I love Thief. I always have, too. I remember playing the Bafford-demo back in the nineties before the game came out and then, completely ecstatic about how awesome this game is, it took me to level two and... I stopped playing. Just couldn't deal with the zombies.

Two years later the Party-demo of T2 came along, how incredible awesome. I bought the game, played it all the way through (thankfully no zombies on the main path) and I think I've replayed it every couple of years since.

I did like T3, although not as much as T2. The Cradle - I don't know for the life of me how I managed this level in my first play-through, because I did finish it at the time. When I replayed T3 a few years ago I downloaded a save game just after the Cradle. How I HATE horror. As if life isn't terrible enough as it is.

Now lately I've managed to play through T1 for the first time, I guess I got tougher with age, but still... I do hate all that horror stuff. Spent ages looking for a survival game without zombies/monsters only to find that there is none (bar the Long Dark, but that's supposed to be stupid).

Now I'm thinking about the Dark Mod... is it good? Are there enough horror-free levels available? Also, did anyone rebuild T1 or T2 Levels in it? Or was that impossible due to Copyright?

If you enjoy Thief, TDM should be up your street. You can look at the rightmost column of http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod to check whether a mission has undead. And no, no Thief OM rebuilds allowed.

Dark Mod is an impressive project and their 2.03 release is coming out soon.

Don't forget to check out Thief fan missions in the meantime. Many of them contain little or no horror elements and are just pure stealth survival fun. Some of the best missions (for Dark Mod and Thief 2) do have creepy sections, so you are missing out in my opinion, but some do not regardless.

I can recommend a few missions for Thief or TDM, but that depends- what sort of mission do you like? There's over 1000 to choose from :D

Wow. I heard something about 80 missions for TDM, but 1000!!!

Maybe it helps if I tell you my favourite missions from T1 and T2?

No. 1. Definitely T2 "Life of the Party"
No. 2.. T2 "Masks"
No. 3. T2 "Bank"
No. 4. T1 "Assassins"
No. 5. T1 "Escape"

Okay, sounds like you prefer the city and indoor heist sort of mission, although Escape is totally different!
Here's a few ideas:

Thief2x (link: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144804): an unofficial expansion for Thief 2 with some great levels, for example there's a level on a moving train, a Hotel, a Brothel level and so on. There are 2 or 3 scary levels in the 13 mission campaign (and they are extremely well-done and atmospheric), but you can always skip them with the Control-Alt-Shift-End cheat if you want.

The Thief 1-style city missions, namely Bad Debts, Disorientation, Shadow Politics, Between these dark walls and Endless Rain. These are mostly huge, exploration-based missions set in a Thief 1 setting (with the style of architecture and atmosphere you see in the Assassins city section)

Lord Alan's Fortress and Factory. These are pretty cool, although the latter is a bit of an unusual mission.

The Greyfeather gems 1 and 2. Very atmospheric and well-done.

Being Thief 1 and 2. Big city to explore in both missions.

Circle Of Stone and Shadow: Gathering at the Inn is a nice mission, but the second mission (Mission X) is a masterpiece. It's very difficult, but is kind of like Mission Impossible meets Thief- infiltration mission with dialogue trees, choice of objectives and dynamic events in an enormous Hotel-casino complex.

The Art of Thievery. Nicely designed stealth mission.

L'arsene: A big city (you'll get pretty lost fast!) and a rather cool plot about a rival thief to Garrett.

The Thieves' Highway: Life of the Party 2.0 and that's all you need to know :)

Benny's dead: slightly creepy bit, but doesn't last long at all. Otherwise it's a nice city and infiltration mission with a... twist later on!

Seven Sisters: a couple of mild horror bits, but these make up less than 20% of the mission. The rest is a fun city exploration romp.

Night In Rocksbourg: If you can live with a bit of horror at a couple of points, the first two missions are beautiful cities to explore, with a fantastic plot. The third is also great, but a bit different (and very creepy).

Of course, these are just ones I've played, and there's a tonne more- have a look on TTLG forums. Also, to run the missions you'll need to activate FMsel; create a shortcut to Thief2.exe and add -fm to the end of the shotcut's target box. Select a folder for Mission zip files. When you install missions, drop the zip in that folder and install the mission via FMSel.

Blimey, if you hate horror then you sure lucked out playing a game with The Cradle in it. That mission is often ranked as one of the scariest game levels ever produced.

