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" Release Date: April 24 Platforms available on: PC, Xbox 360 (release delayed) Developer: Pocketwatch Games Publisher: Majesco Entertainment Genre: Stealth action strategy Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine is likely the closest there is to an Ocean&amp;#039;s 11 game. With its ensemble cast, daring break-ins and carefully laid plans, it has all the makings of an interactive heist flick. And just like any great heist movie, things can easily fall apart a dozen times along the way and still come together in the end. There are eight characters in total, with four available from the start and the other half unlocked by meeting them throughout the campaign. While they share a core set of skills, like sneaking, picking locks, hacking computers and using various gadgets, each character also has a unique trait that can have a drastic change on how you approach a heist. Some characters enhance the thief&amp;#039;s natural abilities, like the lockpick who can crack doors in half the time, which can save lives while trying to dodge moving security lasers or quickly escape from chasing guards.  Likewise, while all characters can hack computer terminals, the hacker character can also do the same with power outlets throughout the level.  Hacking computers and outlets can disable nearby security cameras, lasers, pressure floors and specially locked doors, so having more objects to hack can be quite the asset. Other characters offer more unique enhancements, like the mole who can break through any wall or the cleaner who can knock unsuspecting guards unconscious. With its ensemble cast, daring break-ins and carefully laid plans, it has all the makings of an interactive heist flick. Meanwhile others have skills that only reveal their true worth in multiplayer, like the lookout&amp;#039;s ability to reveal all guard locations to all players while sneaking. Of course, a heist wouldn&amp;#039;t be nearly as exciting without gadgets, so players can find tools like smoke bombs, sleep darts, blackout emitters, disguises and shotguns tucked away in each level. Every character can use any tool, but you can only use a tool once by default. Additional uses can be obtained with every ten coins you collect though, so it pays to stay true to the game&amp;#039;s robbery roots.  The coins and tools also add some interesting tension to the game&amp;#039;s teamwork dynamic. Coins collected to power your tools is done independently for each player, so you will have to coordinate with your teammates who gets to hold which gadget and which ones should be prioritized for multiple uses. Do you give one player a shotgun and let them collect all the coins to simply mow down enemies, or will you let everyone collect and share coins to make use of more tools?  There is no shortage of viable team plans, and likewise no shortage of ways for each one to backfire spectacularly, and it&amp;#039;s those on-the-fly tactical adjustments where Monaco steals the show.  It&amp;#039;s almost inevitable that someone will accidentally trip an alarm or catch a guard&amp;#039;s attention, sending the team of thieves scurrying in every direction to hide in a bathrooms, bushes and ventilation shafts.  A series of rooms may provide an alternate route, or an electrical box could offer a way to temporarily shut down all power on the floor. Even getting spotted can be used as a tactic, distracting guards with one player while another sneaks past to put their skills to use. Levels are huge, offering a wealth of options, and each option filled with even more choices depending on the characters at hand. There is also a bit of randomness sprinkled into each level. For example, the locations of coins and the power outlets that the hacker can use will change every time you play a level, which can significantly alter how you approach certain obstacles. This is by design, forcing players to think in the moment and keep levels fresh even after multiple playthroughs.  The hidden beauty of Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine though comes from its user interface. Like Mark of the Ninja, players may be able to see the floorplan of nearby rooms, but to actually see inside a room or around corners you are limited by your character&amp;#039;s line of sight.  The line of sight creates an effect that can be disorienting at first since the lit-up areas you can &amp;quot;see&amp;quot; will move and shift along with your character. But after the initial adjustment it is a remarkably effective tool for stealth since any guards that may be hiding in a blind spot likewise cannot see you. The game cleverly gives players all of the tools and information necessary to avoid and escape confrontation, and it is left to players to interpret the environment to actually succeed. As a guard first spots you, a question mark begins to fill above their head before they become fully aware. It gives you time to react, whether that means slinking back to the shadows to regroup or attempting to dash past before you are truly noticed. If you are spotted, an exclamation mark indicates the last place you were seen or heard. It&amp;#039;s a small touch, but it is incredibly useful to determine if you have evaded your pursuers and where guards will congregate during their search. Even after a guard has dropped from view, the game cleverly shows their footprints for about a second so that you can vaguely keep track of their movements.  That doesn&amp;#039;t mean escape is easy by any stretch of the imagination, especially when the guards start using machine guns and dogs that can track your scent.  With such an emphasis on co-operative multiplayer, Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine supports up to four players online. Matchmaking is done in a somewhat unique way, with an antenna sprouting from levels on the campaign menu that you can join. The PC version has an additional odd quirk when it comes to handling multiplayer. Though Monaco supports local co-operative play, it does not allow those local matches to connect online.  When it comes to local play you can have up to four controllers connected to a PC, or three controllers and a keyboard, but unfortunately two people on one PC cannot connect to two other players online for a full match. Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine is a rare game that truly encourages and demands co-operative play. It is an unfortunate oversight, considering that PC players aren&amp;#039;t likely to have more than one controller on hand and Monaco is at its best with four players.  Of course, Monaco can also be played entirely by a single player, which offers a very different experience. Playing solo you have to be much more careful since there are no backup players to rely on and you only have access to one character&amp;#039;s special ability. To compensate for only having one character the game gives you three lives, letting you respawn as another character if one should die. This is quite different from multiplayer, where teammates can revive each other but once everyone has fallen the mission is failed and must be restarted from the beginning.  The main campaign takes place across 15 heists, 16 if you include the opening tutorial prison break. While the early heists introduce you to sneaking and stealing in smaller venues, later levels can take upward of half an hour even when a team is running smoothly. Completing the campaign unlocks a bonus competitive multiplayer stage, which mixes up the formula by challenging you to steal treasures and escape before your former teammates can beat you to it.  It&amp;#039;s a chaotic sidenote to the game, acting more as a quick diversion than anything else, but it works wonders for any pent-up frustration with teammates that may have built up throughout the campaign.  A second campaign is also unlocked gradually by collecting all of the coins in each level. It offers deeper insights into the band of thieves&amp;#039; story with a new perspective on the events of each heist.  The second campaign is essentially just harder versions of each level, but it is still well worth playing thanks to some new twists like being able to bring any of the eight characters into levels where they weren&amp;#039;t available in the main campaign. Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine is a rare game that truly encourages and demands co-operative play. Players who refuse to work together will almost always trip over one another and fail, while coordinated teams will discover new ways for the unique character abilities can complement one another. There is so much to like and discover about Monaco: What&amp;#039;s Yours is Mine - just make sure you have some good friends along to share the spoils.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/review/a475759/monaco-whats-yours-is-mine-review-pc-the-heist-of-a-lifetime/>