Picklock

Review

Back in the day, they used to call you the Elusive Master Thief. That’s right, you were able to break into buildings that were guarded by security personnel and had the most sophisticated surveillance systems, and you would steal everything without been noticed. Until the day that you were very close to being apprehended, after which you decided to move to Greenville, take up a 9-5 day job and live an honest life. Every day, as you travel to your job and back, you see beautiful houses, expensive cars on the road, and stunning items in exclusive shops, all of which entices you to reminisce about the good old days. You simply cannot continue to live an honest life and have a lazy 9 to 5 job; it makes you miserable! So, one evening, you re-acquaint yourself with your pick-locking tools. The Elusive Master Thief, “Picklock,” is back in action!

Picklock is an adventure/stealth game developed and self-published by Deqaf Studio on the 8^th of May 2020 on Steam.

The game consists of 13 missions across the city of Greenville, which start straight after robbing your neighbour’s house (a sort of tutorial). Then you’ll be back on your small property and will have access to the city map by clicking on your work desk.

In the middle of the city, you’ll see a pawnshop, owned by an old acquaintance named Pashkevich, who knows everything about everyone in the city of Greenville. He will be the one who gives you information on all your jobs.

In each mission, you’ll have to steal two things: money and items. As you exit your getaway car, you launch a drone (which you can activate at any time) to locate all the items, cash registers and safes, as well as hidden objects such as alarm systems that might be in wardrobes or behind pictures on the walls. It will also show you the guards’/police officers’ movements within the building.  Occasionally, some of the guards will stop for a while during their rounds. Some will remain still for longer than others before continuing. This will be indicated by a square icon surrounding a white eye, located above the guards’ heads; they will not move until the colour progressively disappears and then reappears in black. It’s essential to study their routines so that you can move around the premises and unlock doors, pick up items and disarm alarm systems.

If by mistake you become visible by being in a guard’s field of vision, you can try moving to another room in order to break his line of sight, but if he is too close to you, it will be game over and you’ll have to restart the mission. In some missions, the owner of the premises will be in the building, and if he sees you, he will call the Police and it will be tough to escape. The cops will arrive if you forget to deactivate an alarm system on a door or safe. Same thing with the camera, but you’ll have a few more seconds to move out of the camera’s field of vision and avoid having the Police sent to the place.

When you finish collecting all the money and the items, you can make your way back to your getaway car and go home. From here, you can go back to the pawn store and make a choice as to how you might spend the proceeds.  You might want to renovate your house by buying furniture at the Restoration Agency, buy a property overseas at the Real Estate Agency or a purchase a brand new car at the dealership (as long as you have enough money to do so).

I really enjoyed this game.  The controls are simple (WASD and your mouse to point and click where to go, and for your actions). Most of the stages are fairly small, but entertaining, and it will take you a few goes before completing a level.

The pixel artwork is fabulous, and the jazzy soundtrack is so cool. It will take around 6 to 7 hours to complete, which is decent playtime for the price they are asking. The game runs well and has been translated into 5 languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese and German (I must say that the English translation could have been better).

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com!