Steam User Reviews - Thief

Did Rageaholic write this? Can't say I find the rant all that amusing since to be completely honest it kinda reeks of elitism, like shit what's wrong with enjoying all of the games that guy just bashed while also enjoying Thief? Shit I love Thief 2, it's absolutely fantastic, but just because I enjoy that game doesn't mean I'm going to turn into some snob who suddenly automatically thinks Dishonored, Far Cry, etc are garbage.

Also it's not a particularly amusing sarcastic rant when you take into consideration there's actually a decent number of Thief fans who really do in fact regard Dishonored as a truer successor to the Thief series compared to the 2014 reboot. Hell the devs at Arkane managed to get the original voice of Garret to play Corvo in Dishonored 2 when not even Eidos bothered to do that for the Thief reboot.

I think it's more the fact that stealth games like Thief 2 are dying in favour of (and let's be completely honest here) dumbed down stealth games designed for mass market appeal. Traditional stealth games are not considered mainstream, too slow or too much trial and error.
Anybody is free to like Dishonored, but Thief 2 is objectively better as a pure stealth game, while Dishonered is less commited to the idea. It's a mish-mash of different game mechanics designed to please everyone and therefore none of them are very deep. The stealth in that game is so basic and simplistic. And if some like that? That's great! But I think it's unfair to call people "elitist" for missing the more nuanced approach to stealth that the Thief series provides.
Am I an elitist for wanting the "spiritual successor to Thief" to have stealth mechanics that equal or, god forbid, surpass the game it's supposedly inspired by?