Vandals is like Hitman Go with artier crime

If you fancy turn-based stealth puzzling in the style of Hitman Go with a more-artistic crime, have a gander at Vandals. Released today, it does Hitman Go-style sneaking but with the goal of spraying graffiti on city walls rather than garroting goombahs. You can even paint your own art in MS Paint-y spraying. It has a free demo too, so you can safely try a life of minor crime.

Each level in Vandals is a little slice of a city, a back alley or corner with a spot we want to spray. In our way are cops, dogs, and other obstacles. So we have to sneak around, cut fences to create shortcuts, hurl bottles and whistle to distract people, warp through sewers, and so on.

Like Hitman Go, paths through the levels are along lines connected by nodes. All enemy units show their moves in advance so we can always plan ahead.

You can download a free demo containing the first chapter, set in Paris in 1968. That's twelve levels long, I believe, including the two unlockable bonus levels. The full game has sixty levels across five cities.

I've had a go on the demo and sure, I'll continue with this. I don't have a sense of how good the puzzles are, because the introductory ones are obviously quite simple, but I'd like to see how they develop.

Vandals is out now on Steam for Windows and Mac, priced at £3.99/€4.49/$4.99. It's made by Cosmografik, the French studio behind Type:Rider. The publishers are Arte, the European arts TV channel who've helped bring us some interesting games, including Californium.

Oh, it's also on Android and Apple pocket telephones and doodads, if you'd prefer that.