We feel robbed. Hours of our lives have been taken from us, but unfortunately Stolen didn't steal our hearts at all.

Guilty of kleptomaniac criminality itself, Stolen lifts elements from just about every other stealth game out there, yet manages to bungle the entire job in one fell swoop.

At first glance everything looks promising: a sultry female lead, some nice lighting effects, and enough gadgets to make Inspector G jealous and which should make each tiptoeing task (stealing artefacts, hacking computers etc) enjoyable. This is true to some degree, as we used lead character Anya's impressive cat-like ability to swing, vault and slink our way through the shadows. But like an embarrassing uncle at a family wedding, all too familiar camera issues make an unwelcome appearance early on. Jerky rotation is compounded by the camera frequently getting stuck in walls, doors, and any other surface those inconsiderate developers put into the world. Factor in some fiddly controls (particularly during first-person mode where the R thumbstick switches from 'Look' to 'Zoom' with no warning), and we've got frustrating gameplay issues after hardly scratching the surface of the first level. Not so promising after all.

Once we become au fait with Anya's box of tricks (sonic emitters, tripwires and the like), the game picks up and we can indulge in numerous absorbing (read: time-intensive) stealth setpieces. Sonar vision is a great little touch that allows players to see through porous materials, such as doors; Anya has the ability to quietly whistle to create her own sonic waves from which to read. But it's the niggling itch you can't scratch, Etonian-sized schoolboy errors that really let Stolen down, requiring extra time to overcome a simple situation.

Anya has at her disposal Nullifiers, which, the handy Item interface reliably informs us, are used for incapacitating lights, guards and security cameras. Excellent, we thought, rubbing our fingerless Kevlar hands with glee. Reality hits home however when we tried shooting out lights to create our own cover, only to find these digital darts largely redundant. Frequent objectives required us to cross brilliantly (as in bright, not accomplished) lit areas, with no alternative but to get spotted by patrolling guards. Very occasionally we stumbled across lights that were 'shootable', though this is of little consolation after such disappointment.

Appalling guard AI doesn't help either. Confined to re-treading the same route again and again, even getting spotted (and shot at) doesn't deter them from blithely waving a flashlight in your direction before getting bored and going back to their posts. If you do get close to one, combat is a tediously repetitive bout of trading blows with the Y button, fastest finger first style. Anya's tree-hugging inability to kill means guards will come round after a frustratingly short time, then hide for a while, then get bored and wander back to their doughnuts. There's almost no point in being stealthy.

It's a shame. We really wanted to like Stolen. However, after being spoiled over the last few years by the brilliance of the Splinter Cell series (including the astounding Chaos Theory), lacklustre and ultimately flawed titles like Stolen get spotted a mile off. More bungling thief than Entrapment-esque vixen, this is a criminal excuse for a stealth-'em-up.

1. Great character animation allows players to vault, swing and clamber all around the environment in a satisfyingly slinky way.
2. Several neat touches like sonar vision and the lock-pick function are entertaining, but can't make up for the overall disappointment.

1. A frustrating, unpredictable camera means getting out of a tight spot in a hurry is more impossible chore than enjoyable challenge.
2. Terrible guard AI; you can get spotted as often as you like, safe in the knowledge they'll soon lose interest. Challenge? What challenge?
3. Inconsistencies (shoot some lights, not others) ruin any sense of atmosphere and disrupt gameplay. Jagged and rough textures too.

A stealth game brought unceremoniously into the limelight by fundamental flaws. Disappointing and frustrating.