Sometimes we all spend some of our more boring working hours day dreaming of a way that we could cheat, lie or steal our way to instant wealth and a lifetime of playing games on a much better television in some rather expensive pants. The problem is that there is a table of intelligence that causes us to act differently to this dream. At the bottom end are the 'D' students, who act on their wandering thoughts only to end up in an episode of America's Dumbest Criminals. In the middle are those who know the difference between dreams and reality, and then there are those who can actually formulate a plan so fiendishly cunning that my head would explode if I even began to know what I was talking about. [You mean, something better than even Baldrick himself could come up with? Really Old Ed].

In The Plan, a group of intelligent seasoned thieves plan and implement the heist of two priceless pieces of artwork. Unfortunately, the faultless plan causes an alarm to be triggered and the driver of the getaway vehicle flees, leaving one of the robbers locked in the building. The story picks up some five years later with two members of the team beginning the breakout of their incarcerated associate. Bearing in mind that the initial intro is the first taste of the game, I couldn't help but notice that something was amiss during the intro to The Plan. The whole intro is done in an LA Law style, with still images flashing up to explain the dialogue. A prudent tactic, but only really suitable for a short snappy intro where very little needs to be explained - and in The Plan this becomes quite drawn out and begins to point towards the developers just not having the time or resources for any animation. Nevertheless, it's clear even from this static story of betrayal that the three members of this elite team of thieves are after revenge.

The general feel once in the game is of a relatively high standard; it looks great and reminds me of the Mission Impossible games that used to frustrate but engross me on the PSOne. There's a real atmosphere developed that makes you feel part of an elite crew pulling off extremely complex crimes. Although, following the disappointment of the visual standard shown during the intro, it only gets worse when this continues for each scene between missions. The soundtrack really helps though and is possibly the driving force behind the whole vibe you get when playing. The only slight audio issue is that the voices of the characters are constantly supported by text, but occasionally text appears with no voiceover, which seems a shame when the voices are such a good aspect of the game.

As I said, there are three main characters, Robert 'The Mind' Taylor, presumably named that because his mind is too occupied to pick out something a little less gay to wear, Alan 'Poker' Siegel, aptly named because he's happiest with two queens, and Valerie 'Cat' Carrera, named so because she never does what she's told and buries her poo. The best feature in this title is that you can switch between characters at any time. The screen is always split three ways, with the character you are controlling taking up the larger top window and the other two residing in either bottom corner. It is possible to swap the windows around, control characters from the window they are situated and make characters follow each other. It's a little confusing at first, but you soon get the hang of it and the game goes to good lengths during the breakout mission to accustom you to the controls for this unique system.

In fact, the controls are never really an issue here; there aren't many moments that require lightening quick reactions and, true to its name, careful planning is the key to progressing. The other key is patience, because you will quickly get used to the small guitar rip you get when failing a mission. This game is very difficult and you will have to employ a lot of trial and error to make your way through most of the missions, although all new features with each mission are adequately explained within your inventory.

Each character has their own special skills that almost always need to be utilised in order to complete the mission. Being a woman, Valerie is a great talker and this can be used to distract the attention of guards or officers while the other two slip by, steal something or just asphyxiate everyone in the room. There are also other useful skills such as lock picking and pick pocketing, and of course, pock licketing. Okay, I made that last one up. Anyway, this game is loaded with features and each level brings a new element into the equation. Weaponry is rarely used, as this is a team that operates discreetly, but there are items available such as small hockey-like pucks that release a 'crazy purple knockout gas' which incapacitates anyone nearby. The firing system on these is also genius as, when pressing to release them, a line appears for the path that the puck will take, then you adjust the power and, boom, you can take out the officer at the end of the room by bouncing the puck off every person in the room.

However, after several hours of the trial and error method, you quickly find you've had just about all the error you can take and the music that accompanies the Mission Failed becomes like a Pavlovian trigger mechanism for you to throw your controller at the cat. I can understand a challenge, but when you're operating three characters at once and one of them is a rather pathetic dainty little woman who has so much pride in her performance that she can't crouch and walk, things become a little too challenging. It's not so much that the missions are difficult to perform, more that it is often unclear what needs to be done. However, you can't write off The Plan just because of some difficulty, and as the game goes on things in improve, and despite early signs that you're going to be stuck with these three idiots the whole time, there are a total of seven playable characters throughout the game.

You have to commend Eko Software for developing such a unique style and one that would have been deemed very challenging to pull off when first dreamed up. I can only imagine the lengths required to achieve the three camera perspectives and you have to say that they have pulled it off very well. The Plan was to make a revolutionary new game and I'm pretty sure that by a few iterations of their trial and error method, they will be producing some top titles. In the meantime, if you're going to get stuck into The Plan, you should either get a boomerang-shaped controller or lock your cat away somewhere out of sight …

Reviewed by Rob Byron for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).