Th3 Plan
Ages: Teen

The kind of cooperative play games I like is when my team follows me, protects my back and leaves the fighting to me. The first thing you notice in Th3 Plan is that the cooperative play is different. Your screen is divided into three sections – a little like some of the racing games. The top half is for the main active character and the bottom half – divided vertically into two sections is for the two supporting actors. You can control either the left or right sub-characters with the -- Ta-da -- L2 (left) or R2 (right) buttons which will cause the windows to rotate and your selection will appear at the top main window. Or you can press and hold L1 or R1 and control the characters without rotating them. Then there are screens upon screens filled with instructions, objectives, interactions, icons upon icons indicating other screens and actions. Have they forgotten that text on TV screens, that are not HD, are impossible to read?

The basic story is about stealing two Rembrandt paintings, the first heist, the back story, goes bad leaving one person running off with the painting, one doing time for it and the third, Robert Taylor, aka The Mind, determined to try again to make things right. Making thing right means springing his buddy, Poker, from prison and taking revenge on the guy who ran off with the painting.

It's an OK story but sometimes it was difficult to tell the two male characters apart. Not difficult with Valerie Carrera, aka The Cat, who has two skills, distraction and picking pockets – altho this last is sort of interesting - where you have to move your hand over the ghost screen hand to accomplish it – an interactive moment. There are a host of baddies and plenty of policemen to round out the action. My main complaint is that the whole gameplay is too confusing. I felt like a air traffic controller trying to land planes at rush hour.

The novel split screens is a clever idea, and worth doing again but the learning curve has to be commensurate with the game. However, the game is inexpensive and certainly worth getting into – new ideas are always worth trying out.

Fun Factor: The gaffs are amusing if you don't take the game too seriously
Female Factor: I wish The Cat were the gang leader - then I could tell the characters apart.
Player Friendly: Game mechanics outweigh the game.

Reviewed by: Editor - 08/07