Hip Games’ blue hued future-noir title tries to make a mark, but ultimately basic flaws make it a disappointing experience...

Stolen is one title of Hip Games’ trinity of releases this Spring (the others being CT: Special Forces, and Pariah), and the debut (and only) release from the now defunct developer Blue52.

Following the story of a cat-thief called Anya, who is about as nimble as an Olympic gymnast, Stolen seems very much an amalgamation of ideas from several games including Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell. Players have to infiltrate various locations using stealth and shadows (the Splinter Cell bit) and steal artefacts worth a bob or two via some athletic manoeuvres and tricky platform sequences (the Tomb Raider bit.)

Although it is relatively entertaining to play the game falls flat mostly because of a few key aspects: enemy AI, and the sheer linearity of the level design and gameplay. Whilst the linearity of the level design can be to a certain extent excused (but certainly not forgotten), the main letdown has to come from the enemy AI, which is poor. There are times when you can be standing on the other side of a mesh fence in the open, and a guard standing eight foot away would not see you at all, yet the second you land on ‘his turf’ the guard begins to launch an offensive – we’re not asking for SkyNet levels of Artificial Intelligence here, but does feel slack.

The game does come up with some pretty neat ideas and gadgets for players to utilise, and the game does come across very much like a future-noir title with so much of the blue colour spectrum used that it makes think whether Blue52 had a bit of a complex going on…

Overall the animation is nice enough but the textures are quiet bland, though the audio of the game isn’t too bad, especially the voice acting which is usually the a letdown in games such as this.

Stolen obviously tries to sit neatly between Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell, and whilst it would always be difficult to attain the level of success that Stolen’s inspirations reached, the sad fact is that certain key elements makes for a bit of a disappointing experience.