Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is a game based off the popular TV show of the same name, developed by Futurlab, and published by Curve Digital. Taking you to Birmingham and set just before the events of the first season, we follow the rise of Tommy as he earns his reputation in the Shelby family, a mastermind foiling a plot to destroy the family gangs business.

This game is something I would call a time-based strategy puzzle game. The main objective is to complete the mission in the least amount of time. To do this you must use a unique and pretty cool mechanic: time manipulation. This allows you to rewind time back to the very beginning or somewhere in between. Coupling that with each characters abilities it does make for an interesting game. You could just about complete the mission with one character, and it could take two to three minutes. However, you have two other characters to control, so you re-wind back to the start and complete the next characters mission or as far as they can go solo. You’ll then repeat this process for each character so it could take you half an hour or so, but your end time would only be a couple of minutes.

Each character has their own unique abilities; like Arthur’s brawling, Tommy’s persuasion, Ada’s distractions, and John’s ability to set things on fire. There are six characters in total, and utilizing each of their unique traits combined with the time reversal mechanic to synchronise with each other, completing the challenges stealthily and strategically in the shortest time to gain the gold rating on that mission.

The puzzles vary, but are ultimately the same thing over and over, with the occasional tweak or slightly heightened difficultly to complete. Controlling this game with its unique mechanic is fairly simple, which was nice, though at one point I did have to redo one characters entire run because when I went back to do the next characters run, I found my first guy was stuck on a wall, which was slightly annoying.

Visually this game is not one of my favourite kinds of game, with characters in maze-like levels and a bird’s eye view. Don’t get me wrong though the art is nice, with particular attention given to level design. For me though, it all started to look the same, with the same puzzles and solutions, and with only ten levels, just as it was starting to get interesting, it was over. On the flip side though, the music was amazing with actual songs, but I am not sure if they are from Peeky Blinders or just inspired by the music from the show. If there had of been at least some voice acting, especially in the long scenes, I would have found it smoother and more enjoyable to follow along.

While not my favourite kind of game it was enjoyable to a certain degree, and a lot of people will enjoy it a lot more than myself. If more were to come of this game, I would hope it will come in a DLC form rather than a new game as it is not a particularly long game. Adding more levels and characters, I think, would greatly benefit the game, and some spoken dialogue would really enhance the flow.

Written by: Adam Brasher