Review: Stolen in Sixty Seconds

Score:
80%

Author: Herocraft

Version Reviewed: 1.0

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Stolen in Sixty Seconds, the award winning strategy-puzzle game, is squarely aimed at your inner city criminal mastermind. Those wanting to command Ocean’s One, Two or Three can pick their crew for the occasion, plan the heist from start to end, choose and buy all the necessary equipment and carry out the theft in real time.

Your task is simple: make money! Or rather take it in the form of cash, jewellery, paintings and other valuables. You are the brains behind each and every one of the 26 increasingly complicated robberies, the first few of which are essentially training sessions that will lead you through all the details you need to know before you hit the road.

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The game has three main views. One is a static screen with your gang and an optional menu to gather what you need to pull off the current job, the second is a map where you do all the planning, while the third is a top down view of the action in real time.

Every level starts with getting a general description of the challenge. You have a certain (very limited at first but more and more as you start collecting) amount of money to spend to assure the most profitable outcome. You always have to take on the crew you need and buy them all the equipment they might need. On some occasions you can contact an Informer who can sell you extra information about the best place to look for the most valuable items or details of the alarm system. This is especially helpful when you have a time limit to do the work, because every step you take, every move you make, takes time.

Time is only one of the factors you have to consider besides your pocket money – another factor is weight. The tools you buy will decrease the crew members’ load bearing, so you have to make sure that every guy has enough muscle left to grab the goods too. There are a dozen items to choose from each, with their distinct weight, price and function so you do actually have to think through not just what tool you need, but also which are the ones you can afford and use without wasting too much time, plus who is strong enough to carry them. There are also about a dozen things to open, disable, blow up, break or break into, all with their own attributes that define the tool you need to use to get through and the time you need with each tool.

Once you have the items you need and the guys to use them, you can grab the map and lay out the sequence of steps each member has to take. You will always see the seconds passing by during this planning phase so you can monitor if there are any unnecessary moves you can exclude. Once you are happy with the setup, you can give your party the green light and watch in real time how your planning has worked, and find out what portion of the available goods you can collect inside the given time limit.

One might think this second stage of the game is a rather passive, almost pointless extra feature – well, you couldn’t be more wrong, because this is the part when your mysterious 'Boss' enters the scene. His actions cannot be planned, instead you take control of him and you work alongside your crew members.  The same rules apply to him when it comes to buying, carrying or using appliances, everything takes the same time for him as it would for the others. One very important rule you have to remember: no two robbers can occupy the same spot at the same time so make sure you don’t block one guy's way to a cash register with an other guy working on disabling the alarm system - and make sure you leave enough time for the Boss to finish his bit before the crew members take off with the car.

Stolen in Sixty Seconds can be played in 3 modes, these modes differ only in the maximum number of available re-tries for a level.  All the details you have to take into consideration come together in a very enjoyable and highly challenging little time waster that certainly stands out from the crowd of puzzlers with its unique settings.

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In the graphics, sound and user friendliness department, Herocraft offers nothing less than their usually high standards. The individual background stories to every guy, the detailed training and help, the vivid visuals and atmospheric music and sound effects, all add up to a game definitely worth trying. The game is available for all Symbian phones, Pocket PCs, Windows Smartphones and Palm OS 5 devices, in 8 languages, in full and trial versions, as always. Impressive.

Attila Katona, AllAboutSymbian, 12 Dec 2007

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