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The Art of Theft is a stealth platformer set in 1991.  Our protagonist is a British cat burglar named Trilby and he’s loose in “Chapow City,” which is somewhere in America.

The game starts off with a quick tutorial to get you acquainted with all of Trilby’s basic moves.  Right away you’ll notice the game’s graphics are blocky and look like an updated version of Elevator Action, but that’s ok.  Missions consist of lock-picking doors and breaking into safes – all in the name of stealing money.  By completing missions you gain reputation points which can be used to buy new cat-burgling moves.

Even in the first level you can find a semi-secret path which might make you cheer.  Big AAA games tend to lack many secrets simply because they don’t want to spend money developing something most players won’t find.  That’s unfortunate and it’s good to see indie games keeping the spirit alive.

The game was developed by the same guy who does Zero Punctuation.  It’s basically a bunch of reviews done in flash that rag on games to get some laughs, and laughs you’ll get.  Seems like so many reviewers just play too many games and use their snobbery to hate on them so it’s refreshing when a reviewer sticks his neck out and makes games of his/her own.

Game: The Art of Theft
Developer: Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw – Maker of Zero Punctuation