The Art of Theft (New Yahtzee)

[Groogokk]

Hi everyone,

Yahtzee has released a new game called "Art of theft" on http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/ ... and it looks very promising indeed.

1991. Two years before the events of 5 Days A Stranger. The eccentric British cat burglar Trilby is at large in an American city, robbing the rich to give to himself. Distrustful of his fellow man and patiently skilled in every aspect of burglary, Trilby is on an ongoing quest to scare the ignorant rich by hitting them where it hurts - their wallets. But will his arrogance cause him to bite off more than he can chew?

Link to download:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=955

[Stupot]

That's funny, I just sent him an email last night saying "What's all this about a new game?"
Guess that was good timing on my part.

Right.. off I trot to FR.

[Edit]

AWSEOME !!!!111!!!one!11!!excamation mark11!!!

[DoorKnobHandle]

Nice, thanks for the info. I'm off to checking it out now, the description sounds awesome!

[Groogokk]

Now that I've played the first three missions, I can relatively safely say that this game is simply brilliant.   

[Radiant]

It is a cool game, indeed. Also, challenging.

[Gonzo]

I like the writing, it has Yahtzee's stamp despite not being as story-heavy as his adventure games. And good to see him stretching AGS like with that Galaxy game he did. My favourite thing about it so far is the music.

[GarageGothic]

Yahtzee's games are always very inspiring in terms of game design (this one made me start writing a Game Theory Discussion proposal on system based gameplay). However, I find the difficulty curve on this one terrible frustrating. The fact that there's no save points during missions make some of the later ones highly frustrating, almost like the first Hitman game - a series that I otherwise love.

Spoiler

Just having to do the insane button tapping thing every time you restart mission 3 was enough to make me quite the game every time I failed. Now I'm at the secret lab, and it feels like a total waste of time to have to figure out and enter the code on every game start.

[close]

Very impressive game nevertheless, if only it was slightly more forgiving. I'm sure it improves once you have enough points to buy the full skill-set.

[Stupot]

Yeh, I'm looking forward to going back and trying to get full marks on each mission once i've got all the gear.
I wonder if you can still get back into it once the game is officially over, just to work on those high scores...
I'm finding it to be a lovely challenge so far.

[Radiant]

I wonder if you can still get back into it once the game is officially over, just to work on those high scores...

Yes, although the game doesn't tell you which scenarios you scored max points on.

Beware that you can make things very difficult for yourself by picking the wrong skills early on.

(edit) Game completed, yay!

[Steel Drummer]

Hmm, looks interesting. I wonder when he'll release a game outside of the Trilby series?

[TheJBurger]

Any day when a new Yahtzee game is released is a good day.

First impressions:
- Great visual style. The graphics are a huge improvement over 1213, and the animation is probably the best Yahtzee has done to date.
- Great music, well done mods!
- I really enjoyed the gameplay, but got angry a lot due to frustration, and by the time it was over, it felt like I was just getting used to the gameplay and it wasn't put to its full potential.

I certainly enjoyed the game, but I felt it could've been a little longer with a little stronger story.

I'm probably wrong about alot of these due to confusion, but here is my long list of comments and critique:
(p.s. I liked the game alot - this list is just for... critiquing purposes!)

*SPOILERS* Don't read unless you've finished the game.

