great, but could be polished a bit

With a bit more polish this game would freaking rock. It's already got good stealth tactics going for it: moving fast, hiding, and dodging the enemy's line of sight. Get in, kill the target, and get out before anyone knows what's happened. You can only kill the helpless targets, which means players have to rely on being sneaky and quick rather than going gung-ho. The sprint and invisibility modes are helpful, though they share the same power bar and can't be used too liberally (though there were times when they didn't seem to activate despite my pressing the key several times). And most helpful of all is the "knock" command, which draws guards to your position so you can slip past them.

Naturally your targets are guarded. The good thing about the guards is they have line-of-sight: if they aren't looking your way, you can run past them undetected. It's not like in other stealth games on this site where the guards are just mindless drones that walk back and forth and kill you if you touch them; or still others where they're alerted no matter what direction they're facing (admittedly my own Mean Two-Fisted Biomech is in the latter category, but at least I had "he's a clumsy brute" as an excuse).

However, the bad thing about the guards is that they patrol somewhat idiotically: they pick a direction at random and walk in it for x amount of time, getting as confused as a chicken when they come to a wall or a corner. This is where they spazz out and walk against the wall as if searching for a way to get through it (or suffering from a sudden seizure). There were times when I didn't have to use any techniques or timing to get past guards because they were too busy throwing themselves against crates and being retarded to notice me at all. They'd be much more threatening (and organized) if they had set paths to patrol, stopping periodically to throw the player off. They also sound the alarm if they find a dead body, which is cool...except that you can't MOVE the bodies to prevent their discovery.

The invisibility power, while useful, has its drawbacks: you can't move while invisible or it'll deactivate and it drains power pretty fast. Obviously this is a power that could damage the game's balance if not implemented correctly. Yet I feel like it would be more useful if the player WAS able to move while invisible, predator-style. I'll get a guard's attention by knocking, and right when he's coming around the corner i'll turn invisible and wait for a chance to slip past him; the thing is, sometimes it works, and sometimes he just stands there looking for me until my invisibility runs out. I think my survival would rely more on skill and less on chance if i could move while invisible, but sprinting or running out of power would make me visible again.

A nice change of pace given all the top-down shooters on this site, brought to us by the designer of the very cool Tales of the Maguse. This is definitely a game worth playing.