It's funny how one of the most recent arguments in the games industry and community has been how much videogames themselves "Insult your intelligence" by shoving tutorial sequences or text books up your throat. A point of discussion that reminded me a lot of the Sequelitis Egoraptor made where he discussed this issue while arguing how many things can be taught through simple level design. And I must say that Filthy Lucre is definitely one of the finest examples on how to treat players with respect through level design alone.

Filthy Lucre is a Top Down Shooter with tactical, stealth and espionage elements, that also plays as a Heist game set in a crime-filled London. You have to recover "Stolen" goods for an old man named Lucre, who has hired you to do his dirty work. It's up to the player to quietly, or loudly, retrieve those goods in 15 missions scattered throughout 5 different locations, with an incredibly smart AI that certainly won't forgive the smallest of mistakes.

One of the things that surprised me the most is the quality of the game's graphics, it's made in the Unity engine and thanks to Steam Greenlight and the constant overflow of asset flips in 3D projects, I always thought that the graphic fidelity of games would be compromised because of the engine itself However, this game's graphics certainly are well detailed, running at a constant 60FPS and with a few transitional loading times.

You walk around with your left thumbstick and point your gun at any place with the right thumbstick (Your gun has a laser scope that will tell you where you're pointing at so accuracy is a must). You shoot your gun with ZR and do different contextual actions with the face buttons. Like I said before, there is a great deal about taking a stealthy approach to things in this game. Unlike other top down shooters, like Hatred or Ghostbusters, the least lousy way of approach is often the most rewarding for any players. It's obviously a mechanic inspired by games like Metal Gear Solid where the same logic applies, despite you being given weapons of higher caliber and fire rate. Speaking of weapons, there are around 30 of them which can be unlocked as you progress and rank up. These weapons can also be upgraded to do more damage and become more reliable sources of taking down guards.

When it comes to stealth, you sneak up on someone by holding the ZL button to crouch behind them, then use a Silent Takedown by pressing the "A" button (Which without context is a lame gun slap.) You can be in front of the enemy for a short period of time because you're "Out of sight" for a few seconds, but you're not operating with the Soliton Radar, so you have no means to seeing what's ahead of you. The only extension you have is when you point your gun to any direction, because it pans the camera there so you can see more of what's coming ahead. Thankfully, the level design accommodates this and there are plenty of areas you can hide behind so you can see your enemies and carefully plan your next step.

Now, if it weren't for me telling you about it, you wouldn't be aware of the controls and mechanics. This game doesn't do what many others do of giving you a tutorial sequence. Don't get me wrong, there are tutorials that teach you about the game's mechanics like the HEAT system and bigger threats like unkillable Elite Attack Squadrons that will stop at nothing to kill you. But these tutorials are shown under the pause menu during gameplay and in the hub world. If you don't know this, you are basically throwing yourself in without being aware as to which button does what. In the early stages, the game gives you plenty of occasions to test out new ways to execute enemies, or work on your accuracy. Thus, it’s teaching you how to do the basic stuff through its own level design, and as such, I'm so glad to see that there are games out there where you’re treated with respect instead of teaching you how to do everything in a sloppy intro sequence.

This, however, will not prepare you for what could possibly be one of the tensest and difficult indie games out there. The game is hard, very hard actually. As soon as the first stage begins you'll see many of the aspects that make this game's Artificial Intelligence look like it's going to viciously hunt you down. First off, corpses don't disappear. You have to dispose of them with Body Bags and to be 100% in the clear, you got to take that bag all the way back to the place you started at. Otherwise, you risk another guard finding out about his buddy being stuffed in a bag, and he will start calling reinforcements. Then, the AI has a keen eye and can see a lot and has some hard to tell patterns that will make you start planning things 3 steps ahead. Otherwise, you'll risk being spotted by another random guard who is walking by as you murder one of his friends. This game certainly won't insult your intelligence and will challenge you with some of the finest AI I have seen since Metal Gear Solid 2 (I was ready to shoot the radio transmitters the guards possess but thankfully, you don’t have to worry about that), tense situations that require the best of your abilities and, in co-op, teamwork and great use of the game's resources and upgrades. If you love tactical espionage games along with the need of an extreme challenge you’ll find yourself enjoying Filthy Lucre.

