Peaky Blinders: Mastermind Review

I know that Peaky Blinders is a television show, but since I don’t watch TV very often it has yet to be something I’ve taken time to do. Since I am not a fan of the show, I feel that I have an unbiased viewpoint on the gameplay itself. Obviously if you’re an avid watcher you might have even stronger feelings for the game and its characters.

As Peaky Blinders: Mastermind begins, you are subject to a conversation between the characters of Peaky Blinders, a supplier of alcohol to bars and so on. In the first level, the cheeky Peaky Blinders decide that they want to steal some champagne from their competitors. I had no idea how to play the game even after reading the tutorial. After a bit of fumbling around, getting caught by the very first thing that could catch you, and rewinding the game a few times, I was able to complete the first level with a gold status on my first try. Is that fair because I just rewound the game to the beginning to try again each time I failed? Probably not, but they made the rules and I’m just following them.

I really enjoyed playing through this. I had to meander through the town to get to a bar where apparently I supply them with their liquor. I derived from the conversation that people are a bit on edge about disappointing me with knowledge that they get their champagne from a different supplier, which I thought was a bit odd because I clearly don’t supply champagne or I wouldn’t be in the market of stealing some. Whatever, I followed the directions from the bar owner to help me get to the building where the champagne is being stored.

Here’s the cool part, I talk to a guy and then control him. I sit there and have him hold the door open for as long as I can control him, I then switch to the main character and rewind time to about the same moment that I could reach the door he was going to hold open and walk right through. I run into one of my partners in crime and she says she will distract the men while I walk by. We do this, then I have to grab three bottles of champagne and put them in the truck. Yeah, three bottles of champagne for a huge party, I can only assume these bottles represent mass quantities of champagne. So a little silly, but I got it done in less than 4 minutes and I had to finish in 5 to get a gold champion rating. So it wasn’t too difficult to pull off, but it was fun.

From there the levels just get harder and I have to say that I enjoyed the puzzles and the rewind feature, being the mastermind of heists and revenge. Again, I’m not a fan of the show so I can’t speak to that giddy feeling you get having the ability to manipulate characters from your favorite TV show, but it worked for me.

The game is 3/4 overhead view and the controls were as good as I would expect them to be. The ability to rewind time was simple to understand once I started playing. There isn’t video of the actual actors or anything, but rather drawings it’s drawings with subtitles you read as they speak. I didn’t know who was who, but I didn’t care because I am a big fan of puzzle games and that was enough to keep me entertained. I couldn’t tell you if the music was from the show, but I really loved the opening song that played as I started and the rest of it was good as well, so I can’t complain about that either.

I think I can say that if you like a good puzzle game, and especially if you are a Peaky Blinders fanatic, this should give you some escape from reality for a good amount of time. If you don’t like puzzle type games, then feel free to walk on by.

Jay Kittelson

Jay has been an avid gamer since the Intellivision days.  His hobbies include building PCs, 3D modeling and printing, and spending time with his children and dog.