Monaco: Whats Yours is Mine is both a stealth-action and a cooperative heist game. Developed by Pocketwatch Games and published by Majesco Entertainment, the game has won many awards and has been released on Steam and Xbox Live and is available on Mac OS X and Linux.

The game begins with a band of thieves who break out of prison and subsequently are lured into various missions of robbing stores, banks, casinos, government buildings, and just about any place that they can sneak into without being caught. The story is communicated via pixelated sprites that engage in a short dialogue prior to every mission. Level objectives are communicated to the player as you and your comrades begin at relatively the same position at the start.

During the missions, you are able to acquire different items and weapons like C4 bombs, rifles, shotguns, crossbows, health kits, smoke grenades and wrenches. To acquire more of any item, you will need to collect coins scattered amongst the different levels in each mission. In the event you are shot, bitten or subdued by your enemies, you will have no choice but to wait patiently for your comrades to find your corpse and heal you. A rapid heartbeat noise echoes in the game’s audio whenever a comrade is down with an arrow showing the direction of the fallen comrade.

There are total of 8 different characters that are colour-coded and equipped with unique abilities: Locksmith, Pickpocket, Cleaner, Lookout, Mole, Gentlemen, Hacker and the Redhead. While the cleaner is able to knock unsuspecting enemies unconscious, the lookout is able to detect the presence of enemies on the map when idle while the mole can dig through walls and create secret passages to infiltrate the surrounding premises. The Gentlemen’s expertise is disguise when he is hidden and stealth near guards and enemies while the Hacker is able to inject viruses into wall outlets and hack computers with ease. Finally, the redhead can charm and seduce security guards to do her bidding and is the most adept at reviving fallen allies.

The game gets progressively harder as more guards, tighter security and deadly traps are thrown your way as you complete your mission objectives. Although you can succeed in single player mode, the game is mostly certainly intended to be played and enjoyed through online cooperative multiplayer mode. As a team of up to 4 thieves, your unique abilities will complement that of your teammates as you work together to steal, destroy and escape alive.

Visually, the game sports a retro look as the game is played from a top-down perspective. As for the soundtrack, the music is phenomenal as it was composed by Austin Wintory, the award-winning composer behind Journey. There are no cutscenes in the game as each mission is completed with revealed stats on the time and amount of loot acquired.

Monaco: Whats Yours is Mine is one of the best multiplayer heist games available on the market. Even after the game is completed, it boasts a lot of replay value as you are able to choose different characters at any time and missions are rarely ever played twice in the exact same manner. This game is not only addictive but one of the best multiplayer games I’ve enjoyed in a very long time.

   

PROS – Intricate missions, Engaging characters, Great Music

CONS – Steep difficulty curve, Lag in multiplayer missions

 

SCORE – 91%