Taking up my trusty, weatherbeaten pickaxe’o’electronic delights, I chip another gleaming nugget from the mountain of indie games lurking in the RPS inbox. What new gem will I mine this time? It has a fine name indeed. That name is Stealth Bastard: Tactical Espionage Arsehole. It has a core philosophy, and that philosophy is “why does stealth need to be so slow?” Turns out, it doesn’t.

Bits of Portal, bits of Super Meat Boy, bits of Splinter Cell, yet a tone and character entirely of its own, and with none of all that tedious waiting around business. Having nosed at Alpha Protocol for the first time over the weekend and run screaming from its horrific hacking minigame (don’t worry, I’ll persevere), I can’t tell you how grateful I am to just have to press a button and watch a computer’s digital defences crumble before me.