Fantastic campaign. It features so many environments known from original Thief levels (mansion, mines, Lost City, tombs, sewers, towers, Keepers' area, etc.) and polishes them to perfection - "Greatest Hits" with an individual tint. Garrett has to steal a valuable gemstone called "The Widow's Ire". The path to this objective is not easy and straight, however. Even when he finally finds "The Widow's Ire" at the end of the second mission, things suddenly complicate, and there are two additional levels awaiting him. I have greatly enjoyed the storyline, there were also multiple readables containing hints and additional lore information.

Atmosphere of this campaign is simply stunning. The levels are well-designed, include many interesting nooks and crannies, and the sound design facilitates the process of immersion. If you decide to check this campaign out, I would strongly advise you to play one mission per evening, letting the superb atmosphere soak in. My favourite highlights were the Keepers Area' in "Mercenaries" and the outdoors area leading to the gemstone in "The Widow's Ire" (for some reason it reminded me of games such as Hexen II and Unreal I). I also loved the mines and the crypts in "The Valley of the Burned".

Even though the campaign is not easy at times, I didn't have to look for any hints on TTLG in order to finish it. Some elements of the campaign are challenging and require a lot of patience and attention (especially avoiding enemy patrols in the last mission), but there are no annoying puzzles or ridiculously hidden switches. "Gems of Provenance" balances human and supernatural enemies pretty well - the range of foes stretches from human guards, thieves, and mages, through zombies and spiders, to craybeasts and deadly statues.

Does "Gems of Provenance" have any flaws? It's really hard to point out any weak points of this campaign, but I would like to see more varied ambient tunes in the Mercenaries' Keep. There was just one loop playing throughout the main building and I feel like this made the atmosphere a bit incomplete (though still great).

All in all, I can highly recommend "Gems of Provenance" to any fan of Thief. What a fantastic campaign!

Funny thing, I also recalled Hexen and Doom recently as close associations to Gems of Provenance: non-linear, tangled and sometimes mazelike interconnected levels, lots of secrets (some of which are well-hidden), more or less thin story (almost absense of long readables and dialogs, the story is almost non-existent in those games and very slight in Gems), general preference of ambiance and strong environmental storytelling... In general I most like first and last levels (and also Heart and Soul - but it is different story) - just because they are more memorable for me, not because they are best: Valley of the Burned is epic hellride through the mountains, churches, mines, catacombs (it felt a bit linear in some places). And Mercenaries (the best of campaign for me) is excellent example of clever use of small space (and also those statues...).