The Marvellous Miss Take

Developer: Wonderstruck | Publisher: Rising Star Games | Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Action / Casual / Indie | Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

When Sophia Take is deprived of the priceless artworks she was supposed to inherit from her late great aunt, she decides to take matters into her own hands. With no legal avenue available, she resorts to art theft to retrieve what is rightfully hers from the various galleries where these works ended up. Along the way, Sophia meets two other shady characters who agree to assist her in her crime caper.

The Marvellous Miss Take might look like a stealth title, but the screenshots cannot convey the chaotic nature of the game. There’s no slinking in the shadows, observing guard patterns, or sneaking up behind people to snap their necks in this game. Instead, Sophia must use gadgets and the art of misdirection to thwart the guards, dogs, and security cameras that stand between her and her riches. Sophia has twenty-five galleries to pilfer, each containing objects to grab. After snagging the prerequisite amount of art, Sophia can then head towards the exit and move on to the next floor. Each gallery has two floors, and the difficulty steadily increases as you progress through the various chapters.

The action is viewed from a skewed overhead perspective, where you can scroll the screen a limited amount in each direction. An “action camera” button allows for a closer view of your character, but since you cannot move in this mode, it is more for taking nice screenshots instead of helping you in any way. Colored cones represent enemy lines of sight, and as long as you stay out of these, your characters will have nothing to worry about. However, unlike traditional stealth titles, getting seen is a valid tactic in Miss Take, provided you don’t linger too long in a guard’s field of view, triggering a chase. The outcome will rarely be in your favor since the guards are faster than your characters. Even if you manage to get away, Sophia will drop her large, stylish hat in the process and have to retrieve it before she can leave the level.

What sets this game apart from your typical stealth title is that the guards have no set patrol routes. This means they will wander all over the place and usually end up in the most inconvenient spots, such as right in front of whatever you need to steal. Since you cannot use violence to get rid of guards, you must instead distract or lure them away from where you need to be. If a guard catches a glimpse of your character, the spot will be marked to indicate where they will move to investigate. This allows you to slip away and grab whatever you need before they head back. Characters automatically crouch behind objects when they are within the line of sight of a guard or camera, but certain enemies like the sniffer dogs will track you down even if you are out of sight, so you have to stay on the move.

In addition to running, which makes a noise, Sophia can also whistle to attract the guards’ attention. It is her wonderful array of gadgets, however, that prove to be the most useful for outwitting the guards. From a teleporter that can instantly transport Sophia to wherever she tosses it to smoke bombs and glue, these gadgets are great for getting out of a tight spot. However, using these gadgets is tied to the amount of loot you have grabbed to prevent you from relying on them too much to complete levels.

In addition to Sophia, you also get to play as Henry, the master thief who walks with a cane and operates at night, and Daisy, the nimble pick-pocket adept at relieving guards of their keys. These characters require a different playing style than Sophia, providing the game with further variety. For example, Harry cannot run due to his disability, but he has a noisemaker gadget that he can use to distract guards. The catch is that he must pick up the gadget each time after using it and won’t leave a level without it. On the other hand, Daisy must get up close and personal with guards to steal their keys and then use these to unlock the safes containing valuable documents. She doesn’t have any gadgets but has greater agility than Sophia, which means she can actually escape guards if she is spotted. Sophia’s levels have optional items that are harder to steal, as they involve breaking glass cases, which causes visitors to alert the guards but provides a nice challenge for seasoned players. Each level is also timed, giving you a reason to go back and try to beat your own and the pro and developer times if you are good enough.

The game features some charming pastel-colored visuals that give it a Saturday morning cartoon feel. Characters are wonderfully animated with over-exaggerated movements that provide them with a lot of personality even though there is no voice acting. The levels also have some nice reflections and shading, visually giving them a very polished feel. The jazzy soundtrack complements the heist theme very nicely and further contributes to the lighthearted feel of the game. Although initially released with streamlined mouse controls as the preferred way to maneuver Sophia and her friends, an update added controller support. The mouse controls can feel imprecise at first, but with practice, it becomes easier to avoid making mistakes and blundering out of cover while trying to sneak around behind objects. The controller support is very welcome, though, and we had no problem switching over after it was implemented.

The mixture of action, stealth, and even puzzle elements make The Marvellous Miss Take a very entertaining title, not to mention challenging. It is a game where you must be proactive to succeed, but impatience can also cost you dearly. Hastily tossed gadgets can ricochet off walls or objects; you might successfully lure a guard towards you only to discover that you are trapped in a room with only one exit, or those pesky sniffing dogs might corner you while you are hiding from guards and cameras. The ability to zoom the action out a bit further or scroll around the level without moving your character would have come in handy, but you learn to work around these limitations. The game also has no midlevel save, so don’t exit it thinking it will save automatically after completing a tricky floor and reaching the next!

The Marvellous Miss Take feels like a game designed to be played in quick bursts, but it is addictive enough to keep you hooked through multiple levels. Missions can be completed in a matter of minutes, but there are always plenty of reasons to go back for more. Although initially very easy, the challenge also increases steadily, and the random way that guards patrol means that levels rarely play out the same way. Aside from some comments by your fellow thieves and the newspaper headlines that are shown after each successful heist, not much is done with the plot, but since the focus is on the hectic gameplay, this isn’t really an issue. Overall, The Marvellous Miss Take is a great title worth checking out and might even convert a few people who are not typically fans of the genre.