Monaco: What's Yours is Mine Review

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine Review

Publisher: Majesco Entertainment
Developer: Pocketwatch Games
Platforms: PC, Mac OSX, Xbox 360
UK Price: ~£10
US Price: $15

Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine isn’t a Stealth game, Monaco is a Heist game. There’s a clear difference that is important to understand. Stealth games expect you to be a master of the shadows, getting in and out before you’re ever detected. Nothing can go wrong, you’re unprepared for anything but total success and if you’re ever seen then you might as well reload your save and start over.

Monaco doesn’t even suggest this to you, it knows better. The thing that makes it a heist game is that inevitably heists will go horribly wrong. When they do, that’s when the game’s the most fun.


The game tasks players with pulling off a heist in various heavily guarded facilities. Each level has a main goal but there are also plenty of other extras goodies to nab too, if you dare risk it.

It’s played from a top-down perspective with a great implementation of line-of-sight knowledge. If you or your team have never been in an area it’s entirely blacked out. If you’ve got a viewing cone pointed at something then you can see everything in full colour, but if you’ve entered before and aren’t looking then the room is shifted to a grey outline like you’re reading a monochromatic blueprint. This means that you’ve no clear idea of what to look out for until you’re actually looking at it and can easily be caught out by a guard sneaking up behind you.


Primarily you’re just doing your best to avoid enemy patrols. If anyone spots you they’ll give chase until you’ve successfully evaded them by fleeing around several corners or into places they can’t follow. Things will go wrong all the time in a game of Monaco, but you’re largely able to recover from small mistakes without too much of a hindrance. This might suggest that there’s no challenge, but that's far from the case.

Everything takes time to complete: unlocking doors, turning off trip-alarms, hiding in bushes or vents. If you’re caught up with before you can get away you’ll be shot or beaten. Bungles lead to more bungles and running away from one guard could mean accidentally stumbling into a room full of them or tripping an alarm sending everyone in the area running in your direction.