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. 

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.