Peaky Blinders: Mastermind

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is a strange game to review, particularly after having previewed it by playing a third of the campaign at the time. You can't help but think that there must be something coming up that makes the rest of the game stand apart from what you've already played and wrote about, either a ramping up of the gameplay or the story. So what does this do to ramp up from the first three levels that I played while previewing the game?

While Peaky Blinders: Mastermind has some style and a novel approach to puzzling, it’s not enough to properly engage. It definitely clicks at times, and there are moments where solving a problem makes you feel like a meticulous planner. However, there aren’t the eureka moments you’d expect from better puzzles nor mechanics worth mastering in replays. It’s hard to recommend and it’s only for a niche of Peaky Blinders fans who want an average puzzler with a lot of dull micromanaging (...

Still, the story isn’t the focus of Peaky Blinders: Mastermind; it’s the gameplay. It’s just there to give the missions some context. And the gameplay itself is inventive, engrossing and rewarding. It’s a great feeling to reach the end of a mission having carefully planned each character’s route and actions, watching them all play out like clockwork. FuturLab has taken a property, really dug deep into the heart of it, and created something that captures its essence. But you don’t need to be a Peaky Blinders fan to enjoy Mastermind; all you need is to enjoy a good puzzle.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind offers one of the most essential puzzling experiences of 2020. The masterminding may come to an end far too soon, but when it does the the sublime gameplay mash-up you've just had will make you realise that Futurlab have forged an entirely new genre: rewind time strategy. Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is so good that it compelled me to go and watch the original TV show. Now, how many games based on a franchise can say that?

Featuring some interesting stealth puzzle mechanics, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is unfortunately an odd fit for its source material

A flawed attempt to adapt the show, that struggles when it comes to storytelling but has the makings of a great heist game.

For the majority of its runtime, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is a puzzle game with unique ideas implemented in uninspiring ways. Its story and tone hold the levels together in a solid but unspectacular way that neither let down its source material nor build interestingly on it. Once it all starts coming together in the final two missions and you get to use your entire team together to accomplish complex objectives it becomes a genuine challenge laced with enjoyment and I was left wanting more. I just wish that it hadn’t taken so long to get there.

Ah, Peaky Blinders. The popular show that has a Nick Cave song as its theme, features the likes of the ever pretty Cillian Murphy, and is all about men smoking cigarettes, being tough and fighting good in 1900’s London. It’s the latest show to be adapted to a game, resulting in Peaky Blinders: Mastermind. I know what you’re thinking. Shows made into games never work. To be short, this largely follows the same vein, but at least there’s promising heart in there.

I started watching Peaky Blinders not long ago, and immediately fell in love with it. It’s a fantastic take on the gangster genre, being set in post-war Birmingham (the British one, not the Alabama one), not only tackling your typical less-than-legal gangster affairs, but also the rise of class struggle in Britain, as well as the effects of World War I on the morale and mentality of the entire country’s population. It is a fantastic show to adapt into a video game, and I was looking forwa...

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind's gorgeous aesthetic and solid puzzling are no match for its lack of depth, emotion, and substance.

Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is built on a inventive central concept and is smartly dressed in an authentic audio/visual package, capturing the dangerous world of The Shelby Family. The inventiveness of this core element is not captilised upon, however, resulting in uninspired action and repetitive gameplay. Peaky Blinders fans might find a few hours of entertainment but, overall, Mastermind is a missed opportunity.

We can't quite remember when we got distracted by something else and stopped watching Peaky Blinders. All we can say is that Scarecrow was in it, Bane wasn't, and the nice palaeontologist from Jurassic Park was a rotter. We'll have to go back to it one day.