A Christmas tradition of several years in the Trevor household has been to play “A Thief’s Holiday”, the Thief II fan mission created by TTLG user Yandros. It was originally uploaded in 2004 but was re-uploaded in 2013 with New Dark support. (New Dark was a fan-made patch for the first two Thief games and System Shock 2 that fixed compatibility issues and added enhancements.)
It does not play like a standard Thief mission – there is nothing to steal and no AI to sneak by. In it, you are the main character Garrett, obviously retired to his country home for the holidays (whatever holidays they celebrate in the City). You have guests coming over for a dinner party and must prepare for their arrival. This involves setting the table, tidying up the place, and firing up some holiday cheer.
On Normal mode, the mission is simple – items are where you’d expect them to be. When I first played it, I chose Expert, as I always do, and found tasks a little more difficult. After a couple hours, I had found one or two cookies. I was frustrated as I had expected a fun little Christmas mission, yet was stumped and had no idea what to do.
Thankfully, a handy walkthrough had been made, and I caught on to the difficulty levels via the mission’s readme file (always read the readme!). I played through on Normal, then went back to tackle Expert.
I play Normal and Expert every year at Christmas, and invite you to join me in my playthroughs from this year. Below, I include a recording of the Normal mode and the Expert mode.
If so inspired, you can play it yourself – but first, buy Thief Gold, play it, then buy Thief II, play it, then check out all the great fan missions at TTLG.com, and then, eventually, cuddle up with “A Thief’s Holiday.”
For now, watch below, and have a taffin’ Merry Christmas.
