Of Guards And Thieves Is Like Tom Clancy's Monaco

Sure, you could watch six rounds of Rainbow Six: Siege being played to get your daily fix of asymmetrical multiplayer, but that game isn't out yet. Of Guards And Thieves meanwhile is a multiplayer stealth game which as seems as inspired by Clancy-ish infiltration mechanics as it is Monaco's camera view and Team Fortress 2's character classes and art design. It's in Early Access on Steam as of a few days ago and there's a trailer below.

Guards are designed to be powerful, while thieves are meant to be quick and sneaky, able to hide in pot plants and clamber out of windows. As noted in my excitement for Due Process, the aforementioned Siege, or old Splinter Cell multiplayer modes, I absolutely love these off-kilter multiplayer experiences. When experiences are imbalanced, when one or both teams can convince themselves that they're underdogs, that's when tension and heroism happen.

Although it's only just launched on Steam, the game itself has been available to play in one public demo form or another for years. That accounts for why there appears to be so much game already present - lots of maps, classes, a novelty football game mode - and why the most recent update is called 58.5. There's also lots more features on the way, including a map editor. My favourite kind of editor, behind "managing".

The game normally costs £11, but the launch discount has knocked that down by 15% at the time of writing.