Stolen – XB – Review

Stolen,
the latest title published by Hip Interactive, is a third-person stealth action
game that puts players in the shoes of a cat-burglar as she breaks into highly
secure buildings in order to steal precious rarities while avoiding guards and
traps and the like. Stolen takes a lot of familiar elements from other entries
in the stealth action genre, but unfortunately fails to merge them into
compelling gameplay. Instead, the game suffers from simplistic gameplay, weak AI
and a general lack of polish. If you are a stealth action fan, you’d do well to
look elsewhere.

In
Stolen, you play as Anya Romanov, a slinky, sexy super-thief who progresses
through levels, stealing expensive things in order to fund her partner-in-crime,
a tech-savvy cyber-geek with a state-of-the-art computer set up. As Anya, you
have a variety of moves at your disposal; as you can climb up walls, jump, and
so forth as you complete your missions of thievery.

Being a
true thief, Anya Romanov does not believe in killing, meaning that you will have
to deal with guards in non-lethal ways. There are several ways that you can do
this, from putting them into a sleeper hold and knocking them out to simply
engaging them in a fight and knocking them into submission. You also have a gun
that fires an assortment of non-lethal rounds to subdue your foes.
Unfortunately, since these methods of taking out your enemies are only
temporary, you may find yourself having to put down the same guard over and over
again as they tend to wake up before too long.

The
mission structure is fairly straightforward, as you progress through the stages
in search of certain spoils. Along the way, you can collect other items (even
lifting them right from guards) in order to get more credit at the end of the
mission.

The
guard AI is very weak, which is often a deal-killer when it comes to a stealth
action game such as this. If you are discovered, then the guards will pursue you
for a short period and then grow bored and go back to what they were doing
beforehand. Don’t go into this game expecting to see advanced tactics where
guards team up and search you out, alerting other guard teams and so on; this AI
is pretty inept.

The
combat system is poor and consists of mashing the attack button and knocking the
other guy around. There is no blocking or dodging here, just pounding your
opponent silly, which is a very uninspired endeavor.

The
level design is also very simplistic and unpolished. Every stage of the game
looks the same as the last, and everything has the same overall drab appearance
that lacks variety.

The
graphics lack much detail, with weak looking character models and plain
environments. Perplexingly, even though the overall look of the game is so
barebones, the framerate has a hard time keeping up. This just shows that the
aesthetic presentation didn’t receive the level of polish and attention it
should have.

The same
thing can be said of the game’s sound. The sound effects are few and far between
and don’t carry a lot of punch with them. The voice acting is sub-par, and the
music is merely adequate at setting the mood and atmosphere of the game.

Stolen
is a game that takes concepts from other titles in the stealth genre, but fails
to run with them and instead comes out unpolished and not very fun. Skip it if
you are a stealth fan, as there are much better titles out there.

Review Scoring Details for Stolen

Gameplay: 6.0
Stolen borrows
many elements from successful titles of the genre, but fails to weave them into
fun and compelling gameplay. The AI is poorly implemented, the action is
simplistic, and the game just isn’t a whole lot of fun overall.

Graphics: 6.5
The graphics are
very simplistic, with a very plain presentation and lack of polish. The
characters lack detail and the environments are very drab.

Sound: 6.5
The sound
presentation is generally not up to snuff. The voice acting is bad, the sound
effects are lack punch, and the music is simply adequate for the mood.

Difficulty:  Medium

Concept: 6.0
While Stolen does
have some cool ideas, they’ve all been done before and better.

Overall: 6.0
Stolen could’ve been a good game, but the inept AI and poor controls make this
game more of a chore than a fun experience. If you’re looking for a great
stealth action game, check out the latest Splinter Cell, but leave this one
alone.