If you ever wanted to be Mr. Black and not Mr. Pink?
Have you wanted to be part of the gang and be cool like George Clooney in the Ocean Eleven films?
Perfect Crime by Grublin Games
One of the first things that I did after the Press Event on the Friday of the UK Games Expo was to go for a wander around the floor. “Somehow”, I managed to walk past Grublin Game where they “just” happened to have Perfect Crime on the table. It’s currently on KickStarter and they want to raise £14,500 and they are currently on £10,809 with 15 days to go.
Of course, none of this was by accident, stopping by Grublin’s booth was my number one priority for the weekend, the opportunity to test a game was too much to pass up considering that testing is my day job. I had heard of Perfect Crime for a while before the Expo, so I was eager to have a look.
What is Perfect Crime? It’s a heist game that pits criminals against a bank. The criminals have to plan, infiltrate and steal the valuables from the bank without getting caught. The bank just has to stop the criminals by upgrading their bank.
It should be noted that Perfect Crime can be played 1 vs 1, or 1 versus many where the criminals can work together as one team or they can “work” with each other until it’s advantageous for them.
Note, that I played on a prototype of the game with Erin and Drew from The BoardRoom podcast, but even if the general look of the game remained the same, I like the fact that the bank is shown as a blueprint. From the criminals point of view, it feels like you are looking at the blueprint of the bank, not knowing what to expect. Security is unknown and guard routes are unknown until that first reconnaissance mission. From the banks point of view, as a manager, it feels like you are looking over your domain on the bank of monitors before you. It’s a nice touch that I think will work will once the map look and feel has been finalised.
Each turn, the criminals take time to plan, tool up and finally they are ready to enter the bank. At this point, all the bank can do is place guards and install security. However, some of the upgrades for the bank can only be brought when the criminals have raised the suspicion of the bank, in essence, the bank have to have a reason to upgrade. To me, that makes thematic sense, the bank is not going to waste money on a hunch.
It really is a game of cat and mouse with each side trying to outwit each other, the criminals want to tease the pressure points of the bank, figure out where the weakpoints are, but if they spend to long in the planning stages, then the bank will be that much harder to crack. It’s a good touch to see that when the criminals do infiltrate the bank, they leave evidence behind which dictates the police response.
I also like that as the bank upgrades, the equipment gets more sophisticated, the security measures become hidden and the vault door gets that much harder to pick. It will be interesting to see what the end game is like with a fully kitted out crew versus a Fort Knox style bank.
I have a feeling that this a game that will generate an experience, each game will be a story to tell. Heck, maybe as I sit on my rocking chair in my old age, I can tell my grand children of the day I robbed a bank with nothing but street smarts and a stick of chewing gum.
I’ll be transparent, I’ve backed this game even though I’ve only had a brief exposure to it, I will download the print and play and have a ‘crack’ at it. I’ll report back and tell you all my findings. I’m interested in the asynchronous play and that the downtime is limited. I image that tensions could get high between the criminals as they determine the best course of action. As the bank, I loved seeing the criminals walk into the traps that I had laid down, I did get a nice warm fuzzy glow.
I do have some thoughts.
- I could see Erin and Drew discussing what they wanted to do, obviously I couldn’t see their cards but it might be worth having a screen between us.
- Since it is a co-operative game, how could it mitigate the alpha player (The most obvious way is that that alpha criminal could be stitched over by the other criminals).
- Should the bank have armed guards from the beginning?
- Depending on the nature of the infiltration, the alarm should go off immediately (breached wall) or still have to be pressed (e.g. Criminal steps on pressure plate).
- I did like Erin’s idea about getting caught by the police should reduce the buying/planning power of the criminals, if there is gunpowder evidence, then it’s harder for the criminals to acquire firearm related tools.
Regardless of my questions, I am looking forward to this type of game, it has a NetRunner feel to it that is making me want this.
P.S – Maybe they should talk to Playmore Games about putting the rule book on the Dized app *smile*