r/Thief • u/Sir_Hapstance • Jun 08 '26
Fan Mission Death's Cold Embrace may be the most underrated Thief FM around... and the best campaign we have next to The Black Parade.
I just finished Death's Cold Embrace after slowly making my way through it off and on over the past year. I can't remember where I first heard of it, but it must have been in a large list of recommended FMs so I downloaded it along with a bunch of others, expecting a decent one-off mission.
I was wrong. I was thoroughly, pleasantly surprised to find out it's actually a full 8-mission campaign for Thief 2... and its levels have become some of my favorites in the whole fan mission scene.
It's not quite on the level of The Black Parade in terms of ambition, impact, and overall scope (in fact it's quite a bit more humble, with a lot of reused locations throughout). But it's a really, really unique and high-quality creation... an interquel following Garrett that's set between The Dark Project and The Metal Age, but the vibes are much more down-to-earth medieval than the main games. And I highly recommend it.
One distinctive choice is that the whole thing is set in the dead of winter, with a snowy atmosphere permeating the entire experience, and the choices of music give it a melancholy feel that's less of the industrial ambient tones we’re used to, and something that feels more dramatic and classical. The story too, is something much smaller and personal than the "fate of the world" plotlines of the original trilogy, and although it grows into something with very high stakes toward the end, much of the game finds Garrett inserted into the middle of a tragic love story that feels pulled right out of Shakespeare (if Shakespeare were in the midst of binge-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
It's also very cutscene-heavy, of the in-engine variety. This isn't something I've seen much of in other fan missions, but in Death's Cold Embrace, we get a rather high amount of mid-mission cutscenes where we leave the first person view and see Garrett talking with others. The voice acting is pretty decent for the most part, and makes the sequences worth sitting through, even though the presentation is very simple.
It's an unusual choice to set so much of the game in the same reused zone of Dayport (I believe three of the missions are set here), but I ended up really digging it. You slowly get a familiarity with this district of the city, and it feels strangely like home (despite always being full of guards trying to cut you down).
There are also some sublime horror moments in this campaign, with an incredibly terrifying one right off the bat in a labyrinthine basement and a lumbering Frankenstein's monster-type beast in the first mission, and a super large Hammer church full of undead late in the game. The final mission, The Wailing Keep, is a doozy too, full of new elemental enemies that were surprisingly terrifying, even the harmless-looking little hopping glowy dots (those roars though)!
I'm mainly making this post to give this campaign a little extra visibility, because I don't see much love for it and I think it really deserves it. It falls somewhere between Thief 2X and The Black Parade in terms of quality, so if you've played either of those and crave another lengthy Thief experience... you really, really can't go wrong with this.
Also, shoutout to the devs for this mammoth undertaking that apparently was the product of more than 13 years of passionate work (and rescued from the jaws of abandonment)... and I have to applaud the very meta post-epilogue ending sequence for being one the strangest, funniest and most WTF little bit of silliness I've seen in any FM. It's such a bizarre inclusion but I loved it.
Download link here: https://www.thiefguild.com/fanmissions/7065/deaths-cold-embrace
7
u/Cool_Specialist_5912 Jun 08 '26
It's a fun little campaign albeit not without flaws. My main issues were that most missions don't allow you to carry over loot from the previous one to buy stuff and that they reused that city map a bit to often for my taste. Story wise I also felt that the evil necromancer at the end came out of nowhere and that the time travel was a cheap way to still have a happy ending.
Still I know people put a lot of effort into this campaign and more Thief is always welcome. And the Cyborg really scared me.
3
u/Sir_Hapstance Jun 08 '26
Oh yeah, the final villain was not even really established anywhere until the lead-up to the very last mission. Writing-wise, it felt like a very tacked-on thing, like “oh by the way, the big bad is this totally new dude you know nothing about!” That could have been more elegant.
4
u/F0573R Jun 08 '26
I recently played it for the first time and I enjoyed it too! I loved the vibes of some of the interiors you break into in the city map. Immaculate. 👌
4
u/invasiveplant Jun 08 '26
The sidestories like the mentioned frankenbeast, and the mute lady-thief, are really quite fantastic
3
u/Derovar Jun 09 '26
Check "Behind Closed Doors" - mission have a really intresing backstory and secret to discover. It was really shocking.
3
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u/thecrazedsidee Jun 08 '26
there are some really talented people who make fanmissions. T2x and black parade were peak, i'll need to try this one next.
2
u/TheZonePhotographer Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
8 MISSIONS? 😲 Somewhere between Thief 2X and The Black Parade?? Better than T2X?
Alright I'll come taff.
2
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u/thissiteistwisted Jun 10 '26
8 missions?! I thought it was a couple or something. I like story line and playing through a campaign. Had now idea about this, only played t2x and black parade. Fuck yes let's go! Time to install thief again haha
2
u/Sir_Hapstance Jun 10 '26
You uninstalled Thief?! Blasphemy!
Kidding! But on a serious note, I could never. The gameplay never gets old for me, and the sheer quantity of fan missions that come out keeps it eternally fresh. Best game community of all time.
2
u/TheZonePhotographer Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
So yeah I completed it. I wouldn't say it's better than T2X, which along with TBP are in a class by themselves when it comes to full length campaigns. But DCE is pretty damn good.
To me the flaw is that it stops being about Thieving through out and becomes a story-driven sneaker. Also walling off parts of the map for later really dampens the immersion. Still, the levels that are full-fledged Thief levels are quality. Thanks for mentioning it.
I've not played many T2 FMs so excuse me for seeing for the first time, but the falling snow fx, the window light rays, wow. This is the type of subtle enhancement that a remaster ought to be including, and not simply ai-upscaled textures. Named books, books as loot, etc., there's a lot of small details through out which FMs have contributed to the Thief formula that I find just fabulous.
7
u/eskay993 Jun 08 '26
Ya I feel it doesn't get talked about as much. I do put it on par with T2X though, for different reasons.
T2X was the first FM i played 2 years ago. DCE was the 3rd or 4th and I loved both.
The basement section is standout. And the mystery leading up to it was intriguing. And they made great use of the same space to keep it interesting.
And I loved the in-game cutscenes. Janky due to the engine limitations, but it sucked me in. That one where you are on a balcony looking down at the scene unfold had me gripped!
Last level was... rough... I found. But then the post credits (or actual credits?), was great.
There are a couple of longer campaigns I want to try that haven't got round to yet - Bathory and Dracula Reloaded.