Turning The Spigot - Year 2: Week 39 - TH3 PLAN

It's time to get your 1337 5p34k on and dive into a unique heist game on this week's edition of Turning The Spigot.

TH3 PLAN



Year: 2007
Platform: Playstation 2
Rating: Sneaky
# Of Players: 1, no, 3, no, just 1...

TH3 PLAN, which I will refer to as The Plan from here on to avoid a grammatical hemmorhage, is an ambitious stealth/heist game that came out a little too late in the PS2's lifecycle to garner much notice. That said, it should be played by anyone who likes heist films and wants to see a group of specialized crooks pull off a series of impossible crimes.

In The Plan, you play as three professional thieves (The Mind, Cat and Poker) who were betrayed by The Mind's former partner, Robert Foster, during a job years ago. One of the crew was captured during the fateful job and has spent the better part of a decade behind bars. The Plan begins with The Mind breaking Poker out of jail in order to reap his vengeance on the traitorous Foster over the course of the rest of the game's missions.

The main hook of The Plan is that you will control each of the three main characters in real-time and all on the same screen. The display breaks up a la 24's split-screen technique, with the character you are controlling in the large window that fills most of the TV and the other two relegated to smaller windows so that you can monitor them. This allows you to distract a guard with one character and sneak another character past while hacking a computer with the third. It may sound chaotic but it is surprisingly fluid and well-executed. The tension during some of the more delicate routines is heightened even more when you can see guards closing in on you from various perspectives and the feeling of pulling off a mission successfully is incredibly satisfying.


There are many different gameplay elements in the game beyond sneaking past guards and shimmying up drainpipes. You'll also have to hack computers, adjust security systems and pickpocket guards, not to mention putting Cat's svelte physique to good use distracting many of the curious onlookers who happen near the scene. You can pickpocket money and gems off of almost every character you encounter in the game as well and if you get enough, you can unlock the ability to play through each of the missions co-op with up to two friends via multitap.


The levels in the game are quite varied. The game begins in a high-security jail and you'll find yourself in a variety of exotic locales by the time the game is done. The mission on the train is easily one of my favourites as you have to infiltrate sensitive areas, distract guards AND make your way across the roof of a speeding train, all at the same time.


Unfortunately, The Plan suffers somewhat in the audio department as the voice acting is less than stellar. It's not awful, but you'll probably prefer the text only cutscenes over the ones with dialogue. And while the game looks pretty good for a late-gen PS2 title, it doesn't hold a candle to anything being put out on the PS3 or 360 these days.


You'll probably be able to find The Plan, sorry, TH3 PLAN, for about $5-10 used at most game stores that still carry PS2 titles. It debuted with a $20 pricetag as well, so keep that in mind if you're hunting it down on eBay or the like.