Will there ever be a natural successor to Thief...

You fucking know it.

Obligatory best level video.

It's not a false distintion, having the option to do something does not actually make it what the game is about.

Predatory stealth actually expects and rewards the player for taking out enemies and is geared towards that with multiple tools dedicated solely for combat.
"True Stealth" however never awards you whatsoever for taking out enemies and every resource you spent dealing with them will be seen as a waste.
For example, Deus Ex vs DXHR.

In the first game, you won nothing but maybe some ammo after taking down guards and nothing even for taking out bots.
There was no experience bonus for combat either and the only few times you were rewarded would be if you were hired to kill someone. The game also gave you plenty of tools (hacking, stealth camo as augs and items, binoculars, rebreathers, gas grenades) that could be used to avoid combat, and although it had plenty of guns and combat was very much viable, it never rewarded you for going that way anymore than using stealth.

By contrast, Human Revolution actually gives you XP for neutralizing enemies. It might seem like it rewards stealth more than combat since the biggest reward comes from non-lethal stealth take downs, but what it's actually doing is rewarding engaging your enemy instead of ignoring them.
This is so bad even DX2 does it better

ok

You're going to pickpocked guards anyway, might as well hit them too. It's also simpler to put an arrow in nonhumans than to slip by.

I think Invisible Inc is more interesting, where you are usually penalized for as much as knocking out enemies.

Why can't I get this game to run properly on my computer? I pirated the GOG version but keys are fucking broken.

I actually found the combat to be easy.
What difficulty am I supposed to play in?

I wish Invisible Inc had more levels. After a while looking at the same levels got boring especially since I always got Plastech and no other corp.

TFix.

Master. It changes up objectives, guard patterns/numbers, treasure locations and sometimes parts of the level.

So were talking about stealth games? I enjoyed Styx master of shadows. Good plot twist and some interesting power ups too.

Excellent post. Pure stealth is dead and all of you stealth fans made it possible by playing dishonored, styx and ass creed