Stealing Christmas impressions

[Malidictus]

Why does Vlad need stilettos? Surely he'd look better in platforms.

I found what little time I could spend with Steaming Christmas to be tremendously fun. It's not the heist I expected - it's not endless, it's not about camping, it's not about drugs - but what I actually got was really well done. I'm somewhat iffy on the story in terms of how we got into this situation and what the plan was before we started, but I'm really happy with the map design and objectives. Let me explain why on both counts.

Stealing Christmas is essentially a bigger, more diverse Mallcrasher with an actual loot drop point and some semblance of an objective. There are two stages to the heist. The first stage involves punching - yes, punching, finally - Vlad's cousin to wake him up. He points you to a store where a valuable item is, and you're left to find that and steal it. The items are, as I said, not drugs. In my playthrough, I stole a case of expensive wine, a VIR (Very Immersive Reality) headset and a pair of expensive high-heel shoes. Each bag stolen is to be secured under the large christmas tree in the middle, along with any additional loot you can find.

Following this, you're sent to the roof where Bile takes over. He delivers C4 with which to blow the building's skylight, then returns with a really weird hook to grab the metal platform that the Christmas tree is on, along with all the loot, the cousin and the players. Make sure to grab any optional loot you want before you leave with the tree.

And oh, boy is there optional loot! I don't know if and how stores change, but each store has goodies you can steal. They all have cash registers, obviously. Some of them have back rooms, sometimes with drillable safes in them, sometimes with stealable money tubs in them. There was a jewellery store on my playthrough which was actually locked down, needing me to open a locked door on the side to gain entry. That offered a LOT of jewellery, both in bag and loose cash form. There was also a case with a "Bullet Proof Glass!" sticker on the side and a weird sort of necklace. I presume that's a mission objective that I simply didn't get. There are also several ATMs scattered around the building and you can finally steal Pear Phones and Tablets as loose items. I got myself a new pPhone.

The map itself is gorgeous - a large two-storey mall with several entrances, multiple staircases, a lot of stores and even a pretty sizeable roof area. Some stores have back rooms, some stores are closed off with shutters, and there are a lot of items which can be cut or blown up. I took a SAW just in case as it was my first run, but ended up finding a lot of use for it. As I said, there are a lot of ATMs to cut (I counted 5, but they may vary), every door can be cut and there's even a storage area with a mini cage door which can also be cut. Seems like Overkill have put quite a bit of work into integrating those contextual tools into their new map design. I am impressed.

As to the story, uh... You tell me. I couoldn't figure out the plot at all. From Vlad's description it sounded like his cousin (is he a cousin? I keep saying that but I don't know) was transporting his "Columbian Snow" when he got stopped, panicked and hid it in the mall. I'm supposed to find him, wake him up and ask where he hid the coke. Well, that's not what he tells me. He directs me to stores with expensive goods for me to steal that he didn't hide whatsoever, and "coke" never comes up in conversation. Vlad wants me to secure the bags under the Christmas tree, which at first made no sense to me. I get the metaphor, but how did he plan to pick those up? It's only near the end that he seems to suddenly come up with the idea of picking up the entire metal platform with the tree on it via helicopter. If that was his plan all along, I'd have expected that to be a bit more obvious.

On pure gameplay, this is one the better heists in the game. It has a lot of optional loot to find, it's a really cool map which accommodates a lot of different builds and the main objectives are fun. I can't quite follow the story at this point, but I did fail to hear a lot of what "Santa" was saying over the sound of gunfire. Vlad didn't seem to have subtitles, either, so I missed some of his lines too. All in all, this heist was definitely worth the $0 I paid for it.

[Dennis]

It's is one of my favorite heists actually. It is really different then all of the other ones i have played. It's really refreshing

[Prusak]

You basically nailed it

Also, both me and a random host got a community 2 safe at our first try, so there goes that

[The Least Interesting Chibi...]

Huh. I might to have to start playing again. The post-difficulty update really curbed my enthusiasm, so a good heist might be thing.