The only means of combat are whatever you have for primary and secondary weapons, alongside throw-able items like Stun Mines or Noise Makers to distract guards, or bring them to you for a quick takedown. If you aren't accurate with your shots, the guards will not hesitate to pull their trigger on you and kill you almost instantly. You have to act quickly before any of them starts calling in reinforcements. That's not to say that you can't be a reckless madman who shoots guns all the time, because you'll get by, believe me. You CAN go in guns ablaze, but you got to kill every enemy and almost never miss. But the game won't let you get away with the treasure easily and will bring heavier and heavier opposition so that strategy of yours has to be very quick. Stealth is downright encouraged in this game and while Filthy Lucre allows both silent and loud approaches, you get more rewards by doing sneaking challenges that net you more money and it sneaking behind guards and killing them silently will be the safest option where you will be able to plan your next steps.

Any mistake is harshly punished and you have to have a great tactical plan if you want to get by, but then that's where the issues start to make themselves noticed. While I complimented the game for teaching players what to do through its level design, there are some aspects that aren't all that intuitive and you won't know what to do unless you're messing around with the controls. It was by complete accident that I found out you can drop any side items (Like Body Bags and loot) you have with the L3 button because what kind of thing will motivate you to go back to the entrance when you're already in the middle of the mess and just want to put the body bag away from your opposition? This game also is going to be a horrendous time for new players in the genre, because it throws them into hard to react to situations and will always end up with them dying.

Another big issue I have is the fact you have no checkpoints, which will become your worst nightmare the more stages you play. The first level is short enough and its side missions are also fairly similar in length. But as soon as the second stage begins, the map gets bigger, there are more enemies to take down. Instead of having to accomplish 1 objective you have to do 5, the hallways get longer and you have less of an idea of what to do next than before. And remember, a single mistake can cost you your life, and that means you'll have to do the mission again from the very beginning, just because of a minor screw up you made like leaving a body bag where a guard was going to see it, or being discovered. One of the most thrilling feelings I have gotten is linked to successfully pulling a blind run of a level and get the 3 challenges, main mission and 3 optional side quests in one go, with little to no panic in the heist whatsoever.

There is no feeling worse than having done so much progress and then suddenly have that stripped away because of a random grenade you didn’t see while shooting down guards. Missing your shots while some guards manage to kill you in just a few well-placed shots or seeing how they keep finding body bag after body bag you left, also makes you start taking hasty decisions, and possibly screwing yourself up. I am not kidding when I say I spent 45 minutes on the first level trying to get that treasure and it will always throw you off if you don't know how to deal with them properly. I get it, this is done to present a challenge to the most hardcore of gamers. But new people in the genre or casual gamers will find themselves overwhelmed by such a steep learning curve, and if they don't have patience for it, well, it will lead to a refund. But again, the reward for your patience is a big one as you start to downright breeze through stages once you have the main concepts dominated. You'll be surprised at how far you can get once you get this game's core mechanics and not screw up.

But then comes the subject of glitches that pop up, sometimes, when you least expect them, like getting suddenly told that there was a connection issue when trying to play in online Co-op (booting you back to the main hub-world instead of just disconnecting you and keeping your progress as is), seeing that one guard goes out of bounds so that he can call his buddies to kill your sorry ass while you can’t do anything about it, or making a silent takedown and somehow clipping into a table and forcing you to do a reset. These along with the difficulty of the levels can make you get frustrated even further.

Even with its technical and gameplay hiccups, Filthy Lucre is a great example of how a game can be challenging and teach players the ropes of the game with its level design. The AI certainly won’t slack off and it’s going to keep any gamer considering their strategies the whole way through. There might be glitches and technical issues but these are a few and far between and shouldn’t mess with your gaming experience as a whole. The graphics and sound are gorgeous and with the game being such a bargain of costing around 7.79 dollars at the moment, it certainly is a great addition to the collection of any heist games fan. I can’t in good faith recommend this to a casual player or someone who wants to be entirely reckless with top down shooters, since there is almost nothing that will welcome them to the genre. But I can certainly recommend Filthy Lucre to the hardcore gamer that loves their fair share of challenge every once in a while and is open to trying new things and mechanics. With all that said, this game is simply great.

Also, check our Filthy Lucre PlayStation 4 Review.

Javier Ulises, NoobFeed
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