Infiltrate cities and spray graffiti in turn-based stealth game Vandals

Vandals has one of the coolest elevator pitches I've ever heard: turn-based stealth graffiti. Rather than a secret agent infiltrating underground bases in search of top-secret intel, you're an agent of expression infiltrating cities like Paris and Tokyo in search of sweet canvases to tag.

Developer Cosmografik says Vandals has 60 levels set in five cities: Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo, Berlin and New York. Sneak through their curiously well-guarded streets and alleys, elude the Man (after memorizing the Man's patrol routes), paint your graffiti, and get out.

Vandals' sharp, minimalist art looks like a graphic novel, but the actual graffiti draws on the works of several street artists. "With Vandals, you can bomb your alias on the walls of New York like Lady Pink, paint childlike characters like Keith Haring, or get inspired by the poems of Miss.Tic and write your own," Cosmografik says. There's also a focus on the works of French artist Blek Le Rat, with snippets of history on the evolution of street art embedded in the game.

Vandals will release on Steam on Thursday, April 12.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.