tactics to get through areas. That being said, the fact they are so easy to disable with water arrows makes them get boring fast. I think getting rid of the supernatural elements made the game a lot more bland, when 90% of the enemies you're dealing with are just guards/Mechanists.

Some of the missions, like First City Bank, Framed, and Blackmailed were phenomenal and brought out the best of the game. On the other hand, missions like Ambush, Trace the Courier, and Kidnap were really, really bad. I almost hate the final mission. It was way too long and complicated and had tons of backtracking and the robots just became so annoying. I also hated how you had to replay the exact same level with no differences back to back with Casing the Joint and Masks when it should have just been one mission.

The other missions were mostly good but some were mixed. Shipping and Receiving was a little too boring in my opinion since it's this giant map that you have to constantly backtrack in with relatively few guards. Eavesdropping and Life of the Part were kinda the same, just big maps that end up being pretty boring. Trail of Blood and Precious Cargo were pretty fun though.

Overall, I think the main things this game suffers from is monotonous gameplay and a lack of atmosphere, which were both so fantastic in the first game. It just feels like something was lost from the first game.

It's still absolutely worth playing if you enjoyed Thief Gold, but if I had to pick between the two, I would pick Thief Gold every single time.

P.S. I had to boot the game outside of Steam in order for T2Fix to work, hence why my playtime is so low