1 MURDER MOST FOUL
Atmospheric and detailed, ridiculous loot count

The first mission of Death's Cold Embrace - which I've been meaning to play for a while now - goes style over substance. I love Thief's dark ambient, but using classical music felt like a really fresh take that adds a different kind of character to the environment. Interiors are lovingly crafted, and the readables provide great depth and add intrigue. The story is creepy and even a little thought-provoking. There's a few hidden easter eggs that strengthen the narrative even more. Unfortunately, the level itself feels fairly dull.

It's another city mission. In my eyes, there's two types of city missions. One is the type represented by "Assassins" from the first Thief, or the undercooked "Ambush!" from Thief II. It's also used a lot in T2X. It's a lot of streets to sloowly walk through, with barely any verticality to speak of. The second type of city mission is the one introduced by Thief II's "Life of the Party", and has been successfully used for wonderful missions like "Legacy of Knoss" and "Compulsory Egress". Verticality and complexity is at the core of this type, and you barely feel bored figuring out what a certain direction will lead to.

"Murder Most Foul" is the one with a flat floor and some buildings popped onto it, like in "Assassins". It's not very engaging, though it's not necessarily badly executed. The ridiculously high loot count doesn't help matters, however. After finishing the main objective, I still had to collect 4000(!!!) loot, out of 7000 (!!!). I've never seen such a high loot goal outside of Sensut missions, in which one piece of loot is worth about ten times as much. Getting to this loot requires (or is made easier by) finding some insanely well-hidden keys and switches and whatnot. Blegh.

There's a basement section that's wonderfully done. It hides a real terror of creation. Funnily, you can just lift them up to the ground floor using the elevator in the house (some people prefer to deal with threats in a place where they stand a chance without being spooked out of their mind). Once they've escaped the house, they become the lovely ally of many guards, who don't seem to mind the... nature of the monster (anymore, considering what's in some readables). No one attacks the thing, which was hilarious.

I appreciate the effort that's gone into this first mission, but it's not super enjoyable to play. I really hope the next mission is more fun.

Atmosphere: 9
Gameplay: 5
Story: 8
OVERALL RATING: 6
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2 A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
Wonderfully cozy

This mission got me really excited for the rest of the campaign. This mansion isn't necessarily standout in its design, but features such a lovely atmosphere. It just grabbed me. The readables are, once again, a highlight. Eventually, you realize that every NPC (save for the standard guards) are mentioned in readables. This means you can piece together which NPC is who. That's just great.

The level design is well-done. The detail is great. Lamps can be turned off, pretty much all of them. When the room turns dark, night lights emerge from their slumber. It looks really warm, in its own way. The gameplay is mostly engaging. I loved the puzzle involving stools. I didn't like the super tiny switches being all over the place, however.

Atmosphere: 9
Gameplay: 7
Story: 8
OVERALL RATING: 8
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3 RENDEZVOUS AT THE HARLEQUIN
More of an intermission

This mission sends you back to the Dayport map, just to walk to the local inn. This takes about 15 minutes. Not much special.

Atmosphere: 7
Gameplay: 7
Story: 7
OVERALL RATING: 7
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4 FATE INTERVENES
More of a cutscene

This isn't an actual mission. It's a cutscene. It's done really well, being in-engine and all.

What bothered me a bit, is the story itself. It's nicely told, but makes little sense. Julia just barges straight into a swordfight between her brother and her lover. That looked a bit silly, to be frank. It diminished the impact of her death substantially.

Atmosphere: 8
Gameplay: X
Story: 6
OVERALL RATING: 6
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5 SEEKING COUNSEL WITH SHADOWS
Back to Dayport

We see ourselves back in the map of the first mission for the third time. Not much has changed, save for some interiors being closed off and others having opened up. Some parts of progression felt tough to figure out. A little more nudging would have excused some hard to find progression points. Scouring the contents of a room, in search of a hidden book, is one thing. But this works if you at least know for certain that you have to look around in said room. The objectives don't help you into any direction. "Find information about this and that" works inside a mansion, or any other large, newly uncovered interior - you're exploring all of it, after all. Here, you're exploring a map you've already seen twice before. You don't really feel like searching every nook and cranny for info.

The new interiors are pretty neat, though one of the two substantial ones - the mansion - only feels substantial because it contains forced ghosting. It's done pretty well, so that's nice. It's just a shame that it seems to be done in order to lengthen the time spent inside the mansion. The chapel is cool, and has a beautiful looking upper section.

The story isn't really interesting either, losing a lot of its suspense and intrigue. Bringing someone back from the death, it's something we all want. On its own, this isn't really much of a hook, however. Yes, Talismans are going to be involved. Yes, there's probably going to be some twist to it all. But Thief 1's Talisman quest worked because you could see, in front of your eyes, what you, as a player, could enter once you got all four of these relics. The Talismans, the Eye, and Constantine were all steeped in mystery. That's lacking here.

Also, why would Thaddeus speak about the ritual being blasphemy, only to feel like helping Garrett & co. seconds later? Yes, he's friends with the family, but he's also a Hammerite. Hammerites don't need to be all evil bastards, but Thaddeus is still a believer. Helping with the ritual means conducting black magic (literal necromancy, something even mages abhor in the Thief universe), and killing a fellow man. It looks somewhat strange in the grand scheme of things.

Atmosphere: 7
Gameplay: 6
Story: 6
OVERALL RATING: 6
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6 COLD RECEPTION
The well is running dry

We return to the opulent mansion from mission 2. At this point, the excitement that had returned to me regarding this campaign is slowly leaking away. It's a short mission, which makes you find one of the resident nobles inside the house. I finished it, but at this point I feel a little burned out. I love what the campaign tries to do. It's not very Thief-ish, but I can see it work on its own. Somewhat, that is.

The way it's told, I'm only partly a fan of. I love the in-engine cutscenes, as well as the readables. The idea of reusing maps to show story development/area change is nice as well, but it's being stretched thin here. Reusing maps this many times (Dayport will return a fourth time later on) isn't even a bad idea, but in Death's Cold Embrace, there's little justification for it. At least, in my personal opinion. I'm glad I got to experience part of what this campaign has going for it, but I have to admit: it's not for me.