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As a real big fan of sneaking up behind people and killing them silently in Bloodlines, I figured I would see how Stolen was for giving me my fix of being stealthy.

Unfortunately, the gameplay isn't near as fun as bloodlines. Everything in the game feels like the cars at Disneyland - everything is on rails. Occasionally the game will decide to take control of the camera and you lose the ability to move the camera and are stuck in a particular view. Going through the vent systems makes the whole "rails" thing really hit home. You can only go forward, backward or turn around and the game controls the camera and sideways movement. For some reason I never felt like I was in control - I was a rat going through a maze - except there was always only one way to go. (Ok - 1 or 2 times a level there would be a room to the side with a "secondary item to steal".)

The music gets a bit repetitive. But it's fairly catchy - so it isn't too bad.

My only complaint about the graphics is Anya seems to have more polys in her "assets" then her face. And her breasts don't have that many poly's. It just seems like they didn't spend much time on upgrading her face and hair from the console versions.

The save system sucks - you can only save at checkpoints.

The minigames are a mix - the lickpicking game is fun. The safecracking game takes no skill but is nifty, the hacking game is stupid, you have to match a pattern on a 3x3 grid in a certain amount of time, and the cutting torch is a bit meh - you have to match a preplaned patern. Most of these games are there as time killers forcing you to plant a sound making device to keep a guard's attention

Knocking guards out - takes them out of the action for about 20 seconds, and when they get back up - they summon more guards. You are much better off avoiding them or planting a sonic device to keep them distracted. The AI is pretty crummy overall. I dislike games that don't feel organic in their scripting. I hated Doom3, knowing when I opened a door or grabbed a health pack that 4 demons would pop out of no-where and attack me. There are a few instances in Stolen where the scripting is curmmy like that.

That being said - the game still has it's moments. I was breaking into a prison and rifling through a desk and got a Rita Hayworth poster. (It could be that Shawshank is one of my favorite movies). I have also stolen an Elvis wig and many other strange items from guards. The devs had a good sense of humor.

I can't really recommend this to people unless they really like stealth games. Overall it plays a lot like the parking garage level in Bloodlines, only made for a console. Then again, for $30, I don't feel like my wallet was stolen. Feel free to let me know I have no appreciation for art.