The Marvelous Miss Take is a stealth game like no other. You take on the role of one Sophia Take, a groovy, stylish, altogether astronomically cool heroine in this quirky and artistic stealth game.
The story sees you trying to recover your grandmothers priceless works of art from a nefarious ne’er-do-well that has swindled your inheritance away for his private collection.
You just can’t stand for this as you planned on sharing that art with the world, so you set off on your quest to steal back all the art by stealthily sneaking around various baddies who stand in your way.
The Marvelous Miss Take is a stealth game through and through, so you are going to have to do your very best to avoid detection while pilfering back your grandmothers nicked art. The entire game is played with very simple mouse controls. You can click on someplace and Miss Take will go there; You can hold down the right mouse button to run, although this will make a great deal of noise; You can use a number of special items by clicking the left mouse button and throwing them wherever you wish.
The game doesn’t offer a great deal of variety to playing, but the inclusion of these varied power-ups do help keep things fairly fresh. You’ll be able to toss smoke to obscure the sight of enemies and cameras for a short time and use audio recording machines to lure pesky guards away from your prized target. You will need every item at your disposal here as the enemies can be plentiful. Not only will they catch you and end your mission (Your only option is to run and hope you break their line of sight), but the guards have been programmed so that they have so set pattern. You can easily play the same level four or fives times and each time go about completing your task differently because of the guards unpredictability.
Not only will you have to deal with building security, but you’ll also have to contended with security cameras (Think Metal Gear Solid) as well of trained guard dogs that will lock onto your scent and follow you around until caught. It all makes for some really intense gameplay and keeps The Marvelous Miss Take feeling fresh on multiple playthroughs. But don’t think that you’ll be alone on your crusade to save these works of are as you’ll quickly find yourself a pair of partners to aid you. These additional characters can be used in all of the games already completed stages to steal more loot and to unlock new areas.
What makes the additional characters a joy is in how each plays. They will each be tasked with new objectives in old stages with the game even going so far as to modify layouts so that you have to rethink strategy. Not only that, but each character has his/her own unique ability. One lacks the ability to run, but has a noise maker that can distract guards and be used as many times as needed. The other is small and fast and can steal keys from guards, but needs to be quick as unlocking safes will automatically trigger building alarms.
It makes going back to old levels a fun experience and after successfully completing these new tasks, you’ll be given more backstory for each character. This gives you incentive to keep unlocking things as the story is actually handled really well and will keep you interested throughout. A lot of care has been taken in building connections between these characters and the developers have done a nice job at making it all work.
Graphically The Marvelous Miss Take is fantastic with what it does. Everything is done with cell-shaded graphics that really pop with their use of bright, vibrant colors. You’ll be playing the game from an isometric style with the camera pulled back in, so everything you see will be very easy on the eyes and is rendered in full 3D. While it works in this manner when the game pulls in tight during victory scenes you’ll be able to tell at just how simple everything really looks. Granted it’s still not bad up close, but you can see how the developers worked within their limitations to create something really visually stunning.
The sound design is also something that needs mention here. The music is the game is a joy to the ears. While the games visual aesthetic is off the charts, a lot of what makes The Marvelous Miss Take work is in the music. I’m not joking when I say that I loaded up the game on more than one occasion just to let the games title track play here in my office. The in-game sound effects also help to build the world and never become annoying or overbearing. I would have loved to have seen a lot more of the musical score throughout the games as the tracks can be a bit limited, but it works nonetheless. I like the music so much that I’d gladly pony up for a soundtrack, something I rarely ever do.
The game does have its share of quirks that keep it from becoming truly great though. The games control, while simplistic, can really become its biggest undoing when the game ramps up the difficulty. Clicking to walk work well, but if you need to move in a hurry holding down the right mouse button will cause for some stressful situations.
On more than several occasion the player characters just wouldn’t run in the path that I wanted and left me getting caught forcing a level restart. While the games implementation of not having set patterns for guards can be nice, in later levels you often find yourself in no win situations as guards will box you in by no effort of their own. Throw in the dogs constantly following you and you will sure to let out a few screams of frustration as the getting caught will feel cheap.
Those things aside The Marvelous Miss Take is the kind of game that you can keep coming back to in small spurts. You won’t find yourself playing it for hours on end, but it’ll be one of those titles that you’ll keep installed and have a lot of fun with from time to time. The game is currently priced on Steam at $19.99 which makes it hard to recommend to hardcore stealth fans or casual fans alike. If the what I’ve written and the screenshots scattered about this review tickle your fancy then you’ll enjoy The Marvelous Miss Take. If on the other hand you are on the fence, you’ll be better served waiting to grab it when if goes on sale.
About Author
