THE BRiLLiANT COUP

Released: February 11, 2025
 Purchased: July 20, 2025 for EUR 16.99
 Verdict: Not recommended I certainly didn't get my money's worth with this one. The game lacks voiceovers, which would have been acceptable at a lower price point. Furthermore, it has numerous small and large issues that make me force myself to keep playing. Interface Issues The main selling point for this game is its use of "classic commands." I've been playing adventure games since the late 80s, with my favorites from the 90s and early 2000s. While many developers tried to "advance" the genre with various changes - not all beneficial - dropping verb commands was generally a good evolution. Full Throttle introduced the interactive menu (though they may not have been the first), and it was hard to look back after that. That said, let's assume the command interface is appealing. After all, Day of the Tentacle remains one of my favorites and used a similar system. However, The Brilliant Coup implements it poorly. First, unlike classic games, there's no keyboard support for verb commands. Second, in older games with "classic commands," the right mouse button wasn't always just for looking - right-clicking a door …

The Brilliant Coup is a fun point and click adventure game, set in England. It is genuinely funny (one of your inventory item is your own brain, which is used to bring up your objective(s)), has catchy music, good sound and art design, and logical puzzles. Who does not love a good bank heist thriller?

this game lost a lot of its appeal soon after its initial game play. characters move slowly. dialogue is boring. plot is not exciting. i dont know what it was about this game, but this wasnt it. wasnt charming, wasnt fun to solve puzzles. kept thinking it would get better, but after act after act, it kept getting worse. didnt even care enough to see end game. would not recommend.

This is an excellent old-school adventure game. The difficulty is very high, on par with Zak McKracken. The game resembles Zak in many ways, both in the character graphics, backgrounds, and settings. It lacks the ability to control multiple characters simultaneously, but it feels the same. In terms of story, it's more like Operation Stealth, with some parts reminiscent of that game. The puzzles are great, but very difficult. They are all fair, except for perhaps one, which required me to use a walkthrough. This was the puzzle involving how to get a transparent sheet for the printer. If you get stuck there, try using all inventory items on each other. But this really is the only instance where a puzzle felt to me nearly impossible to solve. All the other puzzles have hints, subtle but present. If you get stuck, remember: 1) Re-examine all objects and read their descriptions carefully. Sometimes they contain subtle hints. 2) Some situations change without warning, and you'll need to revisit places you've already been where no one was before, or ring up people again who previously didn't say anything useful. (Also, open containers that were previously empty, but this last case …

This game is in desperate need of a map. WAY WAY WAY too much backtracking. Our hero has two speeds: strolling and ambling. He might be persuaded to shuffle if you click repeatedly. But that's only if he's in the right mood. Got very frustrated with constantly having to do the same actions over and over. For example, we need to wear a disguise to enter certain places. Instead of automatically putting it on, we have to click use every. single. time. It's maddening. Other reviewers have noted that right click always means look. So if you want to enter a door, you have to click open each time. It's a waste of time and doesn't increase the challenge, only the frustration. The game is pretty quiet due to lack of voiceovers. That's not always a dealbreaker if there are other sound effects to make up for it. This game has some music, though not in every location. The story is OK. But most of the characters are pretty unlikable. Our hero frequently turns to the camera and makes this "oooo looky here" face. It doesn't increase his likability. In fact, quite the opposite. He also dresses like a cat burglar for some reason. It's not really clear why he's doing any of the things he's doing. A…

It's not bad, if the idea of a point & click puzzle game centered on a heist interests you. And you don't mind an overall package that feels about a generation behind its indie point & click peers. Would recommend that you buy other similarly priced but more highly rated point & click games first. Especially those that are voiced. Then later get this game at a discount, if you've run out of games. I had a smooth, bug free playing experience; only complaint is, a very small number of puzzle solutions require trying out random things; or some items can easily be missed. All puzzle solutions make sense though, and because of the nature of this game that doesn't hold your hand, it's quite satisfying to solve most of the puzzles on your own.