I'm 4 missions into Death's Cold Embrace and have been enjoying it so far. It feels in some ways like a "modernized" version of the 7th Crystal, mostly in aesthetics but partly in plot elements too.
The first mission has you investigating a mysterious murder of an inventor and reporting back to a noble, all while nicking loot off the homes of Dayport. It gets most of the basics right: plenty of freedom, several routes of approach, clever gating of objectives, and plenty of variety and side stories alongside a good main one. It doesn't have much rooftop hopping, and is a bit on the short side, but the great presentation alongside the aforementioned factors make it a very breezy ride. I must point out though that a bit too much loot is concentrated in out of way secret locations. Part of this perception might be because I failed to mount the slided bakery roof, which was key to a very lucrative location and delayed me for longer than normal.
The second mission has you break into a mansion to retrieve a formula, evidence to blackmail another lord, and of course, more loot. As far as mansions go, it doesn't stray too far from the tried and true concepts: marbled corridors, underground crypts, fancy wallpapers, the works. However, once again it does nearly everything right, has good presentation and features interesting and memorable moments, including a rather hilarious Benny scene. I was especially fond of how they worked around the dilemma of having every light linked to a switch without trivializing the gameplay. While I must say the mansion was a bit too small for ostensibly one of the richest lords of the City, a smaller, fleshed out space is generally always welcome over a long yet padded area.
The third mission is just a trek back to a small inn in the district first visited in the first mission, with the small change that you can't be spotted by the City Watch this time and all other buildings aren't accessible. It's pretty short and exists only to push the story forward.
Fourth is cutscene galore, and sets up intrigue for what comes next.
The creators have constantly been saying that DCE isn't like classical Thief, yet it is safe to say the first act is a classical FM campaign, with perhaps more camvators than normal. But these are no ordinary camvators; these often have carefully selected angles, are paced well enough, and avoid "spoiling" the mission environments much. While the rest of the levels maybe more story centric, the first act is pretty typical and good, and can be safely recommended to most Thief fans.
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