Burglars, Inc. will look familiar to anybody who has tried to hack a vending machine in BioShock, and to those old enough to have played EA’s Pipe Mania all the way back in 1989.
It takes place on a board covered in square tiles that you can rotate to bring sections of a chain together, with the aim of creating a continuous path.
However, it doesn’t just do that. The appeal of Burglars, Inc. is in the way that it takes a familiar blueprint, builds on it to create something totally unique, and packages the whole thing up in a brilliant story about vigilante burglars working to take down a corrupt city establishment.
The key gameplay tweak is that your chains have branching connections, so the aim isn’t just to connect an inlet with an outlet but to create a network of links. Loot and other items are dotted around the board, and you need to arrange your chainwork cleverly to nab them all.
With the loot you collect, your little gang of burglars can buy gear and tools to help you obtain even more loot, creating the kind of irresistible gameplay loop you’ve probably experienced in other classic games like Ridiculous Fishing and Steamworld Dig.
And on top of that there are badges to collect, ranks to earn, and secrets to uncover across just under 200 levels and eight puzzle types.
Burglars, Inc. really does look great. Developer Fuzzy Orbit Games is made up of two industry veterans who have been working together on the game since 2013, and it shows. Everything from the artwork to the dialogue to the gameplay is polished to a high sheen.
You can check Burglars, Inc. out for yourself for free on the iOS App Store [get].
