Game Review: Fire Hazard's Heist

Franco Milazzo
By Franco Milazzo Last edited 158 months ago
Game Review: Fire Hazard's Heist
Sneak, sneak, sneak...
Sneak, sneak, sneak...
Planning the heist
Planning the heist
The best trodden on plans of mice and men...
The best trodden on plans of mice and men...

Londonist has some skills and no little experience when it comes to sneaking around a house in the dark with a companion in tow, trying desperately not to get caught.  With that in mind, we jumped at the chance to take part in Heist, a game by Fire Hazard where the aim is to break into a warehouse, steal the goodies and get out.  At your disposal, you have a map, a two-way walkie talkie, some tools of the trade, fellow burglars and thirty minutes to complete your mission.  All you have to do is work your way past locked doors, find hidden codes, deal with the motion detectors and pressure sensors and not get caught by the pesky guards who are wandering around.  Simple, eh?

There's a neat warm-up exercise where we follow one of the guards from our warm cosy starting point in a South London pub to the warehouse without being noticed; trying to look inconspicuous in snowy New Cross is hard at the best of times.  The warehouse itself is an abandoned police station (with a working police station next door) which means that there are genuine cells and guardrooms to explore for keys and code numbers.  We won't spoil the surprises of what lies within but we can tell that there has been some clever thinking behind this game and the variety of options suggests inspiration from sneak-em-ups like Metal Gear Solid and Assassin's Creed.  For example, you can either dodge the guards, try to explain your presence by blatant lying (with or without the aid of a prop) or stun them temporarily with a gun.  Their video gives some flavour of what to expect.

Fire Hazard have previously held other indoor games at the Greenwich Observatory, London Bridge and the Royal Festival Hall and are planning to run this particular game again in early February.  If you want to know more about what they're up to next, check out their website.

Pictures (c) Daniel Griliopoulos

Last Updated 13 January 2011