But look on the bright side, you are not likely to meet too many creepier experiences in your gaming career.

Although if playing T1 it has the Return To The Cathedral mission, which is also right up there IMO.

Oddly enough though, one of the most disturbing missions I can remember from a Thief game aside from the obvious undead-infested candidates, is The Sword from T1. Everything was just so weird. Upside down rooms, passages that appeared to lead out into space, a sort of laugh that appeared on the ambient soundtrack. It just got worse the higher you went.

I got stuck the first time I played it, unable to find the entryway to the top floor, and so spent ages searching and walking through all this weird atmosphere, and it did sort of get to me.

It's the surreal stuff in that and similar missions which are some of the most unique things about the game. I have no idea what the designers were smoking, but it sure worked. Creepy and weird as hell. Did you find the Little Big World section?

I didn't think Return to the Cathedral was too bad. What helped what reading the Wiki on how to battle the Undead. The fact that you can just lure a Zombie somewhere you don't need to go again, chop him down with your sword and he won't bother you again was immensely helpful for me. The first bit of the mission, inside the cathedral proper wasn't to bad, as you can destroy all the haunts and apparitions by just throwing a few flash bombs down from the second floor. Knowing how to effectively battle the enemies really helped.

Having said that, the Cradle is a whole different animal and as I said, I couldn't play it again. Thankfully there are save games online that help you skip that dreadful level. I think the zombie ship is bad enough and the talking statues and old gamal are really bad enough too.

I have to thank you again. T2X is absolutely stunning. I might say it's even better than T2, but then again the content is borrowed and most of its awesomeness is due to the characters and factions created by LG Studios. But nevertheless, T2X is tremendous fun.

I'm glad you like T2x! The plot and cutscenes aren't as good, but it's quite a common opinion in the community that the level design and pacing is more interesting than Thief 2 (and arguably T1).

Did you know that if you manage to drop some of the debris (like, say, a hammer) from the upper floor of the main room onto the head of the one of the undead on the ground floor, then it will kill them? I managed that once, and when the thing dropped I had to make a save so I could try it again later. It was hard to aim, though.

Tafferwocky, I was playing Dark Project that first time, so no Little Big World in The Sword, but I did find it when playing Gold a year or so later. No doubt LBW would have added to matters if it had been there on that first playthrough where I got stuck for ages.

Hesha, have you played the new Thief? That has a level that, while not up to either the Cradle or RTTC IMO, nevertheless did have a good creepy atmosphere I thought. Well, something to be aware of if you plan to play the game.

Aww, man, horror is the QUINTESSENCE of (pc) gaming! And the secret catalyst for turning thief games into a serious, big, success (as a gamer 's experience obviously). 1 had the zombies, old town and the haunted cathedral, 2 had the hammer haunts and the necromancer's tower in the roofs level, 3 had the craddle, catacombs and generic undead. ALL of them were great, especially with the specialized gear and tactics you had to implement in EFFECTIVELY combating (or avoiding/outsmarting) them.

The horror element was simply something else! And the levels like the cathedral in 1 and craddle in 3, critically praised! Especially for stage and plot designing. One of the reasons Thi4f was a serious letdown, was the obvious lack of horror element. And supernatural creatures.

Please try to give it a go? Zombies are stupid, haunts can be backstabbed and there is always holy water and arrows, flashbombs, mines and the rest...

Damn it all, if looking glass could first release thief 2 gold and AFTER it close down, now we would have an entire horror level in 2 with the fortress of the necromancers (offshoot of mage's guild from 1).

Each to their own: what one person loves, another might find unpleasant, and vice versa. I thoroughly enjoy the horror elements of the Thief games (I remember Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard with especial fondness, for example), but I see no problem with someone else disliking horror, nor with enjoying the Thief games with the exception of the horror elements.

I disagree: I argue that there are plenty of PC games--even games that I feel are better-suited to the PC than to consoles (often as a result of having access to the mouse and keyboard as control devices)--that have few or no horror elements at all.

Started playing TDM now... amazing. Just amazing. But I discovered there is something I dislike even more than levels with horror elements - and that is levels where even on easy you're not allowed to kill anyone. Sometimes I just feel like going on a stealthy rampage. Especially in TDM where thanks to bodyarmor 1-shot-broadhead-kills are SO much more challenging!