[Copy & Cat]

Er... if go to the site it tells you it's about drugs that he hid in random containers that went to the mall due being chased by the police

[CoryStar]

Yeah, they made a good heist, rather than a dumb infinite loot on a poorly made map.

[Pain Is A Warning]

When doing this map, they finally remembered that we have a saw and shaped charges in the game.

So many things to cut and blow open, bringing the tools is a good idea, finally!

Also, map runs like a champ, no performance problems at all.

Thumbs up.

[Arrancar]

It's not infinite and you can steal smartphones lol. Pretty good heist.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Christmas Bowie:

Er... if go to the site it tells you it's about drugs that he hid in random containers that went to the mall due being chased by the police

Right, I did read that, but I can't really follow how that describes the heist I ran. I presumed that the guy would need to tell me where he hid the coke. Since there's no coke, why do I need to keep waking him up to tell me what to steal? Vlad's already on the phone and could tell me what he wants and I doubt Drunk Santa has some kind of exclusive knowledge of the stores. I'm missing something here, is all.

Originally posted by Pain Is A Warning:

Also, map runs like a champ, no performance problems at all.

Oh yeah, that too. It didn't even occur to me, but the map ran smooth as butter on my side. If there were any frame drops, I didn't notice them. Granted, I wasn't running FRAPS to check framerates, but I didn't feel any obvious issues. The map seems pretty well-optimised.

[Fran$enlipper]

Originally posted by Prusak posseses cocaine:

Also, both me and a random host got a community 2 safe at our first try, so there goes that

Haha, here too, got a mint uncommon one

[Prusak]

Originally posted by =TBM= Fran$enlipper:

Originally posted by Prusak posseses cocaine:

Also, both me and a random host got a community 2 safe at our first try, so there goes that

Haha, here too, got a mint uncommon one :squirtyay:

I got a broken in Eagle Heavy skin

Oddly enough, I fell in love with it

[Fran$enlipper]

Best is, it's one of my favourite SMGs too 😍
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=814647061

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

t's not about drugs

It is - the packages we steal there as requirement as actually filled with coke that Bubba, Vlads brother, hid there before he was taken up by the cops. Now we need to find the items with the coke inside to secure them.

Also, it's a bit small for a mall, having only five stores on two floors plus a cafe. Wouldn't really call it "a mall", as in terms of size, it's something I know exists. Just wouldn't call it a mall by any means.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Bindal:

The packages we steal there as requirement as actually filled with coke that Bubba, Vlads brother, hid there before he was taken up by the cops.

Yeah, that's probably the bit I missed. I thought for sure I stole actual wine when I got that "Expensive Wine" bag, but I'm probably wrong. If the bags we steal are full of Coke, then that would explain the story of the mission quite neatly.

*edit*
Wait, how does one get the necklace behind the bulletproof glass, then?

Originally posted by Bindal:

Also, it's a bit small for a mall, having only five stores on two floors plus a cafe. Wouldn't really call it "a mall", as in terms of size, it's something I know exists. Just wouldn't call it a mall by any means.

I don't know. It looks about as big as Mallcrasher. Moreover, it's about as big as Mall Plovdiv, my local mall here in town.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Originally posted by Bindal:

Also, it's a bit small for a mall, having only five stores on two floors plus a cafe. Wouldn't really call it "a mall", as in terms of size, it's something I know exists. Just wouldn't call it a mall by any means.

I don't know. It looks about as big as Mallcrasher. Moreover, it's about as big as Mall Plovdiv, my local mall here in town.

We got two things that could qualify as "mall", kind of, and both are MASSIVELY bigger than this or the Mallcrasher Mall. I would say, Mallcrasher is about 1/4th of what our Limbecker Platz (it's not even officially called a mall due them not technically being a thing here in Germany), maybe even smaller. And Stealing XMas is also a bit smaller than Mallcrasher, only having the advantage of getting a third floor with the roof which makes the playable area bigger.

[CoryStar]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

Granted, I wasn't running FRAPS to check framerates

Steam has a built-in FPS counter.