The second episode of a short series on games I discovered at EGX Rezzed 2015.
The Marvellous Miss Take (Wonderstruck, 2014) is a 2D stealth game. (Although you get a 3D view, it’s most definitely 2D in function.)
I’m not familiar with the heist genre that seems to have popped up while I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve not played Monaco (Pocketwatch Games, 2013), you know.
I found Miss Take interesting because it was zippy; it’s a stealth game that is not unwieldy. If you get caught, you can quickly start again. It’s about relying on tactical wits, responding to the moment-to-moment situation rather than waiting things out. The game implores you not to wait and watch for guard patrol patterns, because they have no pattern: they walk randomly.
I played for longer than I expected, so it was doing something right. There’s something a little weird with the pathfinding – I clicked the exit from the other side of a small wall and Miss Take just ran into the wall instead of around it. The game sees the world in terms of floor space – you click where you want to stand – so clicking on a “stealable” is dangerous because the game often thinks you want to run around to the floor space on the other side of the wall.
But these are minor quibbles that most players would quickly get used to.
The game is already available. Here’s the launch trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sV7mZpuTbvU
For more information, check out The Marvellous Miss Take site or go to the Steam page.
All Episodes
- TRI – a first-person puzzler
- The Marvellous Miss Take – polished 2D heist/stealth game
- DEEP – deep breathing meditation in VR
- Her Story – explore video footage of police interviews to solve a mystery
- CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET – art-fi visual novel in which I understood nothing that was going on
- One One One Two Three – minimalist card game that plays out in minutes
- Aerobat – incredible 2D shooter, I can’t rate it highly enough
- Screencheat – wonderful local multiplayer FPS
- Planet of the Eyes – a puzzle platformer that didn’t hold my hand
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“The game implores you not to wait and watch for guard patrol patterns, because they have no pattern: they walk randomly.”
I like the sound of this, but also don’t.
Learning and then waiting for the right gap in guard patterns is, in 2015, pretty dull – we’ve done that very thing too many times now.
On the other hand, the risk of randomised guard patterns is that everything goes wrong because a few random variables conspired against you. But here it sounds as if the quick restart will work in your favour – assuming the levels don’t begin to become sprawling great beasts as the game progresses?
I missed this at Rezzed, anyway, so thanks for writing it up!
Oh my god mobile browsers are the pits. I just wrote a long comment and one random fingerfit suddenly sent me to a page which didn’t exist. And no back button? What happened?
Shaun: I think this is not a problem. Each heist is broken into multiple floors and each floor is like a separate level. If you get caught, you respawn at the start of the floor.
I got the feeling the game was aiming at a more Hotline Miami or VVVVVV style of play, where you just keep trying until you solve it. I finished most levels in under 2 minutes and there is a prominent timer at the top to encourage you to go beat your best time.
It earned my trust even though I can’t promise anything of course. I felt it was a game about dealing with manageable unpredictability.
This is good to know. I watched the trailer after writing my previous comment, because apparently I’m just as bad as other internet commenters, and from what I can see it does look like great fun.
Hotline Miami ground my gears when I’d die on a different floor and have to restart the whole level. But I see what you mean.
“dealing with manageable unpredictability” is a good way to put it!
Oh, and I completely agree about mobile browsers. They’ve got their uses but whenever I read someone claiming they’re the future of the web I want to rub their face into ANYTHING WITH TEXT FIELDS.
You guys can try out the browser version of the game here if you like.
https://ga.me/games/the-marvellous-miss-take
Ah, so the first chapter is online as a demo.