Thief II: The Metal Age

Original Thief: The Dark Project was ground-breaking (First Person Sneaker / Stealther, weak protagonist meant avoiding combat, etc). Thief 2 stuck with the same engine (dark engine.. which was used for Thief, Thief 2 & System Shock 2), but better graphics and even better game play.

The levels take an hour or more to skulk through, and you'll be busy avoiding things or finding ways to disable them while also keeping an eye out for any chance to commit petty larceny.

The missions hit all the right buttons for Thief fanatics, from breaking & entering mansions to even heisting a bank!

The Thief series started going downhill with Thief 3, since it was designed for both PC and console. So, it had reduced map sizes and removed certain features, like rope arrows, that fans loved. Then Thief (the reboot) went further in ostracizing old-school fans by rebooting Garrett as some edgy parkour expert.

If you want to experience the REAL Garrett... Thief & Thief 2 are it. He's a world-weary Garrett, a gentleman thief (depending on the way you play him), and a guy motivated by superficial greed but deep down has a heart of gold. Only he can save the world, but that doesn't mean he can't rob the place blind while doing so.

One of my all-time favorite games and series (even Thief 3 and Thief reboot I find somewhat enjoyable), but Thief 1 & 2 are the originals. Thief 2's graphics may be more palatable to modern-day gamers, but if you have the patience to play through Thief 1 (The Dark Project), it'll set up background story for a lot of the factions and motivations going on in Thief 2.

And, when you start playing missions, be prepared to play for an hour or more. You'll spend time just watching guard patrol patterns for minutes at a time to find a break in them to sneak places, or head over to disable someone.

The Thief series tickles the fancies of "ambush" and "ghost" players... Ambush players wait in the shadows to pick off targets with their blackjack or arrows, and it's highly satisfying. Ghost players love to avoid everything and just rob a place blind, getting off on the idea of people realizing a place has been robbed blind without knowing how someone could have gotten by security.

Both playstyles take the otherwise weak combatant that Garret is in toe-to-toe combat, and help stroke a God Complex in taking things out without anyone being able to stop you. Just very satisfying gameplay.

While there is climbing in this game (eg: mantling up edges, using rope arrows to climb to places), there is no "extreme parkourz!" action or what-not from the reboot. You go at your own pace in Thief 1 & 2, so you can play as fast or methodical as you like. And, the Garrett in the cut scenes matches the Garrett in game play.. being methodical, greed and stealth-driven as well. (It annoys me when games let me play one way, but cut scenes show the character acting completely different).

Thief 1 & 2 also have TONS of fan-made maps. So, once you're done beating the games, you can easily install more action .. from "loot the town" maps to more crypt-crawling, or even multi-map series adventures that progress through each map with an over-arc'ing story / plot.

To me, Thief 2 stands out as the pinnacle of the series, as a ground-breaking game that got folks thinking about FPS games differently, and I still play it to this day.