Spoiler

- What is the purpose of loot? I wasted like 900? RP buying a 25% loot bonus skill which I couldn't figure out why, because I never used my loot.
- Some skills I didn't even bother checking down below (like locking picking LVL 2) because I thought the skills were listed in increasing order of cost, so I didn't buy LV2 lock picking until it was too late.
- The difficulty curve was a little on the hard side, causing some sequences to be very frustrating. I think a little extra time after being spotted by cameras or guards to hide again would be nice. The icons in the corner I didn't really use because I was always staring at Trilby wondering if he was in the shadows or not.
- When you get captured and are about to be brainwashed, I didn't even know that scene was playable. I barely even started to read the instructions before I died. And then the second time I just finished reading the instructions before I died again. Maybe tell the player the scene is playable and what they must do before throwing them into it.
- It was hard to tell what were the benefits of going back and replaying earlier scenarios. I didn't know if I was getting more RP until I tested myself. And even then, I still didn't know how much more RP I was getting than before, which caused me to consider if it was even worth it going back. It might help to have a screen where it lists what the current loot, RP, alarms, zaps, you used out of the maximum, so you know your goals and what you are trying to achieve or gain.
- Graphical glitch with nearly all (or all) of the guards who sit at desks being drawn in front of Trilby.
- What is with the seemingly random use of different color wires just to trip the player up and make him lose alarms? If there is a way to get around it, somebody please tell me.
- And one last question if anybody can answer it for me: If I want to get all the secrets in the game should I continue after I finish or replay and try to get the best scores?

[close]

Either way, I'm still going to be playing this one a while longer and trying to unlock the secrets. 

[GreenBoy]

This game is freaking cool.  I loved 1213 but this games much nicer.  OK its a bit buggy with the sprites overlapping but the gameplay is wicked, reminds me of that splinter cell game they made for cellphones.

I cant wait to find out all the secrets.  My brain is swollen with excitement.

Phew OK I calmed down a bit.  Yeah cool game lots of style.

[Nikolas]

Yup, this is one seriously wicked game!

Well done Ben! Very Well Done!

Jburger: The loot 25% is good, when the levels have a set ammount of $ to collect. In that case you can finish the level faster. But not much other use. Never bought it really...

[Radiant]

Loot is score. It kind of says so in the tutorial.

imho -

Spoiler

The +25% loot is useless, because there isn't any scenario where picking up enough loot is actually the problem, and nearly every scenario has a different goal than loot. The only place where it might matter is the city scene, but in there you're better off with lockpick/3 and roll, which actually makes loot accessible.

I stand corrected, I believe the loot bonus is actually necessary to get top ranks for looting.

Also, the improved safecracking is not necessary, because safes aren't hard to crack, and the improved wirecutting is not necessary because you can just write down which wire you need. They're not random, they're set by scenario.

You are making the game a lot harder by not taking lock pick/2 and roll as early as possible. Sidle is also nice.

The brainwash scene is annoyingly RSI-inducing, but you can pass it by simply tapping both keys rapidly.

I -think- that RP works like the Indy Quotient. In that case there is a finite amount of it available, and you'll never get enough of it to learn all the upgrades. So I think I'm going to replay to get that shadow power...

[close]

(edit) My scores so far:

1. A - 2:47 - $635
2. A - 2:50 - $900
3. A - 3:31 - $1005
4. A - 1:43 - $845
5. B - 3:10 - $1165
6. B - 5:50 - $1365
7. C - 6:47 - $970

[m0ds]

Thanks JBurger! Sadly two tunes haven't made it into the current version but Yahtzee says he'll put them in a later edition.

I really like what Yahtzee's done with AGS on this one, from what I've seen it's very polished. But all in all it's just too hard for me, so I haven't really gotten that far and haven't really persued it. Seems like great fun though

[Nikolas]

Oh, yes, Mark.

This is the best music I've heard of you mate! quite impressive for simple midi! Extra well done! It works with the game GREAT!

[Hammerite]

Hmm, looks interesting. I wonder when he'll release a game outside of the Trilby series?

He has:
Rob Blanc, Oddyseus Kent, etc.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Hmm, looks interesting. I wonder when he'll release a game outside of the Trilby series?

He has:
Rob Blanc, Oddyseus Kent, etc.

Plus, the great Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.

So, yeah, now that I'm a little further in the game, it is frustrating, has its little flaws and I definitely chose the wrong skills. Still, it has me hooked and is yet another worthy Yahtzee-title, if I had to name my favourite ten AGS games, numbers 1 - 5 would probably be taken by his work. I'll be back later and maybe go into detail about what I thought could've been better.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Both graphics and gameplay of this game are great, not to mention the tutorial

[Hammerite]

Is it in any way related to the Trilby series (apart from Trilby, of course)?