It seems a little different from your usual vibe (it’s not an first/third-person shooter-y thingie; iirc it’s isometric and pixel-art?); but it’s easily the best stealth game I’ve ever played. :D
Plus one for Invisible, Inc. It’s like XCOM but spies. Such a great game from an awesome developer. One of many of their games that I’ve got every stream achievement for.
I recently played through all three Thief games. Start with Thief: The Dark Project, then Thief 2: The Metal Age. Finally, Thief: Deadly Shadows is a bit controversial but i still think its worth a playthrough. Don’t bother with Thief (2014). They are old but IMHO some of the best stealth games made to this day. If you check them out, highly recommend looking up some mods. Tfix for the first game I think, and there are even some HD mods if old graphics bother you.
Also, I’ve never played them but heard the Splinter Cell games are fantastic stealth games. Might be worth a look.
To follow up on what was said above, Thief: Gold/The Dark Project and Thief 2: The Metal Age are easily two of the best stealth games out there, especially with all the work fans have done to keep the games playable and fantastic on modern hardware. Between the phenomenal level design, a unique and pretty engaging story, and all around fun game play offering tons of ways to approach situations, they're always worth a recommend from me for at least a single playthrough, easily netting 15-30 hours of game time per game. The wide variance in time spent with each is partially due to the freedom you have, but also since each difficulty step up changes your objectives for each mission, giving you further reasons to explore and have fun with the world.
Thief: Deadly Shadows is harder to recommend due to it being built with consoles in mind, but once again, with some fan patches it becomes a much better experience and can definitely be worth the time, particularly when they're all on sale for so cheap. Each of them is currently just under $1 on steam, one of the best deals you can get.
Coming from someone who bought Thief 2014 at launch (and enjoyed it), I'd recommend a skip on that one. It's not a bad game by any means, but it doesn't feel like it's nearly as good as the original 3 for a variety of reasons.
Splinter Cell also are fantastic games in the stealth genre, but I'm not familiar enough with them to speak at length on them like the Thief series.
If you want something really different but really cool you should look into Invisible Inc., rogueline turn-based tactical stealth in a cyberpunk setting. The way they handle the levels of alertness and challenge ramping up as you remain for too long and take risky actions in each level is really interesting.
I don’t know if it fits the criteria, but A Plagues Tale series are great stealth games. A little different genre compared to the others, but unique enough to shine among these others in my opinion.
Interestingly I’d say Elden Ring is the most forgiving when it came to the “death penalty” you mention compared to all the other titles. There were far more rest points and things were so much more interconnected so you can stroll through/around most of the enemies to get back to where you died. Not always but a lot of times.
Also I found that really using your summons (especially mimic!) really helped with the difficulty. Also using magic makes life way easier. A lot of people just tend to go for the pure melee build which is making life really hard for yourself.
Yeah, I have no pride about using summons for the boss fights. I figure I can be l33t and solo bosses on my New Game+ play through if I ever get that far.
I do have alt-itis bad in these kinds of games. I started with a 2h Strength build, tried dual wield, sword and board, pure int mage, pure dex sword/bow, and dex/int spellblade. So far my 2h build and my spellblade have been the most fun for me. As you mentioned, I realized that the versatility of the spellblade worked really well… the ranged magic trivialized some areas and having a melee tool let me hold my own when range wasn’t an option. I am starting to think I need a better dex sword than the Estoc/Rapier tho. The poke poke move set is really bad against groups.
I did a int/dex build as well and loved it. I used the Demi Human Queens Staff and Moonveil Katana upgraded to the max, I may have switched the staff at some point but that took me very far. You should also look into the FP physik tears, especially the Cerulean Hidden Tear + Magic Shrouding Cracked Tear which makes it so easy to blast off some big spells for free and high damage. I especially recommend using it with the Comet Azur to wreck bosses right off the bat.
I can only speak for the first 3 paid dlc, since I still haven’t played the castlevania one. The first 3 essentially add an alternate route to the game, so about 6ish levels and 5 bosses between them. With the exception of the queen and the sea*, the DLC content isn’t that much harder than base game stuff, and it’s all accessible in the games easiest difficulty (generally they’re easier than stuff from the free updates lol). They’re pretty good at adding a bit of extra variety in what routes you can take through the game, and add some extra items. Compared to some other games I play (stellaris), the DLC do feel pretty optional which is nice to see, and to the best of my knowledge they were also partially intended to support the creation of the free content as well.
*the bosses in that dlc are rough ngl. Queen boss fight is really fun though.
I should add that it isn’t perfect, it’s early access so expect some weirdness albeit a whole lot less than you’d think.
My favourite, for example: if you’re hiding behind cover make sure it is THICK, else a body part might clip through the model making it able to be shot. Mostly happens when prone making legs and feet stick out.
Since you mentioned New Vegas, there’s Menace of The New West and Titans of The New West 2.0, they change Super Mutants and Power Armor respectively to resemble the ones in FO1 and FO2, purely aesthetic but adds a lot of flavor especially for Power Armor.
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