Monaco: What's yours is mine is a stealth game with a neat style and very French NPCs. I really don't enjoy most stealth games except when I feel like I have the tools at my disposition to be better than the guards or traps placed in them. I won't mind stealth if I have everything I need to pull 100% perfect sequences without endless trial-and-error. Sadly for me, MWYIM didn't feel like it gave me everything I required.
You can pick from a few characters to play the various stages of this game and all stages share some common objective; pick up a thing somewhere and then leave from where you've came in. I dislike all characters, they all feel underpowered at what they can do. The locksmith can unlock doors faster, but other characters can also unlock them, and if you're unlocking something in a hurry, you're doomed anyways, so why not have locked doors that only this guy can open? Or make him open locked doors instantly? The gentleman can disguise himself for about 1 second before you get spotted and shot, the redhead can charm enemies which does, I don't know, the cleaner can knock out enemies if you manage to sneak on them... The only character I enjoyed playing was The Lookout which reveals every enemy on the map while you're sneaking, and even then I had to sneak 100% of the time.
What's neat about this game is that you normally have very little information. You don't see enemies - you only see their footsteps if you're close enough - and you only have a vague idea of where cameras and sensor beams are. This could create tension if used in environments with scare enemy placement and multiple paths to go around then. Instead, this game is swarming with enemies, cameras, alarm-triggered doors and civilians that call for help - again in french - everywhere in huge maze-like maps. There's no sneaking around, trying to collect all the coins - bonus collectibles - after a few levels of frustration, I just ran for the objectives every time. Have less enemies, make the maps simpler.
Your character can take a few hits from punches or guns and you also find gear - guns, health packs, tools, costumes - and most of it is powered by the coins you're collecting, so you use coins to potentially pick up coins that you're going to use to get out of the messes you've created, it feels like a vicious circles. Yes, I could spend a few minutes trying to access that safe in that heavily-guarded room, but in doing so I would probably have to use items which would cost me the coins I would've gained. Besides that, the coins are used to penalize you at the end of levels. Maybe they could be used to buy upgrades? Kids love upgrades.
A very neat style couldn't save Monaco for me, levels where I just get caught in the first ten seconds and then run all across the map, taking shotgun blasts to the face, complete my objective then run all the way back to my car were fairly common. I think getting spotted by guards should be a bigger deal, but there should be less stuff to spot you. Every room felt like it had some camera, civilian or alarm-rigged door waiting for me, and it quickly degenerated into a game of running away instead of sneaking around.