Thief was a stealth-action 1998 PC game by now defunct Looking Glass Studios (the team included BioShock designer, Ken Levine), where avoiding combat and detection, picking locks and stealing from the smugly prosperous took precedence over the sort of mindless carnage that games like Doom celebrated.
You assumed the role of master thief Garrett, a former member of a city cabal known as the Keepers, tasked with unraveling a supernatural mystery. Prowling a medieval steampunk metropolis, you had to skulk in shadows to avoid detection, taking out enemies silently, one at a time, and avoiding well-equipped guards who could rush you in deadly squads if alerted.