Hello, Friend! Tell me, did you, like me, decide to try these games after all the glowing reviews and retrospectives? If so, those commenters have deliberately misled you by omitting critical points:
First, they last played Thief I and II 15-30 years ago. Their opinion of the game is based on nostalgia and memories of how great it was back then. If they tried it now, their opinion might change.
Second, they call themselves stealth fans, but most likely, the Thief and Splinter Cell series are the only stealth games they've played and regularly replay. They haven't tried Hunt: Showdown, haven't played Hitman or Styx, haven't played Far Cry, Metro, Terminator Resistance, Assasin's Creed stealthily, haven't played any of the Commanderados-like games (Commandos + Desperados, Guerrillas 1941, Shadow Tactics, etc.), etc.
In other words, their experience is limited to these two game series. They deliberately remain blind to the evolution and diversity of stealth mechanics, as well as the accompanying game structures and mechanics. Or they deliberately fail to compare modern and older implementations of mechanics, so they can continue to claim that Thief I and II are the best stealth games ever made, even today.
If you try to criticize their sacred game, they'll resort to dirty manipulation: "You can't hold an old game to modern standards." Why not? If I, as a modern player, am strongly recommended to play this old game because it's a must-play classic, and they ask for money for it—we condemn piracy, after all—then it's perfectly logical that I'll hold it to modern standards. I paid the money, after all, right?
I can overlook a game's shortcomings as a modern player, but only if it has something unique that's missing from more or less modern games. For example, despite the graphics and clunky controls, the early Tomb Raider games are still engaging, thanks to their rich acrobatics and puzzles with levels tailored to those acrobatics. But what about Thief I and II? They're woefully outdated and offer nothing unique to justify their shortcomings.
In Thief I and II, stealth is all about staying silent and hiding in the shadows? Try Hunt: Showdown and Metro.
Can you feel like a thief in Thief I and II? Your first playthrough definitely won't feel like a thief, but rather like a Far Cry character stealthily clearing a level. To truly feel like a thief, you need to memorize the level, but this isn't Hitman, which was designed to make replaying the same levels convenient and engaging. A video walkthrough will suffice.
Now I'll list everything I didn't like about Thief I and II.
No automap (auto-generated map)
There's a level map in the "Mission Objectives" section, but it's always too general, abstract, and uninformative. I can understand such maps as an element of ambiance, immersion, and atmosphere. I can understand a blank automap at the start of a mission or on a first playthrough, but I can't understand its complete absence, even without a mod.
Defenders justify the lack of an automap by saying it's neither diegetic nor immersive, and simply advise training your memory and memorizing the level. Memorize? A level? Where walls and passages are similar and easy to get lost and confused, and you can't place markers on walls? Cool...
Also, for some reason, these same defenders aren't bothered by the completely non-diegetic and non-immersive stealth level HUD indicator, shaped like a pebble, right before their eyes. The Metro series also has a similar indicator, but at least it's ostensibly diegetic, located on Artyom's wrist.
Optional loot is mandatory for mission completion.
In addition to the mission's main item, you need to steal loot worth n amount to complete the mission. Imagine a shooter: imagine that to advance to the next level, in addition to killing all the enemies on the level, you must discover every secret, pick up every collectible, every bullet, and every first aid kit. Now imagine that the game allows you to replay a level, but you have to open and pick up everything anew each time.
Verticality and Roleplaying as a Thief
What do you expect from playing as a thief? Climbing walls, throwing a grappling hook, jumping across rooftops, breaking through windows, breaking through sewers, climbing beams under the ceiling—forget it. Most often, you'll only have access to the main entrance or, at worst, the back one around the corner. The ceilings are low here (it's surprising there wasn't a fire).
- Graphics. Install the HD mod and it'll be fine.
- Traps. We play as a thief – a master of infiltration and traps. It's perfectly reasonable to expect to be able to set and disarm traps like in Hitman or Deus Ex, right? No! There are almost no traps, and we can't disarm them. We have mines, but they're not available in every level and in a limited variety, and we also can't easily place them like in Hitman.
- Light and Shadow. The HUD indicator for your stealth level is absolutely essential to the game because light and shadow are completely unintuitive: you're seemingly in the light, but invisible; you're seemingly in the shadows, but visible.
- Flashlight. The game is pitch-black, you could poke your eye out, but the flashlight can only be obtained in the second mission of Thief 1; it's not available in the other missions. Immediately crank the brightness to maximum and consider yourself the owner of special night vision, acquired through training as a thief or a custodian. There's a lantern mod (https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-lantern-mod/downloads/thief-lantern-mod), but it doesn't work with the HD mod.
- Lights off. NPCs react to sound, but they don't react to lights being turned off right under their noses.
- Torches. I'll go over there and put out that torch. I can't? Only with arrows? But I can go over there and put it out with Metro.
- Shoes. Are we playing as a thief who hasn't even thought of wearing soft-soled boots?!
- Lockpicks. Why are there two of them if they're not consumables, and therefore there won't be a situation where we can't open a chest because we don't have enough lockpicks? Immersive? Why only two then? Why not ten? We also play as an experienced, skilled, and renowned thief, but whose lockpicks can only open 10-20% of locks, not 80-90%.
- Keys. Why is there no key holder, even though there was one in Ultima?
- Cheats. There's only one built-in, working cheat: mission completion. The minimum set of cheats: immortality, invisibility, all equipment, all consumables, one hit = one kill/KO.
- Intelligence. You can buy intelligence in the game, but its usefulness is questionable. If you're counting on buying the entire level map, then no. The second game has much better hints.
- Rope arrows. In the first game, they're almost never needed, but in the second game, they're much better.
- Guards in helmets. Oh! A guard in a helmet?! I suppose he can't be stunned from behind, and even if he could, the hit would make such a noise that everyone would come running? Oh, no... You can knock them out, no one will come running.
- Equipment "shop." Saved equipment from the previous mission doesn't carry over to the next. The equipment available for purchase changes each time: there are missions where rope arrows, invisibility potions, and so on would be very useful, but they can't be purchased, only found in the level, even though they were available for purchase at the beginning of the previous mission.
P.S. In the end, reading and watching about the game turned out to be more interesting than playing it. I hope the remake or reboot will be built along the lines of Hitman.
P.S.S. I don't deny Thief's historical importance. But when a game is recommended to modern players as a truly outstanding stealth experience, rather than as a historical artifact, it inevitably begins to compete with modern games. And in this competition, many of its mechanics feel outdated, awkward, and limited.
