Stolen in 60 Seconds

If you’re a fan of Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row and other such criminal and gangster games, then you’ll certainly be interested to hear about Stolen in 60 Seconds.

When loading up I thought this game may be a bit of a rip off of the movie ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’, but actually it’s not at all got anything to do with driving (other than getting away from the scene of the crime). In actuality this game’s a bit more of a planning and implementation style puzzle rather than an action or another type of genre.

You start the game with the option to pick from the tutorial, unlimited, many attempts and three attempts. As you can probably ascertain from the rather descriptive titles, this is how many goes at pulling off the job before you have to hang up your balaclava and TNT for the last time. The object of the game is to manage a gang of crooks and pull off heists at shops, banks and offices.

Before you can get going you have to speak to the informant who gives you your mission and more info to help you in your cause, should you pay him for the information. To do this you must move the cursor over the telephone icon. Once you know the score, you must pick your man for the job and kit him out appropriately with the various devices available to you. When tooling your man up however you have to keep an eye on the load as some equipment are very heavy and prevent them from carrying anything else. If, however, the items you pick are quite small, then the most each crook can carry is three items.

Next, you have to look at the blueprint of the place taking the hit – planning meticulously the steps taken to get the job done. From the car, you must draw the path to the point of entry (e.g. door), if it’s locked, you must break into it using the right tool for the job. A crowbar for example will take about 30 seconds to break the door, a drill however will do the task in about half the time. Then you must break into the cabinet, safe or whatever and grab the goods before trying to get away. Once you’re happy with what you’ve planned, you then go to action and watch it all unfold.

For some missions you are against the clock and so must hire enough hands to do it within the limit or get the right equipment for the job. Overall this game is pretty voyeuristic and you’ll generally simply watch the action unfold before your eyes rather than help influence the outcome.

The only interactive part of the game is when you can use the mysterious ‘boss’ who acts as all the other crooks but you can control his movements during the mission.

So, if you’re interested in criminal activities, particularly becoming a big time thief, then this could give you a good insight into the under-world crime syndicate activities. Fortunately, the game does warn you that everything in it shouldn’t be done in reality as it’s a crime – which is quite responsible really.

Rating 70%

Positives

A pretty new take on puzzle games and a welcome change

Quite challenging

Entertaining puzzles to solve

Negatives

Games are all fairly similar

Limited interaction except when using the ‘boss’ character

Graphics aren’t all that brilliant although are very clear

Once you’ve got enough money and can buy all the good equipment, you’ll not be challenged by the tasks

Many levels give you longer than 60 seconds to do and there’s no option to speed up the action on the screen