I feel a long post coming, so forgive me. But having just played the three Thief games, this seems like a good place to offer up my opinion.

Thief Gold

It's fun, which, sadly, is more than I can say for most older games I play. That said, it has a lot of stuff that isn't so fun. First off, the undead. Maybe they aren't the most original thing to dislike, but seriously, they are annoying. I absolutely hated the Haunted Citadel level, primarily because it was jam-packed with undead (but also because it was just a slog having to do all that stuff). Aside from the undead, far too often, all of the environments felt too claustrophobic, and not in a good-and-adds-to-the-atmosphere kind of way. A lot of stuff felt too closed in and it drove me crazy. For that reason alone I consider the Mages Guild to be one of my favorite levels. Some of its largeness may have been an illusion, but it worked. It was a bit of a slog having to go through each tower, but I found it preferable to moving through tight hallways for thirty minutes.

As for the other Gold missions, I was unimpressed. I actually didn't find the Thieves Guild level too bad-- sure it was maze-like, but I actually didn't have too many problems with the level. Maybe I got lucky, but I figured out how to go about the mission pretty quickly. Still, it wasn't necessary in regards to character development or plot (but more on that in a bit). The Song of the Caverns mission, though, I found to be about on the same level as the Thieves Guild. It had a few nice moments (I liked the back stage area), but I mostly felt indifferent toward.

My biggest problem with the entire game, however, is its plot. Now, I know most people consider Thief 1's plot to be the best, but I can't say I agree. It was pretty good, that much is true. However, it took forever to get started, and I don't think that can be blamed entirely on the addition of the Gold missions, thought they certainly exacerbated the problem. I don't know, maybe I'm just hard to please, but I didn't find the plot to be very intriguing until the big event happens (I don't want to spoil anything, but those who have played the game should know what I am talking about). From there the story was great, I was hooked. But before that, the only thing keeping me going was the (mostly) fun gameplay (which I guess says a lot for the gameplay).

I realize all of that sounds a bit negative, so I guess I should say this: I really did enjoy the game. I even consider it to be one of my better purchases on GOG, and I'll definitely play it again.

Thief II

Where Thief Gold needed corrections, Thief II delivered... mostly. The human-on-human focus greatly improved Thief II. The larger environments kept me from feeling stifled. And lastly, I found the plot to be ever-so-slightly better. It didn't have the same punch as the plot in Thief Gold, but it was more consistent and didn't take a dozen levels to gather steam.

Still, it isn't without its problems. Thief II has "meh" missions just like Thief Gold, and I'm sorry to say that Life of the Party was one of those. I liked the first third of the mission. It was fun sticking to the rooftops and there were a few great moments, my favorite being the interaction of the guards of rival families. Not only was it hilarious, it ended with me having fewer enemies to avoid. But once I got to Angelwatch, the level wasn't so fun. In this level's case, the greater size of the missions was something of a problem. The mission just felt way too long. Also, Casing the Joint and Masks were annoying, especially being consecutive missions.

Another annoying thing? Cameras. I mean, seriously. I had to open my fat mouth and tell my brother that Thief Gold was a refreshing departure from most stealth games I had played because the setting didn't allow for cameras. Apparently, the Metal Age allowed for cameras, and that is stupid.

So I definitely prefer Thief II. It has its problems, but it lacked some of the things that annoyed me in Thief Gold. But is Thief II my favorite Thief game. Wellllll... no. I'm sorry Thief fans, this may be blasphemous, but my favorite Thief is:

Thief: Deadly Shadows

I know, I know. This thread is about Thief Gold and Thief II, but I'm on a role here. I haven't typed this much in ages and it feels good.

Now, I get the impression that DS is the least-liked Thief among the Thief fans. I don't know if that is an accurate impression, but if it is, you guys are just going to have to forgive me (and I'll keep this short).

T:DS had everything the other two had, minus some of the annoyances and plus the greatest thing: more Keepers! Seriously, in both of the previous games (Thief II moreso because it teased the player with the Keepers more than the first did), I kept waiting and waiting for the Keepers to step in and play a much larger role, but it never happened. But T:DS delivered.

Mission-wise, T:DS was a little annoying. While load times weren't too long, they were much longer than I like and were more frequent than I like. Still, I could look past that because I thought the gameplay and story were much better. Speaking of story, it was definitely my favorite plot in the Thief series. It kept me riveted from beginning to end.

My final note on T:DS is the Shalebridge Cradle. Oh. My. Word. The single best level in the whole series and the only one that actually scared me. Multiple times. It had the best atmosphere and had a great gameplay element. It was only used in that level and not even for very long, but it was incredible. I'll admit that when it comes right down to it, the mission isn't very difficult, but it more than made up for that in atmosphere and plot.

TL;DR: Thief Gold is good but has a lot of problems, Thief II is better but still has problems, and Thief: Deadly Shadows has a few problems but is awesome overall and is my favorite Thief game.