Peaky Blinder: The King's Ransom is a single-player game for VR that has as its great inspiration the incredible series about 20th-century gangsters in England, Tommy Shelby and his gang certainly generate some excitement when mentioned, especially to big fans of this work as I am. 

The game was produced and published by Maze Theory, with a great goal of following mainly the narrative line, with additional action and adventure, however, thinking in a platform like this, with still many fields to be explored, much by the difficulty in producing good games and expand this niche, It is complicated to say that a game based on story will be 100% right because it is a fact that when connecting a player to the console, the sum of all sets is what will make a game be good or not, I think, from the first impression, if the gameplay will not be tedious, as if I were watching a series, but in an interactive way. Anyway, this is what we are going to talk about, so let's go.

First of all, introducing the developer is a topic that I consider important, even more for a platform not so explored, I consider it a positive factor to know the studios that venture here. So, Maze Theory is an immersive game studio led by big names in several giant companies in the market, they are Activision, Sony, Oculus, EA, Disney, BBC, Channel 4, and among others. That said, the team is formed by several good names of developers always looking for something authentic and innovative, for example, the game portfolio of this group includes the first VR game of the Doctor Who series, showing already some experience.



Two points of view

Back to our first subject, for the big fans of the series, this story of about 4 hours of gameplay will seem like a kind of filler that fits perfectly in the series, without taking away or putting, between seasons 4 and 5, the developers were right on the authenticity issue, then, for this point of view, the entertainment and curiosity will be guaranteed for a long time.

Now, for those who do not know the series (I recommend it!), boredom can take over, because not knowing who are the characters and what they represent can generate some confusion, in addition, the gameplay of Peaky Blinders is clearly a little slow and without as much action as it should, I do not speak as a game that seeks to represent a series, but one that aims to meet all audiences.

On the face of it, the year is 1928, and our character has been on the run from the firing squad for over a decade. This is where the great crime boss Tommy Shelby comes in, for we will seek his help, but since nothing comes for free, we will get involved in the search for the red box of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister at the time, which consists of a briefcase containing the identities of all British agents around the world.

Because it is an important item with powerful information, obviously are not only the Peaky Blinders who are at war in this case, all other criminal factions in England are after it, here, inclusive, is the action of the game, the confrontation can be exciting and tense in several opportunities.



However, this action is somewhat limiting, much because it is a more complex control system to be used, I'm not saying they are difficult mechanics, but the mobility is clearly less of the player. As an example, in the first shootout, we will not even be able to use a gun, we will only flee the line of fire in search of disarming bombs planted by our enemies and this, factor of not having so many actions with a weapon, unfortunately, leaves the action system a little lifeless.

The exploration is balanced and interesting

In this point, I think all VR games should invest, because this is where the glimpse reaches the player, besides also showing the graphics quality. The exploration was not left aside at any time, keeping the story aside for 5 minutes from time to time will not kill anyone and will certainly contribute a lot to your gameplay. Even more for the big fans of the show, in which we will be able to experience iconic moments of the series and visualize, with good art, all the nostalgic scenery, simply identical in detail, the characterization and traits of the characters are genius, we will recognize them just by looking, for me, a positive point is this search in graphics without letting go of the gangster theme of the early twentieth century.



For you to have an idea, it is possible to smoke and visualize the smoke coming out towards your mouth, fill bottles of whiskey or gin and enjoy as if we were really in that universe, and this, this integration, is a very differentiating factor of virtual reality. That is, as a factor totally different from other consoles, this is an extremely positive point of the game, we can even play darts and write on the blackboard with chalk.

Moreover, here comes again the control factor, nothing is too complicated, really only the slugginess compared for example with a PC is present, but everything is very well explained and often intuitive, then, I believe this is not a major drawback for the players, but another point of attention and glimpse. However, not as a bed of flowers, in some moments our hands simply get stuck on objects, a somewhat annoying bug that needs to be improved.



By order of...

Walking down Garrison Lane to the sound of ''Red Right Hand'' is magical, as in the show itself, and, because it is at the beginning, causes an excellent first impression for sound design, but not only that, the moments of tension, the lines of the characters and among others are very well demarcated. For example, for Tommy to trust our character, he directs us to execute a man who is his enemy, mercilessly, which we will have to do, the eerie silence only with the noise of the shot then leave again on the street with the characteristic music of the series immerses the player more and more, this all, of course, after the cold voice without any deviation of intonation of the head of the Peaky Blinders.

Anyway, the whole gameplay of Peaky Blinder will generate divided opinions, the most avid fans will love an authentic story and experiencing all that nostalgic scenery, however, for the VR explorers on duty, without any knowledge of the series will be a bit bored with the basic interactions in VR and a somewhat actionless story.

Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom is available for VR Glasses.

Thanks to the team at Maze Theory via Renaissance PR who made the game available and allowed this content to be created.