Rats - Time Is Running Out

 
Developer: Citeremis Inc.
Released: Aug 2015
Hours Played: 2.9
Similar To: Dynamite Jack / Robbery Bob / Spy Chameleon
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY

Rats - Time Is Running Out is a stealth game that has clearly taken its cue from earlier titles such as The Marvellous Miss Take and Spy Chameleon that came out a year before it. Likewise, in top-down view, Rats has you sneaking around rooms and corridors with the goal of taking precious items that don't belong to you. The usual mechanic of patrolling guards makes an appearance as does their policy of chasing you down and fighting you should you alert their attention by crossing their line of sight. In Rats, your main goal is always to steal the blue crystal and then to head for the exit before the time runs out. Unlike the more cautious and circumspect angle required in Robbery Bob, as its title suggests Rats - Time Is Running Out is characterized by its race against time that abounds in every level.     

BALANCE & PACE

With its 2D art-style and cartoon-like appearance, Rats has a more arcade-like feel than the games mentioned and plays out more like Spy Chameleon than any other. With up to six objectives such as: collecting all coins, collecting the diamond,  collecting a key and picking up the cheese - you'll be under constant time pressure and a big fat evil teddy bear will chase you down and beat ten tons of crap out of you if the clock runs down to zero. Thankfully, inventive level designs and interesting power-ups keep the experience interesting: alarm clocks add vital seconds to the timer while fighting takes time off; well-placed tiles and keys unlock doors; yellow cheese gives you a speed boost; blue cheese makes you invisible, and abilities such as turning into a typewriter, fire-boots and donning goggles to see secret areas make an appearance. 
     

PRESENTATION & DESIGN 

Although cartoon-like in appearance, Rats is designed with a well polished art-style that's reminiscent of 1930s America. The menus are also tastefully done in classy fonts but I was annoyed to stumble across the common problem of finding it difficult to navigate the level-select screen with an Xbox controller and having to resort to using the mouse instead. Odd features also mar gaining a full understanding of the game: time goals are confusing; objectives are not shown until after level completion; an objective with a build icon is left unexplained, and one tip that reads "The white cheese reverses doors, guards but also clocks effect on time..." left me baffled and confused. Three clicks and ten seconds to endure between levels also mean restarts aren't exactly instant. 
  

PROGRESS SYSTEM

R-TIRO employs a map system covering the city of Swine Island. There are six districts altogether with the first - Deer Broke Falls - acting as a tutorial area. Clicking on a district brings up the levels which are shown in the form of buildings with a title. Above the building icons, are shown up to six stars which light up or get filled in once its corresponding objective has been achieved. Objectives range from such things as collecting coins, keys, diamonds and cheese. Although icons are flashed up at the beginning of a level, the message they convey is ambiguous and I felt I only knew what the objectives were once the level was complete. Anyway, the basic idea is to unlock the districts by achieving objectives and collecting those stars.

CONCLUSION

Despite those minor design faults and the ambiguity of those hard-to-understand objectives, Rats - Time Is Running Out still plays well and rates as a pretty decent stealth game. This is because it takes the elements from already established games of the genre and builds well-crafted arcade-like features into it that work well. It's a game with quick levels that you don't mind messing up because you'll know you'll swiftly get wiser and use insights gained next time to crush the level - and even achieve more objectives. True, like single-player Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, you can rush through and brute force some levels - not a good thing in my book - but you also know you'll not get rewarded with stars and like Robbery Bob this is definitely a game you'll enjoy and care enough about to want to get those extra stars.