Fans of Undergound developer (and erstwhile Adventure Gamers writer) Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw will know that while his games have mainly been adventures, including the likes of 5 Days a Stranger and 7 Days a Skeptic , he has also pushed the Adventure Game Studio (AGS) engine into uncharted territory with games such as 1213. Now Yahtzee has heavily modified the 1213 platform-game engine, and introduced it to the antihero of the acclaimed Trilby series of adventures in his latest project, The Art of Theft. Beware point-and-click fans, as this game is keyboard only!

One might loosely describe the game as a prequel to the whole Chzo Mythos that started with 5 Days a Stranger, but it is not part of that storyline at all. As Trilby, you start off wandering round office buildings and hotels stealing trinkets and getting spotted by guards or cameras on the way. Once you've set off too many alarms, Trilby gives up and escapes, so you have to start that level again. Soon you'll learn to hide in shadows, cut wires to disable the cameras and lasers and to zap the guards with your tazer-equipped umbrella. You're introduced to all of these in a training level where you can practice them one at a time, although the examples there are easy ones. Each new level increases the difficulty, and there are multiple ways to pass each level, often ranging from the quick and dirty to the elegant and optimal.

Your success at a heist gives you points that let you buy skills like "Sidle" and "Gecko hold" and many others. These skills make it easier to avoid tripping different kinds of alarm, and that in turn lets you go back to the beginning of a previously completed heist and do better to get even more points. Once you've finished all seven missions, you can go back and try them all again at a harder level to gain access to minigames and other easter eggs.

The Art of Theft does have a story going on, as you get beaten up by some guy after stealing his stuff... and then once you find him dead, you realise that there is something a whole lot deeper going on. It makes the simple platformer premise that much more intriguing, although it remains a platform game: don't expect the level of story and character development that 5 Days a Stranger had.

It's a game that you can spend five minutes on, trying a new level or trying to improve your score here and there on your lunch break, or you can sit down for a hardcore gaming session and try to do all the levels in the "Lazy Sunday Suit", the hardest challenge. It would take me days to do that, but more skilled players may find they can complete the whole gamut in an hour. All in all, The Art of Theft is a fun game that Yahtzee fans will no doubt love, but just remember that it's not an adventure... you can't have everything, even for Christmas.