Buy Crookz - The Big Heist

Very well made game, definetely worth looking into if you like jagged aliance back in action, good strategy game and fun to play :)

Think Monaco with the ability to control up to four characters and the ability to pause on demand. That said, this game made me think, plan, and strategize a lot more than I expected.

The only thing I didn't like about it is that it crashed, saw more than a few bugs, and one of the challenge maps it is impossible to get all treasures on. They appear to have stopped patching this game a long time ago so there's little hope of them getting fixed. These issues (except the last) are offset by the fact it saves every 30 seconds so you can generally just go back to a previous save to work around the bugs.

Man! The only crook is me for buying this game on sale for just under $5. Crookz is definitely worth the full price. Strategy and timing is the key to getting your hands on the goods. It's fun, clever and funkier than my afro, ya dig?

★★★★★★★★★✰

When you think of the heist genre you think of things like Payday or GTA V, but Crookz: The Big Heist provides a new way to play this kind of game and I am happy to say, it's a lot of fun.

Each level begins with a flyby overview of the map and an explanation of what objectives need to be completed. Pay attention to this as it's very important to get a good idea of the best approach to each heist. This is also where you will need to think about what characters to bring with you. The characters are fantastic and all have their own personality and fit with the obvious 1970's theme of the game.

You can select a character and move them around the map via way points that you place down on the map. Think of it like other isometric games like The Sims where you point and click to have your character move. In Crookz: The Big Heist however, you can pause the game, plan out a series of moves for each of your characters, place down multiple waypoints and then unpause to have them all move.

As you progress of course the levels get bigger and more difficult and from what I played, I had a lot of fun and this game does a great job of building the difficulty so you are prepared for the later levels. You won't be thrown right in the deep end and have the difficulty spike to ridiculous levels suddenly.

Crookz: The Big Heist is an interesting take on the heist genre and provides plenty of challenge and plenty of fun to keep you coming back for more. I completed some of the missions while being seen but I really want to go back to see if I can complete them without being seen and that's more than I can say about a lot of other games released today.

THE GOOD
- Detailed and carefully developed stealth-strategy systems that can require alot of careful planning.
- Challenging maps that can require tense, on-the-fly decision making to advert potential criminal disasters.
- Diverse and thrilling Single player campaign.
- 18 extensive missions set in a colorful and stylish 70’s setting.
- Interesting talents of the characters.
- Various approaches possible.

THE BAD
- The music is largely non-present and forgettable for a title that promotes its soundtrack.
- No level editor.
- Artificial intelligence reacts strangely sometimes

8.5/10
** GREAT GAME **

Hilariously funky puzzle game with high production value and replay-ability.
Crookz is pretty much what the title implies, you control 2-4 bandits in a turnbased 'slash' realtime environment, pause the game whenever you feel like it, give your Crookz walk, pause and action commands and lean back to enjoy the show, if your plan fails, jump in and quickly adjust or take over all together, it's up to you and works like a charm. The controls in Crookz are very well done, never in your way and quickly to learn, which means your more likely to return for a quick level of Crookz

Playing Crookz is like being in a Austin powers and shaft movie, full of funky tunes and cleaver remarks, Graphics and audio are great and matches then 70's funky style very well, you really feel the countless of hours art directors, musicians, designers, artists and animators have put into this game. Cut scenes are great, funny and engaging, if cut scenes is not your thing, you may skip them without getting lost in your mission. In-game graphics are great, smooth, well balanced with a groovy atmosphere, the artists even made sure, your able to disgusting active and passive objects from each other, this may seem as an obvious choice, but too often down prioritized or forgotten all together, a bad example of this is "12 is better than 6", nice little game but hard to play due to it's black and white pallet.

Gameplay is fun, engaging, mind-boggling with many different solutions and paths to victory, the levels are very well balanced, doing my play, i felt challenged, inspired but never lost or stuck, which is quite an achievement.

Replay-ability is high, i often revisited a level just to try out a new angle to beat my time and get that forgotten briefcase with cash, i can't wait to drop back in to finish the game.

Downsides:
i honestly don't have that much bad to say about Crookz, if your into a casual laid back stealth game this would be one for you, that said, i do have one serious grudge with Kalypso the published, in my version of the game, the Crookz launched is basically one giant and confusing advertisement for "Grad ages medieval", at first i thought steam had installed the wrong game, on top of that the ask you to login or signup to something you don't have a clue about, very aggressive and confusing, i have to say it out loud, Kalypso your an ♥♥♥ and i'll rate you 1/10.

