Stolen

Stolen is an action, 3rd-person perspective, stealth game developed by Blue 52 Games Limited and released in 2005. The storyline has you play as a thief named Anya Romanov (with a name like that, she is either Russian or descended from Russians). There are four levels in the game, but don't believe for a minute that it's a short game. Oh no, each level is very long. I played this game, and it is a tough game to beat. Part of the toughness stems from the fact that the game will not let you kill anyone. You can knock them out, but they will get up and sound the alarm. One lesson I had to learn the hard way is this: don't shoot out the lights! Sure, you might be able to move around in darkness, but the guards will turn on their flashlights, which ironically makes the situation than it was when the lights were not shot out. Has anyone else played this game?

Yes, it's such a horrible shit it ended in bargain bins very quickly. The AI is dumber than four sacks of hammers, there's a lot of Fake Difficulty in enemies getting up from getting KO'd in two minutes, the controls are awful, so is the level design, and the PC version is a Porting Disaster. The only cool thing in this game is The Dragon's weapon.

Are you talking about the kunoichi Breeze's shuriken? Really, I would have thought you'd appreciate the part of the ending where Anya reveals to her pal Louis that she has a jewel stored in her Victoria's Secret Compartment!

I have heard about people bashing the Artificial Intelligence of the characters in this game. Well, how about I pose a question to you: if you were one of the guards in the game, what would you do? This is a question you should think about the next time you feel like saying the Artificial Intelligence in a game stinks.

I admit that it seems odd that the guards can only stay knocked out for 2 minutes. Does anyone know how long a guy can stay unconscious after being knocked out?

I'm talking about Breeze's silenced MP 5 K. As soon as I have enough money, I will build an airsoft version of it.

Also, if I was one of the guards in this game, I would actually chase the burglar into the next room, especially if an alarm was triggered! (see how much of a pain in the ass guards in Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, or any other stealth game, become if you cause an alarm) I could understand Rule of Fun and shit, but This Is Unacceptable! And not only guards, the cameras also restart after two minutes from being hit with an EMP dart which usually fries them for good in games like these!

edited 7th Aug '11 9:28:21 AM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

Well, that's a good point about the cameras, because it would make more sense for them to just stay fried if they got hit by an EMP dart.

You also make a good point about the guards. It really does not make sense that they pretty much stay confined to one room. Now that I think about it, they seem to act like they have a major case of short term memory. If they are alerted, you just wait a few minutes without being seen and then they just forget your existence. If I got knocked out, I certainly would not forget the existence of the intruder that knocked me out after the first few minutes of waking up, sounding the alarm, and searching for hir (shorthand word for "him/her") and finding no trace of hir.

edited 7th Aug '11 12:50:20 PM by TiggersAreGreat

I observed the behavior of guards in the new Deus Ex: when you knock one out, he's out until someone finds him. When that happens, you're up to your ears in shit. If you screw up the knockout and either miss or someone else suddenly sees you, the same. If you get caught dragging the hapless sod somewhere people WON'T find him, the same. That's some stealth mechanics for ya. Stolen is a miserable mess of a game that tried really hard to be a stealth game, but implemented Fake Difficulty by the bucketload (clunky steering, overly long minigames - don't go any further than the reception desk in the first mission: you have two cameras and a guard pointed at the terminal you have to hack to go further. I called it quits right there, and called bullshit at the same time), making it Nintendo Hard, while actually being uglier than titles released three years earlier (more exactly: the original Splinter Cell) and having terribly uninventive level design.

And now, some choice bits from my review:

• Sadly, it turned out that in this game, everything is stolen, especially ideas and tech solutions. And instead of the "gentleman thief" route, it was done with brute force.
• AI is horribly stupid - it's got the IQ of a Resident Evil zombie and is similarly easy to avoid.
• Even if we cause an alarm and the mission objectives doesn't say we shouldn't, it will just cause two guys to come. Of course, we can hide from them behind a crate or in the next room over. The alarm will ring for a bit and then stop like nothing happened. Bullshit.
• What can I say: boring, hard and ugly. If you're not scared off by the clunky controls, there's always moronic AI, convoluted story and sloppy graphics.

The game ended up getting 2/5 stars for everything, and I was GENTLE. I would have had to play a real stinker to trash it worse than this.

edited 8th Aug '11 2:12:17 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you did not consider the feature of being able to unlock concept art in this game to be a consolation prize at all.

No, especially considering those things often get released before the game hits the shelves. For example, all Lost: Via Domus concept art was available for viewing way before the release.

Oh, I didn't know about that little tidbit regarding concept art. Then again, using Google could probably help you find concept art, without even having to play a game to unlock it.