I often wondered why T2X is so famous, and why from all Thief fan-missions, this campaign received the most attention in gaming sites, and from people who usually aren't interested in fan-made content. Despite its share of flaws (small or huge - depends from each person's perspective), it still remains one of the most popular pieces of Thief FM content, far above some other classics like Seven Sisters, Broken Triad, Dracula (and Bathory - Dracula's more advanced sibling), CoSaS, Rocksbourg series or even Calendra missions. Those (and other) series are often considered as superior to T2X in Thief fan community. But it seems like T2X is more popular OUTSIDE this community.

The story of Thief 2X takes place during first half of Thief 2: The Metal Age. Our heroine, Zaya, female merchant from some southern Egyptian-like country arrives at the City - to trade and to meet with Kedar, her distant relative. The problem is that soon after her arrival, Zaya becomes unwilling witness of Kedar's presumable violent death caused by some smugglers. So Zaya who now is aided by Pagan shaman, Malak, begins seeking revenge for poor Kedar. But two questions remain: what exactly happened to Kedar and what are Malak's true motives behind his seemingly selfless help.

I can't say that plot and its persuasiveness are the strong suit of Thief 2X: I often found myself slightly perplexed by some of Zaya's decisions. But somehow it amounts to the variety of missions: we will find ourselves venturing in two different cities, in museum, in haunted mausoleum, on a train, in smugglers' mountain-situated whereabouts, in Hammerite church, in old abandoned (and also haunted) hospital.

But variety here is not only geographic, gameplay also changes between missions. Those missions usually are focused, very polished and balanced difficulty-wise. They are also quite short, rarely becoming 2-3h slogs - just like missions from original games. The train mission is one of the most original - not only because of train, but because this mission changes rules twice: it begins as traditional train station-robbery mission then turns into social stealth on train and finally - into Assassins' style silent pursuit. My personal favourite also are "Trials That Shape Us" (underrated museum mission with its surprisingly vertical and multileveled architecture), "Down Among Dead Men" (mausoleum with very tangled and confusing layout) and "Grand Hotel" ("First City Bank" - inspired hotel heist - also multileveled and challenging). I rarely found myself seeking for walkthrough since most of T2X's puzzles are usually logical and simple. It's not to say that all missions are great, but general quality rarely goes below average (perhaps, "Into the Fray" which shows that Thief is not that persuasive as standard slasher, or final mission with its linear layout).

So in general T2X remains a good compromise between challenge and accessibility though the last one perhaps emphasized slightly more. It's not "hardcore" - but it also is not lazy or untested (which those "hardcore" missions often are), and doesn't suffer from lots of cryptic and hideous puzzles. It's balanced and coherent with relatively low barrier of entry. In general, well-made expansion and credible Thief FM representative during decades.