A very polished, stylish and well executed game. Blends puzzles with actual gameplay. The game can be both real time, or turn based. Controls are easy to master and reasonably intuitive views and perspectives are easy to control. The game is stylish. It's somewhere between Payday (before they screwed it up with payday 2) and xcom.

I am very glad i bought this.

Fun turn-based puzzle game. Very addicting. Fun/funny story.

Payday: The Strategy.

Crookz – The Big Heist is a game about a group of trained thieves, as the game title implies. The game introduces you to six professional crooks who were betrayed by their boss and ended up in jail. Upon release from prison, the crew reunites and is bent on exacting revenge against their traitor. The game is a tactical stealth strategy game played from a third person isometric perspective. Each heist mission begins with a preview of what the venue for the upcoming heist looks like. You choose four of six members of your crew, buy tools from the workshop from your income earned from previous missions. There are some members who must be used for certain heists, but you get to choose the other members according to their unique skills.

The brains of the crew is a female who runs like the wind and can hide in floor hatches. Other members include a professional locksmith, a contortionist who can crawl through vents to reach other areas of a venue much faster than walking, a technician who can turn off security cameras and manipulate switchboxes, a muscleman/pro wrestler who can knock out guards, and a robot that can be cloak in front of cameras and guards. Although the brains of the crew is fast and stealthy, I used her less than I thought I would, especially as the missions became more complex since her skills were not as useful as the skills of the other crew members.

There are 18 missions in the main story set in San Francisco, CA in the 1970s with lots of funky music. The missions begin in a straightforward manner, teaching you how to unlock doors using your professional locksmith or find the proper key throughout the mission. The missions become more complex since there are more doors that can only open by finding the proper switches and there are laser barriers protecting the rooms. There are switches that open doors in the immediate area, but at the same time close doors in other areas. These intricacies require you to move your crooks so that they end up separated from each other. For example, you may have one crook toggle a switch to open a door while another crook is in separate room toggling a different switch to open another door. The game is designed to be very slow paced and you will have to pause many times so that you can execute commands to each crook by marking waypoints. Venues for heists include a museum, a mansion, the Federal Reserve bank, and the famous San Quentin prison. The crew actually plans to get arrested on purpose at the end of one mission that leads to a mission in which they must escape from the prison. Each mission ends with a score and how much “heat” you picked up. Any heat will result in bribe money to be deducted from your earnings.

The use of commands and waypoints is part of the game interface. The interface is pretty easy to learn, although it took a little time for me to learn the basics in the beginning. There is a context sensitive menu that you can use to make a crook use his/her specialized skill. In the case of the locksmith, you can right click on a security/steel door to bring up the menu that displays a key to indicate that he can lockpick that door. It is important to know each crook’s skills in order to choose them properly for a specific heist mission. This require a lot of planning before the mission begins. The planning phase also includes a look at the locations of the guards and their patrol routes. Therefore, the planning phase in this game provides ample opportunity for you to know how to approach a heist mission. You can also see the vision cones for each guard and camera so that you know when you can be detected.

There are useful tools that you can find in each mission and they can be purchased from the workshop. Tools include blowtorches to open safes and steel doors, dynamite to destroy to cracked walls, noise emitters to distract guards, and door blockers that can cement doors to trap guards in a room. Some missions have enough tools of a certain kind such as keys and crowbars, so that would allow you to choose a crook that would not include a locksmith. I think that skill for skill the locksmith was the most reliable crook of the crew because of his ability to unlock doors. The game requires access to many different rooms.

Completing main story missions unlocks challenges and there are ten of them. Challenges are based on some of the venues from the main story, but are all on a timer. You will have to complete the main objective, then head for the exit before time runs. One challenge begins with each crook in separate rooms and they must find a way to help each other reach the exit. This requires some serious puzzle solving with doors, barriers, cameras and guards. The challenges made my brain work so much since they require quicker coordination than main story missions and there is less margin for error.

The save system is one that is uncommon for games of today. You can save wherever you want and whenever you want. The game also seems to auto save every few seconds. However, there are technical problems with save files. There were times when I tried to load the game, but it would crash to my desktop. There were also times when I tried to manually save the game, but I would receive notification that an error occurred. These technical issues were more apparent when playing the challenges.

I would conditionally recommend Crookz because it is designed to be a slow paced, tactical stealth strategy game and it is a decent one. If you like tactical strategy games that require a lot of pausing before issuing commands to multiple characters I would recommend it. If you like fast paced games that don’t require much pausing, you may want to consider another game.

My Score: 7/10

A greatly underappreciated and underecognized game. This game is a lot of fun, mix an almost board game style setup with an rts about stealing stuff! Missions have decent replayability as well with lots of options and approaches to how you get the job done.