Robbing banks has never looked as cool as in Hei$t, a free-roam game in which you’ll… well, pull heists! The story will follow Johnny Sutton on the day of his release from jail. His incarceration came as a result of him attempting to fill his father’s shoes as the master bank robber in the family. After serving the time for this failed attempt, Johnny emerges from prison eager to return to the business. Like father like son, I suppose.

Johnny won’t be able to pull these jobs off on his own, though. He’ll need the help of his trusty squad, which consists of characters named Crumb, Cracker, The Kid, and Uncle Sal. Ridiculous names aside, these buddies will assist you in pulling off the capers in more ways than one. Uncle Sal will collect intel and plan out every small facet of the heist; Cracker will, as his name implies, crack the vaults, though his skill level will determine how long it takes to do so; The Kid will man the getaway car; and Crumb is about as bland in character as his name—his job being mainly to tote the big guns and handle the grunt work.

As well as serving as a small-time rendition of the Ocean’s Eleven team, your guys will take out guards and handle the hostages in whatever way they choose, unless you enforce your will upon them. If Crumb knocks out a guard or shoots him, you can praise him for doing so or give him a good smack to teach him his place. Which actions you condemn and reward will reverberate later in the game, or so inXile, the game’s developer, claims. There’s no solid proof of this to go on, but inXile asserts that if you scold your partners for using deadly force in early missions, they’ll be a little more humane in later missions.

How you treat your comrades isn’t the only thing that’ll come back to haunt you, though; your methods will affect the game over time, too. For instance, were you to go into the bank with your guns blazing, shouting expletives and lacking any regard, the banks would adjust their security to be tighter and tougher according to how rampant you’ve been in other jobs. Apparently, your behaviors will affect the heists, too, as gunfire and conspicuity will have cops rushing to the bank much faster and much stronger.

You won't just be robbing banks in Hei$t. Here the gang is jacking a cargo ship.

The cops in the game will be well-armed and well-trained, too, so you’ll want to avoid a confrontation with them. Though no footage of the getaway scene has been released, and no gameplay of it is available, the developers claim that you’ll be able to shoot down signs and other elements of the environment to cause diversions. Here is where the side missions will factor in, too. One example the dev-team gave was that you might do a side mission which gains you the respect of the local garbage men. In turn, these allies would block off the road with their trucks to shield you from the chasing police cars once you pass them.

InXile, and publisher Codemasters claim that the game will come with other cool features as well. One is a recordable voice command, which allows you to use your standard mic to record yourself saying a certain phrase. You can set it to an action in the game so that shouting something such as “Hands in the sky!” into your mic will initiate the robbery, once you’re in the place. Also promised is an in-depth look at the back story of Johnny Sutton, whose father was killed in a robbery gone awry.

Though Hei$t was first announced back in 2007, and has been in development since long before that, it seems like it might have something interesting to offer fans of the genre. Gamers who have played through the bank robbery mission in GTA 4 may be especially inclined to give this game a look when it comes out. Hei$t is slated for release in Q4 2009 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.