PlayStation 4 code provided by FuturLab
As a die-hard fan of the Peaky Blinders television series, this has been one of the most anticipated games of the year for me. I had high expectations specifically for the setting and tone as that is how the show pulls you into its gritty stories. With that being said, I can safely say that Peaky Blinders: Mastermind does the series absolute justice in its execution by adding some new story details to the series.
Story
The story takes place two months after Tommy, Arthur, and John return from the war. Aunt Polly has been in charge of the business while the boys were away. She hasn’t been managing everything alone, as she had help from a young Blinder named Scout. While preparing for a welcome home party a rift, between the Blinders, the Gilroys, and the Chinese gangs starts to head toward a war. The Shelby’s move to action in investigating the reason this is happening and how they can stop it before it boils over.
This story is a prequel to the first season and does a good job of getting the correct formula of the Blinders world. The story beats create organic situations where characters react the way they would on the show. Intentions and motives that the Shelbys’ display here is done impeccably well by someone who knows the series through and through.
Gameplay
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind places you within the mind of Thomas Shelby as he works out his master plan. The game’s setup itself does a great job of bringing Tommy’s thought process to life here. The missions play out like those Ocean’s Eleven heist planning scenes. You’ll play as Tommy, Polly, Arthur, Ada, John, and Finn with each of them bringing a unique skillset to the table.
The skills each member of the Shelby family exhibit felt true to them. Tommy uses persuasion to get his cronies to do his bidding. This helped with opening one-way doors, operating barriers, and retrieving keys. Polly uses bribery to payoff the on-duty coppers and uses lockpicks to get through gates. Bribery was helpful when I needed to get the Shelby boys through the well-guarded areas. Arthur can kick down weak doors and brawl with rival gang members. The brawling was cool because you could sync it up with John (he brawls too) and take out two guys simultaneously.
Ada uses distraction to gain the guards’ attention. Again this is best used to get the boys through guarded areas. John can brawl but he also has a pyromaniac side. He can toss lanterns at debris piles, lighting them on fire and clearing paths. Finn can climb through windows and sneak under fences. Finn was the covert operations agent because he could sneak his way into just about everywhere. There are also things everyone was able to do such as open barriers, open doors, and grab items for each other
As the characters, you’ll carry out specific jobs to further the plan along. You’re given the ability to control time throughout the entire process. The goal is to go back and forth between each character to have each one working in unison. This can give way to some really tightly scrutinized team maneuvers. Because you can control time, bouncing back and forth is a cakewalk, if you’ve set up character A the correct way for character B.
The really cool part is that there really is no “game over”. Even if caught in a tight situation, you always have the chance to rewind time and try it in a different way. Rewinding happened a ton for me. Sometimes I’d spend a while on a single mission only to find out I had forgotten to place someone in the right location at another segment. This would knock over my house of cards leading me to start over with that character’s movements.
Puzzles are complex and always made me second-guess my characters’ positioning and timing. Even when I felt like I knew how to tackle an issue I’d sometimes do it completely wrong. Attention is needed at all times to bring everything full circle. It feels extremely satisfying to see how everything comes together by the mission’s end.
The environments in the game are fantastic, doing a great job at bringing the streets of Small Heath, Birmingham to life. They’d all vary in the time of day that they took place in too. It offered a variety to the look of each one, differentiating them further. The developers even gave us segments that took place elsewhere. I’d rather not give away spoilers but I can say that these were a great addition to the gameplay and story.
Pocket watches are placed around each mission for you to collect. They don’t unlock anything but they do impact your overall score. Scores are given at the end of each mission. You’re either given a bronze, silver, or gold rating with time being the ultimate factor. While collecting the watches impacts the score, managing time by staying under limits override how many of the watches you collect. If I did a great job at beating the clock, I got gold but if I collected all of the watches my gold grade went further.
Visuals
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind’s story is brought to life through the work of its art style. There is no audio to dialogue in the game so the developers made the characters look and act as they do in the show. Dialogue scenes are done in beautiful cel-shaded illustrations that capture the true portrayal delivered by the actors from the show. Watching the scenes and reading the dialogue allowed me to hear the voice of each character and envision the scenes playing out. Even during gameplay are the characters’ movements fleshed out, right down to the way they walk to match their television counterparts.
Audio
Audio takes a back seat for the visuals presented. That’s not to say that what’s done isn’t good enough. There’s no dialogue during cutscenes but I feel that it’s what was best for the game. I’d rather hear the characters’ voices in my head than a dollar store version of the beloved actors from the series. Had they been able to get the cast from the show, that’d be a different scenario.
Environmental sounds are good at creating ambient noises. It’s the industrial era, so most areas are loud and bustling with people. The missions taking place at night are usually a little more on the quieter side, of course. Everything up to that point is serviceable enough but it’s the music that takes center stage for audio.
Feverist did the soundtrack for the first season of the show and has returned to provide one for the game. They pull off great rock songs that blend with Peaky Blinders’ world perfectly! There are the slow songs that marinade in the feel of the criminal underworld and the fast songs that get the blood pumping. All of them keep to the signature Peaky Blinders tone.
Replayability
Upon beating the game, I’d say that die-hard fans would most definitely replay it. Every year I rewatch the entire series and I see this game being a part of that. The story does a fantastic job without trying to outdo what we see on the show. The puzzles and missions on their own merit were fun to play from start to finish. Each level offered its own take on the formula, keeping the gameplay loop with a fresh feeling.
What It Could Have Done Better
While I absolutely adore the game, there were a couple of gameplay glitches I encountered during my time with it. The time controls specifically were a bit hokey in some instances. The most noticeable issue I’d experienced was skipping forward. Because of this, I’d have to watch the same sequence happen if I had messed something up. it didn’t happen all of the time but it was annoying when it happened.
I also had issues when pausing time. This only happened twice during my playthrough but it’s still worth mentioning. Towards the end of the game, I noticed some silly issues with animations. This would only happen when I’d have a character pull or push a cart. Luckily, it didn’t affect gameplay. Also, a bigger payoff with the collectible watches would’ve been nice too.
Verdict
As a devoted fan of Peaky Blinders, I’m overjoyed that the series has made its way into the gaming world by developers that understand and appreciate the source material. The tie-in story was done seamlessly to develop a true connection to the already established world we know from the series. Anyone developing a game that connects to movies, television, or books needs to take a page from what FuturLab has done here. Even players that aren’t familiar to the show will find a lot of fun in this game through the puzzles, characters, and world.
